Pope Francis visited the Jesuit-run St Joseph the Worker Church in a Nairobi slum during his six-day visit to Africa. Speaking at the church on November 27, the pope condemned the “injustices” of urban poverty and substandard living conditions.
In a village in Chiangmai Province sits a new church named after St Willibrord, the patron saint of Luxemburg. Its name reflects how it came to be. It had been built with the labour, heart and financial support of friends from Luxemburg, as well as friends from other lands, and no less than the Archbishop of Luxemburg, Jean Claude Hollerich SJ, presided at its blessing.
The decision some years ago within the Chinese Province to set up a youth ministry in Taiwan is bearing fruit. What began with a monthly youth mass at the Magis Youth Centre in Taipei has grown into a full-blown program with workshops in Ignatian spirituality, counselling, recollections and retreats, movie nights, and exposure trips.
Fr Michael Hansen SJ says he hopes the launch of his new book will help open up even more people to a model of spirituality that harkens back to Ignatius’ earliest ministry.
The First Spiritual Exercises: Four Guided Retreats, published by Ave Maria Press, was launched at Campion Retreat Centre in Melbourne on May 24.
Energised and inspired by its first experience of MAGIS in Madrid in 2011, the Korean Province is deep into preparations for MAGIS-World Youth Day (WYD) 2013 in Brazil. Fr Joseph Songyong Choe SJ shares their preparations with us.
The Jesuits in Dili celebrate the Holy Eucharist at the prison in Becora, Dili on the second Sunday of every month. Prompted by Pope Francis’ celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at a prison in Rome, Brother Noel Oliver SJ shares his impressions of the Jesuits’ prison ministry in Dili.
The Jesuits of the New York Province have produced a six-part video series that recounts their history of service to the people of Micronesia and introduces some of the Jesuit works and apostolates there.
The Jesuits primarily serve in the parishes and schools in the states of Yap and Chuuk. Micronesia is part of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.
A relic of St Francis Xavier has begun a three-month “Pilgrimage of Grace” in Australia. The relic is Xavier’s right forearm, which has been kept in the Church of the Gesu, the Society’s mother Church in Rome for the past 400 years.
The Christian Life Community in Australia has made giving and promoting the First Spiritual Exercises an apostolic work. For the last six years, the First Spiritual Exercises have been given in Australia and Malaysia, by Jesuit, religious and lay teams in parishes, spirituality centres and other groups.
The Society marks 450 years in Macau in 2012. On August 24, 1562, Frs Luís Fróis SJ and Giovanni Battista Del Monte SJ arrived in Macau to take up residence and embark on apostolic work. The two Portuguese Jesuits helped the two diocesan priests who were ministering to the 5,000 inhabitants of Macau, among whom were 600 Portuguese.