More than 200 people from St Canice’s Parish in Sydney turned out for this year’s annual dinner to raise money for people in Timor Leste.
Special guests at this year’s celebration at Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club on October 29 were East Timorese scholastics Dino Sarmento and João dos Santos, who are currently studying at Jesuit Theological College in Melbourne.
The two scholastics entertained the crowd with talks about their home as well as musical performances.
Jesuit Social Services in Australia has created an online support service for people who have lost a loved one through suicide. Launched on September 13, in conjunction with World Suicide Prevention Day, the Support After Suicide Online Community provides people who are bereaved by suicide the opportunity to meet in a confidential and safe environment. The online community is a space for them to share stories, ask advice and provide support for each other in coping with their loss.
She sat quietly at the corner bench. The crowd was pressing in that small omise (a videoke snack bar which draws memories from times past when entertainers/ talents came in droves to almost all corners of Japan to earn a living, in an illusive quest for a dream, most of which turned to a nightmare). But, these are different times. The omise was not for “happy hour”, rather to break the sad news that not much of control is being gained over the nuclear reactors affected by the tsunami.
Sister Denise reflects on her 20+ years working in Cambodia and how she is motivated by her faith and a sense of justice. She highlights the challenges facing people with disabilities, of post-conflict reconciliation, and rebuilding trust. She also discusses the legacy of the Khmer Rouge in relation to families and society in Cambodia today. Faith-inspired organizations are an important link between the policy and community levels. Sister Denise stresses that faith-inspired organizations must be experts in their field; faith alone is not always sufficient to make lasting contributions. Finally, she describes her international work on landmines and cluster bombs, which won her team a Nobel Peace prize.
This is an article written by Fr Jojo Fung (MAS) for a book publication by Penerbit Ledalero (Ledalero Publishing House) at the STFK (Catholic Institute of Philosophy and Theology) in Ledalero, where John Prior SVD, a well known Asian theologian, has been lecturing for more than 25 years. The book is in honor of John’s 65th birthday in gratitude for his dedication to academic progress, in particular in Ledalero, and as a contribution of STFK Ledalero towards the development of contextual theology in Indonesia.
Sad, shocked eyes looked at us from the hospital bed. Earlier in the week Sam Ren had driven the “iron buffalo”, a type of village tractor which carries goods and people across the field to tend the chilli plants. The villagers had been planting this field for some years and used the path across the fields regularly. At night they set out to return home on the same route.
The first big eruption of Mount Merapi was on the 26 October. A lot of people living as close as 10 km to the volcano were evacuated to safer areas. Like many other students in Yogyakarta, the Jesuit scholastics were still going to school on the following days, viewing the volcano spewing ashes which made a 2 km column of cloud, as they were riding their scooters to the campus.
Br Manuel Hernández (JPN) was presented a certificate of merit from the National Commission for Prison Chaplains and Counselors on October 18. In this article, he wrote about the occasion.
It’s not easy for people today to take time out of their busy lives for a spiritual retreat.
So Fr Albert Cho In-young (KOR) has decided to take retreats to the people – with the help of Twitter.
“For Catholics, going on retreat usually means coming away to a remote place to meet God,” said Father Cho, who studies spirituality and theology in Ireland.
“But if we spare a little of our time, we can also meet God in the midst of our busy everyday life, even while walking on the street,” he added.
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| Regents with Fr Totet Banaynal (PHI) in the newly-built Church in Pailin. |
Every quarter, the regents of the Cambodia Mission gather to break bread together, share stories, and check up on each other. While the primary purpose of the meetings is peer support, a secondary objective is educational and formative: the meetings afford the regents a chance to visit priests and missionaries in the communities they serve.
Last September 2-5, all seven regents – Su-yun Park, Ki-Hyun Kim, Hyung-sik Jo (KOR); Tran Van Dien, Bahoc Pham (VIE); Arbind Beck (IDA) and Mark Lopez (PHI) accompanied by Fr Taejin Kim (KOR) – journeyed together to the hinterlands of Rattanakiri. This province is the least accessible area of Cambodia, lying in the northeastern border with Vietnam and Laos.