The Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific has produced a modest 16-page annual report, simply titled “Jesuits in Asia Pacific 2012”.
Education continues to be a priority for Jesuits in Asia Pacific, as the recent JCAP meeting of Province delegates for pre-secondary and secondary education revealed.
Several new initiatives in education are underway or proposed within the Conference.
“You are not forgotten,” said Aung San Suu Kyi. “Pass this message to those behind you and on to others.” Not permitted a microphone, the Burmese pro-democracy leader called out to the crowd of refugees and migrants at the border refugee encampment of Mae La in May on her first visit abroad in 24 years. Her clear message of hope quickly reached the hundreds of thousands of Myanmar citizens, who had waited decades in squalid jungle camps along the length of the 1,300 km Thai-Myanmar border.
In recognition of the challenges and issues brought about by increased globalisation, the provinces of Japan and Korea have agreed to a greater degree of exchange and cooperation to serve the Society’s mission.
A Theological Cooperation Working Group has been formed to review Jesuit theological formation in Asia Pacific and develop realistic ideas to upgrade the quality of theology taught to scholastics in this part of the world.
The group of 12 Jesuits actively involved in theological formation met with JCAP President Fr Mark Raper SJ from April 17 to 19, and will henceforth meet once a year. It was agreed that members are to be specifically delegated by their major superior and are expected to be deans of theological schools empowered to take and implement decisions.
The Society is now at a new stage brought about by a couple of converging factors – the demographic realities and how we can best serve the universal mission today.
Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years – from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia and a small rise in Africa.
Prayers and memorial services were held across Japan on March 11 as the country marked the first anniversary of the deadly earthquake and tsunami that struck its north-eastern coast.
Much of Japan came to a standstill as the minute of silence was observed at the moment the quake hit, 14:46 local time.
In Sendai, where much of the devastation was concentrated, a Mass of memorial was held at the city’s Motoderkoji Cathedral.
The free legal services offered by the Jesuit Social Center in Tokyo in the last year has proven to be a boon to foreign migrants. The centre already has 35 legal cases solved or awaiting resolution in its files.
“More than half of all the Catholics in Japan are of other nationalities. Anyone in contact with foreigners in Japan realises the complexity of the situations they face, their need to learn the Japanese language, and the legal barriers they encounter,” said Fr Ando Isamu SJ, who is on the centre’s staff.
In a speech delivered at the recent Sophia Symposium in Tokyo, Fr Mark Raper SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, argued for a view of education as “formation for decision and for action: education of the head, the heart and the hands”.
Advocating a pedagogy in which reflection is central, Fr Mark sees the role of education as leading students to love the world, to assume responsibility for it, and to acquire tools in order to renew it.
As such, universities need to go beyond the core business of providing education in competence and critical thinking.
Human and environmental devastation caused by floods in Australia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and by earthquakes and their aftershocks in New Zealand, Japan and Myanmar is massive. Although Japan has the technology and experience to cope with earthquakes, the latest tsunami defied preparation. The consequent nuclear crisis brought the worst of nightmares into reality.