Fr James B Reuter SJ passed away at the age of 96 in Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Manila on December 31, 2012. Jesuit Communications in the Philippines remembers Fr Reuter, to whom it owes a debt of gratitude for founding the Jesuit Communications Foundation and for championing Jesuit and Church presence in the mass media in the Philippines.
In Memoriam
Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), the socio-political arm of the Jesuits in the Philippines, and Ateneo de Davao University recently organized a relief and recovery programme for survivors of Typhoon Pablo, known internationally as Typhoon Bopha. Held on January 8 and 9, the relief programme, Task Force Noah: Pablo, served 1,000 affected families in Compostela Valley. The team was also able to get support from the Tribal Council of each municipality.
The Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP) continues to seek venues to strengthen reflection, and network through participation in formation programmes, and institutional and province reviews. In Asia Pacific, there are continuous challenges of social and environmental injustice, limited basic education for the poor, and the needed revision of values in a culture of consumerism.
The Jesuits and partners in Cambodia continue to discern the way forward in education. In October, four educators from the various parts of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific visited Cambodia as part of the Cambodian Mission’s Preparatory Planning Mission (PPM) team. The local members of the PPM included three Jesuits, Frs OH Indon and Gabby Lamug-Nanawa and Br Ham Toeun, and two partners, Sr Ljudmila Anzic (Salesians) and Br Terry Heinrich (Marists).
The Conference team is expanding and strengthening. Consultations between the President and Provincials over several months have resulted in the missioning of Jesuits from various Provinces to core positions in the Conference. This generosity of spirit will greatly help the Conference to keep the Society in Asia Pacific oriented towards the service of faith and the promotion of justice.
The appointments announced by Conference President Fr Mark Raper SJ in December are:
From September 23 to 25, 2012, 340 delegates from 10 Jesuit schools converged in Zamboanga City to participate in the 2nd Jesuit Basic Education Congress and join Ateneo de Zamboanga University in celebrating its centennial year.
Jesuit scholastics in the Loyola House of Studies located in the Ateneo de Manila University campus have embarked on a series of initiatives to raise awareness about care for the environment in community lifestyle and house management.
Seventeen Jesuit scholastics were ordained deacon in Manila on September 8. They were an international group from nine Provinces and Regions in three Conferences, Asia Pacific, South Asia and Africa. Six of the new deacons are from the Philippine Province and the other 11 from Arrupe International Residence (AIR).
Filipino Scholastic Mark Lopez SJ shares on his experience of a five-day Vipassana Meditation Retreat he did in Chiang Mai last summer under the Venerable Abbot Piyatassi Bhikku. The retreat was part of the month-long East Asian Theological Encounter Programme, which provides Jesuits in formation with opportunities to deepen their dialogue with other faiths, particularly Buddhism, and to enrich their perspectives on theology in Asia.
At the International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education in Boston, Fr Danny Huang SJ, Regional Assistant for Asia Pacific, posed 10 points of reflection from the Procurates, that he said would be useful to discuss in Jesuit schools, Provinces and Regions.
1. Apostolic instruments
Do we understand ourselves and function as apostolic missions? How?