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| October 18 , 2002 |
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Romania opened the Pedro Arrupe Social Center in late September.
The center is the first of its kind in Romania, providing accommodation and assistance for refugees and migrants. JRS Romania will develop humanitarian assistance programs for refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, repatriated persons, and people without citizenship.
Psychological and social evaluation, emergency accommodation, Romanian and English language courses, cultural guidance, and PC operating courses will be organized. [Source: JRS]
A new Jesuit high school will open in inner-city Denver next fall. Modeled after the Jesuits' Cristo Rey High School in Chicago, Arrupe Jesuit High School will use a work-study program to help families defray tuition and give students a taste of working at downtown banks and law firms. Plans for the school were announced in mid October.
"There is a tendency for Catholic schools to move away from the inner city," said Arrupe High's president, Fr Stephen Planning SJ. "The ideal thing about this site is that it is right in the shadow of downtown."
Arrupe organizers want to hold classes in buildings that once housed Denver's Central Catholic High School. Arrupe High will use three buildings on the property to serve as many as 500 students. The school plans to open in fall 2003 with 100 students.
Each student will be assigned to a four-person work team, with each student working one day a week in an entry-level position while attending classes for the rest of the week. The money the students earn will cover as much as 70 percent of their tuition costs, Fr Planning said.
"We want to put kids in a corporate world and they can see where an education can take you," he added. [Source: Monte Whaley, Denver Post]
This year there are 448 Jesuit Volunteers serving the poor domestically and internationally; 214 (48 percent) are graduates of Jesuit colleges and universities. All have made at least a one-year commitment that began in August.
Boston College has a total of 38 graduates serving as Jesuit Volunteers, while Holy Cross has 18. Other schools with more than ten graduates serving are Gonzaga (15), Marquette (15), Georgetown (15), and the University of Scranton (12).
Jesuit Volunteers minister in five regions throughout the United States. They work for social justice in various ministries, including caring for people with AIDS, working in homeless shelters, teaching, and resettling refugees. The Jesuit Volunteers International serve in nine countries including Belize, Nepal, and South Africa. [Source: Jesuit Volunteers]
Fr Mark Raper has been appointed the next provincial of the Australian Province of the Society by Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach Superior-General. Fr Raper, 60, will take up the post on December 10. He returned to Australia last year from Rome where he had headed the Society's international refugee service. He is currently director of Uniya, the Jesuit social justice unit based in Sydney.
In a forthcoming article, Fr Raper signalled that he would be strengthening the Order's support for lay church workers. "The Society [of Jesus] has made a corporate commitment to support lay people in their apostolic efforts," he said. "Not because we are now fewer in number, but because now it is their time to take the lead. These partnerships also give to Jesuits a new freedom to live according to our vocation to serve our Lord and his people where the needs are greatest." [Source: Catholic Leader]
The Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica found much to praise in the music of Bruce Springsteen, saying his recent album "The Rising," inspired by the events of September 11, 2001, conveys a strong sense of redemption.
While noting Springsteen's ambivalent feelings about his own Catholic background, the article by Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ said his songs reflect a special sensitivity to the symbols of the faith and offer lessons in virtue.
Springsteen presents a poetical reflection on the September 11 attacks, but with an emphasis on the eternal salvation of the victims and the resurrection of his city, he said.
It cited the song "My City of Ruins" as an example of Springsteen's clearly religious message. In it, he sings a prayer for faith and strength in the face of the tragedy that struck New York. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
You can read the lyrics and listen to samples of songs from the album at www.brucespringsteen.net/
Australia's asylum-seeker policies are an abuse of human rights and damaging to its international reputation, said Fr Frank Brennan SJ, a lawyer and JRS staff member, speaking at a Refugee Week forum at the University of Western Australia.
Fr Brennan said that about 80 percent of boat arrivals, who were mostly Afghanis and Iraqis, were found to be genuine refugees and it was a gross abuse of their civil rights to keep them in detention.
"A more suitable solution would be to do what the Europeans and the Americans do--process the claims of asylum seekers, and if they're not a health risk or a security risk, allow them to live in the community while their claims are being processed," Fr Brennan said.
"If they're rejected, and there's no prospect of them facing torture or some humanitarian disaster, then you return them home and then you're entitled to hold them in custody awaiting their deportation."
Fr Brennan said contrary to public perception that Australia was being overrun by illegal immigrants, there had been only one unauthorized boat arrival on the Australian mainland since January. [Source: The Australian]
*** Joseph MacDonnell SJ has created a website, www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/cj/cj1se.html, based on his book Companions of Jesuits that describes the close relationship many well known artists, scholars, and scientists enjoyed with individual Jesuits of the early centuries.
*** Richard Blinn SJ has updated his slide show on Ignatius's life and put it on the web at www.ignatiushistory.info. The site features over 264 images and a comprehensive bibliography.
*** A new website called Ignatian Spirituality in Music is at www.leacock.com/music, where you can see, hear, and print the sheet music for songs based on the spirituality of Ignatius.
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