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January 20, 2005 |
According to the news received from the Jesuit Provinces affected by the tsunami (especially from Sri Lanka and Indonesia) there are no personal casualties among the Jesuits. Their main concern is to offer help to the thousands in need of refuge, food, and comfort.
In Sri Lanka, four communities (Galle, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Colombo) have opened their churches and residences to accommodate the persons in need of help. In the Jesuit residence of Batticaloa, more than 3,000 have sought refuge.
In India (Province of Madurai), Jesuit scholastics have joined the relief effort. The provincial has appointed a three-Jesuit committee in charge of coordinating the help in cooperation with CARITAS and the Red Cross. As a gesture of solidarity, Father General has assigned 10,000 euro to each of the Provinces of Sri Lanka and Madurai, which for the moment seem the most affected by the earthquake and the tidal wave. [Source: SJ Electronic Information Service]
These two photos from the village of Mataie, Banda Aceh, Indonesia show the assistance being provided after the disaster. They were taken in a clinic staffed by Dr Andrew Choo of Malaysia and JRS.
Further photos of the destruction in the area around Banda Aceh, Indonesia. One of the photos shows Banda Aceh's Grand Mosque in the background.
Thanks to JRS who provided these photos.
Jesuit Refugee Service Australia is updating their home page with news from Jesuits: www.jrs.org.au/index.php
Letters from the Indonesian, Sri Lanka, and India Jesuits Provincial's Offices can be found here: www.jrs.org.au/news.php?item=110
An archive of the site’s articles on the tsunami can be found here: www.jrs.org.au/news_pub.php
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) will open a new center, the Rainbow Train, in Rome in January that aims to break down cultural barriers by bringing together Italian and immigrant youths.
The center is the latest JRS effort to respond to Italy's increasingly multiethnic population, said Berardino Guarino, director of projects for the JRS-run Astalli Center.
The new center, which will be next to the JRS-run Pedro Arrupe Center for asylum-seeking families, will focus on educating children while their parents wait out the asylum procedures that can last up to a year, Guarino said. The center will also be open to troubled Italian minors with the aim of showing that foreigners are not the only ones who have problems in Italy.
The outreach to Italian youths "will better insert [the JRS centers] into the reality of the neighborhood, multiplying the encounters between foreigners and Italians so that we win the fight against prejudices," said Guarino. Fr Giovanni La Manna SJ, president of the Astalli Center, said one goal of JRS is to fight the Italian public's pervasive prejudice and indifference to the problems of immigrants.
"There's a problem of not wanting to face the reality of those who suffer," Fr La Manna said. "We see concrete things that are touching and cannot leave one indifferent." [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
The board of trustees at Boston College has approved "exploring the possibility of a merger" with Weston Jesuit School of Theology, said Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn.
"It would position BC as a leading center of Catholic intellectual thought with the largest Jesuit community in the world," he told The Pilot, Boston’s archdiocesan newspaper.
According to Dunn, 130 Jesuits are currently affiliated with Boston College and 110 are affiliated with Weston, which currently enrolls 240 students, about half of them lay Catholics and half Jesuit and Capuchin seminarians.
The proposed merger would create a new school of theology and ministry at Boston College.
That school would bring together Weston's current programs and Boston College's Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry and its project on the church in the 21st century, which explores the issues underlying the clergy sexual abuse crisis in hopes of renewing the church.
Boston College would continue to offer a civil doctorate in theology, and Weston would continue to offer a doctorate in sacred theology--an ecclesiastical degree that can be granted only by papally chartered faculties.
Dunn said a merger would need approval not only from the Jesuit superior general but from the Vatican as well because of Weston's status as a Vatican-chartered ecclesiastical school. Because of the procedures involved, the new school would open no sooner than September 2006, but officials at both organizations have high hopes, he said. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
The Catholic Campus Ministry Association (CCMA) gave its highest honor, the Reverend Charles Forsyth Award, to John Scarano, director of campus ministry at John Carroll University, in January. The CCMA bestows the award each year to a campus minister who demonstrated outstanding leadership in campus ministry at the local, regional, and national levels. [Source: CCMA]
Father General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ has appointed Fr Peter Togni SJ as the next Provincial of the California Province. He will take office on the Feast of St Ignatius, July 31, 2005. Fr Togni is currently associate dean of arts and sciences at the University of San Francisco; he will succeed Fr Thomas Smolich SJ. [Source: California Province]
Sudanese asylum seekers have occupied an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Rome for four years, since the city failed to provide housing for them, said Abdelazim Ali Adam Koko, a social worker at the Jesuit Refugee Service's (JRS) Pedro Arrupe Center in Rome.
"This is a violation of human rights. At least let them live in dignity with shelter and food," said Koko, who is also a consultant for the Italian Council on Refugees.
Like most of the Sudanese here, Nur Khamis is from the Darfur region of Sudan. The 25-year old shepherd arrived in Italy more than two years ago and immediately applied for political asylum. After being denied, he appealed the state's decision and is still awaiting the verdict.
With a proposed asylum law failing to pass in Parliament, Italy continues dealing with asylum procedures in a slow and often unjust way, Koko said.
"My impression is that they do not want people to ask for political asylum," Koko said. "Italy has the instinct of copying. Now they see other European Union countries' policies for refugees are getting worse, and they do the same." James Stapleton, communications officer at JRS in Rome, blames incompetence at the helm of the Italian commission in charge of granting asylum.
"When in doubt, lawyers would give candidates the benefit of the doubt. This is not in the mind-set of decision-makers in Italy," Stapleton said.
The commission includes representatives from the Foreign and Internal Ministries, the provincial prefect, and one UN High Commissioner for Refugees consultant without voting rights, Koko said.
Asylum seekers are not entitled to work; some sell things on the streets or pump gas illegally, Koko said. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
As executive coordinator of the Strategies for Management of Anti-Retroviral Therapy Study, Fr Mike Vjecha SJ, is overseeing one of the largest AIDS studies ever conducted. The study will track 6,000 infected patients over an eight- to nine-year period.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the study will focus on obtaining evidence to inform health care providers and people with HIV about the most appropriate use of available therapies. "It's the largest randomized study in HIV treatment to date, the longest and most expensive HIV trial that NIH has ever funded," Fr Vjecha said.
The study compares two strategies for treating HIV: the current treatment of suppressing the virus through a continuous supply of drugs, and another called "drug conservation," where medication is given to prevent opportunistic infections but stopped when immune cell counts are high enough.
The study will end when a predetermined number of patients die or develop an AIDS-defining illness such as an infection, a brain disease, or certain cancers. These are what researchers call "clinical endpoints." At that stage, the advantages and disadvantages of the two treatment strategies will be compared.
The study will be conducted in 30 countries, at 350 treatment sites, more than 150 of them in the United States. A majority of the US sites are community-based clinics serving women, blacks, Latinos, and intravenous drug users; clients can participate in research at the same place they receive care.
The US study sample accurately reflects the face of AIDS in the community, and that outreach appeals to Fr Vjecha. "It's a direct mandate for the social apostolate" of the Jesuits, he said, noting that the research has a moral dimension because it has a direct impact on the poor and on those who would otherwise be shut out. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Jesuit Astronomer Explores Questions About God
Fr Kolvenbach’s Visit to Australia
In mid-December, Fr General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach visited Australia. His address can be found at info.jesuit.org.au/info/modules.php?name=Areas&area=6&sheet=18
A reflection on the General's address by Adrian Lyons SJ is at info.jesuit.org.au/info/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=271
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