|
|
|
July 1, 2007 |
Ten Gonzaga students and two administrators have embarked on an intercultural servant leadership trip to Zambia. The inaugural trip, organized by Gonzaga's Center for Community Action and Service Learning (CCASL) and the Comprehensive Leadership Program (CLP), is a month-long excursion that began on May 22.
Zambia, a southern African country, is a "twinned" province with the Jesuits' Oregon Province, to which Gonzaga belongs. The students are participating in three phases on the trip: classroom instruction, field experience, and community social justice outreach. They spend three weeks at the Catholic mission compound near the Zambezi River, participating in service activities such as youth outreach at the mission school and in AIDS hospice.
According to CLP director Josh Armstrong, the trip "embodies the Gonzaga and CLP missions, which are to foster the development of men and women who lead for the common good." He adds, "We hope to make a difference in the lives of the Zambians that we encounter, but we know that each of our students will be transformed by this experience."
Jesuit Father Allan Figueroa Deck, a theologian and nationally known expert in Hispanic culture and ministry, has been named first executive director of the Office for Cultural Diversity of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He will assume the post in January 2008. Msgr David J. Malloy, USCCB general secretary, says that Deck "has the vision and the commitment to make this vitally important new office come alive as an effective means of meeting the needs of the Church's ethnic and immigrant communities."
When the bishops adopted the reorganization plan last fall, they set recognition of cultural diversity, with a special emphasis on Hispanic ministry, as one of their five top priorities.
Father Deck is currently president and executive director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality in Orange, California. He was a founder and first president, 1988-90, of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the United States. He taught theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, 1988-92, and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, 1992-97. In his years at Marymount he also was coordinator of Hispanic programs at the university's Center for Pastoral Life.
From 1990 to 1996 he served as the first president of the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry. He has also served as a consultant to the bishops' Committee on Hispanic Affairs. His 1989 book, "The Second Wave: Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures," received the Catholic Press Association's award for best professional book of the year. In 1994 he was co-author, with church historian Jay P. Dolan, of Hispanic Catholic Culture in the United States: Issues and Concerns. [Source: CNS, 06/14/2007]
This July, Jesuit Father General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach will visit Vietnam to establish the nation as a full-fledged Province of the East Asia and Oceania Assistancy. Jesuits initially came to Asia during a period of intense missionary work in the 17th century, and remained a presence there until the suppression of the Society in 1773. Jesuits returned to Vietnam in 1953 when some of the Jesuit missionaries expelled from China were invited to serve the Chinese community in Vietnam.
In 1955 the Saigon government sounded out then-Father General Janssens about the possibility of a Jesuit University in Saigon. The plan did not materialize; instead, the Jesuit delegate proposed a Pontifical Seminary in the city of Dalat.
In 1956 the first Jesuits arrived in Saigon; one year later they took on responsibility for the Pontifical Seminary in Dalat. Their apostolic activities continued until 1975 when political upheavals prevented the foreign missionaries from remaining in Vietnam. In 1975, there were 11 Jesuit priests, 10 scholastics, 1 Brother, 4 novices and 15 candidates. Currently, Vietnam boasts 134 Jesuits: 38 priests, 45 scholastics, 20 Brothers, 31 novices and 150 candidates. [Source: Electronic Information Service, 6/20/2007]
An air of "suspicion" has built up between Catholics and the government of Madagascar, says the Archbishop of Antananarivo, Odon Razakolona, after the recent expulsion of a French Jesuit from the country.
In April, the government ordered Fr Sylvain Urfer to leave after 33 years in Madagascar, ostensibly for his opposition to a road-building program. Fr Urfer says it was because he has criticized the government on numerous occasions. The decision, and the manner of his departure, sent shockwaves through the Catholic community. He was driven to the airport under police guard, taken through customs separately from other passengers and was prevented from saying goodbye to the friends who had gathered to see him off. He is unlikely to return.
Moves by Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana to increase ties between church and state have raised fears that he may be trying to promote his own Protestant brand at the expense of the majority Catholics or the smaller Muslim community.
"We are not normally interested in conflict with the state," Archbishop Razakolona told the BBC, "but we are disappointed with the way this expulsion was handled." "Certain events here have led to misunderstandings. We accept the sovereignty of the state but we want to know the true reason for our priest being expelled."
Both the French foreign ministry and the Vatican have raised the matter with Madagascar's government. [Source: BBC NEWS: 06/19/2007]
In response to a new documentary about the lives of sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic, the Jesuit Service for Refugees and Immigrants (SJRM) said should motivate Dominican authorities to resume long-stagnated public policies regarding migration.
The Price of Sugar, directed by Bill Haney and narrated by Paul Newman, follows a Spanish priest into the Dominican Republic, where he ministers to the community of Haitians and other immigrants who cut sugar cane in slavelike conditions for the sugar giant Vicini Group. It received an Audience Award at the South By Southwest film festival and has generated national interest in the global sugar trade. The SJRM reports that the Dominican State must start an integral migratory policy and draft an immigration law. Earlier, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the government for failing to recognize the nationality of two minors of Hatian descent.
For more information, please visit www.thepriceofsugar.com. [Source: Dominican Today, 6/12/2007]
After two years in Afghanistan, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has opened a second mission in the war-torn country to assist people in rebuilding their lives. The new mission opened May 15 in the extremely poor city of Bamiyan. The first mission in Afghanistan opened in Herat in 2005. According to South Asian Provincial Fr Hector D'Souza, SJ, the JRS hopes to act as "catalysts enabling the local community to bring about a transformation for a brighter future."
JRS representative in Afghanistan Fr Antony Santiago, SJ, said that the Jesuits shared the nation's dream of bevoming self-reliant, making education relevant and innovative, and bringing marginalized minority groups and women into the mainstream of development. He outlined their programs, which include teacher training programs, providing learning materials, English courses, development of exchange programs, upgrading library and laboratory facilities, and strengthening the country's educational infrastructure. [Source: AsiaNews and JRS]
JesuitUSA News is brought to you by Company Magazine. The newsletter is free and available to all interested persons. Spread the word. Persons can subscribe to the Newsletter in one of several ways:
Once subscribed you can manage your own subscription -- delete yourself, change your email address, or even indicate that you will be "out of the office" for some specific period of time. Other correspondence, especially comments, suggestions, complaints, or queries, should be sent to news@companymagazine.org Please include your name and your email address in all correspondence. The editors of this newsletter are Richard VandeVelde SJ and Maureen Ryan. They recommend the following useful web links as items of Jesuit interest.
|