February 26, 2008

Australian Jesuits Put Climate Change on their Agenda

This year's Jesuit Lenten Seminar Series, put on by the Australian Jesuits, looks at the established and potential effects of climate change, particularly those who will be left paying the price for environmental damage.

Titled "Climate Change: Who Pays the Price?", the seminars bring together a range of passionate experts to provide political, social and religious perspectives to climate change and social responsibility. Speakers include Don Henry, Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Michael Raper, President of the Welfare Rights Centre in Sydney, Sr Maryanne Loughry, Associate Director for Jesuit Refugee Service Australia, and Bishop Christopher Toohey, Chair of Catholic Earthcare Australia.

The series is held at Xavier College in Melbourne on March 5 and in Sydney at Marist College on March 6. [Source: Province Express, 1/23/2008]

Jesuit Physician Jon Fuller Receives Hecker Award

Fr Jon Fuller, SJ, is receiving the 2008 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice for his many years of work with HIV/AIDS treatment and research.

Fuller is an attending physician at the Center for Infectious Diseases and an associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. Since 1983, Dr. Fuller has provided health care for people with HIV/AIDS.

For 31 years, the award, named after Isaac Thomas Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers, has recognized North American Catholics who have labored for a more just and peaceful world. Former recipients of the award include Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Bishop Gumbleton, and Sr Helen Prejean.

Xavier University Signs Climate Commitment

When Xavier University president, Fr Michael J. Graham, SJ, signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, he joined more than 470 other college and university presidents who have pledged to make their campuses "climate neutral" by developing plans to phase out carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases.

"As a Catholic, Jesuit University, it is Xavier's responsibility to undertake issues which have an impact not only on our campus, but on all of today's society," says Graham. Some of the initiatives already in place at Xavier include using low-emission fluorescent light bulbs; time-sensitive light, heating, and cooling systems; installing energy-efficient washers in dormitories; and placing sensing valves in restroom sinks to conserve water.

Other Jesuit colleges that have signed the commitment include Fairfield University, Santa Clara University, College of the Holy Cross, Seattle University, and Loyola Marymount University. For more information please visit http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org . [Source: Xavier University]

Activist John Dear, SJ, Sentenced

Last fall, Jesuit John Dear and five other activists were arrested at the offices of Santa Fe Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) while attempting to speak to him about his support for the Iraq war.

On January 24, Dear and the others were found guilty of failing to comply with signs and regulations in a federal building. Dear was sentenced to six months probation, 40 hours of community service, and $510 in fines.

In a statement sent to the National Catholic Reporter, Dear said that he refuses to pay the fine, do the community service, or cooperate with the probation. He used his court time to continue his protest against the Iraq war and nuclear weapons. He expects that his refusal to cooperate with the January sentencing will be grounds for eventual imprisonment. [Source: National Catholic Reporter, 1/25/08]

Jesuits in Kenya Respond to Political Unrest

The Jesuit Refugee Service is reaching out to those taking refuge in Nairobi and to people displaced in West Kenya, where the internally displaced number some 90,000

They are providing emergency relief with tents, sanitation, food supplements for children and HIV-patients, peace-building initiatives and counseling, as well as fertilizers and seeds.

Kenya's opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, claims that January's election was rigged in favor of President Mwai Kibaki. Subsequent protests and rioting have caused old ethnic tensions to flare up, resulting in over 850 deaths and 250,000 people fleeing their homes.

The Jesuit and other initiatives have suffered setbacks during the conflict, however, as insecurity and destruction dealt heavy blows to their employees and beneficiaries. Hardest hit are aid projects serving people in certain slum areas, where the violence erupted fiercely. One Jesuit in formation was stopped at a roadblock, where he was beaten with a broken bottle. He received 20 stitches in his head. [Source: Marcel Uwineza, SJ,and AJANews no. 64, February 2008]

Remembrance of Things Past

• Feb 21, 1595. At Tyburn, the martyrdom of Robert Southwell after he had suffered brutal tortures in Topcliffe's house and in prison.
• Feb 22, 1599. By order of Pope Clement VIII, the Superiors General of the Jesuits and the Dominicans, assisted by others, met to settle, if possible, the controversies about grace. Nothing came of the meeting, since the Dominicans insisted on the condemnation of the writings of Fr Molina.
• Feb 23, 1551. The Roman College, the major school of the Society later to become the Gregorian University, began its first scholastic year with 15 teachers and 60 students.
• Feb 24, 1637. The death of Francis Pavone. Inflamed by his words and holy example, sixty members of a class of philosophy that he taught and the entire class of poetry embraced the religious state.
• Feb 25, 1558. St Aloysius Gonzaga receives tonsure at the Lateran basilica. Within the next month he would receive the minor orders.
• Feb 26, 1878. At Rome, the death of Angelo Secchi, one of the leading astronomers of his time.
• Feb 27, 1767. Charles III banished the Society from Spain and seized its property.
• Feb 28, 1957. The Jesuit Volunteer Corps began.

• Mar 1, 1549. At Gandia, the opening of a Jesuit college, founded by St Francis Borgia.
• Mar 2, 1606. The martyrdom in the Tower of London of St Nicholas Owen, a brother nicknamed "Little John." For 26 years he constructed hiding places for priests in homes throughout England. Despite severe torture he never revealed the location of these safe places.
• Mar 3, 1595. Clement VIII raises Fr Robert Bellarmine to the Cardinalate, saying that the Church had not his equal in learning.
• Mar 4, 1873. At Rome, the government officials presented themselves at the Professed House of the Gesu for the purpose of appropriating the greater part of the building.
• Mar 5, 1887. At Rome, the obsequies of Fr Beckx, who died on the previous day. He was 91 years of age and had governed the Society as General for 34 years. He was buried at San Lorenzo, in Campo Verano.
• Mar 6, 1643. Arnauld, the Jansenist, published his famous ract against Frequent Communion. Fifteen French Bishops gave it their approval, whereas the Jesuit Fathers at once exposed the dangers in it.
• Mar 7, 1581. The Fifth General Congregation of the Society binds the Professors of the Society to adhere to the doctrine of St Thomas Aquinas.
• Mar 8, 1773. At Centi, in the diocese of Bologna, Cardinal alvezzi pays a surprise visit to the Jesuit house, demanding to inspect their accounting books.
• Mar 9, 1764. In France, all Jesuits who refused to abjure he Society were ordered by Parliament to leave the realm within a month. Of 4,000 members, only five priests, two scholastics, and eight brothers took the required oath; the others were driven into exile.
• Mar 10, 1615. The martyrdom in Glascow, Scotland, of St John Ogilvie.
• Mar 11, 1848. In Naples, Italy, during the 1848 revolution, 14 Jesuits were put into carts and driven ignominiously out of the city and the kingdom.
• Mar 12, 1622. Pope Gregory XV canonizes Sts Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and Philip Neri.
• Mar 13, 1568. John Segura and five companions set sail from pain for Florida, a fertile field of martyrs. (Nine Jesuits were killed there between 1566 and 1571.)
• Mar 14, 1535. Ignatius receives his degree from the University of Paris.
• Mar 15, 1632. The death of Diego Ruiz, a great theologian, ho studied on his knees.
• Mar 16, 1649. The martyrdom in Canada of St John de Brebeuf, Apostle to the Huron Indians. Captured by the Iroquois along with some Christian Hurons, he endured horrible tortures.

From the Editors

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