Jesuit Congregation elects Superior General

Saturday, 19 January, saw the General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elect Father Adolfo Nicolás as their new Father General, the 29th successor to the order’s founder, Ignatius Loyola. He succeeds Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach, whose resignation was accepted on the preceding Monday. Jesuits and their colleagues around the world, as well as many church leaders, have warmly welcomed the news.

Father Nicolás was born in Palencia in the north-west of Spain – not far from the Basque Country, of which Ignatius Loyola was a native – but he has spent much of his Jesuit life in Asia, especially in Japan, where he studied and worked as professor of Theology at Tokyo’s “Sophia University”, founded by the Jesuits in 1913. Read more »

Lecture on Dead Sea scrolls

Milltown Institute and the Church of Ireland Theological College will co-host a lecture on the Dead Sea scrolls by an internationally acclaimed expert, Prof. Hanan Eshel. It will take place on Wednesday, 23 January at 8.00pm in the Theatre of Milltown Institute. For more information, email Gabrielle McCabe gmccabe@milltown-institute.ie or phone (01) 2776319. Read more »

Prayer for Church Unity Week

On the eve of Church Unity week, Tom Leyden in Belfast asks us to remember all those working in the area of inter-church dialogue. He preached in Knock Methodist Church in East Belfast last week, and he asks us to pray for all the people of the North as they struggle to make peace and work in true communion together in the ‘new dispensation’. Read more »

Warm welcome in Dundrum

Des O Grady SJ received a warm welcome from staff and patients when he took up his new post as Chaplain in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin, this week.

Des is picking up the reins from the Marists, who had worked there for many years. One of his illustrious predecessors is Blessed Columba Marmion, whose 150 anniversary will be celebrated in April.

‘Thinking Faith’ website launched

The British Jesuits have launched a new online publication, Thinking Faith, and the current content features two Irish Jesuit contributions. Michael Hurley SJ asks ‘Our ecumenical hopes – where are they now?‘, and Jim Corkery analyses Pope Benedict’s latest encyclical, Spe Salvi. Thinking Faith has no regular “issue date”. Instead, articles are added at any time. If you want to receive an alert each time new content is added to the site, you can subscribe here. It’s free.

Intercultural/interfaith calendar, 2008

The Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland has produced an Intercultural and Interfaith Calendar 2008 for schools which provides month-by-month information on special days in the lives of the main religious and cultural communities in Ireland. It also includes religious feasts, national days, international UN celebrations and bank holidays in the Republic of Ireland. It can be purchased from Community Links Project for €6. To order, contact Caroline Fahey (phone: 01-8148644; email: cl.schoolintegration@jesuit.ie).

Galway rows

A former student at the Coláiste Iognáid was one of the 14-man rowing crew which broke the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing. Ray Carroll has been rowing since he attended Galway’s Jesuit school and has represented Ireland in the World junior championships, the World University games, and won gold for Ireland in the European rowing championships.

When his crew reached Port St Charles, Barbados, on Thursday 17 January they broke a record that has resisted numerous attempts since 1992, setting a new 32-day standard. Ray was selected from some 200 applicants to be part of the crew that was skippered by Leven Brown, holder of the record for rowing solo across the Atlantic and a Guinness World Record rowing from mainland Spain to the West Indies.

Jesuit film expert visits Dublin

Richard Leonard SJ, who lectures in cinema and theology at Melbourne’s United Faculty of Theology, will spend some days in Dublin in mid-February. The Jesuit Communication Centre is hosting the visit and is arranging for him to give a number of public lectures on film studies in such venues as Manresa. More details will be posted in AMDG Weekly soon. Read more »