Hero to his valet

Two years ago, when Adolfo Nicolás was setting out for the General Congregation in Rome, his friends suggested that he was on the short list for election to General. “No danger of that”, said Adolfo, “My age is against me. And not everyone agrees with my views. ” But when the Congregation, swiftly and by a massive majority, voted him into the job, he accepted: “I cannot argue with that. The verdict was so clear, I could not refuse.” It is tempting to think of Generals as enjoying universal esteem and encountering few hurdles on the way to high office. That phantasy was quickly dispelled by Fr Dermot Brangan, who acted as Adolfo’s secretary and watched him at close quarters. In the piece below he remembers his time with an extraordinary man. Read more »

Starting the journey

Eddie Cosgrove SJ (pictured here, second left, with his family) was among five Jesuit novices who made their First Vows in St. Mary’s Church, Harbourne, Birmingham on Saturday 5 September. Other novices in the joint novitiate were from S.Africa, Lithuania and Flanders. David Smolira SJ gave an inspiring sermon on the meaning of Religious life, Michael Holman SJ was the main celebrant, and John Dardis SJ thanked all those involved. A packed reception afterwards in Manresa House saw many Irish Jesuits in attendance. It was a weekend of going and coming. As the vow men were leaving for the next stage of their journey, Manresa was welcoming their successors. Read on…  Read more »

New head of Judaic studies centre

Tom Casey SJ, who teaches philosophy in the Gregorian University in Rome, has just been appointed director of the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies. Readers will remember that Tom spent much of last winter at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and gave the important 9th Annual Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn Lecture there last February. He has sent a letter (see below) to prominent figures in Christian-Jewish dialogue this week (including the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Dr. Riccardo di Segni, pictured here speaking at the Cardinal Bea Centre). The letter has already elicited a lot of promising reactions. As well as thanking his predecessor, he outlines the goal for the future and ways to achieve it. Read more »

Ignatian Lutherans

Johannesgarden is a retreat centre outside Gothenburg. It was originally run by Sacred Heart Sisters from Germany but is now in the care of the Swedish Catholic diocesan authorities. Each year members of Kompass – an ecumenical ignatian association in Sweden – gather there for an eight-day directed retreat. Almost all are Lutheran priests who live Ignatian spirituality and incorporate it in their ministries. Brian O’Leary recently returned from leading this year’s retreat in which he had a Scottish and a German sister as co-directors. This is the third such retreat in which Brian has been involved. This Swedish ecumenical interest in Ignatius reaches further, as you can read below. Read more »

Slí Eile goes far and wide

The ninth year of Slí Eile’s International Volunteering programme saw 31 young adults travelling to Colombia, Zambia and Jamaica for three weeks in July. In Bogota, Colombia, nine volunteers worked in two projects: an orphanage for special-needs children and a school for the children of destitute parents. Hosted by the Jesuit community, the volunteers said that it was a life-changing experience. In Lusaka, Zambia, twelve volunteers worked in four projects: Bauleni Community, St. Laurence’s Home for Street Kids, Our Lady’s Hospice and Mother Teresa’s Hospice. And in Kingston, Jamaica, ten volunteers worked in the summer school for children organized by the Jesuit parish of St Anne’s. This year the volunteers raised over €42,000 for the projects. Anyone interested in signing up for next year should contact Debbie (pictured here) at (01) 8943165 (or debbie.moore@sli-eile.com).The closing date for applicants is 20th November.

Fr Tom O’Neill SJ

Fr Tom O’Neill (centre in photo), who died on 30 July, had spent all his priestly life in the Far East, including ten years in Hong Kong and Manila, and the last forty in Singapore. He was a fine musician, and had specialised in matters liturgical, both in editing and teaching (at the Pastoral Institute, Manila), and then in the pastoral work of the Jesuit parish in Singapore. A correspondent in Hong Kong gathered the reactions to his death of men whom Tom had taught in the 1960s in Wah Yan.  They remembered him vividly, and as one of them put it: “That seems to be the way with some Jesuit fathers. They do not realize the full impact of their influence on us.”

Read more »

Alumni assemble

Fr General made his second visit to Africa in mid-July to attend the Seventh World Congress of Jesuit Alumni/ae, which took place in Bujumbura, Burundi. WUJA holds a Congress every six years since its founding in Bilbao in 1956, each time on a different continent. In 2003 the venue was Kolkata and the previous one was in Sydney. Ireland had four representatives at this congress, all Clongownians: Michael Sheil SJ (OC’56), Barry McStay (OC’04), Richard McElwee (OC’05) and Tim McNamara (OC’06). Tim as part of his university course had been working as a physio in Zambia, so he travelled via Addis Ababa and Kigali, to Bujumbura. There he met the other three, who had made the journey from Paris. Continue the journey below.  Read more »

Remembering Ricci

Over 300 years ago, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci tried to present the Christian Gospel in a way that could make sense to Chinese mandarins, building on the Confucianism which informed their culture. The effort was controversial, and in 1715 Pope Clement XI declared that the Confucian rituals were in conflict with Christian teaching. Now, in preparation for the fourth centenary of Ricci’s death, Pope Benedict XVI has hailed him as “a man of profound faith and extraordinary cultural and scientific genius, who devoted many years of his life to weave a profitable dialogue between East and West while he was working at the same time to plant the Gospel in the culture of the Chinese people. His example still remains today a model of positive encounter with European and Chinese culture.”

JESUITICA: an unstoppable Jesuit

The name Marquette  crops up a lot in the Mid-West of USA, carried by a city on Lake Superior, a County around it, and a Jesuit University in Milwaukee. It comes from Jacques Marquette (1637-1675), a French Jesuit who, starting from Quebec, mastered the Huron language, and heard from the Iroquois about a big river to the south – the Mississippi. Together with Louis Joliet he canoed and portaged his way from the Great Lakes down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas River, and then back again to Lake Michigan. He was the first European to winter in what is now Chicago.  He is remembered as one of the great explorers of the mid-West, a man of the frontiers, who was only 37 when he died on the shore of Lake Michigan. The photo features his statue on the Marquette University campus.

Short Notices

• In Birmingham on 5 September, the four provincials (Ireland, Britain, Netherlands, N.Belgium)  met for the first time with Tom Layden, the new Delegate for Interprovincial cooperation and planning, and  ‘launched’ him. The picture shows Back L to R: Michael Holman (Britain), Tom Layden, Jan Bentvelzen (Netherlands), Front: John Dardis (Ireland), Fons Swinner (N.Belgium)
• A website has been set up to profile the breadth and range of Jesuit social ministries around the world. Jesuits and partners in mission are invited to utilise the new site, http://www.jesuitsocialapostolate.org/, to explore the range of social action, analysis and advocacy activities around the world. The site uses data from the Universal Catalogue of the Social Apostolate, and features an interactive map highlighting ministries at work in each country. The site also includes blogging and calendar features for registered users, and an easy link for authorised updates, revisions and new additions.
• Edmond Grace has produced three short videos in which he argues the case for voting Yes to the Lisbon Treaty in the upcoming referendum. They can be viewed on the Jesuit Communication Centre’s YouTube channel.
• The General Secretariat of the Society of Jesus has released the statistics for the year 2008, showing a slight decline in the number of Jesuits worldwide. The total number of Jesuits as of 1 January 2009 stood at 18,515. This included 13,112 priests, 2,920 scholastics, 1,675 brothers and 809 novices. This was a net loss of 304 from 1 January 2008, but was a smaller decline in relation to the previous year. The average age of all Jesuits stands at 57.44 years. The average age of priests stands at 64.24 years, while the average age of scholastics is 28.96 years, and the average age of brothers is 67.68 years.
• Fr Declan Deane has moved parish, and his new address is: Christ the King Church, 199 Brandon Road, Pleasant Hill, California 94523: Phone 001-(925)6822486. His personal phone is 001(925)2461130.

Forthcoming events

• Neutrality:  Irish Experience, European Experience, edited by Iain Atack & Sean McCrum, will be launched by  Noel Dorr (former Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs), Karen Devine (IRCHSS research fellow at Dublin City University) and Bill McSweeney (ISE). The event will take place at Irish School of Ecumenics Bea House, Milltown Park, Dublin 6, on  Monday 7 September 2009, at 6.00pm. All are invited.
• Slí Eile is holding a workshop on The Artist and Art, one of its Thursday Tasters series, on Thursday 10 September. The evening will be facilitated by Colm Lavelle SJ, who will use clay as a medium in which to explore the tensions and delights of our experience of relationship with ourselves, others and God. No artistic ability or experience with clay is required for this. For more details contact Edel Roddy (edel.roddy@sli-eile.com or 086 2295915).