Latin America – Arrupe2020 Newsletter #3 January 2021 – Service as a path to hope
In 1971 Pedro Arrupe, SJ visited Ecuador. One of the most representative works is the Centro del Muchacho Trabajador, a work of the Jesuits for streetchildren. As a prophetic and humble sign, Father Arrupe allowed himself to have his shoes shined only if he could shine the boy's old shoes.
As Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Arrupe pushed the Jesuits to effective concern for justice worldwide; to work to prevent the structural causes of injustice. But he also pushed them to work to remedy urgent, immediate needs. One example was his concern for refugees.
Almost at the same
time, the news in the newspapers about the maritime exodus of numerous migrants
from countries in the Far East, in very small and fragile boats, and the
telegrams from Arrupe to all the provincial superiors asking them to take an
interest in them, were read in the Society of Jesus. Thus, faced with the
terrible situation of the refugees, whose camps he had visited in Cambodia,
Thailand and elsewhere, on November 14, 1980 he founded the Jesuit Refugee
Service (JRS). It was the rubric of his apostolic epic, cut short by illness in
August of the following year. Despite his mobility difficulties, a sick Arrupe
frequently visited the refugees who were cared for by a group of young Jesuits
from the Collegio del Gesù in Rome.
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