SJES ROME

I entered the Novitiate in Manila in 2003 and at that time I don’t have any other inclination on what particular ministry I will be in except that I was hoping to become a priest someday and might end up in a parish. But little did I know that the apostolate assignments I was given as a novice and as a scholastic would eventually shape my interest and desire to engage in Social Apostolate for the most part of my Jesuit life.

Inspired by a meditation oft-revisited over the course of his life, this prayer by Jacques Couture SJ (GLC) adopts the point-of-view of Jesus, in the expression of his compassion before the crowds found in Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel.

I write this piece on the tenth anniversary of my ordination. Such milestones punctuate our lives. They help us to pause and look back over the paths we’ve trodden. I entered the Jesuit novitiate when I was 31 years old and so brought with me a fair amount of lived experience.

When studying to be an engineer, I was moved by the commitment of the staff of the ATD Fourth World movement, who lived alongside very poor families, struggling side-by-side to realise change for them in society.

Mr. Vieng is a strong, 57 year old man from Laos. I knew him in 2009 in the prison in Thailand, where I work for the Jesuit Ministry. Vieng is a very hardworking and humble man who loves planting and gardening

In 1988, the year of the Seoul Olympics, I graduated from college and immediately entered the Society of Jesus. As we novices were beginning the second year of novitiate we made a 19th annotation "spiritual exercises in daily life."

I am from Chile, and in recent times I have been overjoyed to discover in a number of places the existence of a non-traditional export: the figure of Father Hurtado, Saint Alberto Hurtado.

In July 1988 I was ordained a priest in Andahuaylillas, one of the 7 rural indigenous (Quechua) parishes entrusted to the Society of Jesus in the province of Quispicanchi, Cusco.

“Progetto Scampia” was launched in the year 2001, in response to the requests of the Superiors of the Society, who greatly wanted an apostolic presence of the Jesuits in this district located in the North of Naples, renowned for its very high crime rate.

The guiding principle of the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus (1974/75): Our identity is realised in action for faith and justice. This direction was difficult to grasp for many German-speaking Jesuits. Two new communities (Frankfurt/M and Berlin) were to put these social and spiritual objectives into practice.