Formation

I came to the Discerning Leadership Program as an empty cup. I did not have any knowledge about leadership. The emptiness came from the weakness I felt from my lack of knowledge. I brought an empty glass into the meeting room each day and put it on the table in front of me. And each day, the glass filled up.

My name is Mwansa Chalo, a young African economist and entrepreneur participating in the Economy of Francesco 2022 event in Assisi, Italy. Looking back to this morning’s encounter with Pope Francis, I am hearing the words of the disappointed disciples who met the risen Lord reverberate in me

Growing up, living a true and genuine personal relationship has always been part and parcel of my experience in my family and with my friends.

What does ecology mean in my Jesuit vocation? I remember as a child ardently sweeping our compound...

If I had to summarise with a single word what I had just experienced in the Scholastics and Brothers Circle workshop in Taiwan from December 15 to 24, I would say “richness”.

My first involvement in HIV and AIDS ministry happened in 2003. I was sent as regent to the new Jesuit organization, African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN), created by the Jesuit Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar and put under the leadership of Fr Michael Czerny. Being part of the infancy of AJAN became also the beginning of the journey into the reality of HIV/AIDS and issues related to it.

“We need to go out then to the ‘outskirts’ where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, prisoners in thrall to many evil masters”, and “go beyond the church walls”.

In 2016, I found myself elected delegation leader to two foreign business trips on behalf a huge government corporation with interest in a variety of business sectors. This came about following my appointment to sit on the Board of Directors of the same the corporation.

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.

As an earnest young scholastic, and later, as a young priest in Gujarat Province, India, I was reflecting on how to make my commitment more meaningful, in keeping with the magis, 'the fire' of a Jesuit. Finding meaning in my call and articulating it in my own way has been a long struggle.