Poor

“Try to engage our students in a social project!” says Father Axel Bödefeld SJ, the headmaster of Loyola gymnasium. He has this wish for the students of Loyola gymnasium, which is considered the best school in Kosovo. Ignatian pedagogy however aims at more than best results in comparative tests. He wants the elite students to receive an education for their hearts as well.

Although I was born and raised in Haiti, I was not fully aware of the dire realities of my own people until I left my country in November 1993 for Panama, where I lived for two years as a novice.

Père Stanislas’ concern is to make the children and youths living on the streets understand that children are not born of the streets, that life continues to be sacred, that family continues to be the basic unit of society and that each person has a unique value in the eyes of God. May Mgr. Munzihirwa intercede for the centre, which carries his name, so that we may give renewed spirit, joy and love for life to the so-called street children.

Shantha Ram is accused of rape and murder of Kanchan Kumari, a 8 year old girl, his neighbor in the jhopari-patti (cluster of huts) along the railway track near the Bihar State Secretariat, Patna. The incident took place on 16.12.2007. Ram went absconding, but was arrested on 07.08.2011 and is in Patna central jail since then.

Miyashita Park is a park located in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward, a major commercial center. Many people experiencing homelessness have stayed in Miyashita Park in small cardboard or other structures since the late-1990s.

“Paradoxically, it is among those who most intimately know the power of death that we find the most stubborn faith in the power of life and, therefore, in the power of the God who is the source of life.”

I was inspired by those who spoke up against injustice, “who spoke truth to power” and were willing to pay the price, even as I began to reflect seriously on the causes and consequences of injustice.

As we nearly complete three years of our existence as the Ecology Program of Jesuit Service-Cambodia, we look back and ask ourselves, “What can we be happy about since we began working together for the environment in Cambodia?” We started early in 2013, with two fresh graduates from Banteay Prieb, our vocational school for persons with a disability.

I am a Spanish Jesuit, 82 years of age, the last 22 of which I have spent in the Peruvian rainforest. I write fromthe parish of Chiriaco, in the province of Bagua in the Amazonas region, where I was sent inthe year 2009.

The devastating earthquake that hit Nepal on 25th April affected the lives of about 8 million Nepalese, leaving us with fear, tears and sorrows. But, it's said, "instead of cursing darkness, it's better to light a candle."