Testimonies

"In March 2022, the Russian military launched missile attacks on my city, forcing us to flee. I will never forget our terrible trip.

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

Walter (not his real name) comes from El Salvador, is a hairdresser and is gay. In his country, he survived an assassination attempt by the maras, who beat and stabbed him. "I lost everything. But I am alive." He fled his country and arrived in Mexico, where he crossed the Sonora desert.

Through these experiences, I have witnessed amazing humanizing efforts in the social apostolate: empowering women in a society where they are excluded, violated or killed; ... and announcing the Gospel values of justice, solidarity, hospitality and love amid a broken and searching world.

Among many other things, there I have learned the value of the collective: the certainty that in the work we do in the social sector, it will always be better to work in the plural than in the singular.

When I started my journey, I thought I was going to have a career in social work; instead, I have found a vocation. While my vocation has not been a call to the religious life it has been a clear and persistent call to a ministry deeply rooted in my faith.

As a young person in our parish, although not aware, the late Fr. Xolile Keteyi SJ helped us through his homilies and catechesis -especially during our preparation classes for the sacrament of confirmation - to make sense of the injustices that were around us at that time.

The UAPs confirm the social apostolate as an important ministry of the Society of Jesus. Besides serving directly people in need, the UAPs also remind us that the path we seek to stand with the poor is one that promotes social justice...

I considered my engagement in social issues an essential component of my faith. I was and continue to be deeply convinced that our faith calls us to have a preferential option for the poor. This means to always seek to understand the world from the perspective of those who live in the margins, and to work actively for social and political change to transform oppressive structures. For me, my faith was a call to be radical.

At this point, my journey to not only understand but to become a co-laborer in the Jesuit social apostolate began. It was contextualized in the witness of the martyrs who intertwined pastoral work and academic rigor with social analysis and projection that responded to the realities of their place and time.