Zimbabwe has dropped out of the headlines but the country continues to suffer from major inflation and serious food shortage. In a recent personal account sent to Headlines from Zimbabwe, the author reported: “I couldn’t find much to buy in the local supermarkets just now. Only the foreign currency shelves had anything on them, so my Z$150,000 or so was useless.”

In the light of this situation, Jesuits in Britain have launched an urgent food appeal for Zimbabwe, following a request from the recently appointed provincial of Zimbabwe, Fr Stephen Buckland SJ. “While the protracted political negotiations continue, most ordinary Zimbabweans are starving,” explained Fr Tim Curtis SJ, director of Jesuit Missions UK. “Their currency is worthless and their salary does not even pay their bus fare to get to work. That’s why Fr Buckland has made it an urgent priority to bring some relief to these people. Since taking over as Provincial earlier this year, he has been assessing the situation and working out what contribution the Jesuits in Zimbabwe can make to the country and its people.”

British Jesuits are raising money to bring two consignments of food to Zimbabwe, each worth 180,000GBP (225,000EUR/290,000USD). To donate online through credit card and for more information in English, click here. Alternatively, you can send a cheque to Jesuit Missions, 11 Edge Hill, Wimbledon, London SW19 4LR, United Kingdom. The German Jesuits also have a fund called “Hungerhilfe” (help for the hungry) for Zimbabwe. For online donations (by direct debit/Bankeinzug), choose “Hungerhilfe” in the drop down menu on this website (in German).

Zimbabwe has dropped out of the headlines but the country continues to suffer from major inflation and serious food shortage. In a recent personal account sent to Headlines from Zimbabwe, the author reported: “I couldn’t find much to buy in the local supermarkets just now. Only the foreign currency shelves had anything on them, so my Z$150,000 or so was useless.”

In the light of this situation, Jesuits in Britain have launched an urgent food appeal for Zimbabwe, following a request from the recently appointed provincial of Zimbabwe, Fr Stephen Buckland SJ. “While the protracted political negotiations continue, most ordinary Zimbabweans are starving,” explained Fr Tim Curtis SJ, director of Jesuit Missions UK. “Their currency is worthless and their salary does not even pay their bus fare to get to work. That’s why Fr Buckland has made it an urgent priority to bring some relief to these people. Since taking over as Provincial earlier this year, he has been assessing the situation and working out what contribution the Jesuits in Zimbabwe can make to the country and its people.”

British Jesuits are raising money to bring two consignments of food to Zimbabwe, each worth 180,000GBP (225,000EUR/290,000USD). To donate online through credit card and for more information in English, click here. Alternatively, you can send a cheque to Jesuit Missions, 11 Edge Hill, Wimbledon, London SW19 4LR, United Kingdom. The German Jesuits also have a fund called “Hungerhilfe” (help for the hungry) for Zimbabwe. For online donations (by direct debit/Bankeinzug), choose “Hungerhilfe” in the drop down menu on this website (in German).

Last May, Cyclone Nargis, a devastating natural disaster, occurred in Myanmar alongside the earthquake in China and the Tsunami in Indonesia. 150,000 people died and 2,300,000 were affected in one way or another.

Although Alboan, the Jesuit NGO in the Basque region of Spain, does not work directly in Myanmar, the organisation responded to a request for help from the three Jesuit communities there. These communities have been dedicating all their efforts to assist victims both in Rangoon and in the affected areas of the delta. Alboan has contributed 48,942.92EUR (64,522.01USD) to the reconstruction activities.

Work began with emergency aid (clothes, blankets, medication and shelter), followed by house reconstruction and getting children back to school in the next phase by, among other things, reconstruction of schools. In all, 50,000 affected people are receiving aid. Their lives are very slowly returning to normal; there is however much yet to be done. Read the full report here (in English). (Source: Alboan)

COLOMBO (UCAN) — Christian writers received awards for their contributions to Sri Lankan Christian literature at the first National Christian Literary Festival, which the government and Christian community jointly organized.

Church and civil leaders during the inauguration National Christian Literary Festival in Colombo on Oct. 6. The festival organized for the first time by the government and the Christian community to recognize contributions of Christian writers.

Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo and Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake attended the Oct. 6 event at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo.

The religious affairs ministry’s Department of Christian Religious Affairs and the Catholic and Protestant Churches organized the event, which drew about 2,000 people including Catholic and Protestant Church leaders, and Buddhist monks.

About 200 school students who won essay-writing, singing and speaking competitions in English, Sinhalese and Tamil also received awards.

Prime Minister Wickremanayake, a Buddhist, praised the efforts of Christian writers, saying they wrote tirelessly in local languages to promote Christian values, which they succeeded in spreading.

“We must accept that what politicians have failed to do, these writers have fulfilled,” he told the gathering.

The prime minister noted the contribution of the late Father Jacome Gonsalves, “the father of Sinhalese Catholic literature,” who published many books. Father Gonsalves, an Indian missioner, arrived on the island in 1707. He learned Sinhalese with Buddhist monks and used the patterns of their Buddhist chants to compose a popular local rendering of the story of Jesus.

In the keynote address, Sunil Ariyaratna, dean of the Sinhalese language department of the University of Sri Jayawardhanapura in Colombo, said Christians have played a role in nourishing Sri Lankan literature. He called on Church leaders to publish a book on Christian writers to encourage the younger generation to take an interest in this field.

Three writers were given trophies for their service to Christian literature.

Italian Jesuit Father Vito Perniola during the Christian Literary Festival in Colombo on Oct. 6. He was awarded for the efforts he has put into his nine-volume History of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka.

Italian Jesuit Father Vito Perniola received his award for the efforts he has put into his nine-volume History of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka.

Father Nicolapillai Maria Saveri, founder and director of the Centre for Performing Arts, was cited for his efforts in promoting Christian arts and culture. Both priests accepted the awards on stage.

Hector Welgampola, who was not present, was cited for his 50 years of service to Catholic media. Welgampola served as editor of the two Colombo-based Catholic weeklies in Sri Lanka, the English-language Messenger and Sinhalese-language Gnanartha Pradeepaya (lamp of wisdom). He then served as executive editor of UCA News from 1987 until his retirement in 2001. He also compiled the recently published Asian Church Glossary and Stylebook.

A.R. Gunawardana, director of the Department of Christian Religious Affairs, explained that the Christian students who received awards came from around the island and had earlier competed in the country’s three official languages. The winners were awarded prizes and certificates, and it was notable that many winners came from remote villages, he told UCA News.

Thousands of Christian books are currently in print in Sri Lanka on subjects including Christian history, catechism, liturgy and social issues, in addition to the newspapers and magazines in the country’s three main languages.

Brother Rick Curry helps Iraq war veterans use art and prayer to confront their trauma | JV116_20081003

Date posted: 03 – Oct, 2008 | Length: 25:07

Brother Rick Curry founded the National Theater Workshop for the Handicapped and has helped thousands of people through the process of theater. Now he has expanded that ministry to reach out to returning veterans from the Iraq war, especially those who have lost limbs and suffer from post-traumatic syndrome. He explains how he came to understand that being born with just one arm was a great gift, and he explains the complex path of his own vocation as he moves closer to being ordained a priest.

Listen now:

MP3 file

Father Félix Zabala, musicologist of the Loyola Province, has published a 605-page book on Jesuit deeply involved in music. The fruit of 12 years of investigation, the book presents names, country of origin and a brief biography of 630 Jesuits from 48 countries who were musicologists, choir directors, composers and music critics. These facts do not match the prevailing prejudices about the Jesuits’ lack of interest or corporate disdain for music. He even dedicates a chapter to “Saint Ignatius and music.” The idea for the project began someone talked to Zabala about the “musical desert in the Society of Jesus” or those who repeat “Gesuita non cantat.” Father Zabala embarked upon a research to refute that prejudice. Músicos jesuitas a lo largo de la historia, published by Mensajer, 2008. Price: € 35.

The book on Father Arrupe edited by Gianni La Bella, originally published in Italian and Spanish, has been translated recently into German and English:

Pedro Arrupe Generalloberer der Jesuiten: Neue biographische Perspektiven, edited by Gianni La Bella and Martin Maier: 608 pages. Published by Herder, 2008.

Pedro Arrupe Superior General of the Society of Jesus: New Contributions for his Biography. Prologue by Father Adolfo Nicolás. Translated by Michael Campbell-Johnston and others. Published by Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, India, 2008. 362 pages and a CD containing 18 chapters of the original which do not appear in printed form. Price: € 25.

Fourth Centenary of Matteo Ricci’s death

“First global citizen”, “Pioneer of cultural and religious dialogue”, “Missionary who found the way to proclaim the Good News in term of a civilization alien to the influence of the West”: these are some of the titles by which Matteo Ricci is known. To celebrate the fourth centenary of his death, which will occur in the year 2010, a program of conferences to be held in Rome and Beijing is already under way. In Macerata, his native city, the celebration is more ambitious. The provisional program lists 22 projects with a budget of € 2.650.000,00.

Cardinal Martini on Paul VI

The presentation of a book which gathers the writings of Cardinal Martini on Pope Paul VI, (both former Archbishops of Milan) took place on October 3 at Centro Culturale San Fedele in Milan. The auditorium  of the center was not sufficient to accommodate all the people who came to hear the Cardinal, and it was necessary to televise his talk in an anteroom.  The talk was well covered in the Italian Press.

The audience followed with great attention the account of the relationship between Martini and Paul VI (“he was for me like a father”, said Martini) and was visibly moved when the Cardinal commented what Paul VI had written about his own death. A text, said Martini, written several years before the Pope died when he considered his death, of course, unavoidable but not imminent. A text, confessed the Cardinal, that he would hesitate to sign himself because it was “too beautiful, marvelous, lyric…I am also confronting my inevitable death but contrary to Paul VI, for me it is imminent: I am in the last waiting room. I have turned to the Lord lamenting that his death and resurrection have not eliminated our unavoidable death. It would be so beautiful to be able to say: “Jesus has confronted his death in order to make it possible for us to walk towards Paradise on a rosy path…Instead, God wants us to experience the fear of passing through the dire strait of death and obscurity…In front of the inevitable fact of our death I recovered the peace of heart when I realized that without death in the horizon we would not be capable of an act of complete trust in God without the possibility of any escape door…What death imposes on us is a definite act of trust…We desire to be with Jesus and we express this desire by closing our eyes and blindly leaving everything into his hands…”

People were moved and realized that even though Parkinson disease has forced Cardinal Martini to leave behind his loved Jerusalem, his mind remains lucid and his words powerful.

Father General

Father General is participating at the XII Synod of Bishops which treats The Word of God  in the Life and Mission of the Church. For the past 40 years the ceremony has been held at Saint Peter’s Basilica. In honor of the Pauline Year, the solemn celebration was held at Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. The Synod began on October 6 and goes until October 26.

There are 253 members of the Synod from the five continents: 51 from Africa, 62 from America, 41 from Asia, 90 from Europe and 9 from Oceania. Present for the deliberations will be 41 “experts” from 21 countries, and 37 “auditors” from 26 nations. Cardinal Albert Van Hoye, S.J. and Father General are among the members of the Synod appointed by the Holy Father. Together with them Jesuit representation includes one Archbishop, four Bishops , six “experts” and one in charge of the Information, for a total of 14. Cardinal Van Hoye, and Rabbi Shear Yashy Cohen of Haifa, especially invited by the Pope, addressed the Assembly on how the Jewish People and the Christians read and interpret the Sacred Scriptures.

Appointments

Father General has appointed Father Pablo Guerrero, of the Castilla Province, Provincial of Romania. The new Provincial, 45 years old, is presently Rector of the Instituto Católico de Artes e Industria (ICADE) which is part of the Comillas Universidad, Madrid. Father Guerrero will replace Father Olivo Bosa, of the Italian Province, who has been Provincial since 1995. The new Provincial will take office in Easter 2009.

The Jesuit provincial of Jamshedpur, Mike T. Raj SJ, writes: “The Jesuits have initiated a lot of collaboration with civil society partners [in Orissa]. In Bhubaneswar, the State Capital of Orissa, the Jesuits run Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), which has a social wing called Centre for Development Research and Training (CENDERET). CENDERET was involved in relief work during a devastating cyclone some years ago and has experience of working along with the civil society groups for relief and rehabilitation. It has its network in many of the affected areas. Details of their accounts are given below.”

FOREIGN FUND TRANSFER DETAILS
Organisation name & address: Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar – 751013, INDIA
Contact Person: Fr. P T Joseph SJ, Director
FCRA Registration No.: 1050 20089 Dated 14.02.1992
Bank name & address: Axis Bank Ltd.
Archbishop’s House, Satya Nagar, Bhubaneswar – 751 007, INDIA
Account name: XIM ACCOUNT F.C.R
Account no.: 024010100089690
Swift Code: UTIBIN BB024
IFS code for. Axis Bank: UTIB0000024