Author: cfliao
The Method of ‘Accommodation’
The method of accommodation, central in the missionary activity of Matteo Ricci, has its theological roots in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus of Rotterdam. It was a hermeneutical instrument suited to addressing complex cultural and religious questions, with their doctrinal implications.
Ricci noted that many passages of the classical Chinese texts coincided with Christian doctrine, and he proposed a parallel between the relationship of Christianity with Greco-Roman culture and that of Christianity with Confucian thought.
A further and fundamental proof of accommodation as hermeneutical instrument is found in the method Ricci used to preach and write books on religious subjects. In “On the entry of the Society of Jesus and Christianity into China” and in numerous letters, Ricci eloquently illustrates his catechetical method, based on the clear-cut distinction between catechism and Christian doctrine.
Ricci’s “Catechism,” published under the title “The true meaning of the Lord of Heaven” in 1603 after years of preparation, was a presentation of fundamental concepts like the existence of God and the repayment of good and evil, in dialogue with Confucian scholars and in dispute with Buddhists and Taoists.
“Christian doctrine” (“Doctrine of the Lord of heaven,” 1605) contained a complete presentation of Christian doctrine for catechumens and believers: the doctrine of the Trinity and of Christ, the Sacred Scriptures, the sacraments, the precepts of the Church, Christian prayers, etc. […]
The “Catechism” was therefore a Christian representation of the cultural context and the Chinese classics. In 1609, in a letter to the vice-provincial of the Jesuits in Japan, Francesco Pasio, Ricci gave the following theological interpretation of the Confucian texts: “Examining all of these books well, we will find very few things in them that are against the light of reason, and very many in keeping with it.” […]
In the “Catechism,” Ricci’s most important book, Jesus is mentioned only in the eighth and final chapter, as teacher and worker of miracles sent by God. However, the chapter does not explicitly describe Jesus as son of God and savior of humanity. It says instead that his teaching is the basis of Western civilization, and after the coming of Jesus “many Western nations made great progress along the path of civilization.” The idea was that the figure of Jesus would raise a certain interest among the Confucian scholars if he were seen as a Western equivalent of the “masters” of the Chinese philosophical tradition. In spite of this, Ricci avoids presenting a direct comparison between Jesus and Confucius. In reality, Jesus is presented as superior to all the other teachers, saints, and kings. As much as he tries to put himself on the same level as his Confucian counterparts, Ricci always affirms the superiority of Christ. […]
“Christian doctrine,” on the other hand, contains the teachings of revelation that are essential for receiving baptism and living a Christian life. It was published anonymously because its contents were nothing other than traditional Christian teaching: no one could have put his own signature to the common doctrine that had been handed down from the beginning. […] The only thing missing from the first edition are the five precepts of the Church. At that time, there were only 500 baptized Christians in China, scattered through various cities and without any ecclesiastical organization, and Ricci probably thought that introducing the five precepts in China would be premature and impracticable. […]
Ricci also applied the distinction between catechism and Christian doctrine to his verbal preaching, shifting between what would later be called “indirect apostolate” and “direct apostolate.” The first of these had Confucian scholars as its audience; the second, the catechumens and baptized.
When he practiced indirect preaching in his encounter with scholars, Ricci used dialogue and dispute according to the model of the classical Chinese and Western texts. His conversations began on the basis of scientific, ethical, and philosophical themes, developing the kindred elements in the Chinese and Western classics in support of his arguments. After this, Ricci steered the conversation to religious and ethical beliefs, like the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the reward of the good in paradise and the punishment of the wicked in hell. […]
Riccci’s “Catechism,” or “The true meaning of the Lord of Heaven,” was not written only for scholars, converts, and catechumens, but also for the opponents of the faith and anyone who might be interested. It was a book for all, able to be understood by anyone, and as such many copies were printed and distributed all over China. The books even spread without the help of missionaries into the neighboring countries: Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. […]
Conversely, “Christian doctrine” was not compiled to be distributed to anyone, but for Christians and catechumens. Nonetheless, this book was occasionally given to non-Christians for whom the missionaries had well-founded hopes of conversion. The dynamics of the missions in China were more complex than any simple outline can render. There is a certain resemblance between Ricci’s method and catechesis in the first centuries of Christianity, when catechumens were expected to be given a gradual introduction, in stages, to the mysteries of the faith.
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The book:
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The official website of the celebrations for the fourth centenary of Ricci’s death, in Italian, English, and Chinese:
And on the exhibit held a few months ago at the Vatican:
> Matteo Ricci. How to “Inculturate” Christianity in China (13.11.2009)
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On the distance between the Western and Christian vision and the vision of another great Asian civilization, that of Japan:
> Why Christianity Is “Foreign” to Japan (19.8.2010)
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In the illustration, Matteo Ricci is on the left. On the right, a high-ranking Chinese official baptized by him, Xu Guangqi.
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English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.
Mapping and unmapping the Pacific: Island perceptions of an ‘Oceanic Continent’
TAIWAN SOCIETY FOR PACIFIC STUDIES
▲ Synopsis
The Pacific world can be seen as a “oceanic continent,” mapped throughout the ages by migrations and exchanges. In its midst, islands are the vantage points from which different mapping strategies have been taking and are still taking place, offering a variety of viewpoints on the Pacific, its contours and its dynamics.
This conference – the first one organized by the Taiwan Society for Pacific Studies – aims at identifying the ways of mapping the Pacific in time and space that have been developed by islanders, especially by Austronesian populations. Such “mapping” has taken place through migration roads, tales, songs and genealogies, as well as by astronomic or geographic charts and artistic renderings. Taking these representations both in their irreducible variety and as an organic whole may help a new generation of scholars to challenges the usual ways of looking at the Pacific world, thus enabling the inhabitants of this “oceanic continent” to enrich and develop the interactive process through which they understand their history and destiny.
In other words, the objective of this conference is twofold: (a) accounting for the diversity of the “mappings” of the Pacific continent so as to challenge and renew historical, geographical and ethnographic insights on this part of the world; (b) allowing a younger generation of scholars to compare the insights they have gained in confronting local and global knowledge. Researchers from Taiwan the island between the Asian continent andthe Pacific, believed to be the starting point of Austronesian expansion into the Pacific, being the periphery and the core at the same time will also present their perceptions of this oceanic continent as it is observed and imagined from Taiwan.
The conference agenda will be divided into four sub-topics:
– Routes and Migrations
Mapping of the Pacific in terms of itineraries, migrations and spatial dynamics.
– Methods of Mapping
Mapping through tales, genealogies, drawings and pictograms, history of modern mapping, mapping perspectives according to locations…
– Sacred Space-Times
Sacred elements in traveling and mapping, missionary routes and their rationale, conversions, new religions and the blurring of traditional religious mappings…
– Alliances and Conflicts
Maritime Law and the drawing of boundaries, boundaries and conflicts around natural resources, fishing rights, garbage disposal; representations of the Pacific space and diplomatic strategies.
▲ Conference date
16-17 February, 2011
▲ Pacific Life Sustainability Awards
Four prizes will be awarded at the end of the conference to grass root leaders or communities that have made a significant contribution to cultural diversity, sustainable development and spiritual empowerment in the Pacific world.
▲Conference Agenda
Contact:
Li-chun Lee 李礼君
[email protected]
Jesuit Premieres Ricci Documentary
Jesuit Father Jeremy Clarke, an assistant professor of history at Boston College, premiered his film “Beyond Ricci: Celebrating 400 Years of the Chinese Catholic Church,
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” which he wrote, produced and directed, at Boston College on October 7. Jesuit Father James McDermott assisted Fr. Clarke with the documentary, which tells the story of Ricci’s life.
Running 53 minutes, the documentary starts off in Macau, where Ricci began his Jesuit duties in 1582. From there, it followed his journey throughout eight Chinese cities and then describes his accomplishments, such as his skills in cartography and translation and his knowledge of Chinese culture.
The film then goes on to show how Catholicism has grown in China since Ricci’s arrival in the late 16th century.
The documentary was both an educational as well as a passionate project for Fr. Clarke and his team, he said. Fascinated with Ricci since his youth, Fr. Clarke wanted to properly acknowledge the fact that 2010 is the 400th anniversary of Ricci’s death. “I wanted to use this 400th anniversary to tell the story of his life, and, in doing so, celebrate the life of the Catholic Church in China today,” Fr. Clarke said. As a result, Frs. Clarke and McDermott decided to do a filming expedition through China in just 30 days.
Podcast : Star Gazers
George V. Coyne, S.J., president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, recounts the history of this institution, and explains how the Vatican became involved in the study of the planets and stars. Father Coyne also weighs in on the contemporary debate about the compatibility of science and religion, and makes the case that Stephen Hawking is wrong about the origins of the universe.
Jesuit Electronic News Service Vol. XV, N. 19
Father General
Letter to the Provincial of Spain. On September 10 Father General sent in response to the Provincial of Spain a letter in which he confirms the process of the integration of the 5 Provinces into only one, as it was stated in the document that was given to him. This document communicates in several chapters the following issues: the revitalization of the life and the mission of the apostolic body of the Society, the structures of governance for the period of transition, the structures for the new Province, the Apostolic Project, etc. Father General approved as concrete decisions:
– That in September 2010 the transition begin the initial phase with the objective to activate the Apostolic Project, which has been implemented. From now on the various apostolic areas will begin to transfer little by little to the Provincial of Spain. The first area to be transferred this October will be formation.
– That the new Province will be established in 2016 with the name “Province of Spain”. In it the Provincial guarantees the unity in governing according to our law. At the same time the localand territorial apostolic ventures have the aim of harmonizing in union with the particularity of the current Provinces.
Father General underlines the importance of the chapter On revitalizing religious life and the mission of the apostolic body, as the cornerstone of the building that we want to construct. Only thus we can continue with hope on this journey already begun, to analyze peacefully the difficulties that present themselves, to pay attention to the various sensibilities and to the contributions that arise from Jesuits and their collaborators in order to better in its entirety and in its essential elements the course that has been already delineated, but that is susceptible to redoing so that is helped everyone to achieve the apostolic goal that is proposed. Finally, Father Adolfo Nicolás invites all to continue in the good practice of giving opportune information and asking the participation of fellow Jesuits and of communities, as also of our respective collaborators, so that no one feels extraneous to the future that is for all and in which all are involved in the response that encourages them to go beyond the particularities and increase the union of hearts and minds.
From the Curia
– Commission for Practica Quaedam. Practica Quaedam is the manual of instructions on the way to handle the correspondence with Father General. The last edition was in 1997. In conformity with what the last General Congregation indicated in number 15 in the Decree on Governance, some months ago the Secretary of the Society asked the Provincials and their Socii to send suggestions in order to update the manual. Father General has constituted an international working group in order to carry out this task. After e-mail exchanges, the commission gathers in Rome from October 11th to the 16th in order to prepare the final edition of this document. The plan is that the new manual will be ready in the first months of next year. This is one of the three commissions to implement some juridical aspects of the General Congregation. A report was given, in this Bulletin (cf. no. 16, of September 6, 2010), about the commission that worked on the structure of the provinces. When the commission meets in order to examine the “Formula of the General Congregation” we will give account about it.
– From 22 until 29 September, JRS International organized its Fifth Service Orientation Course for new staff in the organization. On the first day of the course, veteran staff from around the world helped the participants understand the refugee context, both in global terms and by looking at particular situations in Haiti, South Africa and Sri Lanka. On successive days, the course examined the mission, vision and values of JRS and how it relates to the work of the Society of Jesus at large. New staff were also briefed on human resource issues, such as team work, conflict, stress, and were introduced to the work of the communications, advocacy and programs departments in the International Office.
Appointments
Father General has appointed:
– Fr. Colin Tan Chin Hock, of the Malaysia-Singapore Region, new Superior of the same Region. Father Colin Tan, at present Master of Novices, vocation promoter and treasurer of the Malaysia-Singapore Region, was born in 1960, joined the Society of Jesus in 1988 and was ordained a priest in 1999.
– Fr. Joseph Pham Thanh Liem new Provincial of the Vietnam Province. P. Joseph was born in 1952, joined the Society of Jesus in 1972, and was ordained a priest in 1995. He has been Socius to the Provincial beside holding other Province responsibilities.
– Fr. Bogdan Lesniak, of the Province of Upper Poland, is from September 23 the new secretary for the Assistancy of Central-East Europe, east section. He substitutes Fr. Alexander Puss. Fr. Bogdan was born in 1973, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1993 and was ordained a priest in 2005.
From the Provinces
AMERICAS: The birth of “Magis Americas”
On September 23 in Rome, the President of the Conference of Latin American Provincials and the President of the USA Jesuit Conference, at the presence of Father General, signed the birth of Magis Americas which seek to increase and deepen collaboration on behalf of the mission of the Society of Jesus in the Americas, particularly through work on behalf of the Jesuit-sponsored ministries in Latin America. Magis Americas is a non-profit organization which engages in the following activities in the United States: raises funds for civil society projects sponsored by the Society of Jesus in Latin America (for example Fe y Alegria), and other apostolic activities that may be promoted with the support of both Conferences; facilitates contacts and mutual beneficial interaction between social agents from North and South and supports, through fundraising, possible joint projects approved by relevant authorities of both Conferences; promotes participation in public policy debates and forums in the United States on educational and social development in Latin America; develops contacts between individuals and institutions sponsored by the Society of Jesus in Latin America. Magis Americas operates on these criteria to guide the provision of such services according to its organizational capacity, subject to its Certificate of Incorporation and its Bylaws, consistent with the legal requirements of the State of Delaware and the United States.
AUSTRALIA: Adapting the Spiritual Exercises across Asia
In view of increasing collaboration across the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP), some 23 participants among Jesuits and lay people working in Ignatian Spirituality ministries gathered at the end of August at Canisius Centre of Ignatian Spirituality in Sydney, with Father General’s Secretary for the Ministry of the Spiritual Exercises, Fr. Eddie Mercieca, as a special guest speaker, along with JCAP (Jesuit Conference of Asia-Pacific) President Fr. Mark Raper and Australian Provincial Fr. Steve Curtin. Both Fr. Mercieca and Fr. Raper made presentations at the conference exploring the need for greater formation and training for people in the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises, which should be a key element in the direction and style of all Society’s ministries. “I would add that it is imperative that each Province has two or three of its best men trained seriously in spiritual studies with special reference and research in Ignatian Spirituality,” said Fr. Mercieca, who in his last talk on the final day of the meeting, addressed the need for broader collaboration across the Asia-Pacific Assistancy. He outlined three themes for the collaboration between the various Provinces: Common apostolic discernment; Ignatian leadership formation; and the insertion of the Spiritual Exercises in local cultures and traditions. With Asia being such a vastly diverse region of cultures and communities, Fr. Mercieca said one of the biggest challenges facing the Society would be adapting the Exercises to local contexts.
BOLIVIA: Film on Luis Espinal
With the desire of inspiring reflection on the inheritance left by Luis Espinal on the thinking of Bolivian society, in the next days the film Lucho San Pueblo, by Fr. Eduardo Pérez, S.J. will be broadcasted all over Bolivia. The film tells the story of the Jesuit martyr Luis Espinal, victim in 1980 of the Bolivian military dictatorship. It shows the happenings of the night in which he was kidnapped and tortured , based on documents and historical sources, among which the audio of his voice when, in his capacity as director of a radio station connected with Radio Fides, he broadcasted the news about the military coup d’état by the then colonel Hugo Banzer Suárez. Fr. Espinal intervened defending politicians and labour organizers persecuted and imprisoned during the 1971 military coup d’état. In March 1980 he was kidnapped, put into a jeep and brought to a slaughterhouse where he was tortured for four hours and finally killed with 14 gunshots, after having engraved a cross on his chest.
BURKINA FASO: A challenge to the desert
The name of the project is “A challenge to the desert”, and is sponsored byMagis (Mouvement and Action of Italian Jesuits for Development). It is a big project of human, cultural, health, socio-economic and even athletic development and its goal is to launch growth and autonomy for an entire province around Kaya, in Burkina Faso, Subsaharian Africa, between desert and savana, with the participation of the local population. The challenges are water, agricultural high school, working cooperative, learning, health, solar kitchens. And even the building of a recreational and sporting center. Taking up the tradition of 500 years of experience, from St. Francis to Father Arrupe, Magis is a work of Italian Jesuits working for missions all over the world. It is recognized as a NGO (non governmental organization) by the Minister of Foreign Affairs), as a ONLUS (not for profit organization) and as a charitable entity. To learn more: [email protected].
COLOMBIA: Meeting of Ignatian Spirituality’s Reviews
The CIRE (Ignatian Center for Reflection and Exercises) of Bogota, Colombia, hosted, October 4-6, the third international encounter of Ignatian spirituality reviews. Participants came from France, Canada, Italy, Spain, England, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina. The meeting was organized by Fr. Edward Mercieca, of the Secretariat for Ignatian Spirituality of the Society of Jesus at the General Curia in Rome. Apart from sharing of challenges, today’s orientation and problems the reviews have to face in their countries, the themes on the agenda were: how to profit by proper resources, how to increase the opportunity of exchange of articles and how to realize a common project for the years to come. Father General, in his message of congratulations for the encounter and the work done by spirituality reviews, pointed out three fields or areas of our life and our way of proceeding that could be deepened in the studies of ignatian spirituality: early, specialized and ongoing formation; ignatian spirituality there and put into practice in every apostolate of the Society, dialogue between faith and culture according to the custom of every country and region.
ROME: Celebration of the first approbation of the Society
On the evening of September 27th a solemn liturgical celebration to commemorate the 470th anniversary of the first approbation of the Society of Jesus, took place in the Church of the Gesù, Rome, with numerous Jesuits, friends, and people committed to Jesuit spirituality. Father Federico Lombardi, in absence of Father General, who was in Belgium, presided at the liturgy. In his homily Fr. Lombardi recalled the approval of the Society by Pope Paul III, on September 27, 1540 and said that “this date is a watershed. It marks the passage from the spiritual and apostolic involvement of a group of friends in the Lord to the birth of a new religious Order recognized by the Church, with all the consequences that this involves. Also Ignatius will no longer be the spiritual head of a group of itinerant apostles, but he will be soon a religious Superior” engaged in the tasks of governance and the drawing up of the Constitutions of the new Order, of which he will become the true Founder. Later he added: “In 470 years the Society of Jesus has accomplished extraordinary apostolic enterprises, but also it has had its weaknesses and been subject to some very hard tests and humiliations. It was suppressed by a Pope, and approximately 200 years ago it was restored to life by another Pope and began again its way with practically nothing. It has been expelled many times from many different countries (…). The tests to which in these times the Society must deal which concerns the credibility of the Church – radical tests of faith in a secularized world, tests of coherence and credibility in witness and holiness of life – are tests of life or death, that the Society lives internally, within its very body.”
USA: At work on the Border
The work of the Kino Border Initiative continues on U.S.-Mexico border. It is a a collaborative effort of the Jesuit provinces of California and Mexico, the Diocese of Tucson, the Archdiocese of Hermosillo (Mexico), Jesuit Refugee Service, and the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist. The kitchen of the dining room ministering to deportees on the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Mexico, with the help of some Jesuit students and other members and volunteers, served as many as 250 meals a day in winter. The average this summer has been about 150 meals per day, a reduction accounted for in part by the summer heat cutting down on cross-border traffic and partly by the Border Patrol flights that return people to their home states. Apart from some beds and other services for women and children, the services at the Kino Border Initiatives’s offices in Nogales includes public education about the border in light of Catholic social teaching, with workshops offered in parishes on both sides of the border and research and advocacy on behalf of fundamental human rights and comprehensive immigration reform. Talking about his experience Ricardo Avila, a young Jesuit in formation who spent five weeks with the Kino Border Initiative this summer said: “I’ve gotten an understanding of the migrant experience, of how genuinely dangerous the immigrant experience is.”
Jesuitica
Paraguay, the Guaraní played soccer. The Paraguayan team was vs. Italy at the first football match of the world champions league in South Africa and played very well brushing the semifinal, beaten by Spain which was the world winner. In those days Gianpaolo Romanato wrote in the Osservatore Romano that soccer in Paraguay is very old. Here is a testimony: “During feast days, after evening mass, men organize a fictitious struggle in the square, throwing arrows towards a target (…). They also used to play soccer, and, even if of full rubber, the ball was light and quick and once received the stroke, bounced back many times without stopping, pushed by its own weigh. They do not push the ball with their hands, as we do, but with the upper part of the naked feet, passing it over and receiving it with great ability and precision.” This is what wrote Spanish Father José Manuel Peramás. Born in 1732 he worked for some years among the Guaraní of the Paraguayan Reducciones, until the decree of expulsion forced him and his brethren to leave the Spanish colonies in America. He died in Faenza, Italy, in 1793. But this is not the only testimony. Another missionary of theReducciones, Fr. José Cardiel, who died in exile in Faenza in 1781, speaks about the same topic. Another jesuit historian of the Reducciones, peruvian creolo Father Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, wrote around 1639-1640 that soccer was practiced by guaraní even before the arrival of the Spanish missionaries.
New in SJWEB
– A slide show about the visit of Father General to the two Belgian Jesuit Provinces. Click on “sjweb Media”.
The feast day of St. Luke
A Greek himself, he wrote the story of Jesus and the Christian community for Gentile readers. He also accompanied St. Paul on some of his journeys and shared in his sufferings. Probably a physician, Luke may have pioneered as an early member of the church at Antioch.
The saint’s books reveal something about his character. Luke wrote excellent popular prose with an artist’s skill at painting picture stories. Demonstrating an unusual commitment to accuracy, he appears to have fastidiously checked his facts. For example, archaeologists have confirmed many details that he reported in the Acts.
Some of Luke’s main themes – prayer, the Holy Spirit, and mercy – suggest that he was a compassionate, spiritual man. He aimed his books to persuade Gentiles that the Christian story was true. So he made it more accessible to them by filing his gospel with accounts of Christ’s openness and mercy.
Tradition says Luke lived a long life without marrying and that he died at age eighty-four.
This reflection is from Voices of the Saints by Bert Ghezzi.
The Rooms of St. Ignatius
by JIM MANNEY
Here is a wonderful virtual tour of the rooms of St. Ignatius in Rome. He lived and worked in these rooms for almost 20 years as the first Superior General of the Jesuits. Much of the sound track for the video is the lovely “Gabriel’s Oboe” from the movie “The Mission,” the best movie ever made about Jesuits. (If you can’t see the video, click here.)
Five Years After Hurricane Katrina, Jesuits Continue to Help Rebuild New Orleans
On August 29, 2005, New Orleans experienced one of the worse natural disasters in U.S. history. While the city escaped a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina, the rising waters breached the levees that surround the city, leaving 80 percent of New Orleans under water. Five years later, New Orleans is a city rebuilding.
There has been a strong Jesuit presence in New Orleans from the days of the city’s founding over 300 years ago. The Jesuits have been in New Orleans in times of crisis like typhoid and yellow fever outbreaks at the turn of the 19th century and when the city flooded previously in the 1920s. Jesuit works like Good Shepherd Nativity School, which provides educational opportunities to disadvantaged children in the city, and Café Reconcile, a youth training program that provides on the job training in its restaurant, continue to help the city look toward a vibrant future. Schools like Loyola University and Jesuit High School continue to provide top notch education opportunities, while the Harry Thompson Center, a day shelter for the city’s homeless, reach out to the city’s most vulnerable. Today, the Jesuits continue to serve the spiritual needs of people of New Orleans and will continue be there for the city as it rebuilds and recovers.
National Jesuit News highlights the outreach and the dedication of the New Orleans Jesuits in the video piece below and provides a comprehensive overview of the Jesuit works in New Orleans five years after Katrina in the article following the video below.
Gumbo. Gumbo is perhaps a perfect symbol for New Orleans: a mysterious bowl, originating out of necessity, of multifarious ingredients and spices, time-tested and blessed by the “Holy Trinity,” beyond the onions, peppers and celery. The city’s positioning in the Mississippi River delta made it a natural port for early inhabitants-royalty, Native Americans, slaves, missionaries, pirates and prisoners, as diverse in their beliefs, traditions and experiences as one might imagine. The Jesuits were among these early residents, spreading the Gospel as missionaries here beginning in the 18th century, and today’s Jesuit ministries in New Orleans remain just as critical as they were then. When 80 percent of the city was submerged under stagnant water for two weeks, the Jesuits knew the need for assistance would be greater than ever. Together with province staff, they began assessing the severity of the situation and creating plans of action. “The immediate focus was getting current ministries back on their feet,” recalls Jesuit Father Fred Kammer, then provincial of the New Orleans Province. Temporary province offices opened in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, (about 140 miles west of New Orleans, where the old province offices laid submerged in filthy water) and the province initiated Katrina Relief Services to assess needs, allocate funds and organize volunteers to aid with rebuilding efforts. Rebuilding physical structures was only one part of the recovery effort. “We needed to bring people back to Tuition is no burden for the students of The Good Shepherd School either. Founded by the late Jesuit Father Harry Tompson. Based on the Nativity/Miguel model, the school educates children from families living at or below the federal poverty level. Its physical structure suffered only minor damage, but its students bore the brunt of the storm. With more than half of Good Shepherd’s students having deceased or incarcerated parents, support for returning students was critical. The Good Shepherd School reopened early in January 2006 with 38 students and a scaled back staff, but with its donor base in flux, and funding for the school at risk. Today, the school benefits in part from Louisiana’s Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program, which offers tuition vouchers to students living below the poverty level and in failing school districts. The school’s kindergarten through seventh grade enrollment for the 2010-2011 academic year meets pre-Katrina enrollment at 90 students. “More than half of last year’s students performed above grade level in both reading and math, and the school’s second graduating class of seventh graders have been accepted and enrolled in some of the region’s best high schools, including Jesuit High School,” reports Ronald Briggs, president and chairman of the school. However, funding continues to be a concern because the school operates year round to offer students stability and summer learning opportunities. In addition, the school operates a Graduate Support Program that assists alums with the high school and college admissions process, tutoring, mentoring and counseling. One ministry of Immaculate Conception that seeks to empower others is Café Reconcile, an outreach to the people of Central City New Orleans that began offering culinary training to young people from this at-risk corridor ten years ago. Café Reconcile is an anchor for this community, not only as a lunch house and employer, but in helping to spur revitalization of Central City, a once a thriving commercial district for minorities that has become one of the poorest and most violent areas of New Orleans. Reopening only five weeks after Katrina, it served meals to first responders and operated as a gathering place for residents in need of support. For thousands living without homes, due both in part to pre-Katrina hardships and because of the storm’s devastation, there is the Harry Tompson Center, a day center for the poor and homeless that cares for roughly 250 men and women daily. Its collaboration with the larger St. Joseph Rebuild Center, created by the Jesuits, the Presentation Sisters, the Vincentian Fathers and Catholic Charities’ Hispanic Outreach Program, is a testament to strength in numbers. “In collaborating, we can really increase the efficiency and comprehensiveness of our efforts,” says Executive Director Don Thompson, recalling the challenges of working alone and out of a tiny space near Immaculate Conception pre-Katrina. Since the center’s reopening in September 2007 through this past June, volunteers have served 126,598 guests with meals, medical and mental health aid, showers and hygiene kits, laundry service, phone service and legal assistance. Down the tree-lined streets of the Garden District sits Loyola University New Orleans, ranked as one of the top ten universities in the South for the past twenty years by U.S. News and World Report. Having graduated its “Katrina class” last year, the school boasts a record number of applications over the past two years. Many of its current students first visited New Orleans as volunteers and from that experience decided to apply to the school. This year’s newest students will join other students, faculty and staff in “Into the Streets,” a day of service to the community meant to encourage students to follow in the Jesuit model of service and to bond students to their new community and school. Serving a community well beyond the bounds of campus is its president, Jesuit Father Kevin Wildes. Wildes was appointed chair of the New Orleans Ethics Review Board, the board empowered to appoint the city’s inspector general who is tasked with investigating and preventing corruption, fraud and other illegal activities involving city government. An independent police monitor has also been appointed to aid the inspector general. These improvements, coupled with the aid of the federal government to local law enforcement, seek to transform a city with a history of well-documented violence and corruption. “We must transform the culture of death on the streets of New Orleans to a celebration of life and freedom, joy and possibility,” declared Mayor Mitch Landrieu, a Jesuit High School alumnus, at his inauguration. Barriers to education and housing, poverty and crime remain ongoing concerns, and local Jesuit ministries continue to provide support to and facilitate change in New Orleans. The ministries in the city do not stand alone, but rather “they are part of an Ignatian family,” says Mary Baudouin, provincial assistant for social ministries, recalling the past five years of hard work and companionship shared among the ministries. “Because we banded together post-Katrina, every one of our ministries survived and possibly served better as a result.” Jesuit Father Mark Lewis, provincial for the New Orleans province, wholeheartedly supports the coordination of ministry efforts. “We have to become more interactive with one another,” he says. “We have to look at what has worked and reapply it based on the endemic needs of the city.” This strength in numbers is a common theme among the people serving and being served by the city’s Jesuit ministries, and overwhelming gratitude is another common thread. The disaster has changed how people view their communities and how they can help one another heal. The recovery from total devastation is perhaps once of the best examples of self-help by a community ever attempted in our nation, due largely in part to neighbors’ generosity and support of one another, the optimism of a new mayor and the celebration of the Saints’ Super Bowl victory. If through people’s rebuilding, volunteering, donations and solidarity they continue to offer their thanks, they have heeded the call of St. Ignatius to “give and not count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not seek for rest, and to labor and not ask for reward” except that knowing they are doing God’s will.
The Rebirth of New Orleans – 5 Years After Katrina
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one quarter of men, women and children in the city of New Orleans currently live below the federal poverty level. In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina laid bare for all the world to see the intense neglect of this vulnerable population. Five years later, the recent announcement of a $79 million budget shortfall for the city weighs heavily on the minds of residents of all socio-economic circumstances. It presents an enormous challenge to a city, particularly in light of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that continues to threaten livelihoods and cultures. But the Jesuits, having bounced back from the storm with the prayers and support of so many people, continue to serve the people of New Orleans as best as they can.
normal as quickly as possible,” says Jesuit Father Anthony McGinn, president of Jesuit High School in New Orleans. “Our urgency to reopen was to help parents return.” The school’s entire first floor would need gutting and complete renovations after four and a half feet of water destroyed the auditorium, cafeteria, gymnasium, spirit shop and classrooms. While the school worked to clean up debris and reorganize classes into unaffected classrooms, its brother school in Houston, Strake Jesuit Preparatory, and a temporary campus organized at St. Martin’s Episcopal in Metairie, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans, welcomed approximately 1,000 of Jesuit High’s students. Another 300 students completed course work at other high schools outside of New Orleans. By January 2006, 89 percent of students were back on campus, and today, Jesuit High counts 1,349 students enrolled for the 2010-2011 year. Thanks to the generosity of its devoted alumni and benefactors, the school continues to offer students a Catholic, college preparatory experience at one of the lowest tuition costs in the Greater New Orleans area, where for 163 years, no academically qualified student has been denied admission due to financial hardship.
Just down the street from The Good Shepherd School is Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church, where the smell of diesel fuel still occasionally wafts about after the flooding of the church’s basement boiler room; it does not seem to deter parishioners, however. “Our focus has been to animate our congregation,” says its pastor, Jesuit Father Stephen Sauer, who has organized First Tuesdays, a new speaker series, and the Young Professionals and Graduate Society. The revitalized Racial Harmony Committee welcomes over 100 parishioners and friends to its annual Thanksgiving meal, and due to church closures post-Katrina, the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society works in coordination with the Archdiocese of New Orleans to help serve people in need beyond parish boundaries. Also popular is its concert series, originally started to aid local musicians suffering from lack of work immediately after the storm. At-will donations from concert goers help to support the musicians and to perpetuate New Orleans’ musical heritage, and as Sauer puts it, “Music becomes a healing prayer.” He adds, “There is a great sense of solidarity among our parishioners for having gotten through together, and we have turned a corner. We are building a parish for the 21st century that empowers parishioners more than ever before.”
In hopes to accommodate growing classes of culinary program applicants, expansion efforts are underway and include a banquet hall to complement catering services. “We are rebuilding from an innovative place,” says Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sister Mary Lou Specha, executive director of the café. “We are no longer recovering. We are creating.” She admits that job placement for culinary program graduates has been considerably difficult with the economic downturn, gulf oil spill and the resulting reduction in tourism. “But,” says Specha, “we remind students that we walk together, and that this is a place they can call home.”
Now located near St. Joseph Church, just off the I-10 overpass, it consists of service trailers equipped with climate-controlled food storage, showers, laundry facilities and a few offices, all contained within a “framework” of trellises-decks and roofs that allow for breezes in the hot summer months and shelter from the elements. Lush green shrubbery and plants add a peaceful element to this respite center, and the homeless of New Orleans are free to find rest and support here Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The Two Standards
By Joseph A. Tetlow, SJ
Jesus contrasted his way to the way of the world quite emphatically: “He who is not with me is against me” (Luke 11:23). Master Ignatius helps us apply this to ourselves in a key meditation in the Spiritual Exercises called “A Meditation on the Two Standards”-a “standard” meaning a flag.
Stand with Jesus or with the Way of the World
…All disciples have to choose where we are going to stand-with Jesus or with the world. No matter what life the Spirit has drawn us to, once we are baptized and confirmed we are called to stand in Jesus’ company under his flag.
We begin to move under Jesus’ standard when we join him in the living conviction that everything we have and are is God’s gift. However much or little we have, we say gratefully, “Look at all God has given me.” Then the way opens through the smoke of self-satisfaction and approval of others. “How can I help?” becomes a daily preoccupation. And through a life of love and service, the Spirit leads us to live as meekly and humbly as the Lord lived-whether we are a famous ballerina or an anonymous computer programmer.
The way of the world differs entirely. The starting point is getting as much wealth as you can. You say, “Look at all this stuff I have.” When the world’s way opens before you, you shift your focus, saying, “Look at me with all this stuff.” As those around you grow more deferential, you start saying, “Look at me.” You become convinced that you are the center of your world. You may not have sinned yet, but it is only a matter of time.
Three Forms of Collusion with the World’s Standard
Even without subscribing to theories of the subconscious, we can see that the world’s standard is as inviting to Christ’s disciples as it is to anyone else. In a way, even after we have made a solemn, lifelong choice to follow Christ’s standard, we have to purify our daily life of collusion with the world’s standard. The collusion comes in three forms.
First, there is benign secularism. Certainly, there are people who do not know Jesus Christ who lead deeply good lives. But even the baptized can live in a benignly secular way. We join civic movements and help the needy because that’s what our neighbors do. We are good to our families and honest in the workplace. There is no immediate harm in this way, but neither is there anything more than a secular spirit, even though people today call it spirituality.
The second form of collusion, seen particularly in the affluent first world, is the search for pleasure. We are surrounded by people who live what St. Paul describes as the way of the flesh. Those who follow this way are the target of advertising; they need to have whatever everyone else has right now. Their less lovely side manifests self-indulgence, lust, envy-all seen as acceptable social mores. The flesh has its own laws, and those who follow this way will readily obey those laws into sin.
Finally, there is the collusion of succumbing to darkness. Think of the report of an adult who forced a twelve-year-old to kill another and then drink some of his blood. It is evil manifest. But most of the works of the dark are not manifest. Hatred, vengeance, violence, self-destructive habits-these flourish in the dark corners of the sinful human self.
In your heart of hearts, you may loathe the dark and leap to the light. But in everyday life, you will find yourself in the twilight of benign secularism or the flesh over and over again. You will find safety in Christ’s standard only if you resolutely begin everything with thanks to God and keep watching what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Excerpt from Making Choices in Christ by Joseph A. Tetlow, SJ.
Index of Shalom October 2010
Index of Shalom October 2010
- PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH
- The Road to Daybreak – A Spiritual Journey
- 1 Oct St Therese of the Child Jesus, Patroness of Missions
- 2 Oct The Holy Guardian Angels
- 3 Oct Sunday
- 4 Oct St Francis of Assisi
- 5 Oct
- 6 Oct St Bruno, priest
- 7 Oct Our Lady of the Rosary
- 8 Oct
- 9 Oct
- 10 Oct Sunday
- 11 Oct
- 12 Oct
- 13 Oct
- 14 Oct St John Ogilvie SJ, priest & martyr
- 15 Oct St Teresa of Jesus, virgin & doctor
- 16 Oct St Margaret Mary Alacoque, religious
- 17 Oct Sunday
- 18 Oct St Luke, the Evangelist
- 19 Oct
- 20 Oct
- 21 Oct
- 22 Oct
- 23 Oct St John of Capestrano, priest
- 24 Oct Sunday
- 25 Oct
- 26 Oct
- 27 Oct
- 28 Oct Ss Simon and Jude, apostles
- 29 Oct
- 30 Oct
- 31 Oct Sunday
26th Week in Ordinary Time
27th Week in Ordinary Time
28th Week in Ordinary Time
29th Week in Ordinary Time
30th Week in Ordinary Time
31st Week in Ordinary Time