The vocation ministry team has just made public the new website (Being a Jesuit) totally renewed and updated. It is a dynamic page that proposes resources and help for young people who are asking themselves the question of vocation. The page has been designed by the SJDigital team in continuous dialogue with the Communication Office and the Vocation Promotion Team of the Province of Spain. In the long and intense process, we have listened to young people in our ministry and to experts in digital communication. We started from the premise that being a Jesuit is a vocation from God, which requires time, listening to the Word, generosity in response... You cannot discern your vocation by gluing it to a screen because nothing can replace prayer and personal accompaniment! For this reason, this page proposes an itinerary of knowing, discerning and choosing, which culminates in direct contact with a real Jesuit of flesh and blood. Only in this personal relationship can one discern, listen and accept the call that God makes. The page takes special care of aesthetics and audiovisual language. It combines informative elements, testimonies, lives of saints... Everything with a simple and accessible language that wants to make visible the passion that moves the Jesuits today. We invite you to get to know the site and dive into it: o Testimonies: Current Jesuits who tell you about their life and passion o Lives that inspire: Figures and saints that continue to inspire us today o Formation: Learn about the different stages of Jesuit formation o Did you know: Discover curious anecdotes about Jesuits throughout history o Contact us: If you want to start a process of accompaniment in your vocation

A zoom conference on “A Europe of fraternity and social friendship” Pope Francis is a great dreamer. Recently he published his encyclical Fratelli tutti where he shares his dreams of worldwide fraternity and social friendship. In an even more recent letter on Europe he offers his dreams on the future of this continent which is specially dear to him. On 28 november these two documents brought more than 60 participants from over 20 countries together in a zoom conference on “A Europe of fraternity on social friendship”. The meeting was organized by the Jesuit European Social Centre (JESC) and “Passion for Europe”, a group of committed europeans from different European institutions and social sectors. Martin Maier SJ, Secretary of European Affairs at JESC, presented the encyclical Fratelli tutti on fraternity and social friendship which is a continuation of the ground-breaking encyclical Laudato sí of 2015 with the ecological challenge and global warming in the centre. In the heart of Laudato sí is our common home and in the heart of Fratelli tutti is the human family who lives in this home. A key of Laudato sí is that everything is connected; Fratelli tutti insists in that we all are connected and nobody can be saved alone. In Laudato sí the Pope let himself be inspired by the Ecumencial Patriarch Bartholomew and in Fratelli tutti by the Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb he has met in Abou Dhabi en 2019. The dream of Pope Francis is a new alliance between the religions to build one single human family and to contribute to justice and peace in our world and to the care of creation. After this presentation three distinguished panelists reacted from different perspectives. Pierre Larrouturou, member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and rapporteur on the EU´s 2021 budget, focused on the question of work. He underlined that work is not a commodity but profoundly linked with human dignity and he advocated for a new social dialogue inspired by Fratelli tutti. Chiara Martinelli, Senior Advisor of CIDSE, an international family of Catholic social justice organizations, illustrated the continuity between Laudato sí and Fratelli tutti in the endeavour to prepare the future not simply by repairing the old system but with new sustainable and inclusive solutions. A major challenge is to restaure the broken harmony between humanity and nature. Bruno Bobone, President of the Union of Christian Business Executives UNIAPAC, recognized that a purely neoliberal economy doesn´t work properly. He spoke out for a social market economy with a dignified salary and a shared responsibility in the companies between owners and workers. In the center of the afternoon session was Pope Francis´ letter on Europe which was presented by Fr. Manuel Barrios Prieto, the General secretary of COMECE, the commission of the EU bishop conferences. He highlighted the Church´s prophetic mission and the Pope´s dreams of a Europe that is a friend to each and all, a Europe that is a family and a community, a Europe that is inclusive and generous and a Europe marked by a healthy secularism. Ivana Geto, a political scientist from Croatia representing the young generation as a fellow of the European Leadership Programme, related these dreams with the reality of young Europeans looking for a job and concerned for climate change and sustainability. For Henning vom Stein, executive partner at Otone European Affairs consultancy group, Europe as a family and a community of peoples in “intelligent solidarity” can be a model for the new world of the future. Andreas Kolodziejak, economist at the European Commission, reflected in a very personal way on the potential of dreams in the EU institutions. The lively debates either in groups, by chat or in direct interventions with the speakers manifested that Pope Francis´ dreams trigger dialogue and can show the path to a new reality and to a better future. There was confidence that Europe has still something to offer to humanity. JESC and Passion for Europe will be committed also in the future to bring people together to share our dreams and visions and to contribute to the future of Europe from a Christian perspective. Martin Maier SJ JESC Secretary for European Affairs

JECSE Education Delegates Meeting 2020. We could not meet face to face in Lyon as intended, but nevertheless, in an atmosphere of friendship, education delegates in the JECSE network met online (November 18-20) for our annual gathering. Our main theme and focus for the three days of the virtual conference was on how to deepen awareness of our Jesuit mission – amidst all the challenges of our European context – by starting an in-depth reflective process as companions on the same journey. Moving into depth together Matthieu Daum, our facilitator, took us through such a ‘discerning process’ following the ‘Theory-U model’ for awareness-based change. Through deep listening and intentional speaking (an interior attitude close to our well-known Ignatian spiritual conversation) this U-model encourages a deep sensing together of the current context first. Resisting the temptation to immediately jump to solutions, it then invites us to explore what we’d need to let go of (in ourselves and in our current system) to open up – as a community – to what wants to be born anew. This requires opening the mind, heart and will (which means suspending initial judgment, cynicism and fear) to be receptive to how the spirit moves us. A core mission of reconciliation As for our mission in education, we feel the need to paint a more coherent horizon. Over the past decade there have been a number of important new statements and a series of different events on the theme of Jesuit Education at the global level. This has given rise to a renewed awareness of being part of a global Ignatian family, of different provinces sharing the same mission and pedagogical paradigm, albeit adapted to local needs and possibilities. Collaboration and networking have become the new way of proceeding. Educate Magis has enabled the emergence of an online community of schools in the Jesuit network by facilitating the sharing of stories and best practices, of new initiatives and inspirations. Read more   

Our lack of commitment to drastically reducing our carbon emissions is a structural sin that calls for a conversion in our society. That’s what Dr Kevin Hargaden, Director of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice told Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications in a recent interview. (December 2020). He was speaking to her as news came through that Ireland was the worst of 57 countries for its carbon emissions. Manifesto for a New Green Deal The interview itself was scheduled to mark the launch of the JCFJ’s new green policy document, entitled Manifesto for a New Green Deal. (Click here to view or download as a PDF.) In the interview Kevin Hargaden outlines how their policy document differs from that of other environmental groups. The JCFJ’s policy is influenced by Catholic social teaching, he says, and they are committed and calling for an ‘integral ecology’ approach as advocated by Pope Francis in Laudato Sí. Integral ecology, he says, works from the premise that an ecological crisis is a central piece of a social crisis, and if we are to save our planet, then every sector of society must be affected and involved in the transformation. An analysis shared by believers and non-believers alike Kevin Hargaden believes this analysis can be shared by believers and non-believers alike, by people of all faiths and none. And the centre is calling for democratic dialogue at every level of Irish society. We need local communities and parishes to start having a real conversation about this issue together, as well as the government and its agencies. This is an Ignatian or Jesuit way of proceeding, he notes, adding that it has to start happening right away. “We are not facing a pending crisis ecologically,” he says, “we are in one right now and it is frightening. No other issue, be it poverty, homelessness, the food and agribusiness, whatever, can be divorced from the central and most crucial issue of our times, the ongoing destruction of our environment, our world.” He acknowledges and welcomes the fact that many people in their own individual way are struggling to ‘go green’ piecemeal, by recycling, using the car less, making their homes ‘energy efficient’. But it’s simply not enough, he believes; what is needed is a complete societal shift. Painful decisions He also admits that this will make for painful decisions arising from a whole new vision regarding the way we work, travel, shop, and structure our society. It’s not just the farmers who have to make changes, he contends; we all do. But he believes if this is done through community dialogue and engagement from all concerned, then real buy-in and change can happen. It won’t happen if it is simply imposed by well-meaning government bodies, he concludes – or even worse, by eco-fascists.

“Companions of Jesus to love and to serve”. This volume of more than 400 pages is the fruit of the collaboration between Jacques Fédry, a French Jesuit from West Africa, and Marc Lindeijer, a Bollandist from the European Low Countries Province. With a preface by Father General and historical introductions by Fr. John O’Malley, the work presents some 70 portraits of various Jesuit saints and blesseds throughout the centuries. The authors’ central conviction, writes Jacques Fédry, is that the lives of Jesuit saints help us to enter more deeply into the spirit of the Society of Jesus, just as Ignatius’s autobiography helps us to enter more deeply into his spirit. The book was published in French by Éditions Vie Chrétienne (Paris) in collaboration with the General Curia, and editions in English and Spanish are under consideration. It is a notable contribution to the spirit of the Ignatian Year. Where to find  

The story of martyrdom of a Polish Jesuit Fr. Stanisław Michalski was brought out of oblivion right before the 70th anniversary of his death. It happened thanks to a testimony of a Salesian priest from Belarus, Fr Artur Liashneuski, who says he found his vocation praying at the tomb of the Jesuit martyr. Fr Stanisław Michalski SJ died on Christmas day in 1950 at the age of 38 after he was severely beaten the day before by the members of “Komsomol” (the Communist youth organization). The organist of the church of Wiszniewo where Fr. Stanisław was the parish priest since 1945, sent a note to the Jesuit superiors in Poland about the death of the priest, but he could not include the details because of the Soviet censorship. The Jesuit archives contained Fr. Michalski’s letter to the superiors in Poland in which, five years before his death, he selflessly asked to be able to remain in Belarus, on the territory of the Soviet Union, at the time when many other priests preferred to escape to Poland. But only now the details of Fr. Michalski’s brutal death are brought into light, as the Salesian priest felt the urge to share what he knew from the members of his family, who were able to survive thanks to Fr. Michalski’s help after they were totally dispossessed as “kulaks” by the Soviet officials. There is yet some research to be made which will hopefully help discover other facts about our Jesuit brother’s heroic ministry in most dire circumstances. May his intercession help us carry on the mission which he sacrificed his life for.