On Saturday 13 June, the main conference hall of Forum St. Michel – the Jesuit faith-culture center in Brussels from the EOF Province – during its General Assembly in Brussels, the Centre Religieux d’Information et d’Analyse de la Bande Dessinée (CRIABD) presented the 2026 European Gabriel Awards for Christian Comics. The main award was given to author Jean-François Vivier for his graphic novel Saint Damien of Molokai, Apostle of the Lepers. During an interview with journalist Héloïse Dautricourt at the Saint Michel Forum, Vivier reflected on his work dedicated to the life of this Belgian missionary priest, who in 1873 volunteered to live among people affected by leprosy who had been quarantined on the Kalaupapa peninsula in Hawaii. Fr Damien devoted himself to caring for the patients, defending their dignity and improving their living conditions, until he himself died of leprosy in 1889. The event provided an opportunity to rediscover the personality, faith and commitment of a figure who remains an inspiration for many today. Brother Quentin Huilliard from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts and a representative of Action Damien, a Belgian NGO working to combat tuberculosis, leprosy and other neglected diseases affecting vulnerable communities worldwide, also shared their reflections on his legacy. A special Coup de Cœur Award was presented to the authors of the comic À toucher le Ciel, published to mark the 800th anniversary of the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula in Brussels. The authors met many readers during the event and signed numerous copies of their work. A New Chapter for Christian Comics The gathering also marked an important moment for CRIABD, as it paid tribute to Brother Roland Francart SJ, from the former Southern Belgian Province, now part of the EOF, founder of the organisation, for his forty years of commitment to promoting Christian comics as a means of evangelisation and cultural engagement. After four decades dedicated to this mission, Fr Francart stepped down from his role as administrator and was named honorary founding administrator by the General Assembly. To honour his contribution, a portrait of Fr Francart was created by watercolour artist Dominique de Haan, a member of the CRIABD jury, and presented to him during the ceremony. In return, he offered the association's president a handcrafted Ecuadorian artwork, a reminder of one of his many journeys as a Jesuit. Founded in Belgium in 1985, CRIABD is an ecumenical organisation dedicated to promoting Christian comics in Europe and supporting their presence within the wider world of comics. The organisation works to highlight the religious, cultural and artistic dimensions of this medium and has representatives in six other European countries.

Present in Liège since the time of Saint Ignatius, the Jesuits will bid farewell to the “Fiery City” on 13 June 2026. Their departure marks the end of more than four and a half centuries of educational, spiritual, and social engagement in service of the Church and the people of Liège. The history of the Jesuits in Liège dates back to the early years of the Society of Jesus. Among the first Jesuits to spend time in the city was Saint Peter Canisius, one of the Society’s pioneering members. During the sixteenth century, the Jesuits established two colleges in Liège: the Collège en Isle, also known as the Walloon Jesuit College, and the English College. Following the restoration of the Society of Jesus in the nineteenth century, a new chapter began. In 1828, a diocesan priest founded the Collège Saint-Servais in secret. Ten years later, after entering the Society of Jesus, he entrusted the school to the Jesuits. The institution soon moved to Rue Saint-Gilles, where it flourished and became a cornerstone of Jesuit education in the region. The Society also established other important educational works in the city. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Jesuits founded the Collège Saint-Louis on the opposite bank of the Meuse, before entrusting it to the Diocese of Liège in 1949. In the early twentieth century, they launched the Institut Gramme within its premises. Today, the institute continues its mission as part of HELMo (Haute École Libre Mosane). In recent decades, the Jesuit presence in Liège has been expressed through four principal apostolic commitments. Education has remained at the heart of the mission. Through the Saint-Benoît–Saint-Servais school centre and their involvement in HELMo, the Jesuit educational tradition continues to shape generations of young people. Created in 1992 through the merger of the Collège Saint-Servais and the Paix-Notre-Dame Abbey School, the Saint-Benoît–Saint-Servais school group today educates more than 2,000 students, from nursery school through secondary education. Spiritual accompaniment has found its home in the Saint Joseph Chapel. The chapel hosts daily Eucharistic celebrations and serves as a gathering place for various faith communities, including the Croatian Catholic community of Liège, which celebrates Sunday Mass there. Social outreach has long been an essential dimension of the community’s mission. The group Les Catacombes emerged from encounters with former prisoners and continues to accompany people on the margins of society through regular gatherings and Eucharistic celebrations. The community has also supported Les Sentinelles de la Nuit, a volunteer initiative whose members walk the streets of Liège in the evenings, offering food, blankets, and companionship to people experiencing homelessness. Finally, the Espace Loyola has become a place of encounter and collaboration for numerous groups and associations. Over the years, it has welcomed Christian Life Communities, the Eucharistic Youth Movement, ATD Fourth World, student groups, theatre initiatives, and many others seeking a space for formation, dialogue, and community building. At the end of the 2025–2026 academic year, the Jesuit community on Rue Saint-Gilles will close its doors. While there will no longer be a resident Jesuit presence in Liège, the Jesuit educational tradition will continue through the Saint-Benoît–Saint-Servais school group and its participation in the network of Jesuit schools coordinated by Cocéjé. On 13 June 2026, students, alumni, teachers, members of the Loyola community, and friends of the Saint Joseph Chapel will gather to express their gratitude and celebrate the legacy of the Jesuits in Liège. A Mass of Thanksgiving will be celebrated at 6:00 p.m. in Saint Christopher’s Church, followed by an academic session reflecting on the Jesuits’ educational contribution to the city across the centuries and a convivial reception at the Collège Saint-Benoît–Saint-Servais. As the Jesuits prepare to leave Liège, they do so with gratitude for a shared history spanning generations, confident that the seeds planted through education, faith, and service will continue to bear fruit for years to come.   André Moreau sj Last superior of the Liège community

From 2–6 March, the Saint-Marc Educational Centre in Lyon hosted the largest “Jesuit Week” of the network, bringing together more than 50 Jesuits from across France and Europe. Across its seven campuses and 3,500 students—from kindergarten to higher education—the week offered a rich programme of gatherings, performances, conferences, workshops, and celebrations, alongside numerous classroom interventions and informal encounters. While the scale of the initiative represented a significant organisational effort, its true impact lay in the quality of presence and encounter. Throughout the week, Jesuits engaged closely with students, teachers, and staff—whether through testimonies, co-teaching, or simple conversations in corridors and staff rooms. These moments helped make tangible what lies at the heart of Jesuit education: a spirituality and pedagogy that are lived more than explained, rooted in accompaniment and attentive listening. The week opened with a Eucharistic celebration presided over by Thierry Dobbelstein SJ, gathering the school community and visiting Jesuits. Over the following days, participants were invited to “taste” a variety of experiences—moments of joy, reflection, creativity, and dialogue—integrated into the rhythm of school life. The week concluded with times of reflection bringing together students from different levels, offering space to revisit and internalise the experiences lived. Beyond its vibrant programme, the Jesuit Week also highlighted a deeper educational purpose: to help students discover that faith is not confined to specific times or places, but can be lived in everyday life. At the same time, it offered Jesuits a valuable opportunity to engage directly with the realities of contemporary education, strengthening the connection between Ignatian tradition and the lived experience of schools today. As part of the broader mission of the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials, initiatives such as this illustrate the enduring relevance of Jesuit education in Europe—forming young people not only intellectually, but also as persons attentive to meaning, justice, and the world around them.

From the 8th to 15th of March, a delegation of teachers from the Colegio Mateus Ricci in Macau carried out an educational exchange in Belgium focused on Jesuit school-to-school collaboration. Supported by the network of the Jesuit European Committee for Primary and Secondary Education, known as JECSE, , one of the main networks of the Conference of Jesuit European Provincials. The visit made visible a lived Ignatian unity: different languages, different systems, yet a common commitment to educating men and women for and with others, formed with competence, compassion, conscience, and commitment. Two anchor visits shaped the journey, College Notre-Dame de la Paix in Erpent and College Matteo Ricci in Brussels, and the exchange concluded with the signing of memoranda of understanding with both schools, marking a concrete step from dialogue to long-term partnership.  The delegation first major school encounter happened at the College Notre-Dame de la Paix in Erpent, where hospitality immediately set the tone for the entire journey. In a gesture both formal and heartfelt, the school hoisted the flag of the Macau Special Administrative Region alongside the flag of Belgium. For the visitors from Macau, the moment symbolised the capacity of education to honour identity while building relationship, especially when language is not shared by everyone in the same way. Beyond the ceremony, classroom observations and dialogue highlighted resonances between Macau and Belgium, particularly around educational choice and the role of public support in keeping schooling accessible across different types of institutions. The delegation was especially struck by practices that expressed adaptive development in tangible ways: learning that can move outdoors even in less-than-perfect weather. On the day of visit, Kindergarten children were having outdoor Maths class in the rain. The Primary and Secondary sections emphasised flexible learning spaces that encourage student agency, pathways and electives that respect interests and pace of students. What stood out was not simply methodology, but culture: students appeared to engage through intrinsic motivation rather than constant comparison, an atmosphere the visitors connected to Cura Personalis, the Jesuit education value to care for each learner as a whole person.  If the Notre-Dame de la Paix in Erpent offered an opening experience of welcome, the College Matteo Ricci in Brussels provided the emotional and symbolic centre of the exchange. Hearing the anthem of the school from Macau played far from home created an immediate sense of kinship: two institutions carrying the name of Matteo Ricci encountering each other not as strangers, but as partners with a shared lineage and purpose. The formal exchange sessions deepened that connection. Both schools compared how they articulate holistic formation and student dignity, sustain Jesuit identity while responding to contemporary needs, educate for service, inclusion, and reconciliation in diverse societies. A key theme was language and culture as formation, not merely as logistics. In Brussels, shaped by French, Dutch, and international realities, leaders described how students are supported to navigate multilingual life with confidence. A defining outcome of the Belgium exchange was its move from inspiration to institution-building. During the visit, memoranda of understanding were signed with both the College Notre-Dame de la Paix in Erpent and the College Matteo Ricci in Brussels, setting a framework for sustained collaboration. These agreements open realistic next steps such as teacher learning and formation exchanges, student encounter projects in person or hybrid, joint pedagogical sharing especially around language learning and student agency, shared reflection on Jesuit educational priorities and safeguarding cultures. In short: the visit did not end as a one-off tour, it became a structured relationship with shared commitments. Recognising the richness of Jesuit education in Belgium, an additional stop at the College Saint-Michel in Brussels was arranged. The encounter contributed to the broader picture of Jesuit educational diversity in the region and offered further points of contact for possible future collaboration. In addition to these school visits, a detailed presentation of the Cocéjé, the Coordination of Jesuit Colleges and Schools, was given by Ms. Anne L'Olivier, EOF-Belgium South Education Delegate, and Mr. Vincent Sohet, Coordinator of School Pastoral Care and Religious Education Courses. This presentation highlighted the support provided to all Cocéjé schools through six common recurring themes along with other core Jesuit educational values, such as awakening hope in the world and forming just global citizens, as emphasized by Father General Arturo Sosa, SJ. This Belgium exchange illustrates the practical role of JECSE in connecting schools across borders and supporting a European Jesuit educational ecosystem, with a higher level of agency and strategic stance, linked to a wider global Jesuit collaboration. For the delegation from Macau, the core takeaway was not a model to copy, but a renewed sense of belonging to a worldwide mission that expresses itself through local languages and contexts. With memoranda of understanding now signed with two sister schools, the most important work begins after the flight home: turning encounters into enduring programmes that help students in Macau and Belgium learn with and for others, across languages, cultures, and distance.

For one hundred years, the OMCFAA – Œuvre des missions catholiques françaises d'Asie et d'Afrique has stood as a living bridge between continents. Born from the collaboration between Europe and Asia and later expanding its reach to Africa and the Middle East, the foundation embodies a truly intercontinental spirit of cooperation. Today OMCFAA works for justice and development in partnership with other European Jesuit NGOs in the Xavier Network, a network of Jesuit NGOs dependent on the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials. The following article was written by the EOF province on the occasion of 100th anniversary of OMCFAA: In 2026, the OMCFAA – Œuvre des missions catholiques françaises d'Asie et d'Afrique — more simply known as the Missions Foundation — celebrates its 100th anniversary. For a century, this foundation has embodied a vibrant missionary spirit, supporting initiatives in education, healthcare, social outreach, agriculture, culture, and the promotion of the French language. Faithful to its founding inspiration, it continues to respond creatively and generously to the needs of communities across several continents. A Legacy Rooted in Shanghai The story begins in 1903 with the founding of Aurora University in Shanghai by two Jesuits: the French missionary François Perrin and the Chinese scholar Joseph Ma Xiangbo. Until 1949, the university provided higher education in French and English to nearly 250 students, forming generations of leaders and professionals. To sustain and expand this mission, the French Jesuits established the Œuvre des missions catholiques françaises d’Asie (OMCFA). Following their expulsion from China in 1949, the foundation redirected its commitment to new horizons: Africa, Madagascar, and the Middle East. Renamed OMCFAA, it broadened its support to French Jesuit missions in Chad, the Middle East, Madagascar, and beyond. Supporting Hope Across Continents Each year, the foundation supports around fifty projects worldwide. These include: Saint Joseph University (USJ) and the Notre-Dame de Jamhour in Beirut Charles Lwanga College in Sarh and Saint-François-Xavier College in N'Djamena The Bon Samaritain University Hospital Centers in Chad Hôtel-Dieu de France in Beirut, administered by USJ Beyond these institutions, numerous projects serve the most vulnerable: empowering women in India, providing healthcare for the poorest in Vietnam, assisting flood victims, and responding to urgent humanitarian needs wherever they arise. None of this would be possible without the faithful and generous support of patrons, donors, benefactors, and friends who enable the foundation to carry forward its mission with courage and hope. A “Spacious” Solidarity As it marks this centenary, the Missions Foundation hopes to become better known among all who wish to foster solidarity — a “spacious” solidarity that extends wherever a helping hand is offered. It is a solidarity that allows each person, especially the youngest and most vulnerable, to find their rightful place in society and to contribute to the common good. In a world often marked by division, the call is to look beyond borders and build bridges through dialogue and encounter, uniting as one people committed to peace. This is the spirit that has animated the OMCFAA for 100 years — and that will continue to guide it into the future. Together, let us renew and strengthen this shared mission of solidarity.

On Thursday, January 29th, at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), UNESCO formally presented its Memory of the World certificate to the Acta Sanctorum—the vast, centuries-long scholarly endeavor produced by the Society of Bollandists.This Jesuit research network was founded in 1630 by the Liège-born Jesuit Jean Bolland for the scientific study of the lives of the saints. This event marks only the eighth such recognition ever awarded to Belgium. In attendance, alongside other prominent civil and ecclesiastical authorities, were Robert Godding SJ, Director of the Bollandist Society; Mark Rotsaert SJ, former President of the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials (JCEP) and current President of the Board of the Society of Bollandists; Mark Lewis SJ, Rector of the Gregorian University; Dalibor Renić SJ, President of the JCEP; and Grégoire Le Bel SJ, Socius of the French-speaking Western Europe Province. .The mission of the Society of Jesus in Europe has long been marked by intellectual collaboration and the patient building of networks that transcend borders and generations. The recognition of the Bollandists’ archives - a work that,  by its very nature, transcends individual provinces and necessitates supra-provincial cooperation - by UNESCO highlights the enduring value of this shared scholarly tradition, rooted in rigorous research and sustained through international cooperation. This distinction not only honours a historic Jesuit work but also underscores the importance of preserving and connecting Europe’s intellectual and spiritual heritage through collaborative networks that continue to serve the universal Church and the wider world. UNESCO has inscribed the archives of the Bollandists on the Memory of the World Register. Founded by a Jesuit, the Society of the Bollandists brings together thousands of texts on the lives of saints from all over the world. This official recognition highlights the universal value of these collections, preserved by the Society of Jesus since the seventeenth century. Founded in 1630 by Jean Bolland within the Society of Jesus and still active today, the Society of the Bollandists is responsible for the Acta Sanctorum, one of the greatest scientific and editorial enterprises carried out in Europe before the French Revolution. This vast encyclopaedia on the lives of saints who lived between the second and seventeenth centuries is based on extensive documentation made possible by the collaboration of a wide network of scholars from across Europe. Preserved by several generations of Bollandists, this treasure includes more than 300 archival collections, thousands of ancient manuscripts, drawings, plans, and 750 copper plates used for printing. A Global Recognition for the Jesuits of Belgium UNESCO is the United Nations organisation that promotes cooperation in education, science, culture, and communication in order to foster peace worldwide. On 17 April 2025, UNESCO inscribed the unique religious, intellectual, and scientific heritage of the Bollandists in Europe on its Memory of the World Register. Through this programme, launched in 1992, the organisation works to safeguard, disseminate, and ensure access to the world’s documentary heritage, aiming to preserve and promote rare and often endangered documents produced by peoples across the globe. “I am particularly proud and pleased to welcome the recognition granted by UNESCO, under the Memory of the World programme, to the work carried out by the Bollandists. Since the beginning of the seventeenth century, they have accomplished pioneering work of great historical and scientific value. The documentary heritage they have played a decisive role in preserving constitutes a major contribution to the heritage of humanity. It is a well-deserved recognition for one of our most brilliant learned societies,” said Elisabeth Degryse, Minister-President of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. The Bollandists’ archives represent the eighth Belgian inscription on the Memory of the World Register, alongside collections such as the archives of the Catholic University of Louvain. Officially honoured on 29 January during a ceremony at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), in the presence of the Jesuit rector of the Gregorian University, the Society of the Bollandists expressed its pride in this distinction and reaffirmed its commitment to intensifying its efforts—now more than ever with the support of friends and benefactors—to promote and preserve these documentary treasures.