NEWS

For more than a decade, MAGIS Europe - the young adult ministry initiative organized under the JCEP - has offered young adults from across the continent the opportunity to experience Ignatian spirituality through international community, prayer, service, reflection and adventure. Since 2013, the initiative has brought together young people from different countries around a shared desire to seek and find God in the experiences of everyday life. In 2026, this European tradition entered a new phase with the launch of MAGIS Euro Summer. Rather than gathering all participants in one large event, the new format brings together a series of smaller Ignatian experiences hosted by different Jesuit communities and Provinces across Europe. This evolution responds to the changing context of youth ministry while preserving what has always been at the heart of MAGIS: international encounter, community, service, discernment and an Ignatian way of seeing and living the world. The first MAGIS Euro Summer offered seven experiences in four European countries, ranging from a summer trek in Norway and volunteering along the Camino de Santiago in Spain to hiking, art and Ignatian spirituality in Croatia and experiences combining faith, politics and personal discernment in the Italian Dolomites. Each experience had its own character, but all shared the same MAGIS spirit and were conducted in English, creating spaces where young adults from different European backgrounds could meet and journey together. For JCEP, MAGIS Euro Summer represents an important expression of European collaboration in youth ministry. It allows Provinces to offer young people experiences that would often be difficult to organise independently, while making the richness and diversity of Jesuit life and mission across Europe accessible to a wider generation of young adults. The following stories offer a glimpse of this first edition — and of how the MAGIS tradition continues to evolve while remaining rooted in the simple invitation to be MAGIS: to seek God in all things, together with others. Spain Every summer, Santiago de Compostela welcomes pilgrims from around the world. In 2026, a group of young Europeans joined Apertas, a pastoral initiative founded in 2015 by Sergio García Soto SJ, for a two-week experience of service, prayer, formation and community. As part of Magis Euro Summer, the initiative brought together Jesuits and young people from several European countries, discovering together that the Camino can be both an outward journey and an inward one. Participants served at the Cathedral’s Pilgrim Welcome Office, welcoming pilgrims, helping with the Compostela and creating opportunities for reflection and prayer. They also volunteered at the Cocina Económica, serving meals to people experiencing vulnerability. Through these two very different forms of service, they discovered that accompaniment is often about simply being present: listening, welcoming and remaining open to the people encountered. As one participant put it, service is not so much about “doing” as about being present. Prayer and formation gave the experience its Ignatian rhythm, with daily prayer, the examen, personal reflection, spiritual formation, the Magis circle and the Eucharist. Living together, participants from different cultural and spiritual backgrounds gradually formed a close community and reflected on their own journeys of faith and discernment. Their testimonies highlight a central insight of Apertas Europe: the Camino is not only external, but also internal, and through service, community and encounter, young people can discover God at work in the ordinary experiences of life. Read More Here.   Italy From 12 to 22 August, 85 young people from 13 European countries gathered at Villa Capriolo in Selva di Val Gardena, in the Italian Dolomites, for ten days of prayer, formation, community and outdoor activities. The gathering was the first international experience of its kind hosted there by the Jesuits of the EUM Province. Participants chose between two workshops. “Faith & Politics” explored the Christian vocation to political engagement through testimonies, Ignatian spirituality and shared reflection, while “Trails of the Heart” offered modules on Bible and Literature and Restorative Justice, encouraging participants to explore faith, relationships and personal growth. Alongside formation and prayer, the programme included community life, relaxation, good food and three hikes through the Dolomites, including a night hike to watch the sunrise. The combination of the international group, the beautiful surroundings and the warm atmosphere made the gathering a memorable experience, and organisers are already looking forward to a possible next edition — perhaps even in winter. Read More Here.   Norway 16 young adults from across Europe and Lebanon (France, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, and Poland) participated in an experiment organized by the Jesuits in Denmark, held in the Norwegian mountains under the title "Hope Bearers." After a warm welcome by the Dominican sisters in Oslo, the group traveled to Norway’s oldest national park, Rondane, for a five-day mountain trek. The days were filled with prayer, sharing, daily celebration of the Eucharist, and plenty of time to be inspired by the contemplation of the beauty of Norwegian nature and friendly conversations among participants. Day after day, the group meditated on the stories of extraordinary hope bearers from the Scripture, allowing their narratives to resonate across the silent plateaus and rugged peaks. These stories helped us anchor our hope firmly in God's unchanging faithfulness and reflect on how to be hope bearers in our changing and unstable reality.    Croatia  Croatia hosted three MAGIS Euro Summer experiences from 24 to 31 July, bringing the European MAGIS spirit to different parts of the country. Participants could choose between hiking near Zagreb, exploring God through beauty and art in Zadar, and walking in the footsteps of Jesuit missionary Ante Gabrić SJ in the Metković area. Each experience offered a distinctive way of combining adventure, community and reflection, rooted in the Croatian Jesuit tradition. Near Zagreb, participants explored the trails and natural surroundings of Sljeme, while discovering the lives and witness of Jesuits such as Benedetto de Goes SJ and Josip Müller SJ. In Zadar, the experience invited participants to seek God through beauty and art, using the city's cultural and artistic heritage as a starting point for reflection and prayer. In Metković, participants followed the story and missionary legacy of Ante Gabrić SJ, discovering how his life of service and dedication could inspire their own faith journeys.

The formation of young Jesuits is an important investment in the future of the Society of Jesus in Europe.  Since 1986, each year, European Jesuits in Formation (EJIF), one of the Eurogroups of JCEP, brings together Jesuits in formation from different European Provinces and Regions for a time of prayer, formation, apostolic service and fraternity. More than simply a meeting, EJIF offers a space where Jesuits from across Europe can grow together in their vocation, encounter different apostolic and cultural realities, and strengthen the bonds that will sustain their future collaboration in mission. For the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials (JCEP), EJIF is significant precisely because it helps nurture a sense of a shared European Jesuit mission from the earliest stages of formation. By bringing together Jesuits from across the Conference, it creates opportunities to discover the richness of the different Provinces while also recognising what unites them as companions in the Lord. The programme combines apostolic experience, formation and communal prayer, with fraternity at its heart. The following article offers a personal testimonial from Mikhael Ahmad SJ of the British Province, who was part of the EJIF 2026 Coordination Committee, reflecting on the experience in Cluj-Napoca and on what this year’s gathering meant for those who took part. This year’s EJIF (European Jesuits in Formation) meeting took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from 25 July to 9 August. We were warmly and generously welcomed by the Jesuit community, who hosted us at their Spirituality Centre and opened not only their home but also something of the life and mission of the Church in Cluj to us. The Jesuit community serves the wider Catholic community in a variety of ways, and we were deeply touched by the sense of fraternity that surrounded their ministry. Their relationships with those they serve were a beautiful witness to the Church not simply as an institution, but as a family: a community in which people are welcomed, accompanied and cared for. EJIF is built around a number of important elements: apostolic service, formation around a common theme, communal prayer, and the opportunity to know one another more deeply as Jesuits in formation and as representatives of our different Provinces throughout Europe. Yet beneath these different elements is something even more important: the desire to become, in Ignatius’ language, companions in the Lord. From the very beginning of the planning for EJIF 2026, the Coordination Committee, Miklós Forián-Szabó SJ, Ante Arambašić SJ and myself, felt that we should build upon some of the hopes and desires that had emerged from the previous meeting. As we prayed and discerned together, we gradually became aware of a theme that felt both important and, in some ways, risky: our vow of chastity and, more broadly, our affective lives as religious. Religious life asks much of us in terms of our relationships, our freedom and the way in which we give ourselves to others. We wanted to create a space in which we could look honestly at this dimension of our lives, not simply as something to be managed, but as something through which God can help us to grow and flourish. As we continued to pray, one word became increasingly important for us: freedom. We began to understand our vow of chastity not primarily in terms of restriction, but as an invitation to a deeper freedom, a freedom for love, for service and for generous self-giving. There was both an ad intra and an ad extra dimension to this. Ad intra, we wanted to explore how healthy affectivity and greater freedom can help us to flourish in our relationships with God, with our companions and within community. Ad extra, we wanted to ask how this same freedom might enable us to become increasingly available to the people and world around us: more ready to respond to the needs of others, more humble in our service, and more open to the magis. One of our greatest challenges during the planning was finding a concrete way to connect this theme with apostolic service. We did not want affectivity to remain simply an intellectual or theoretical subject. We wanted our delegates to encounter it both through formation and through lived experience. Looking back, we were continually struck by how providentially the pieces came together. In Cluj, the Piarists were preparing their own week-long youth gathering, the Piarist Youth Movement (PYM), bringing together young people from across Europe for a week of prayer, pilgrimage, workshops, sharing and community. Alongside the main programme, some of the young people were being formed as group leaders so that they could accompany and serve the other participants. The motto of their week was “We grow together.” It was difficult to imagine a more natural way for our own EJIF theme to become concrete. Our first week was therefore spent collaborating with the Piarists and accompanying these young leaders. EJIF delegates offered one-to-one sessions in which the leaders could reflect on their experience of the week and become more attentive to where God was present and active in it. During the pilgrimage to Turda, the delegates also offered spiritual input and opportunities for reflection. We extended this accompaniment to the Piarists, teachers and others involved in organising the event, offering discussion groups and opportunities to encounter something of Ignatian spirituality. For the delegates, this service required a great deal of flexibility. Plans changed, groups changed and the needs of the young people shifted from day to day. In other words, the week demanded precisely the kind of interior freedom that we had been praying about during our preparation. We needed to let go of our own expectations and remain available to what was actually happening in front of us. The fruits were striking. It was deeply consoling to see friendships grow between the Jesuits and the young people, and between the Jesuits and the Piarist organisers. As the week unfolded, we could see the delegates becoming increasingly attentive to the wellbeing of those they were accompanying. Their concern was not simply that the programme should run well, but that the young people themselves should flourish. For us as the Coordination Committee, this was one of the clearest confirmations of the discernment that had led us to this theme. One moment that has stayed with me, and which was echoed by several of the other delegates, was the way in which the presence of the young people became a sign of hope for all of us. We saw it in the way they looked after one another, encouraged those who were struggling and supported those who were still learning. No one seemed to be left on the margins; rather, people were encouraged to participate and to discover that they had something to contribute. During our sharing sessions, I was particularly struck by the fraternal bonds between the young people. Those who felt more hesitant or intimidated about speaking were encouraged and gently held by their companions. In their care for one another, we caught a glimpse of something profoundly Gospel-like: a compassionate and counter-cultural way of loving that places the dignity and flourishing of the other before the self. In a week in which we had been reflecting on freedom for love and service, their witness became an unexpected gift to us. We had come to accompany them, yet in many ways they also accompanied us. We too had our own work of accompaniment. Each member of the Coordination Committee had responsibility for accompanying some of the young people involved in the practical running of the PYM, including communications, logistics, music and liturgy. At the same time, we were responsible for listening to the delegates, receiving their feedback and remaining open to adapting the programme when necessary. In that sense, organising EJIF itself became another experience of Ignatian freedom: having a plan, but holding it lightly enough to allow God to work through the reality before us. For me personally, one of the unexpected graces of being part of the Coordination Committee was discovering how much freedom is also required in leadership. It is one thing to make a plan; it is another to remain sufficiently free to listen when the experience of the group asks something different of you. Learning to hold the programme firmly enough to provide direction, yet lightly enough to allow it to change, became a small but important lesson in discernment. The second week turned more explicitly towards formation. We were very grateful to Brendan Callaghan SJ, who led us in an affectivity workshop. These days gave us the opportunity to approach our affective lives from both a practical and intellectual perspective, examining our relationships, our vulnerabilities and the ways in which we seek to live religious life healthily and freely. We were challenged by the material, by the case studies and by our conversations with one another. Perhaps most importantly, we were given permission to speak honestly about a subject that can sometimes be difficult to name. This was ultimately what we had hoped EJIF could provide: a space in which important questions could be approached with honesty, fraternity and prayer. Alongside all of this, the simpler elements of EJIF remained just as important. We gathered each day for Mass and communal prayer, and we made space for sharing together about how the programme was unfolding. Our Province presentations were another particularly rich part of the meeting. We came from different countries, cultures and backgrounds, with very different journeys and vocation stories, yet there was something profoundly consoling in recognising the common thread that united us: we had each, in our own way, heard a call from God to follow Christ in the Society of Jesus. These moments of fraternity are not simply an optional extra to EJIF. They are part of its very heart. For a short time, we live, pray, work and learn together. We become a small community in ourselves, discovering again the truth that Jesuit mission is sustained not only by what we do, but by the relationships through which we do it. The feast of St Ignatius was perhaps the clearest expression of this. Friends and members of the Jesuit community came together at the Spirituality Centre to celebrate, and we were deeply touched by the warmth and generosity of the occasion. Once again, we were reminded of the Church as family and community. We were not simply visitors passing through Cluj; for a brief time, we became part of something larger than ourselves. Our time in Cluj also gave us an opportunity to discover more about the richness of the local Church. In particular, our visit to the Greek Catholic community and cathedral was a real gift. To encounter something of the history of the Greek Catholic Church in Romania, and to be welcomed so warmly, broadened our understanding of the place in which we were privileged to spend these weeks. As I look back on EJIF 2026, I am struck most of all by the sense of God’s providence throughout the whole experience. In the early stages of planning, we knew that we were taking a risk by choosing to focus so directly on affectivity and chastity. Yet again and again, we experienced the consolation of seeing the pieces come together: the theme, the service, the Piarist collaboration, the formation and the life of the group itself. For me, perhaps this is one of the most enduring fruits of EJIF 2026: the discovery that freedom in religious life is not freedom from responsibility or from relationship, but freedom for love. It is the freedom to be available to God, to our companions and to those we are sent to serve. And perhaps this is what it means to become more deeply companions in the Lord: to grow together, to serve together, and to become increasingly free to love. In the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius reminds us that we are created to “praise, reverence, and serve God” (Spiritual Exercises, 23). Our experience in Cluj seemed to give this a very concrete expression. We began EJIF asking what greater freedom might look like in our religious lives. We ended it having experienced something of that freedom together: freedom to accompany, freedom to serve, freedom to be vulnerable with one another, and freedom to allow God to lead us somewhere we might not have chosen for ourselves.

Formation is central to the Society of Jesus’ ability to respond to the changing realities of its mission. As Jesuit ministries increasingly cross provincial, cultural and national boundaries, there is a growing need to prepare Jesuits not only with spiritual depth, but also with the skills to lead, collaborate and discern effectively in complex contexts. The Ignatian Leadership Programme, hosted annually at Campion Hall in Oxford, contributes to this formation by bringing together Jesuits in formation from different parts of the Society. The fourth edition, held in July 2026, included Jesuits from several European provinces and regions, including a number from the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials (JCEP), alongside participants from Africa, Asia and North America. We share below the account from Campion Hall, which offers an insight into how the programme seeks to develop a style of leadership rooted in Ignatian spirituality — leadership understood not primarily as authority, but as discernment, service and availability for Christ’s mission. Held from 16–30 July, the programme was led by David McCallum SJ, Director of the Discerning Leadership Programme in Rome, Roger Dawson SJ, Superior of the Jesuits in Scotland, and Sarah Broscombe, an executive leadership coach, facilitator and retreat guide specialising in leadership development, discernment, generative listening and team development. The three facilitators are pictured, below. Nick Austin SJ, Master of Campion Hall, contributed to the programme also. Together, the faculty brought expertise in Ignatian spirituality, leadership studies, psychology, coaching and organisational development, offering participants an integrated and highly practical approach to leadership formation.  The 2026 programme brought together ten Jesuits in formation representing the Ukrainian, Slovenian, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Canadian, Sri Lankan and African provinces and regions of the Society of Jesus, creating a rich environment for shared learning and international collaboration. Rather than presenting leadership simply as a set of management techniques, the course invited participants to understand leadership as an expression of contemplation in action - grounded in discernment, generosity and service. Academic input was combined with spiritual reflection, peer coaching, case studies, practical workshops and shared prayer, enabling participants to integrate new insights with their own experience of ministry and community life. During the summer school fortnight, participants explored themes including self-awareness and inner freedom, discernment, effective communication, conflict transformation, team development, psychological safety, collaborative leadership, strategic thinking and the role of virtues in leadership. Daily prayer, the Examen and spiritual conversation formed the rhythm of the programme, reinforcing the conviction that authentic Ignatian leadership begins with attentive listening to God, to others and to the realities of mission. A distinctive feature of the programme was its emphasis on experiential learning. Participants gradually assumed responsibility for aspects of community life, prayer and reflection, while engaging in role play, peer coaching and collaborative exercises designed to develop practical leadership skills alongside spiritual maturity. This approach fostered a trusting learning community in which participants were encouraged to reflect honestly on both their gifts and their limitations. Participant feedback demonstrated the programme's significant formative impact. Many described growing in self-awareness, confidence and interior freedom, while developing a deeper understanding of leadership as service rooted in Christ's mission rather than authority or status. Participants consistently highlighted the practical value of the programme, particularly its emphasis on attentive listening, discernment, constructive feedback, team building and creating psychologically safe communities. Several remarked that they would return to their apostolates with renewed confidence, a stronger sense of purpose and practical tools they could immediately apply in ministry and leadership. The programme also fostered a strong sense of fraternity among participants. Living, praying and learning together at Campion Hall created opportunities for conversations that extended beyond the classroom, strengthening relationships across provinces and encouraging mutual support for future leadership within the Society of Jesus. The Ignatian Leadership Programme continues to build on the success of previous years, equipping Jesuits in formation with the attitudes, skills and self-knowledge needed to exercise leadership in an increasingly complex world.  As participants return to ministries across Europe, Africa and Asia, they do so not simply with new leadership techniques, but with a deeper understanding of leadership as a vocation of discernment, collaboration and service at the heart of the Society of Jesus' mission.

As the Society of Jesus continues to deepen collaboration across provincial and regional boundaries in Europe, a gathering of younger Jesuits in Drongen, Belgium, offered an important opportunity for shared discernment. The retreat brought together Jesuits from Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and Flanders to reflect on how they might respond together to the needs and calls emerging across Western Europe. The gathering was part of the wider Common Mission process, seeking to strengthen the bonds of friendship, collaboration and availability for mission among Jesuits across the region. We share below the account published by the Jesuits in Britain, which offers a closer look at the retreat, its discernment process and the priorities identified by participants for the future of Jesuit mission in Western Europe. Sixty Jesuits from Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and Flanders gathered at the Old Abbey of Drongen, Belgium, from 6–15 July to discern a common mission for Western Europe. The retreat was part of a broader process to strengthen collaboration among provinces under the name Common Mission. It brought together the ten youngest Jesuits from the British and Irish Provinces and the European Low Countries Region, alongside the thirty youngest from the larger French-speaking Western European Province. The Provincial and Regional Superiors of all four participating provinces and regions also joined them. The gathering was held in response to an invitation from Fr Arturo Sosa SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, to explore how Jesuits might work more closely across provincial boundaries. At the heart of the retreat was the question: “What calls do we hear in Western Europe that would help us deepen our common service of Christ’s mission?” Fr Phil Harrison SJ, one of the British Jesuits taking part, described the retreat as the latest step in a process of closer collaboration that has been developing over recent decades, including shared formation, deeper friendships and greater availability for mission across Western Europe. Many of the younger Jesuits taking part already knew one another through shared formation, including time spent together as novices in Birmingham and undertaking their first studies at Facultés Loyola, the Jesuit college in Paris. Each day combined individual prayer, spiritual conversation and plenary sessions around the core question: what are we called to do together? Reflecting on the process, Fr Phil said: “Just as the individual prayer of the Spiritual Exercises shapes a deep personal desire to serve Christ, so too can spiritual conversation form a common desire.” The discussions identified several priorities for future collaboration, including strengthening Jesuit community life, developing closer relationships with partners in mission and building on successful work with young people. Participants also highlighted the need for a stronger response to the environmental crisis and to poverty across Europe. The retreat builds on the international character of the Society of Jesus and a long tradition of Jesuits being available for mission beyond the boundaries of their own provinces. Participants explored how greater interprovincial collaboration could strengthen this existing way of working in Western Europe. At the conclusion of the retreat, the Provincial and Regional Superiors committed to remaining attentive to the voices of younger Jesuits and to building on existing collaboration, including their call for greater mobility and closer cooperation between provinces and regions.