NEWS

From 12 to 15 September 2021, the Holy Father visited Slovakia. His visit was a historic event also for us Slovak Jesuits. Pope Francis received us at the Apostolic Nunciature in Bratislava on the very first evening of his stay in Slovakia. Pope Francis spent almost an hour and a half among 53 priests and religious brothers of all ages.  At the invitation of Pope Francis, Slovak Jesuits gathered from various places where they are active: from Bratislava, Prešov, Košice, Ružomberok, Piešt'any, Trnava, Ivanka pri Dunaji, as well as from Rome and Lviv, Ukraine. At the meeting took part also P. Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of La Civiltà Cattolica.  In a spontaneous atmosphere, we powerfully felt the fraternal and paternal relationship of the Pope. It was an opportunity for each one of us to get to know him in a very familial, close way, and to be strengthened in our own religious identity.  The Pope's gesture of taking an ordinary chair instead of the prepared one and sitting quite close to us says it all. On behalf of all, the Pope was greeted by Father Provincial Jozef Šofranko. Together we prepared three gifts for the Holy Father. A large paper rose flower made by children, families and volunteers at the Family Assistance Center in Trnava, which is a symbol of prayers for the Holy Father and for his intentions. The paper petals were cut out by the children from photographs of their families' lives and include portraits of beatification candidates Tomáš and František Munk and Father Vendelín Javorka. The second gift was the publication of biblical commentaries on the Book of Psalms, which is the fruit of the collaboration of Slovak Jesuits with biblical scholars from Catholic and Evangelical faculties, as well as with the Jewish community. The third gift expressed the rootedness in the testimony of faith given by the confreres in the times of communist persecution. A newly published book on the personalities of the Slovak Jesuits of that time is in English and is titled Watersource from the Rock. Two days later, on 14 September, a second brief meeting with the Jesuits took place in Prešov, just after the end of the Greek Catholic Divine Liturgy. In fact, Pope Francis, at the invitation of one of the Jesuits, whom he had met at the nunciature in Bratislava, personally stopped at the Retreat House to greet the cooks who were preparing refreshments for the bishops. Finally, Francis greeted also the local Jesuit community.   Please click here to read the transcript of the conversation of Pope Francis with the Slovak Jesuits. Jozef Bartkovjak – Jesuits SVK

In September two Tertianships opened in Europe, in Dublin (very appreciated since many years) and for the fist time in Bikfaya (Lebanon). We are proud to publish two fresh eyewitness reports. Dublin Here we come the Tertians 2021-22! We are eight Jesuits coming from different parts of the world: France, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Sri Lanka, US. We gathered in green Ireland, Manresa House - Dublin, last Sep 20th, 2021, and we will live together till the end of May 2022. Fr Paul Pace SJ is our Tertianship Instructor, and Charlie Davy his Assistant. Cool guys… It’s a special opportunity for us to have our Tertianship during the Ignatian Year, the Anniversary in which we remember the beginning of Inigo's spiritual journey by his being harmed. Wounds are part of our story, even inside the Society of Jesus. Misunderstandings, non-communication, negative thoughts are signs that our wounds usually arise from a lack of awareness of God's grace in the here and now. The Tertianship is a time for recognizing that every fragment of our personal story is full of his grace, and nothing will be lost. We hope that by sharing our different stories, our wounds will lead us to a transformative process through which we can become a really reconciled Body at the service of the World.   During our Tertianship experience, we will go through four main experiences: 1) the building of our community: we will become friends through an intensive sharing of our personal stories; 2) the Ignatian Retreat: one month of personal deep reviewing of our life as Jesuits; 3) the study of the Jesuits’ Constitutions to become more aware of our belonging to the Society of Jesus; 4) the “long experiment”: a period of mission among people in need in different parts of Europe. After this experience, we will be ready for the final incorporation into the universal Body of the Society of Jesus. Flavio Bottaro S.J. Bikfaya On Monday 27 September, the anniversary of the foundation of the Society of Jesus, a new European Tertianship was inaugurated in Bikfaya, Lebanon, by Fr Franck Janin, President of the Conference of European Provincials, and Fr Michael Zammit Mangion, Provincial of the Near East. This third year, organised by the Conference of European Provincials with the help of the Near East Province, will be accompanied by Fr Dany Younes, instructor, and Fr Nawras Sammour, superior of the tertianship community. Arriving at night in Bikfaya, I discovered the next morning after having understood how my shutters opened the magnificent setting in which we have the privilege of living this eight-month experience offered by the Society of Jesus. Anchored on the rock of Mount Lebanon, at an altitude of 900 m in the village of Bikfaya, the residence of Notre Dame de la Délivrance, which was the first house of the Society when it was restored, offers a splendid view of the ocean located 7 km away. Such a viewpoint invites peace, leads to contemplation, and the search for the essential. We are 7 tertians from Goa, South Africa, Rwanda, Congo, Poland or France and together we will make community with our instructor and our superior. Two Indian tertians will join us in a few weeks, once their visas are obtained. The theme of our third year will be reconciliation. For this, we will reread our Jesuit history for 9 weeks before the 30 days retreat which will take place from 22 November to 21 December and for which we count on your prayers. Then we will study the Exercises, go on a 9-week experiment before returning to revisit the foundations of our Institute. This reconciliation, which is undoubtedly necessary if we reread any of our Jesuit histories, we discover that it is also necessary in this land of Lebanon, through the witnesses who come to speak to us about the challenges of inter-religious dialogue, the history of the country, and the churches that live together there. This morning Mgr César Essayan, Vicar Apostolic of Beirut for the Latin Rite Catholics in Lebanon, came to speak to us about his work as a pastor and the challenges it represents, with migrants, religious communities and political reconciliation in the Land of the Cedars. An invitation to consent to the death of that which bears no fruit so that resurrection can come into our lives. Vincent Lascève SJ (EOF)

Hungarian challenge fulfilled. “Run in peace!” – on the last Saturday of September these were the dismissal words of a special open air mass held in the hilly outskirts of Budapest. The occasion that the celebrant adapted the official text of the liturgy for was the III. Jesuit Run organized by the Hungarian province. In the present jubilee year, the theme of this community event was the life of Saint Ignatius. Thus halting at five stations on the route, the participants meditated on the various episodes of Ignatius, spiritually wandering with him from Loyola (“Worldly success”) to Pamplona (“Experiencing failure”), then reaching Manresa (“Conversion”), later sailing to Jerusalem (“To come close to Jesus”), and finally arriving at Paris (“To see all things new in Christ”). The hundred-odd participants hit the road in three groups: fast runners, slow runners and walkers. At each stations Jesuits and their companions waited them with spiritual “munition” and tasks to fulfil while running or walking. Besides organising their run in the Saint Ignatius Year, the Hungarian Jesuits invited all European Jesuits and friends of the Society to join the central event held in Budapest, at least in a spiritual way. There were several positive responses from Spain to Marosvásárhely/Targu Mures, a multi-ethnical city in Romania, and from Rome even to Toronto. In return for their greetings, at the end of the event, Bálint Nagy SJ, the vocational promoter of the Hungarian province and the participants sent the following message to them:  

20th Anniversary of the Chapel for Europe in the service of European Christians. Starting  September 22, we began celebrating the Chapel’s 20th anniversary. There was an ecumenical thanksgiving celebration, streamed online, presided by the religious Heads in Belgium of the Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Catholic Churches. There was a big Garden Party, a lovely time and an opportunity for many to meet in person after a year and a half of virtual meetings. There will be a series of five concerts “Festival Chapel for Europe” in the following weeks. There will be conferences on European common good and on the interfaith openness.  To give thanks for our past. To share the joy of the present time. To reflect together on the years to come. Dream At the beginning there was a dream. A dream of a Europe which, according to Robert Schuman, should be more than a simple economic and technical project, which should have a “soul”. And a dream of a place for spiritual nourishment for the thousands of staff working each day for the European institutions in Brussels. And the result? The reconstruction – just between the Parliament and the European Commission – of a little Chapel, with history dating back to the 15th Century; a multicultural, ecumenical place of prayer and celebration, of reflection and dialogue. Since its inauguration, it has had an ecumenical profile, being run and supported by EU staff, Jesuits, various Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic Churches and even other organisations. A true miracle of “unity in diversity”. Welcome to the Chapel for Europe! Passion Over time, the Chapel gained recognition with a diverse program offering something for all tastes: from multiple prayer groups, spiritual workshops and retreats, to a variety of celebrations, which are often ecumenical. However, the Chapel is not only a place of prayer – it also offers a space for reflection and dialogue on pertinent European issues, promoting a Christian perspective via its conferences, movie nights, exhibitions and workshops. Since the start of the pandemic, in line with sanitary measures in place and the fact that most EU staff were working from home, most of the Chapel’s events have become virtual or hybrid, with a limited number of people being welcomed in the Chapel, and events simultaneously being broadcast online via Zoom, FB Live or YouTube. In this way, the Chapel continued to support its community, showing that even the coronavirus cannot suppress our passion for life and for Europe. Hope The Chapel has been ecumenical since its very beginning, however over the past few years, and particularly following the Brussels terror attacks in 2016, it has become clear that ecumenism is not enough, and that in Brussels there is ever more need for inter-religious events. This is why the Chapel, in collaboration with other partners, cofounded the interreligious network “HOPE” (Homes of Presence and Encounter) in Brussels. In such a way, the interreligious dimension becomes more and more significant among all the Chapel’s activities.