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Lithuania

Father General Arturo Sosa‘s 45-hour visit on the 450th year of the Jesuit mission in Lithuania on May 6 and 7, served to encourage and inspire Jesuits, their coworkers and Ignatian groupings. Assisted by Fr. Tomasz Kot and Fr. Marc Ravizza, Fr. General spent one day in Vilnius, celebrating Mass at St. Casimir‘s church, and in Kaunas, with Sunday Mass at St. Francis Xavier‘s on Mothers Day, both Masses enriched by the local Jesuit school choir and a daffodil for each mother present.

People appreciated clear homilies with four (not the traditional three...) points and the guests‘ friendly approach and disposition. In both Jesuit Schools teachers, parents, staff, CLC groups, religious Sisters, ministries gathered to hear responses to questions they posed in advance, as well as spontaneous additions. Two Jesuits came from Riga, Latvia, more than 20 persons came from St. Ignatius church and the Jesuit Primary School in Šiauliai.

The guests also visited the four Senior Jesuits and spent time with both Jesuit communities, sharing stories, impressions, questions, hopes and plans. There was little time for sight-seeing except for the schools and the immediate surroundings of the Jesuit houses, and a moment in the bell-tower of Sts. John Church of Vilnius University, celebrating 440 years since its founding by Jesuits, who serve in this church now as well.

Antanas Saulaitis SJ

 

Father General in Poland 

From May 6-18, Fr. Arturo Sosa, General of the Order, was a guest in the Polish Provinces. During his visit he visited Krakow, Gliwice, Nowy Sącz, Tricity, Warsaw, Łódź and Lublin. He also had several meetings with Jesuits working in Poland, Ukrane, Denmark and Russia.

During his visit, the general also met with lay people working with the Jesuits. He visited the Ignatianum Academy in Krakow, where he said that the Jesuit university is a place of reconciled life, and its graduates should be recognized more by their human qualities and pro-social sensitivity than by the way they cope with the labour market or the wealth of their wallets. During his meeting at the WAM Publishing House with the employees of the Jesuit media, he said that the media should never remain silent, but should tell the truth in such a way as to make it liberating and not stigmatizing. The general also answered the question of how to reach those who have moved away from the Church, the role of women in the Church and the Jesuit understanding of the "borders" to which the Jesuits are sent.

During the meetings with the students at the school in Krakow, Nowy Sącz and Gdynia, he answered questions: Why do the Jesuits have a general, what is the best in this work and to whom is the Jesuit general cheering?  The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, for his part, encouraged the students not only to increase their knowledge, but above all to develop their ability to think and act in a civic way in terms of the common good and to build good relationships with other people based on the Christian faith and its values.

During the Mass in the Gdansk academic pastoral ministry, he encouraged students to go beyond the safe framework of the "fold that provides comfort and security" to go to the life-giving pastures of freedom that enables us to love. He said: "Let us follow Him from the safe-haven of our lives and let others join us, even if they think or live differently than we do.

During the meeting with the Jesuits and lay people involved in the work in the retreat centres, he spoke: The retreat centres are not "factories of true Christians" where the Ignatian method is a kind of technology for the transformation of human hearts. The Spiritual Exercises are effective in so far as the spiritual guides have allowed themselves to be transformed by them and they live this experience daily.

The Jesuit general in Warsaw encouraged lay people to cooperate in the work of reconciliation with God, humanity and creation during a meeting with representatives of communities and movements working at Jesuit-led centers.

During the indulgenced feast (May 16) at the Sanctuary of St. Andrew Bobola in Warsaw, Father Arturo Sosa said that the blood of the martyrs is a foreshadowing of the Spring of the Church. The preacher recalled the martyrdom of many Jesuits over the centuries who preached the Gospel in various parts of the world. There was no shortage of Poles among them. Even if today we are not always threatened with death for belonging to Christ, His love requires us to respond to contemporary challenges, such as migrations, wars or natural disasters. By helping their victims, we will probably not remedy all the misfortunes of the world, but even a drop makes the sea bigger - said Fr. General.

 

Reverie and silence... - General's visit in Auschwitz-Birkenau

9 May, this day of the General's visit to Poland, was a day of silence and deep reflection on the most painful aspects of history, which was the extermination of many people during the Second World War.

Father Mark Ravizza SJ, who was accompanying the General Father, and who presided over the Eucharist celebrated in the Carmelite Sisters' monastery in Oświęcim, invited to remain silent. This Mass was the culmination of the visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, which, as a museum of extermination, is at the same time a timely warning against all that hatred, hostility, racism, and contempt for others can lead to.

 

Jesuits of Russia, Belarus, Kygrzyzstan celebrate the solemn vows and meet Fr General.

On Saturday, May 18, after the Mass during which three fellow brethren Stephan Lipke, Tadeusz Drozdowicz, Piotr Kropisz took the solemn vows, the Jesuits of the Independent Russian Region met with Fr Arturo Sosa in Warsaw-Falenica on the last day of his visit to the provinces of Poland and Lithuania. This was an opportunity to tell about the ministry in those places where the Jesuits are currently present in the territory of Russia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, as well as to have a “question and answer” session with the Father General. For the confreres of the Region, often separated by vast distances, such events are a rare occasion to meet and socialize with each other in person. Some assistants of the Fr General from the Roman Curia, as well as Jesuits from Poland, collaborating with the apostolates of the Region also joined the meeting. The expression “ad dispersionem” was pronounced several times, reflecting the reality of Jesuit missionaries, who nevertheless seek to maintain unity of spirit thanks to a common vocation and charisma. Father General reminded his fellow brothers that for Ignatius, the Society of Jesus, despite its impressive growth in the first decades of its existence, always remains the “mínima Compañía”, not because of the number of members, but because the mission of the Society is always integrated into the universal mission of the Church, from which stems the need to cooperate with everyone who seeks to bring closer and embody the reality of the kingdom of God.

Victor Zhuk SJ

 

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