0
0
0
s2smodern

Four becomes one: On 27 April the previous Jesuit provinces Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lithuania-Latvia became the new Central European Province (ECE), which also includes locations in Sweden and Chicago/USA. It will be led by Fr Bernhard Bürgler SJ. As Provincial he is responsible for 36 locations with a total of 419 Jesuits.

With its cultural and linguistic diversity, the new Province ties in directly with the original charism of the Order's founder Ignatius of Loyola, emphasises Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ, who already appointed the new Provincial on 31 July 2020. "Europe, the world and the Church still need people who are capable of contributing to reconciliation in conflict, people who are capable of creating unity in diversity," the General said in his greeting.

"We are founding a new Province across linguistic and national borders not only because we Jesuits are becoming fewer, but because times have changed and continue to change so that we can better carry out our mission," underlines the new Provincial. "For this we need even more cooperation across borders and for this we need to use synergies." Fr Bernhard Bürgler SJ had been Provincial of the Austrian Province of the Jesuits since 2014 and had been intensively involved in preparing the merger for the last few years.

On the feast of St. Peter Canisius

The new Province was founded on the feast of St. Peter Canisius, who is the patron saint of the "Jesuits in Central Europe". This year is his 500th birthday. On the eve of the feast of St. Peter Canisius, there was a solemn bishop's mass in the cathedral of Fribourg in Switzerland with the Nuncio, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, the Holy See's Permanent Observer to the UN authorities, the Bishop of Innsbruck Hermann Glettler and the new Provincial Bernhard Bürgler SJ. During this ceremony, relics of St. Peter Canisius were transferred from the previous burial place in the Colleg St. Michel to a new reliquary in the cathedral.

Bernhard Bürgler SJ: "The example of St. Peter Canisius motivates us. His pair of shoes, worn out from so much walking and kept in his hometown of Nijmegen, are for me something like a symbol of his tireless readiness, in a turbulent time of upheaval, to let himself be called into service again and again for the message of the Gospel and to translate it clearly and comprehensibly into the respective time and culture. In this way he literally travelled through Europe - probably 2,000 kilometres a year on average! - and in this way became a bridge builder between the increasingly divergent intellectual, cultural and religious worlds."

Prayer novena

All Jesuits prepared for the foundation of the new Central European Province with a prayer novena prepared by Stefan Kiechle SJ and Fabian Loudwin SJ (both Francfort) with impulse texts by Father General on the Universal Apostolic Preferences.

A series of solemn masses and a film

As no big celebration could take place due to the corona-restrictions, the foundation of the new province was celebrated with solemn masses in various places, to which staff and friends were also invited. A film was shown, which has since also been seen on social media channels and has been widely distributed. Provincial Fr Bernhard Bürgler SJ and Press Officer Pia Dyckmans therefore take a personal tour of the Province with short portraits from areas of life and work of the Order as well as impressive pilgrimage sequences on the Canisius Way from Vilnius to Fribourg. The highlight of the 45-minute film is a message by Fr. Arturo Sosa SJ, the Jesuit Superior General. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbzpv_QGXz4&t=424s

Virtual meeting with Fr. General

On the first day of the new province, the new Provincial invited all the Jesuits to a Zoom-meeting, which was also attended by Fr. General Arturo Sosa SJ and Fr. Franck Janin SJ, the President of the Conference of European Provincials. Fr. General stressed that the new Province was just a beginning, which would be followed by further changes. Like a newborn baby, the new Province must be well nourished and grow. Everyone shares the responsibility for this, and a conversion of hearts is still necessary. During the Zoom-meeting the members of the province prayed together and also in silence, pleaded for the Holy Spirit and remembered their vows. 

Revised homepage

The foundation of the new Province is also the starting point of a revised homepage with news, stories and reflections from all regions of our Province. A new feature is a members' page with portraits of (almost) all Jesuits. The homepage is currently trilingual with a German, Lithuanian and French version and is maintained by a joint editorial team. Have fun discovering and browsing: https://www.jesuiten.org/

0
0
0
s2smodern