The Jesuits have been present in Ankara for more than 20 years now, within the framework of the parish of the administrative capital of Turkey and the services they render more generally to the Church of this country in different fields such as media, formation, pastoral activities, spiritual accompaniment and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. Currently five, they work for the Church in Turkey, together with about 120 other mainly foreign consecrated persons, who form the major part of the Church structures in the country, as well as with Turkish lay people, in the diocese to which they are attached (Istanbul) and in the other two (Izmir and Anatolia).

In this context, they do not generally put forward their Jesuit identity in their apostolates, even if Ignatius' spirituality and way of doing things permeate all they do. The Ignatian Year was therefore the occasion for them to remember who they are and to celebrate it publicly on Saturday 14 May in Ankara. They did this in the presence of the ecclesiastical authorities, i.e. the Apostolic Nuncio, the three Latin bishops, including Mgr. Paolo Bizzeti, Vicar Apostolic of Anatolia, himself a Jesuit, and Fr. Franck Janin, President of the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials and Major Superior of the Jesuits in Turkey; but also with their collaborators and part of the Christian community of Ankara; in all, a good fifty people.

Three stages of a long history

The celebration was divided into three parts: a lecture, a Eucharistic celebration and a fraternal agape. In the introduction to the first part, Fr. Jean-Marc Balhan, superior of the community, presented the three stages of the long history of the Jesuits in Turkey: (1) the apostolate in Istanbul, (St Benedict's school, visiting prisoners, pastoral work with minorities) and its extension to the rest of the Ottoman Empire, from the arrival in 1583 to the Suppression at the end of the 18th century; (2) the opening of 6 schools for Christian minorities in Central Anatolia, from 1881 to the end of the First World War, with archaeological work in Cappadocia, as well as pastoral activities in Istanbul until the beginning of the 1980s; (3) a time of academic dialogue between the Gregorian University in Rome and the University of Ankara, followed by the arrival of the Jesuits in this city in 2000.

After this historical review, he presented what it means to be a Jesuit today, outlining the Universal Apostolic Preferences. He then explained the significance of the Ignatian Year, describing crises such as the one Ignatius experienced with the cannonball, or those we are experiencing today, as a chance and an opportunity if they are the occasion for awareness and decisions that lead us where the Spirit is calling us.

The synodal path

In the crisis that the Church is experiencing today, the Synodal Path is a possible place for such awareness and decisions. Antuan Ilgıt (a Turkish Jesuit working with Bishop Bizzeti in Anatolia, since his return to his native country in last January) in his lecture entitled: "St. Ignatius, Discernment and the Spirituality of the Synodal Path".  After recounting the conversion of Ignatius and the main points of his life, he presented discernment by relating it to the culture of the country: (1) the Turkish proverb: "Kafamda kırk tilki var ve kırkının da kuyruğu birbirine dokunmuyor! " ("I have forty foxes in my head and the tail of none of them touches the tail of the other") describing the state of confusion that we are in when we are overwhelmed by our emotions; (2) the invocation attributed to Prophet Muhammad: "My God, show us things as they are" by which Sufis ask God to deliver their hearts from their illusions, for "only the ability to discern that comes from the heart engenders righteous deeds". He then presented a spirituality of the synodal path in the light of the Spiritual Exercises.

A celebration

After a time of exchange with the assembly, we headed for our chapel where we celebrated in red the feast of the day, that of St. Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas among the Twelve, during a Eucharist presided over by our bishop, Mgr. Massimiliano Palinuro, during which Mgr. Bizzeti delivered a homily centred on Ignatius' path of conversion.

After having nourished the "inner man", it remained to nourish our fleshly beings, which was taken care of by our Fr. Minister, Alexis Doucet, and his team, during a convivial meal that brought us all together in the courtyard of our residence.

Fr. Jean-Marc Balhan SJ