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The Jesuits and all those who have worked for the magazine in recent years met one last time on Friday 20 January in Carouge/Geneva. "We are not here to celebrate a funeral. And we are not here to rewrite history," exclaimed the magazine's director, Father Pierre Emonet SJ. "We are here to celebrate years of exchange and friendship." He continued: "Choisir is suffering the same fate as many cultural magazines of general interest. Habits and needs have changed, the very notion of culture has evolved, information and technology have pushed reflection and literature to the margins." The future remains open and the Jesuits will continue to engage in their mission of information and sharing of reflections, otherwise. He recalled that "Choisir does not disappear completely from the media landscape in Switzerland. All 705 issues are going to the National Library, where, from 2030 onwards, they will be digitalised and integrated into the public catalogue of the National Library (BNS). These journals will remain the witnesses of a bygone era, and an eloquent indication of the Jesuits' apostolate in French-speaking Switzerland. 

Forerunning signs to be discerned 

Can we fear that the disappearance of "Choisir" will mean the disappearance of the Jesuits' apostolic presence in this country? "That would be forgetting that, as the Spiritual Exercises have taught us, life is always forward, promising newness as long as we try to discern the forerunning signs. And there are some!" He particularly welcomed the presence in Geneva of JWL-Jesuit Worldwide Learning, which enables thousands of students around the world to benefit from education organised and delivered from the offices at 18 Jacques-Dalphin. 

Pierre Emonet thanked those who believed in this wonderful adventure, especially the editor Lucienne Bittar, the journalist Céline Fossati, the documentalist Stjepan Kusar and the collaborator of the administration Geneviève Rosset-Joye. All the Jesuits in French-speaking Switzerland were present, demonstrating - if there was any need - the place that the magazine "Choisir" holds within the Community and the Society of Jesus in Switzerland. A booklet containing messages from authors and readers who were touched by the end of "Choisir" was distributed to them. Also present were the magazine's faithful printers, the Fiorina family, who had travelled from Sion, in the Valais, with impressive boxes of customised chocolates: who will dare to bite the first one in the choose cocoa logo?  

Jesuits ECE

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