Five Major Superiors from Europe along with the CEP President went on an Africa fact-finding visit from 21st to 28th May. Key items of the agenda were visiting a refugee camp in Kakuma; Jesuit parishes in Bukavu and Nairobi; meeting people in formation; talking about conflict minerals and how Europe can help to advocate at international level; hearing about the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and how the Jesuits there are helping people to pick up the pieces.

A visit to Congo was enlightening: so much wealth – natural resources: gold, diamonds, coltan – and yet so much poverty. Congo is the second poorest country in the world in terms of GDP. What is going wrong? What are the causes? Why is the international system failing people so miserably? It is clear that for so many people in the world the system is just not working.

And the same can be true of Kakuma refugee camp – around 200,000 refugees there, thousands recently arrived from South Sudan; others are there for over 20 years. The JRS works in the protection of children and vulnerable adults. There is a feeling that it is a drop in the ocean compared to the huge needs. But that drop in the ocean can be a prophetic sign also – a sign of hope; a sign of trust; a sign that God exists and cares; a sign of the tears of God for such a situation.

Back in Nairobi we visited Hekima College – the English-speaking theologate for Africa and Madagascar – and although the students were mostly away and had mostly left for vacation we felt the the depth and the energy there.

Finally we visited the Historical Institute which the European Jesuit Provincials help to support – they are writing African history through African eyes, with African words and an African flavour – very important.

The whole visit was about mutuality – a sense that the time has come for a new step in the relations in Europe with Africa and Madagascar – a relationship of mutuality; of trust; of learning from each other. All the Major Superiors who went picked up vivid impressions; our minds were touched; our hearts were moved by so much of what we saw.

John Dardis sJ
President Conference European Provincials

Participants from CEP: John Dardis (CEP President), Gianfranco Matarazzo (ITA), Ante Tustonji? (CRO), Patrick Magro (MAL), Jean-Yves Grenet (GAL), Cipri Díaz Marcos (ESP)