Innsbruck – Student chaplains from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Lithuania and the Czech Republic have met in Innsbruck for an exchange of ideas.

Between Vilnius in the north and Luzern in the south, between Luzern in the west and Vilnius in the east the cities Leipzig, Dresden, Bern, München, Zürich, Innsbruck and Graz are located. Confreres working in student ministry coming from these cities met in Innsbruck from 2.2.- 4.2. We, the people involved in the University parish in Innsbruck, Benjamin Furthner SJ, Hernán Rojas SJ and I, we showed our premises, prayed Vespers together with students and settled in for an cosy evening in our Jesuit community.

The aim of the meeting was an exchange of ideas, working on a specific chosen topic and questions concerning the future of our work.

Whereas in München, Graz, Luzern and Zürich numbers of paid staff are shaping the catholic university parishes, at the other places the students are bearer of church activities and church life. We talked about our strong and weak points, just as joyful surprises and new initiatives and ideas. We read an article concerning the “unusable god” to focus on the question of believers and ministers telling others that god is necessary, but these people apparently not sharing this need of god in their lives. Not even for a so called fulfilling life.

What are the opportunities and possibilities of a student ministry considering this fact? We talked about our Jesuit contribution to the upcoming synod of bishops 2018 “youth, faith and vocational discernment”.

We Jesuits form a big catholic network which has the possibility to exchange best practice, which led us to pondering how to strengthen this network of Jesuit student chaplains in Europe. In addition to face-to-face encounter in a good mood we also celebrated mass together.

Picture: 1st row: P. Christian Braunigger SJ, P. Michael Beschorner SJ; 2nd row: F. Hernán Rojas SJ, P. Ladislav Nosek SJ, P. Albert Holzknecht SJ, P. Martin Rauch SJ, P. Holger Adler SJ, P. Gernot Wisser SJ, P. Franz-Xaver Hiestand SJ, P. Andreas Schalbetter SJ.