On Tuesday, June 30th, a group of students from the University of Deusto, led by the campus ministry team of Pello Azpitarte SJ and Jaime Balaguer, visited the office of the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials (JCEP) in Brussels. The visit was part of a larger visit to Brussels during which they also visited JCEP works like JRS Europe, and they attended the graduation of the European Leadership Programme at the Jesuit European Social Center. During this same trip, they also visited the European Parliament and some of the more popular neighborhoods and social initiatives in Brussels. During a good part of the visit, they were accompanied by Benoît Willemaers SJ, from JESC.

The visit to the JCEP offices consisted of a first moment of welcome, a presentation on the JCEP by Gonzalo Villagrán, JCEP Socius, and a time of dialogue. The frame of this visit was understanding the ways in which the Catholic Church contributes to the common good; in this case, we focused on the historical accompaniment of the European project by the Society of Jesus since the creation of the first European work, OCIPE, in 1956.

The conversation around the reality of the JCEP was also a moment to deepen into the universal character of the Mission of the Society of Jesus, a point strongly stressed prophetically by Fr. Arrupe when he pushed for the creation of the Conference of Provincials after General Congregation 31. As he said in 1966: “Our universality [consists] in all of us collaborating together in universal works, works that demand united action.”

The dialogue subsequent to the presentation was a very interesting moment in which to identify the main societal challenges for Europe today, and to try to grasp what the intuition behind the creation of the JCEP is telling us about the scope of our work and our dreams.

From our side at the JCEP it was also a beautiful occasion for reading our own daily reality at the office through a pastoral and young-adult ministry lens.