Works continue at the Pedro Arrupe Centre, where on February 17, the Jesuits of Bucharest celebrated the feast of their patron saint, St. Claudio la Colombière. There were around a hundred people present at the Eucharistic Celebration, presided by the Archbishop of Bucharest, Monsignor Ioan Robu. Fr Michael Bugeja SJ, delegate for Malta and Romania was also present.

At the Refugee Center there are over 1500 people who benefit from legal, social and medical assistance. The new building, which will soon be inaugurated, is the result of a project initiated in 2000 by P. Luc Duquenne SJ and supported by JRS Europe.

“Taxi drivers for heaven, called to widen our tent” Fr. Bugeja exhorted in his homily, “welcoming the different ethnic groups, even indigenous ones, through programs of human and spiritual formation”. This project is now made possible by the enlargement of the structure – the first floor housing Jesuits’ quarters and the Refugee Service and the ground floor is designed as meeting places where moments of sharing can take place to strengthen the collaboration between the religious and the laity, between the social and the formative dimensions and between the Romanians and people who come from other countries.