Social Apostolate Headlines
Dear Friends,
Today, you are receiving a special issue of Headlines with some very good news from the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat: the new director of the Secretariat has been announced! Here is the official notification of Father Fernando Franco’s successor:
“Nominations: Father Francisco Javier Álvarez de los Mozos, Loyola Province, as Secretary of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat, replacing Father Fernando Fernández Franco; the appointment takes effect at the end of this year. Father Álvarez was born in 1967, joined the Society of Jesus in 1991 and was ordained a priest in 2000. Presently he is coordinator of the Formation program in his Province and co-director of ALBOAN, the Jesuit non-governmental organization working for cooperation with developing countries and promoting solidarity among peoples.”
Patxi Álvarez, as he is known, introduces himself to you all in his own words in the text below.
Secondly, it is with great pain that we communicate to you the demise of Father Paul Locatelli SJ after a brief struggle with cancer. He has been a close collaborator of SJES as member of the Task Force on Globalization (2005), of the Support Group of SJES (2009/10) at Curia level and as co-convener of the Task Force on Ecology (2010).
We are also taking this opportunity to inform you about the new issue of Promotio Iustitiae, the Task Force on Ecology and a book promotion.
Very warm greetings from Rome,
The editorial team.
Patxi Álvarez SJ: Presentation of the new Secretary
In 1999, after spending my regency in Cambodia, where I accompanied and assisted refugees who were disabled or elderly, I returned to the Province of Loyola, to which I belong. Those years in Cambodia were a time of grace: there was interior distress at seeing so much suffering, but there was also great consolation in witnessing the people’s undying hope and their enthusiasm for life. All of us there - lay people, Jesuits, other religious - worked and lived together. We were an international team, and that was our home, a space where we could support one another and where every day we learned more about serving with generosity.
I returned to Spain with a captive heart that was full of beloved faces. Those two years left in me deep traces, which aroused a strong desire to offer myself in the service of the last and the least. I took up theological studies again and earned a licentiate in systematic theology. The final study I did was on “communities of solidarity,” a concept which had appeared in General Congregation 34 and which I sensed possessed many possibilities. That work gave me the opportunity to understand better that the love of God can show itself today in a very special beautiful and complete way, in the practice of justice and solidarity.
These last few years the social sector of our province has seen significant development. The Jesuits working in the sector are few, but the provincials have given solid support, and the generous commitment of our lay collaborators has been invaluable. Today, in the province, we have several communities which take in immigrants and there are two institutions that minister to their needs. This work has been very consoling and has allowed us to become more aware that the service of faith and the promotion of justice demand one another and enrich one another mutually.
For five years I worked as coordinator of apostolic planning for the province. During that time I was able to make use of some of what I learned in the engineering studies I pursued before entering the Society. In our province there has been considerable growth in cooperation among the apostolic sectors and in collaboration between lay colleagues and Jesuits. This has led to a strengthening of that “apostolic we” which is at the service of our mission.
In the next few months I am hoping to conclude a research project on the associations of Latin American immigrants in Spain, after which I will join the Secretariat.
I ask the Lord that this new assignment, which I take on with hope but not without fear, be for his greater glory and for the greater life of his little ones. And I ask all of you for your prayers and your support. Many thanks in advance.
Patxi Álvarez SJ
Father Álvarez has published several articles in Promotio Iustitiae, the latest one in July 2009 (PJ 101): http://www.sjweb.info/sjs/pjnew/PJShow.cfm?pubTextID=7720
Flashnews
Task Force on Ecology: The task force (see Headlines 2010-04) had its first meeting last week in Rome, from 5 to 11 July. Five Jesuits and one lay person, one for each Jesuit Conference, have been put in charge by Father General to make practical recommendations to the Society of Jesus. They have listened to three experts, have produced a first draft document and list of recommendations, and drawn up a road map of the process which the Task Force will follow over the next few months.
http://www.sjweb.info/sjs/headlines/newsShow.cfm?PubTextID=8802
Promotio Iustitiae: The latest issue of Promotio Iustitiae has just been published. Its theme is the work of Jesuits “alongside” indigenous peoples in a variety of global contexts. The contributions throw light on the problems of a reality forgotten by many. This issue also contains a reflection on justice and faith and a series of considerations about the international economic crisis. Finally, there are three contributions on the new perspectives that post-modernity opens up on evangelization, sustainable agriculture and ecological commerce, and the Christology and prophetic testimony of the encyclical Caritas in Veritate.
http://sjweb.info/sjs/pjnew/index.cfm?LangTop=1
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Fernando Franco SJ, Publisher
Uta Sievers, Editor
Suguna Ramanathan, Associate Editor
Social Justice Secretariat, C.P. 6139, 00195 Roma Prati, ITALY
(fax) +39 06689 77380