European Association of Jesuit Alumni/ae
Working for others
"En Todo Amar Y
Servir"
Presidents' Conference, Paris, 3-4 March 2007
Minutes of the Paris meeting on 3 - 4 March 2007
Members present:
Eric de LANGSDORFF (P),F, P. Pierre SALEMBIER SJ, F, Hervé CARRERA, F,
Bernard KOTTRUP, D, Enrique REBES, SP, Sabine PERREAU, F, Olivier MARTIN, F,
P. Fernando MESEGUER RUIZ S.J., SP, Ciro CACCHIONE (P), I, Paul ROGERS, GB,
John McCABE, GB, P. Luk ARTS SJ, B, Louis COOREMAN, B, Frank JUDO (P),B, P. Maurice PILETTE SJ, B, Alain BAYARD (P), B, Gerard LONG, IRL. Bernard THOMPSON, GB / WU,
Simonas PETRULIS, LIT, Nomeda MISELYTE, LIT, Jovita MIKALKENAITE, LIT,
Hermann v. BRAUNMÜHL, D, Giuseppe MARIANO, I , Wolfgang WILDNER, A, Gabor NAGY, HU,
Christoph THÜRLIMAN, CH, Serge DELAIR, F.
Excused:
Martynas LUKOSEVICIUS, LIT, Hans PORTISCH, AUT, Gianpaolo MARINI, I, Umberto CERONI SJ, Francois-Xavier CAMENEN, F / WU, Gonçal FÁBREGAS ALEGRET, (P),SP, Antoni MARTINEZ, SP, Amparo SCOLA, SP, Stephen GATT (P), MT, Alain DENEEF, B / WU, Henryk GANOWIAK, PL, Magdalena CZECH, PL, Damian PACZYŃSKI, PL, Lukas MYSZK, PL, Mark LOCHRIN, IRL,
ZOLTAN ALAKZAI, HU
* *
Opening – prayer
Welcome by Eric de Langsdorff
Presentation
Jovita MIKALKENAITE represents Lithuania in her quality as new President.
Christoph THÜRLIMAN represents Switzerland in his quality as President (most of the Swiss alumni frequented the « Stella Matutina » college in Austria, now closed).
Approval of the minutes of Madrid
1. Report from the different countries and debate:
- France: there is still no President for the time being, but there is a candidate who should be elected at the next general assembly in March.
- Ireland: Projects for the summer: students will be sent by Jesuit organizations to South Africa on a voluntary basis to look after young people between 18 and 35 of age; the students will be put up by families.
- Great Britain: young volunteers will be sent to South Africa and India before university starts, twinnings are planned between English and south African colleges, there are no Jesuit teachers at the Glasgow college anymore (which involves that the students don’t know the Company of Jesus anymore and the Jesuit roots of the college).
- Germany: The running projects are:
Support of the « Karl Rahner » academy in Cologne, after the diocese stopped financing it : the alumni participate at the financing and development of a new concept, a program of dissemination of ethic norms in economy; the setting up of a foundation with the intention to secure the financing of long lasting social projects; financial and personal help for the college « Loyola » in Prizren (Kosovo).
- Italy: The letter of the president of the federation has been passed on to the Italian Provincial and to all major Superiors, asking them to organise a round table bringing together Jesuit Fathers and alumni in order to start repair works in the Italian Jesuit colleges ; the results of the survey (on the credits and the name) will be the base to evaluate the needs around the table; to be able to restore the buildings of the school « P.Pjetër Meshkalla » in Scutari (Albania) managed by Jesuits and open since 1995, it is planned to invite students and alumni to participate at a fund raising in Italy with the objective to collect 3.000.000 euros in 2007.
- Flemish Belgium: There are still some associations of colleges who are not convinced of the importance of and opportunities offered by an alumni association. A congress of all alumni of private catholic schools is planned in March or Mai 2008.
- Walloon Belgium: The main activity was to develop and establish a new web-site with a software giving all members the opportunity to communicate, which led to the suppression of the printed newspaper; this gave the opportunity to notice a substantial increase of the communication among the members.
- Spain: After the national Congress, the Spanish federation got in contact with the Indian federation: an exchange program was defined for the young alumni, the young Spaniards will go to India and the young Hindus will travel to Spain to participate at social projects. A meeting will take place in May to organize the next Congress in La Coruna (please notice that this association is not yet a member neither of the Spanish federation, nor of the alumni of university).
- Switzerland: the association does not depend of an existing college anymore; it brings together the alumni of the College Feldkirch (in Austria) and of different German colleges living in Switzerland; and organizes activities such as convivial meetings, visits and excursions.
- Austria: There is an attempt to put on an Austrian Federation bringing together the alumni of the colleges of Kalksburg (Vienna), Linz (Freiberger) and Feldkirch ; the relationship between alumni and Jesuit fathers needs to be reconsidered, as the schools are non-religious now, don’t have anything to anymore with the Society of Jesus and feel less concerned by the Jesuit tradition. The question is: wouldn’t it be more sensible to organize the alumni of all catholic schools?
- Lithuania: A second association was found in Kaunas ; the Lithuanian federation has celebrated its 4th anniversary with a new President, Jovita MIKALKENAITE.
- Hungary: a new network is being established, as well as a web-site. It is intended to put on grants for pupils and students.
2. World Congress in Yaoundé (Cameroun):
Father General wants this Congress to be a success, knowing that Jesuits are strongly engaged in Africa in the framework of a great number of projects : consequently, it is of great importance that this congress be a success; one of the upstream problems is the fact that the African alumni don’t know each other very well, and that there are not in contact with each other; to solve this problem, it is planned to organize a first meeting in September 2007 in Nairobi (Kenya) to convene all alumni of Africa ; with that in mind Father Salembier will travel around Africa very shortly to increase the awareness of potential participants of the importance of such a Congress and to invite them to organize a pan-African meeting before, to prepare the actual Congress; Father General wishes alumni to make statements concerning development in Africa and to organize a round table to exchange experiences. Hermann suggests to dress up a list of running projects and to send this list to Father Salembier.
3. Budget of the European Confederation
The statement of account given by Gianpaolo will be joined to this report, and federations which haven’t yet paid their subscription for 2007 will kindly be asked to do so as quickly as possible.
4. Postulate of the Confederation at the 35th General Congregation
A postulate is a written document which has to be sent to the preparatory commission of the General Congregation to serve as working document which will be submitted to the General Congregation. As far as we are concerned, we will express our wishes in the name of the European Confederation and the Federations concerning possible cooperation schemes for alumni and the Society of Jesus;
Small working groups convened to work out written propositions to draw up a text which will be put in its final form by the bureau before being sent to Father Mark Rotsaert s.j., who is the European interlocutor; this document will be published on the following website: www.jesuits-europe.info/alumni
5. 50th anniversary of the World Union in Miami
Bernard Thompson, President of the World Union, reminds, that he visited Miami and Mexico one year ahead of the Miami meeting to explore the possibilities; 5 representatives of the Europan federation attended the convention (François-Xavier Camenen and Bernard Thompson, Alain Deneef (who made a brilliant speech), Michel Jadot and Eric de Langsdorff) (a report will be published in the next edition of the ETC).
The discussions revealed that the alumni of the USA are mainly in contact with their own colleges and not so much with the Federation; there are a lot of alumni who frequented colleges abroad, which makes it difficult to get in touch with them and to integrate them in the work of the American federation, pictures of the event can be viewed on the following website: http://egresadoiteso.blogspot.com/ .
6. Action plan for the confederation
The first proposal is intended to improve the visibility of our organisation for people from « outside », through a bulletin/newsletter (an information concerning this point has been distributed), or the web-site of the Confederation (solution obviously more in favour of the Counsel). The second proposal concerning the « youth program » has been worked out by Nomeda Miselyte (the working document enclosed to this report and can be find in French, English and Spanish on www.jesuits-europe.info/alumni).
7. Statutes
Giuseppe Mariano makes a progress report concerning the revision of the statutes; one of the confederation’s goal should be the engagement in favour of social and humanitarian projects suggesting to become a member of the Xavier Jesuit-network (Network of a certain number of ignatian NGO’s of different European countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal) and the INYGO (Ignatian Youth Network).
Work and discussions concerning the statutes still go on in cooperation with the Belgian lawyers (Jean-François Ledoux and Frank Judo): the article concerning membership, for example, still needs to be considered, as the present version speaks about effective members (national federations, local associations in the absence of national federations) who pay a subscription, are a member of the Counsel with a voting right and individual members who have no voting right, pay no subscription, but can attend the Congress; the legal status of the federations also has to be reconsidered (does it be compulsory or not ?), an the necessity to be an international non profit organisation or not. The position will have to be found in Frankfort a tour next meeting (if possible with a vote).
8. Next meetings of the European Confederation
The next meeting of the European Confederation will take place on
Saturday, October the 20th and Sunday, 21st 2007 in Frankfurt (Germany).
Issues amongst others:
- Revision of the statutes
- Next World Congress in Yaoundé (with a report about the meeting in Nairobi)
- Implementation of the action plan (communication, youth, education, social actions…): assessment of the different actions,
- future priority actions, share of responsibilities
- for the actions, future European cooperation (external (with ours) or internal (concerning the alumni).
Notice: all important documents (reports of the meetings, the « En todo » charta, the list of the federations, addresses, etc.) can be found on the web-site : www.jesuits-europe.info/alumni
9. Thanks
The Confederation wishes to thank the French Federation for the excellent organisation of the meetings and the very warm welcome during our stay in Paris.
Bernard Kottrup
Secretary
May 15th 2007