News from the Provinces 2003
The annual meeting of the Italian scholastics
About fifty Italian scholastics (including the Polish regents in Italy and scholastics from Russian Region) have met in Naples for the annual Scholastics meeting from the 4 to 8 September. The meeting bore the title: "Social Apostolate". During these days, apart the conferences and discussions, we had the possibility to visit a poor area of the city of Napoli. In this poor area we had the opportunity to visit certain buildings called "Bipiani" (two floor) where people of different nationalities live in bad hygienic conditions. A particular house called "Casa del Sorriso" (House of Smile) situated next to the hospital hosts people suffering from cancer and/or their relatives without paying the expensive cost of an hotel. This house was realized with the important contribution of a CLC (Christian Life Community) group. Amongst other realities we touched the railway station where Caritas try to help the homeless, drug addicts and immigrants, and a Fair-Trade shop run by another CLC group encouraging its attempt to create a more righteous economical relationship between the North and the South of Italy.
Besides the richness of the topic and the "places" we visited, this meeting was yet another occasion to meet other fellows in the Society; to share our experiences, fears and hopes so as to grow more in our friendships. At the end of the meeting Fr. Franz Tata (our Provincial) spoke about the Italian Province and its challenges: a province with too many houses and many old Jesuits. But there is hope: there are young Jesuits - we are more than one hundred in the stages prior to the final vows!
...Reported by Angelo Schettini, September 2003
Two Arrupe Months have started in Poland
Nineteen scholastics from both Polish Provinces have embarked already the Arrupe Month. After the eight-day retreat, this year’s second and third year students of theology in Warsaw gathered in Jastrzebia Gora (The Baltic Sea coast) and Zakopane (the Tatra Mountains) to reflect on the theme of priesthood. The retreat and the meetings have put an accent on the different aspects of preparation to priesthood. The topics ranged from the motivation of vocation, the formation process to the spiritual life.
Bishops, Jesuit and non-Jesuit priests are helping the scholastics to discover also some unknown dimensions of priesthood. Some lay people have shared with us how they see the role of the priest in their lives. All these different personalities together are trying to help us understand and describe the vision of a priest for today.
The participating scholastics:
- The second year: Paweł Brożyniak, Artur Demkowicz, Tadeusz Drozdowicz, Wieław Faron, Rafał Huzarski, Tomasz Łyszczarz, Adam Maleska, Remigiusz Recław, Mirosław Skiba, Marek Tryznowski.
- The third year: Adam Baczewski, Norbert Frejek, Piotr Kropisz, Bogdan Lisiak, Marcin Pietrasina, Tomasz Rakowski, Adrian Winkler, Jacek Wróbel and Tomasz Nogaj (studying theology in Dublin).
...Reported by Artur Demkowicz, September 2003