Jesuit Formation

In a speech delivered at the recent Sophia Symposium in Tokyo, Fr Mark Raper SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, argued for a view of education as “formation for decision and for action: education of the head, the heart and the hands”.

Advocating a pedagogy in which reflection is central, Fr Mark sees the role of education as leading students to love the world, to assume responsibility for it, and to acquire tools in order to renew it.

As such, universities need to go beyond the core business of providing education in competence and critical thinking.

The East Asia Theological Encounter Programme (EATEP) in 2012 will be held from April 16 to May 14.   The programme, which is in its seventh year, will be held at Seven Fountains, the Jesuit spirituality centre in Chiangmai, Thailand.

The Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific has released a detailed document on formation for Jesuits for this part of the world. 

Entitled “Forming a Contemplative in Action: A Profile of a Formed Jesuit for Asia Pacific”, the document addresses three major questions – What does a formed Jesuit look like?  What specific issues does initial formation need to address? What competencies a formed Jesuit for Asia Pacific needs to have mastered?

The second Asia Pacific Theological Encounter Programme (APTEP) will be held from April 10 to May 8, 2012.   Conducted by the Indonesian Jesuits, the one-month programme on “Dialogue with Muslims” was first held in 2011.  It was born from the positive successful immersion programme conducted in 2009 with 18 Indonesian Jesuit scholastics living in an Islamic boarding school (pesantren) for two weeks.

Scholastic Dino SarmentoSJ looks back on his two years of regency in Railaco, Timor Leste and shares some important, beautiful and truly treasured moments.