Philippines

How do we promote reconciliation with creation to our fellow Jesuits in Asia Pacific? With imaginative and powerful images as the members of the Scholastics and Brothers Circle showed in the innovative campaign materials they developed during a workshop on Effective Communications held from December 19 to 30, 2011.

Xavier University is appealing for funds to help the victims of Typhoon Sendong (International Name: Tropical Storm Washi), which struck the southern Philippines on December 17, causing flash floods and landslides.

Typhoon Washi slammed ashore on Mindanao island in the dead of night, sending torrents of water and mud through riverside villages, drowning scores of people as they slept, and sweeping houses out to sea. Tens of thousands of people have been rendered homeless and many are now in evacuation centres.  As of December 20, the official death toll was close to 1,000.

Abaca, coffee and rubber are three very different crops that can make a difference to the indigenous communities in Mindanao – both economically and socially.

In October, 30 youth from Upper Pulangi, Bukidnon in northern Mindanao spent 10 days learning about these crops, how to produce them and how to do so with a sense of environmental stewardship.  Jesuit research institute Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) conducted the training, in partnership with the Malaybalay City Agriculture Office and the Fibre Industry Development Authority. 

The EAPI in Manila celebrated its 50 years since it became known as the East Asian Pastoral Institute in 1961. It was set up in 1955 by Fr. Joannes B. Hofinger SJ as the Institute of Missionary Apologetics.  However, the name was changed in 1961 as Fr José Maria Calle SJ, the last of the EAPI founding team, recounted in 2009.

 The new President of President of Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan, Fr Roberto “Bobby” Yap SJ began his term with a strong message regarding man’s need to reconcile with recreation.

In his Inaugural Address on August 15, Fr Bobby declared that “care for the environment is certainly one of the most crucial and most challenging” frontiers a university can strive to reach, and announced two environmental stewardship projects he will focus on – making the campus green and adapting to climate change.