The President of Catholic Religious Australia and Provincial of the Australian Jesuits, Fr Mark Raper SJ, will take up a new appointment later this year after he relinquishes his current positions.
The new Jesuit Superior General, Fr Adolfo Nicolas SJ, has appointed Fr Raper as President (moderator) of the Jesuit Conference of East Asia and Oceania (
JCEAO), the position Fr Nicolas, himself, held until his election as Father General on January 19.
Fr Raper, who will be based in Manila, is the second Australian to be JCEAO President. Fr Daven Day SJ held the position for some years.
Fr Raper's term as Australian Provincial was due to end later this year and the process for finding his replacement is already underway. And so, he would not have been eligible to be nominated as CRA President at the national Assembly in June/July.
With almost 20,000 members, the Society of Jesus is the largest Catholic Religious congregation in the world.
It is governed through the Superior General who is elected by a General Congregation, the highest authority in the Society. The most recent General Congregation, General Congregation 35, has just concluded in Rome where Fathers Raper and Geoff King represented the Australian Province. It was at this meeting that Spanish-born Fr Nicolas, 71, succeeded Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, 79, who retired.
The Superior General governs through the Major Superiors appointed by him (Provincials, Regional Superiors and others). They report directly to the Superior General.
The Superior General is assisted in his governance by a number of other structures. Some are centralised in the General Curia (Rome) and some newer structures are more decentralised.
Four assistants are elected by the General Congregation "for the provident care of the Society". They can also hold other offices in the General Curia. Other senior positions are
Regional Assistants (one for each region of the world); Treasurer, Secretary, Archivist, other special secretariats (eg social ministry, formation) and the Jesuit Refugee Service International Director.
General Congregation 31, in 1965, encouraged experimentation with new forms of cooperation, de-centralised from the General Curia. From this have emerged two related new structures: 10 Assistancies and six Regional Jesuit Conferences. In addition to the Assistancies in which Provinces are grouped together to assist one another and to assist the international mission of the Society, six Regional Jesuit Conferences have developed for the same purposes. Regional Conferences of Major Superiors meet regularly.
Most Conferences of Major Superiors are contiguous with a single Assistancy, although the European and Latin American Conferences have more than one Assistancy. Each Conference of Major Superiors has a Moderator or President, who manages common projects and chairs meetings of the Conference twice a year.
It is to this
position within the Society's structure that Fr Raper has been appointed.
Worldwide, the Society of Jesus is grouped into 10 'Assistancies' of which East Asia and Oceania is one. It has about 1700 Jesuits.
The others are South Asia (c 4000 Jesuits), USA (c 3000), South Europe (c 2500), West Europe (c 2000), Latin America south (c 1500), Latin America north (c 1400), Africa (c 1400), East Europe (c 1200) and Central Europe (c 800).
Each Assistancy comprises a number of 'Provinces'. The East Asia and Oceania Assistancy includes Indonesia (360 Jesuits), Philippines (c 325), Japan (c 255), China (c 205), Australia (c 155), Korea (c 150), Vietnam (c 130), as well as 'Missions' in East Timor (c 35), Cambodia (c 5) and Burma (c 30) , and 'Regions' in Malaysia-Singapore (c 50), Micronesia (c 20) and Thailand (c 20).
A work linked to the Assistancy is the Jesuit Refugee Service (Asia Pacific) while common international works include Arrupe International Residence (AIR), East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI), East Asia and Oceania Tertianship, Combined South Asia & EAO Tertianship and Matteo Ricci House (China Province Pre-novitiate). Other involvements include colleges and universities (ACJU-EAO), education (JEC-EAO), Ignatian spirituality, Inter-Religious dialogue (CIREC), social apostolate and social communications (JESCOMEA).
The Province is the basic administrative unit in the Society of Jesus and has been since the time of St Ignatius. As new Missions grow, they may become a Region and eventually a Province.
Each Jesuit community within a Province has a local Superior who is usually appointed by the Major Superior (though some are appointed by the Superior General). Local Superiors report to their Major Superior.
Acting Provincial
Fr Michael Ryan SJ wrote in the March 5 edition of
Province Express: "I would like to quote from Mark's notes which he passed on to the Provincial Office earlier in the week.
'This new mission corresponds to our vision of the mission of the Australian Province. We have already made significant personnel commitments in Asia. All the provinces and regions which form part of Conference of East Asia and Oceania, especially the newly established regions, understand that they are part of a larger community. We need one another's support in order to achieve our common mission. Consequently across Asia many Jesuits now live and work beyond their national and province boundaries. The conference has many common projects which need to be consolidated for the medium and long term, such as the new programs in Burma and East Timor, and the growing activities in China and Vietnam.
'Moreover, the Society in Asia has much to offer other parts of the world. If we work together well, quite a lot of people can be considerably helped. The openness demonstrated in our Province by Jesuit and lay members to collaboration with one another across our ministries, and increasingly across Asia and the Pacific, gives me greater confidence in undertaking this new mission.' "
Among the comments which have been posted in relation to the announcement was this from Fr Jack Costello SJ: "... (Mark) is known and trusted. Mark will give the whole Jesuit presence in Asia an energy, confidence and collaboration that will cast light and hope much farther afield. This appointment confirms both Mark's gifts and Fr General's astuteness ..."
photo: The new Jesuit Superior General, Fr Adolfo Nicolas (left) and Fr Mark Raper, in Rome.
for further details, please follow the links in the article
(of the communication team for the 35th General Congregation)
as well as other articles of interest
(editor's note: Thanks to Fathers Peter Hosking SJ and Andrew Hamilton SJ and Province Express for background information)
Top of page
