Fagan and Rickle meet in Fairfield

Jack and Bill met on Friday, 21 September with Fr. Richard Ryscavage, SJ, the Director of the Center for the Study of Faith and Public Life at Fairfield University. We discussed the role of the Institute within the wider parameter of The Jesuit Collaborative and explored ways in which we could collaborate and complement one another's efforts.

All of us left the conversation enriched and enthused. Look for more news on this front.

Jesuits gather for Reflection and Planning

Six Jesuits, Frs. Bill Ameche, Shay Auerbach, Bruce Bavinger, Paul Brant and Bill Rickle with Brother Ricardo Greeley of Mexico gathered for a day of reflection and planning for the coming year at the Jesuit Loyola Retreat House at Faulkner, MD on the 12th and 13th of September. It was a time for us to renew, and in the case of Brother Ricardo, forge bonds of friendship in the Lord, and spend time looking at our common mission to serve the Hispanic communities in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Each of them have committed to contribute to this blog so that we can start to build up a conversation about the apostolate and how the Holy Spirit is guiding us into the future.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Richmond, VA at Sacred Heart Church in January.

From Bolivia

The last week has been a whirlwind. I arrived in Santa Cruz late at night on the 20th. (HOT) The next day Fr. Ramón Alaix, the Bolivian Jesuit Provincial and I flew to Sucre. (MUCH cooler.) Getting off the airplane I somehow managed to badly twist some muscle in my hip which caused great pain. (A week later, I still have a fair amount of difficulty moving around, but after a Doctor´s consult and some drugs, am doing much better.)

After two nights in Sucre, we drove up to Potosi, the worlds highest city at 14,090 feet. (Cold, windy and no heat in the house. Room temp when I woke in the morning was 50 degrees.) This was to visit a parish where Maryland Province Jesuit Fr. Bob Wiesenbaugh spent six year ministering to the miners in the parish. I don´t knokw how he did it. Twenty miners a month die in the mines there in Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) which has been actively mined for the last 400 years.

From there we drove 10 hours through some of the curviest two lane road without guard rails I have ever seen to Cochabamba, where I am now preparing to depart from La Paz early tomorrow morning.

Here are some pictures from the early part of the trip. It is a small sample of the 900 I have taken so far. http://picasaweb.google.com/Bill.Rickle/Bolivia2007A

Bill Rickle to Bolivia and Chile for a few weeks...

Bill will visit various sites, communities and projects in the Bolivian and Chilean Jesuit Provinces from 20 June until 17 July. Check out his blog at

http://billricklesj.blogspot.com/

Jesuit Migration Academic Network goes on line.

Hosted by Fairfield University, the Jesuit Migration Academic Network now has a web site up and running. It can be visited at http://jesuitmigration.fairfield.edu/

WCR, sj

Bolivian Jesuit Provincial superior visits us.

Father Ramón Alaix, S.J., Provincial of Bolivia, visited the United States for the week of 11-18 May. Bill Rickle met him at Fairfield University at Fairfield, CT and accompanied him for a day trip to New York City, where he met with New York Provincial Fr. Jeff Chojnacki, S.J. They also visited with Fr. Jack Fagan, S.J. to see the Centro Altagracia and the work that Jack and his co-workers are doing in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan with the Dominicano community there. They are pictured above with the George Washington bridge in the background. (Jack on the left, Ramón on the right.)

Bill and Ramón then went on to visit Philadelphia where they met with St. Joseph's University president Fr. Tim Lannon, S.J., and other university persons associated with the Universities cooperative program with the Fe y Alegría schools in Bolivia. They also visited with Fr. Mark Horak, S.J., pastor of Old St. Joseph´s Church in the historic Society Hill section of the city. A visit to Zeke´s Deli and DiBruno House of Cheese in the Italian Market completed the Philadelphia experience.

Then to Baltimore, where they were participants in the International Ministries Commission of the Maryland Province meeting, also attended by Fr. James Kalapura, S.J., Provincial of Jamshedpur Province, India, and Fr. John Henry, S.J., who was visiting from his work in Chile. Other Baltimore activities included a visit to Our Lady of Pompei church in Highlandtown, where they were hosted for almuerzo and engaging conversation about evangelization and leadership formation by the community of Matto Grosso movement volunteers.

Of course, there was a visit and work session at the Institute office to discuss future collaboration between the Bolivian and the Maryland provinces.

Bill will visit the Bolivian Province in late June, where many of the US conversations will be continued.

The Institute at the Conference of Province Advancement and Communications Directors

From 30 April to 2 May, the Directors of Advancement and Communications of the ten U.S. Jesuit Provinces and the Province of English Canada met at the Hampton Inn Suites, Inner Harbor Baltimore. Bill Rickle had the opportunity to make a 15 minute presentation on the origins, present activities and hopes for the Institute.

Response was enthusiastically positive and encouraging. Several participants urged that the Institute be called the Jesuit Institute on Migration, Culture and Ministry, and that it go national as soon as possible.