EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

20 years of JRS
Letter sent by Fr General, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ, to the whole Society
on 24 March 2000
In November 2000 the Jesuit Refugee Service marks 20 years since
its launch by Fr Pedro Arrupe. Today no person or nation can be
unaware of the millions of people driven by force from their homes.
The Society's response to their pressing needs has lost none of its
apostolic value.
In the year before his debilitating stroke, Fr Arrupe devoted much
energy to nurturing JRS, hoping to stimulate both a spiritual and a
practical response by the whole Society to the refugees of his time.
He saw JRS as providing this response and as the best way to coordinate
Jesuit efforts across the world.
In 1983 the 33rd General Congregation (GC) showed special concern
for millions of refugees seeking a permanent home. So too in
1995, GC 34 called urgent attention to over 45 million refugees and
displaced persons in today's world... Often lodged in the poorest countries,
they face growing impoverishment, loss of a sense of life and culture, with
consequent hopelessness and despair. GC 34 explicitly affirmed the JRS
as one means by which the Society fulfils its mission to promote
justice and has to be considered, with so many other charity and
development activities, a real social involvement in the spirit of the
Society.
JRS workers have expressed the need to clarify and revise the
organisation’s procedures and criteria. The requests to JRS are
growing, and it constantly faces new and changing situations. The
new Charter and Guidelines of JRS give clarity for its identity and
mission, and state criteria by which JRS decides where and how to
intervene and to serve displaced people. Moreover JRS needed to
overcome the difficulties created by poorly defined relationships with
Major Superiors.
So it seems appropriate to ratify the mission of JRS as an international
apostolic work forming part of the social apostolate of the
Society of Jesus. The Charter and accompanying Guidelines have
been developed following wide consultation. Drawing on 20 years
of experience in the field and in partnership with other agencies,
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