EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

his opinion, or at least act according to the opinion of someone
else. That is the price we have to pay.
I have learnt many things today. For example, we talked about
the local Church. But we have to be the local Church. When the
Society comes to work in a new area, the first reaction of others is to
be wary. The Society is feared everywhere: ‘These Jesuits are very
shrewd. They are powerful’. As I was saying the other day at the
Ateneo de Manila: we are not as bad as people say we are, nor are we
as good as people think we are. We are normal in that we are not
geniuses. Perhaps we have a few geniuses in the Society, but very
few. Years ago, it was said that the great power the Society possesses
is its well-trained mediocrity!
And unity? Yes, that is important. We share the same spirituality
and the same commitment to Christ. Excellence as St Ignatius thinks
of it is not scholarly excellence, though it may include that. Real
excellence lies in commitment to Christ. We have to be excellent in
our commitment.
Perhaps what Fr Ando [Isamu] was saying is utopian, but how
terrific it would be for the Society to have non-Christians coming to
work for the poor in the villages, coming motivated by philanthropy.
If we could create a situation of that kind, we would have enormous
possibilities for our work in Thailand. Then we would be collaborating
with people to much greater effect than we can through those few
Catholics that we are in the Orient. And through the mass media we
can present matters in a human way, and so multiply the work and
its effects. In that way we can build up the country indirectly.
This would amount to pre-evangelisation done by non-Christians!
Yet in fact, by definition, we do not speak about Christ during
pre-evangelisation. We cannot speak about Christ, but we have
non-Christians doing something out of goodwill that we could do. I
see an opening within refugee work for such an apostolate. I think
this will be good to think about.
Now to the question of a co-ordinator for the apostolate among
the refugees. I think this matter has to be decided here in Thailand. It
is necessary to have somebody full-time to consider all the things we
have discussed. He has to be a man who can hear opinions. He
cannot give first place to his own personal opinion as an individual.
The situation will be very complex in the beginning. The co-ordinator
has to have an ear for every one of you, and for those who come from
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