EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

from many local Churches around the world to send Jesuits for other
important works, recalling that we should keep before our eyes the
greater service of God and the more universal good, and choose
those places where the needs, spiritual and corporal, of our fellowmen
are greater and more urgent. The 33rd General Congregation, in
calling for a review of all our ministries, both traditional and new (no. 39)
urged the Society to take note of several critically urgent concerns,
which had been mentioned frequently in the postulates, among them
the sad plight of millions of refugees searching for a permanent home, a
situation brought to our special attention by Fr Arrupe (no. 45).
I have made these calls my own: Frequently, when visiting the
Provinces and speaking individually with Jesuits, I have stressed
the importance of this new apostolate both as an expression of our
concern for the poor and as a significant step towards our renewal,
personal and corporate, in availability, mobility and universality.
Furthermore, I see our work with refugees as a timely mission in
the service of faith and the promotion of justice... Truly, the response
so far has been magnificent. Those Provinces, communities and
individual Jesuits who have given of their time, skills and other
resources to serve refugees have told me that this sharing, far from
being a burden, has brought them much spiritual benefit, as Fr Arrupe
hoped it would...
St Ignatius and the displaced
Perhaps the most inspiring example of how we could respond
today to the needs of the refugees in our midst is given by Ignatius
himself and his first Companions.
Within a year of their arrival in Rome in November 1537, they
were confronted with a severe crisis. The harvest during the summer
of 1538 was poor and the winter the harshest Italy had experienced
since the beginning of the century. Famine, disease and the cold
drove thousands of impoverished people from the surrounding villages
and towns into the city of Rome, very few were able to find
shelter and relief. Most slept out in the open air, and every morning
many refugees were found dead in the streets.
The community of ‘friends in the Lord’ at that time consisted of
Ignatius, Xavier, Favre, Laynez, Bobadilla, Rodrigues, Salmeron,
Jay, Broet and Codure. During the day, they went out to beg for bread,
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