Five months after taking over as President of the Jesuit Conference of East Asia and Oceania, Jesuit Father Mark Raper shares some of the plans he has for increasing collaboration in the region.

Father Raper finds himself in the one region of the society that grew last year – by an impressive 25 percent. Nonetheless, he has identified Jesuit Formation as his chief priority.

‘We have a number of regions in Asia and the Pacific – China, East Timor, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia – which all have people entering the society, but they have neither the personnel nor the institutions nor the funding for Jesuit formation’, he said.

Provinces that are better equipped to enhance formation, such as Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines, will be called upon to share their resources so that formation can be strengthened. ‘We have international houses in the Philippines, especially for the early formation, but now we want to build up a very good school of theology.’

This imbalance of resources has also motivated Fr Raper to focus on smaller, younger regions such as Cambodia, East Timor, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Micronesia, which often lack the leadership and management needed to undertake their apostolate.

But while Fr Raper finds himself in the one region of the society that grew last year – by an impressive 25% – he has nonetheless identified Jesuit Formation as his chief priority.

We have a number of regions in Asia and the Pacific – China, East Timor, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia – which all have people entering the society, but they have neither the personnel nor the institutions nor the funding for Jesuit formation’, he said.

Provinces that are better equipped to enhance formation, such as Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines, will be called upon to share their resources so that formation can be strengthened. ‘We have international houses in the Philippines, especially for the early formation, but now we want to build up a very good school of theology.’

Another priority for the conference is that of refashioning the structure of international cooperation originally set up in the 1960s and 1970s. ‘The world has changed’, says Fr Raper. ‘It will take some time to conceptualise better how we can cooperate internationally.’

This process will require the balancing of the Jesuits’ universal mission, as stressed in last year’s General Congregation, with the diversity of East Asia and Oceania. ‘In Asia there are such different cultures, languages and local situations that we have to match this homogeneity of a universal mission with the great heterogeneity of the local situation.’

Read full story: Bridging Asia (express.org.au)

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