The President

The Jesuit mission in Asia Pacific flows from a centuries old vision. In 1540, the very same year the Jesuits were approved, Francis Xavier was sent to Asia. He arrived in Goa in 1542, in Japan in 1549, and died at the border of China in 1552. Now Jesuits in Asia Pacific number almost 1800, including those still in training. They serve in some 15 countries of this region, both in the intensely populated countries of Asia and in tiny Pacific nations.

I recently celebrated a mass at Bilibid, the maximum security prison south of Manila. On the wall of the Jesuit community I was struck by a quotation from the 1550 Formula of the Institute. In that document Ignatius visualises Jesuits as men drawn from different parts of the world, who are engaged both in spiritual ministries and ministries of compassion. Read more. . .

Throughout Asia and the Pacific our communities of Jesuits and companions seek to be at once deeply local and to have an eye to the horizon. Our teams are both international and committed to the local people and culture. For missions like these, we seek to be the people whom Francis Xavier wanted, the people ‘who will be really missed at home'. Read more. . .