AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

The View from Rome: Communication, Storytelling & the Society of Jesus with Fr. Chuks Afiawari, SJ

Today we’re talking about the global nature of God’s invitation. Our guest — Fr. Chuks, the new director of communications for the Jesuit Curia in Rome, responsible for sharing the stories of the entirety of the global Society of Jesus — reminds us that the people of God are everywhere. And we, informed by the Ignatian tradition, have a responsibility to go and hear their stories—and to share them with others. Fr. Chuks — whose full name is Chukwuyenum Afiawari — is a Nigerian Jesuit. Most recently, he was the provincial of the North West Africa province, which includes Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia—no small task! Now living at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, Chuks is tasked with thinking about how we communicate with one another. How we communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ with on another. How Ignatian spirituality and the legacy of Ignatius of Loyola equips us to go out into the world and witness Christ’s love to one another. This, too, is no small task. Today's conversation covers a lot of ground, hitting on the nature of global communications, our responsibility as members of the universal Catholic Church, how we might train today’s communicators to respond to the signs of the times and more.

Duration:: 48m
Broadcast on:: 06 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

In the Jesuit Media Lab, this is AMDG, and I'm Eric Glaton. Yesterday was the U.S. presidential election. Since I'm recording this before all the votes have been cast, I can't know the results. But what I do know is that regardless of who wins, our responsibility as members of a global church remains. God continues to call us to go out to those in need, to build up a world of justice, peace, and compassion, to love our neighbor as we love ourself. And that's what we're talking about today, the Global Nature of God's Invitation. Our guest, Father Chooks, the new Director of Communications for the Jesuit Curia and Rome, who is responsible for sharing the stories of the entirety of the global society of Jesus, reminds us that the people of God are everywhere. And we, informed by the Ignatian tradition, have a responsibility to go and listen to their stories, and then to share them with others. Father Chooks, whose full name is Chukue Num Afiyawari, is a Nigerian Jesuit. Most recently, he was the provincial of the Northwest Africa province, which includes Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Gambia. No small task. Now, living at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, Chooks' task was thinking about how we communicate with one another, how we communicate the good news of Jesus Christ with one another, how Ignatian spirituality and the legacy of Ignatius of Loyola equips us to go out into the world and witness Christ's love to one another. This too, no small task. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, hitting on the nature of global communications, our responsibility as members of the Universal Catholic Church, how we might train today's communicators to respond to the signs of the times and more. Chooks, as you'll soon hear, is a real delight to talk to. So, no matter what you're feeling today, in the wake of the U.S. elections, remember this. We are still called to go out and communicate the good news with all people everywhere. Now, here's Father Chooks. We're so excited today to have Father Chooks with us straight from Rome. Father Chooks, welcome to AMDG. Thank you very much, Eric. It's good to be here. Yeah, I'm so excited to talk to you. Maybe before we get started, you can introduce yourself. Tell us your title, where you're from. Give us the whole the whole shebang. Oh, thanks. My name is Chukuyenum. That is the full name. People generally call me Chooks. Chukuyenum means God's gift, even though some people don't really think I'm God's gift. But Chukuyenum, a Fiawari, a Fiawari means this is my home. I am from Nigeria, and I joined the Jesuits there. And currently, I'm in Rome, working as the Director for Communications for the Society of Jesus. And I just began that a few months ago on the 1st of July. Yeah, and I'm excited to talk to you about that. I mean, you and I spent some time together over the summer. And when we met, you had just taken over the role. I think it was that week of transition. And so now you've had a few months to kind of get your feet wet. And I'm wondering, as you look at your Jesuit life thus far, what do you think has prepared you to take the helm of the global communications for the Society of Jesus? What are some of the specific missions or just experiences you've had that you're really going back to as an inspiration to do this important work? Well, this is my 37th year as a Jesuit. And I have been in different places for formation, in different countries, in different continents. I have had different missions in the society, like every other Jesuit, I guess. And somehow, you are not always sure what your next mission might be. And sometimes it comes as a surprise. And I must confess that this current mission as director of communications came as a huge surprise. I was in my last year as provincial in 2023. And just before my successor was named and announced publicly, I got the call from room. And usually, when you get the call from room, you know that something serious is up. And the assistance for that general tells me that, well, the general wants you to come to room. I say, okay, great, for what meeting and for how long? And he says, no, come to room in this office of communications. And I'm like, are you kidding me or something? Anyway, I find myself here. One elderly Jesuit once said that every mission we have in the society, consciously or unconsciously, prepares us for the next. And as I look back in my this past 37 years or so as a Jesuit, I think that is true for me as well. Every mission I have had has in one way or the other prepared me for the next. And so my last mission was as provincial for six years. And to some extent, I will say that that has prepared me for what I am doing at this point. What has fed me, what has helped me in going through these periods are basically two things. One is prayer. I have come to make it a personal spirituality to trust in God, to trust in God's provenance. And that has been true for every mission I have had in the society. And the second thing that has really helped me and kept me going are people, Jesuits, Jesuit companions, but also non Jesuits as well, especially when I engage people in deep spiritual conversation or conversations on any matter at all. So these two factors trust in God's provenance and fraternary relationships with people, men and women alike have been really sources of grace for me in my life. And I think these two factors especially have prepared me for this current position. I'm really interested to hear a little bit about that. Your most recent mission, you were the provincial of the Northwest Africa province. And as you make this transition or as you have made this this transition from provincial to director of communications, you know, I imagine there's a lot of letting go of things. Like there's certain things that probably filled your mind every day, you know, projects and people, as you said. And now you're more removed from those people and projects and places. As you said, this kind of personal spirituality that you're working on developing and taking into prayer. How does that very clear physical distance in the work, but also that kind of spiritual distance in what you were doing? How does that play into your embrace of this surprising new mission and letting go of the one that you had? Judge with life is full of transitions. And that gets knocked into your head almost literally from the very first day you entered in a visit. So right from the beginning, transitions are an integral part of our way of life. Transitions from one city to another, transitions sometimes from one country to another, transitions into continental transitions, as you move for one place of studies to another or one mission from one continent to another. So you are constantly dealing with this constant move, constant transitions. And you are changing cultures, you are changing ministries, you are changing climates, you are changing different dynamics, different ways of doing things. You are meeting different people, you are making new friendships, you are letting go of setting friendships or setting friendships remain as you move along. So transitions are not always the same. Some transitions are easier, some are more difficult. Some transitions take a longer period of time to adjust, some others do not take as much time. I think the transition from being provincial to any other ministry is a huge one. Because for six years of your life, you are dealing basically with core personalities, looking after the men in your province and the walks, the core apostolica in your province, you are constantly making decisions, you are traveling constantly, there is a big part of that ministry. But coming to Rome, I am beginning to see that much travel is not going to be part of this. I will do some travels, but it wouldn't be as much certainly as when I was provincial. And then when I was provincial, we had about 880 or so men in the province and constantly for the account of conscience, that is not the same here. We have an office of eight staff in the Korea, in the communications office, so it's a much smaller number to manage. But the key element remains the same, the care for each person that walks with you is a big part of the work and just making sure that the boat is sailing in the right direction as well. There are two things that stand out for me. When I was in novice, my mother said to me, wherever they send you, go, whatever they ask you to do, do. At that time, it didn't make much sense to me. But over the years, it has made much sense. And an elderly Jesuit, Bill Wood, a New York Jesuit, we used to call him Uncle Woody, said to me once, when I would beach and scream about setting things not going well, when I was in New York, he was said to make jokes, courage. So, courage is much needed in periods of transition, as well as patience. And also, realizing that the mission is not about you, it's about Jesus and his church. And so, Jesus is always there, giving and providing what is needed. Yeah, I like that a lot. There's something you said there. I want to make sure listeners know, I think you said, as part of the role of provincial is, is that you're, what is it, what does it call when you're kind of a company in each guy in their, in their own development? Corapace Nalis. Corapace Nalis, of course, but isn't it that, isn't the responsibility provincial to visit each guy each year once, to check in on their development of conscience, right? Exactly. Right. And that is, like you said, a big job of a lot of traveling, of course, you know, just one of the responsibilities of the provincial. I wonder how, you know, you said you have a smaller staff now, and perhaps not, don't have that same responsibility. But as you're thinking about communications, right, as this tool, not just to share stories or do press releases, but as something that helps to form and guide the whole global society, both, you know, Jesuit and lay collaborator alike, how are you thinking about the mission of your work as something that kind of accompanies individuals in their own kind of journey towards God? Thanks. I mean, most of what we do in the communications office, as you will know, you know, letting people become more and more aware, really, of the mission of Christ, but more particularly of the mission of the Society of Jesus, so that they not only know, but hopefully embrace it even more. I see my role here in the communications office as maybe to use the analogy of a cook. I like food, by the way, a cook that, you know, not necessarily goes to the market to get all the ingredients. I see all those who bring the ingredients as members of my staff, of the communications staff, and each of them is an expert in its own field. So they are the ingredients that bring together the things that we need to cook the food of communications for the Global Society of Jesus. And my role is really to encourage them, to support them, to hold them together, to make sure that things come together, to coordinate. I am myself not a communications expert, I'm not an expert in communications, but it's more a coordination, like a manager of communications, and I keep a bedside view of all the various activities, and sub-sectors of the communications office. So we try to give as much inspiration, what we do, and communicate really the good news, because often there's a lot of bad news around. And so we try to communicate that, and to keep connections with different departments of the Korea that the Society has here in Rome, but as well as with the Vatican. And this morning as I said, I was at the Synod, and so we keep a food with the Vatican, the castries, especially with the castries for communications, so that we can together continue to communicate the good news of the Lord in His Church. Sometimes good news is not so good for some people because of certain issues that we all know that happen in the Church, but we do the best that we can, and to keep the global perspective in view. Yeah, I mean, for folks that have not been to the Jesuit, Kerry, and Rome, it's quite literally a stone's throw from St. Peter's, right? So it's easy for you to literally walk over and shake hands and see people, so it's a great way to be in the global church. And again, for folks that, which I'm assuming there's probably many of our listeners who don't have that kind of intimate knowledge of the of the Curia, maybe you can say a word of what the Curia is, but then particularly, how do you in your role collaborate with Father General? What does Father General you know, excited about when it comes to communications? Thanks. The Curia, the Jesuit Curia, is the headquarters of the Global Society of Jesus, and it is the official residence and office of Father General. It is like what's what the Vatican is to the rest of the Church, you know, with all the continental bodies of bishops and the national ecclesiastical bodies, etc. Or take a look at it this way, it's like the White House for the United States. The president lives there and works from there, and then coordinates all the myriad of activities that go on in running the country. So that's what we do here in the Curia. This year, there are about 65 or so Jesuits who live and work here in the Curia. Our main mission is to really assist Father General in his global mission of governance, of spiritual governance of the Society of Jesus. When the General appointed me to be here, his councilors live here, all the others live here, and we are not only Jesuits who work here, only Jesuits live here, but we have many non Jesuits. Men and women will collaborate in this mission of the General Curia. I guess they might be about 50 or 60 other non Jesuits men and women who work here. All of us take our cues from Father General. He is the one that has been entrusted with the governance of the Universal Body of the Society, and his mission is to ensure that the Universal Apostolic Body of the Society is one, and that we are all focused on the mission entrusted to us by the Lord through the Church and the Supreme Ponti. When he appointed me to be the Director of Communications, I requested to meet with him. In my first meeting with him, he said, "Yes, Jesuits, you are my spokesperson and you are the face, if you like, of the Communications of the Society of Jesus." And then he brought me a mission in later. A mission in later is like my employment later, and my tasks, my goals, my roles, and all of that, what I'm supposed to be doing, etc. And in that letter, he outlined a number of things. First of all, that I will meet with him personally every month. So, since I began this responsibility after the summer, I began meeting with the General every month. I met with him last week for our monthly checkup and work. I helped the General in creating this Universal Apostolic Body and Mission of the Society to let Jesuits, and there are about 14 or so thousand Jesuits around the world today, to let all Jesuits know that we are all united in mind and in heart, and we are all engaged in the same mission of the Church through the work of the Society of Jesus. One of the big responsibilities that the General has asked me to do in my collaboration with him, is to come up with an apostolic plan for communications for the Universal Jesuit Body. Now, in 2008, the General Congregation 35 requested that for the General, the Society comes up with a strategic plan for communications, and this request of mandate was renewed eight years later in 2016 by GC-36, during which the current superior General, Arturo Susa, was elected. So, he has said to me, "Chooks, keep the ball rolling along these lines and come up with an apostolic plan." So, we've been doing this in the last number of months, and we shall continue, hopefully, get it all done by Christmas time. He wants us to build a global network of Jesuit communicators, as well as others who collaborate in the mission of collaboration in the Society, including non-jesuries as well. We share in the global initiatives that for the General puts forward, like the Universal Apostolic Preferences, that has been on now for the fifth or sixth year going. We provide strategic advice concerning communications to further General. He wants me to be aware of what is going on with his Council. I'm not a member of the further General's Council, but he wants me to be aware of the deliberations and discussions. So, he has asked that I be informed through a process of the internal affairs of himself and his Council. So, I'm privileged to get information of such nature that helps with planning in terms of communications. Every two or three times a year, he meets with all the Councilors in what he calls "setymana tutti aroma", which means all the Councilors have to be here in Rome physically, and he has asked me to join for those meetings, so that I am more abreast with what is going on in the Society from different sectors. He has also asked that I help with Vocation's promotion with the Councilor in charge of that. So, these are some of the responsibilities through which I collaborate with for a General in this mission of governing the Society of Jesus. Yeah, that's really helpful. And I think one thing to impress on our listeners, and certainly, I was reminded of when we were together over the summer, is the kind of the logistical infrastructure, just the size and scope of the governance body that oversees the global Society of Jesus. I think many folks might have an encounter with a Jesuit who's doing work through some non-profit, or kind of a mission work type thing, or at a university, and it might feel very ad hoc. "Oh, here's a cool guy doing a cool thing." But then you say, "Oh, actually, there's a lot of really deep discernment and intentionality and thought put behind every guy who's in every place around the world." And there's this great body of people that are there to support and maintain the global work of the Society. So, I think it's really worth emphasizing that point, and I appreciate your descriptions. Turning, kind of, looking at the heart of communications, you and I both do a lot of storytelling in our work, and certainly, the teams we're part of do a lot of storytelling. And I personally believe that Ignatian spirituality does a lot to help us discover and share stories. But I'm wondering what you think. What do you think is the value of Ignatian spirituality, the Jesuit way of proceeding in the sharing of stories at a global level? Ignatius was a great storyteller, and I guess he had his cue from Jesus who himself was a great storyteller. All you need to do is take a look at the gospels, and they are full of wonderful stories, short stories, stories of great insights, stories, stories that have surprising ending and ton of events. So, yes, Jesus is a great storyteller, so too was Ignatius, a great storyteller. He was a great communicator, Ignatius, and he wrote a lot. Thinking of the 16th century, for this man to have written thousands of letters, some of which we have about 7,000 or so letters that we still have a possession of at this point, how did he do this? For Ignatius, everything that drove his life and mission after his conversion was the mission of the Lord, the help of souls, for the greater glory of God. So, we can see that the letters that he wrote, so many of them, to all categories of persons, he wrote to Jesuits, he wrote to superiors, in missioning Jesuits to different places, he wrote to directors of works, he wrote to cardinals, he wrote to different bishops, he wrote to emperors, he wrote to people in high civil societies, he wrote to his spiritual directives, he wrote to family, he wrote to friends, it's a berosa, etc. So, this man was constantly writing, and like we know, for the last 15 or 16 years of his life, even though he himself had wanted to be a missionary to expats of the world, he found himself a superior general, physically stuck on his desk, to his desk in Rome, and what did he do? He wrote, he wrote the constitutions with his secretary, Polanco, he wrote latest and administered the Gloopa Society of Jesus. But as I said, he did this for the singular purpose of mission, of advancing and helping souls in and encountering Christ. One of his close companions, our early companions was Francis Xavier. Xavier too was a good communicator, Ignatius sent him off to the Far East, and he spent most of his life in Asia, especially in India and other parts, and he wrote latest, we have latest of Francis Xavier that he wrote back to Europe. And those letters had great impact on people. Jesuits and non-jesuits read those letters, they were very inspiring. They opened up Europe to what was happening in other parts of the world. Some of these letters inspired vocations, they inspired missionaries to imitate Francis Xavier and go explore the rest of the world in the service of the Lord. So we have two of our first companions, Ignatius and Francis Xavier, we are great communicators in that sense. Jesus is good news, and as communicators, that's what we are called to do, to communicate good news, good news to God's people. The motto of the Society of Jesus, if you like, is finding God in our things. It's not just finding God in our things, but searching, searching for God and then finding God in all things. But it is not enough to set for and to find God and keep and keep that to yourself. We have to share what we find with others, and that's basically the work of communication, to find and to communicate to others what we have found with God in our lives, in our mission. This is this is the good news. And so Ignatius and so too does Father Genera to Rososa is constantly in touch with major superiors, in different provinces and regions of the world, about 80, 85 or so provinces and regions of the world, constant letters that go from room to these places and back to room, because it's a two-way communication as always. Father Genera called them back, we understand, may have written as many as about 10,000 letters in his 24, 24 and a half years as superior Genera. But the point of all of these letters and communications from room, from Father Genera to his men all over the world and back to him is really to continue to build one apostolic body of the society and to ensure the union, the union of hearts and mind. So there's always an apostolic end, there's always a mission oriented end to the letters and to the communication that the society undertakes from room. I like that last point you're making, especially the mission-oriented end of the communications. And I'm thinking, I mean, it's easy to think about that in terms of like podcasts and videos and great presentations that we do. But even in the emails we send and like the more casual conversation, there's just more time. And so you imagine more intentionality put into written letters. Whereas, I fire off emails right inside ways with not a ton of thought, but how is that serving the mission? And I think that's the mission being the greater glory of God and the help of all people. I like what you said about our work is seeking, finding and sharing God and all things. Those two additional verbs, I think it's really helpful. As communications isn't just storytelling, obviously, there's these new technologies that are in the world now we have to make sense of them, find God in those things and figure out what God desires of us in their use. So as you're thinking about AI or any sort of new digital media, social media, what have you, what's your, do you have a certain way of proceeding as you ask questions about new technologies or think about how to integrate and use them in ways that are healthy and productive. And also to use an ignition term indifferent, not so beholden to the technology, but mindful of, well, what is God one of this kind of new tool? How do you think about these things? Yeah, new technology, especially AI is a great tool and a great opportunity that we have in our time. Just think of how different things were maybe just 10 years ago, 20 years ago, let alone 100 years ago or the time of Ignatius. And so we are in a digital age. We talk of a digital community, a virtual community. And we have lots of tools in our disposal today that we didn't have only a few years ago. And more and more tools have been developed, more and more technologies have been developed. AI is advancing, even as we speak, and new, new amazing things are coming up by the day. So it's a great opportunity that we have, and they make our work as communicators easier. They make our work as communicators faster. And hopefully, if they make our work as communicators better, because, I mean, talk about the transition, translation technologies today, you can receive any message from any part of the world in any language and read it in the language you are most familiar with. I mean, those are great things that we have. But like every tool, and AI, for example, that makes things easier, better, faster, with more facilities. We have to, we have to take them with prudence. I think there's a need for prudence. There's a need for discernment. We need to reflect a little bit more about our use of the new technology and smart technology. We need to think a little bit more. We need to descend a little bit more. When I was rector in Zimbabwe, some years ago, one of our professors of philosophy, was also a tech expert, around this workshop he called Think Before You Click. I remember that today, and I think that was great. And I said to myself today, think, reflect and descend before you click. Because once you click, it's out there, and you can't easily retrieve or change it. So there's a need for reflection, deeper reflection, deeper thoughts, and deeper decision making in our use of new technologies. But I think we have a great opportunity that has been presented to us. We need to keep developing it in different ways. And like all technologies and like all tools, they can be used for both good and not so good. And the hope is that this new technology is for communications. And for using other areas of life would be used for the good, not so much for the opposite. I agree. I think it's well said. As you know, obviously, education is a space in which Jesuits inhabit quite a lot of real estate and influence. How do you imagine Jesuit education preparing people to use these new communication tools? But not just the tools, but also preparing people to communicate with charity and generosity about one another, about the many stories in our world. What role or what hopes do you have for those that are Jesuit-educated as they go into the world, whether they're professional communicators or just have to communicate as we all do? All right. You probably know, Eric, that mobility was a big and fundamental value for Ignatius in founding the Society of Jesus. He wanted Jesuits to be mobile, to be ready to go, to be on the move. And in fact, Father Nadal, one of the first companions, I said that for a Jesuit, the road is our home. So we are constantly moving. We should be constantly moving from one mission to another for this greater glory of God, as designed by superiors and yourself, et cetera, et cetera. So educational institutions and education was not part of the original picture for Ignatius, because it will inhibit mobility. Of course, if you run a school, you have to be there. You have to be with the students, et cetera. And like we know, in the US, we have Jesuits who are professors or tenured professors. We have some Jesuits in some educational institutions who have been there 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 30 years for some in the same institution. And that is great, because that is their mission and they do wonderful work in this apostolate. So over the years, Ignatius realized, and the early Jesuits too, that we needed education. We needed to form not only Jesuits, but not Jesuits alike. And people were asking Ignatius for these to found colleges. And so it began with Messina, with the Roman College in here, which is now the Gregorian University, et cetera. So over the years and centuries, for almost five centuries now, education has played and continues to play a big and huge role, a central role, if you want, in the mission and apostolate of Jesuits. But we talk about Jesuit education, as you rightly said, is not for oneself. It is for others. And for the Pedro Rupe, our 28th superior dinner was very big on this, education for others, formation for others. We form our students, we accompany our students, all those who pass through Jesuit institutions, they receive education that is holistic, not for themselves, but for others, to be men and women for others. Or as we say later on, to be men and women for and with others. And that with others is what you said, Eric, compassion, that we train men and women, not only to be competent, not only to be committed, not only to be compassionate, but also people who have a global perspective, people who look beyond themselves, people who share what they have received, because everything is a gift and it's a gift to be given and to be shared with others. So you are right, education for communication therefore becomes easy. And in fact, it becomes taken for granted that for everyone who goes through Jesuit educational institutions, they know that what they receive is to be shared, if you like, to be communicated with others. Whatever the area of discipline, the field of educational competence that one has, his or her knowledge is not for keeps. It is to be shared. It is to be communicated with others, with families, with friends, with neighborhoods, with communities, with the global village, as we call ourselves today. Yeah. Oh, thank you. I think that's a really, it's a really motivating answer. I feel like, I got there and share, share, share the good news. And, you know, I think it's part of the inspiring people to do that too. Hey, you have a story to share. Others have a story that you should listen to. And what do we, how do we respond? To that end, you know, you sit in such a unique place, right? You are at the hub of kind of the global society. You're probably hearing a lot of stories of great triumph and success and perhaps failure and hardship. I wonder if you have a story or two that you've heard recently or in the last couple of months that really inspires you or has really touched you in some way from the global society. All right. I have not only from the last couple of months, maybe for the last couple of years, actually. And I will, I will perhaps talk about two broad areas. One is education. We are just talking about education. Another will be on migration. First on education, the Jesuits in Liberia descend with the people of Liberia that one of the needs that people expressed was to have good quality schools. Because as you probably know, Eric, Liberia had gone through brutal war for more than a decade. And many of the educational institutions were ravaged and destroyed. Many of the teachers were killed. So education was a big, a big need there. And so they asked Jesuits to see what they could do in this area. So the Jesuits of that province decided that they will start a school. Initially, they thought of starting a high school. But they were advised by the people that we, it's better to start with a great school, a primary school, so that you can train these kids right from the beginning up to high school and then hopefully some day, tertiary education. So that's a very good story, very inspiring one that I had. The beginning of this school, on the first day of this school, they had three pupils, three kids. The school is called Xavier Jesuits School. And so on the 1st of December, three kids showed up. The official opening of this school was on the 3rd of December, the 1st of France in Xavier. On that day, two more kids showed up. So this school began with five pupils. I happened to have been the provincial at that time and I said to the brothers, start. Today, there are many more pupils in that school. So it's a humble beginning, a small beginning, but a beginning of hope for the number of people who will receive that education. You have heard about, there's a school in the Bronx. I studied in the Bronx at Fodham. So there's a school in the Bronx opposite Fodham University, in a called Roosevelt High School. And when I was there in the 90s, there were a couple of of us who went to Roosevelt High School for our ministries, for our postulates, once or twice a week, I forget now. And what was the mission there to help do homework with immigrant kids. Mostly many of them were from either Vietnam or from Cambodia or from Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic. And what we did was just sit with them for an hour or two after school to help them with their homework or to go through what they had done in school that day. Very simple humble beginnings. You've heard about Fae Aligria schools, especially in Latin America, and it has spread to different parts of the world. I suspect many continents have Fae Aligria schools. They call them schools where the tarmac ends, where the asphalt ends, to provide schools for ordinary folks, for simple folks. If you like for poor people, we could afford, we could not afford education otherwise. In the U.S., you have crystal race schools. You have nativity schools. These are schools that do not make headlines all the time, but they serve very important needs and missions of our people. We know of Jesuit universities, and one of the very touching stories for me was in November of 1989, I think it was, when our companions, including the woman who worked with them and her daughter, were killed in Uka University in El Salvador. And what really touches me when I think about that is that because these companions were killed, the society asked for volunteers of professors to go to Uka to the university. Superiors received many more volunteers that they could handle. That, for me, was very inspiring. What made other Jesuits want to take up the place of these men, their companions, who had just been killed? What is this spirit behind that? We know that a rupee is, see, the critical situation of the both people, what used to be called the both people, living in Vietnam and other parts of Asia, running from terrible situations of war, and federal rupee, I was super general, thought that we needed to do something. And it started what today is Jesuit refugee services, to respond to the needs of people in imagines. And when you think of migration, that's a big hot issue today in many places, but it's not about to go away. So when I think of Jesuit involvement in education, especially in the non-formal sector, and Jesuits were involved with people on the move, I think these are very inspiring. I would get news of these from different parts of the planet that come to us in Rome. And I feel very inspired and very touched by this. And my hope is that we can share such inspiring situations to the rest of our audience. Yeah, thank you. That was a great survey of so many great stories and little vignettes of the society and collaborators, really reading the signs of the times and responding. I wonder, last question, from the global to the specific, our audience is mostly in the United States in Canada. I wonder if, again, from your perspective at the helm of the global society communications work, what would you offer to folks in the US and Canada, to our our postulates, to our collaborators? What should we be thinking about in our particular context to unite ourselves to this global mission and to better serve the global mission and one another? Right. Well, today, we need to make real the saying that we are in a global community, a global village. We need to find ways and means to translate those words into realities. To use the cliche, no one is an island. I think, when I think of the United States, and I think of my Jesuit companions, ministries, works, but also the country itself, United States is very blessed with resources. There's no question about that. Human resources, intellectual resources, financial resources. You have great structures, democracy, as actually as it's practiced in the United States. You have great values, question of freedom, and what that means, and as we continue to reflect on what that means, and the boundaries of freedom, et cetera. So the US and yourself, Eric, and your colleagues over there, and the country, it's really blessed. And I think many parts of the world see the blessedness and the richness in various ways of the United States, both materially and I hope also spiritually as well. But this resources and this blessedness is not to create an island. It's not to make people there to feel self-sufficient, because there can be a false sense of self-sufficiency, which means I don't need anyone else. I don't want anyone else. I have all I need, and even God does not seem to have so much role, because I don't really need God all the time. Again, dice pushing Italy to too far. But the point is that we should move from self-isolation, self-sufficiency, to building more and more a global village. We are more connected than we think. In Africa, we use the term vulture, that I am because you are, or you are, because I am. And so there's a connectedness. And I think this connectedness in Jesuit talents can be translated to collaboration, to collaborate one with another, to network one with another. Different communities in the US can collaborate with others. They can reach out to others within their communities, but also to neighboring communities and by extension to other countries and continents as well. So I think this rich resources that you are blessed with in the US and in Canada can be shared. And you say you have many good values in the states that can be shared with the rest of the world and vice versa. And I think the states can be also open to receiving from other cultures and other parts of the world. Some of the rich values that are also present in other places. Awesome. Thanks, Jokes. I think that's an invitation, a challenge to collaboration, to community, to not being isolated, I think is a really, really timely one and a really good one. And I appreciate that a lot. My friend, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you for coming on here today. And good luck in your mission and your work and say hello to the whole team. I will. And we'll have to have you back on some time. Thank you. Thank you very much, Eric. I'm grateful. Have a good day. AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States in Washington, DC. This episode was edited by me, Eric Clayton. Our theme music is by Kevin Lasky. The Jesuit conference communications team is Marcus Bleach, Michael Lasky, Becky Cindallar, and me, Eric Clayton. Connect with the Jesuits online at Jesuits.org on X at at Jesuit news, on Instagram at at we're the Jesuits, and on Facebook at Facebook.com/ Jesuits. You can also sign up for our weekly email series now to discern this by visiting Jesuits.org/weekly. The Jesuit Media Lab offers courses and resources at the intersection of Ignatian spirituality and creativity. If you're a writer, podcaster, filmmaker, visual artist, or other creator, check out our offerings at Jesuitmedialab.org. If you or someone you know might be called to discern a vocation to the Jesuits, connect with a Jesuit vocation promoter at via Jesuit.org. Drop us an email with questions or comments at media@jesuits.org. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And as sending nations of Loyola, may or may not have said go and set the world on fire. You You