Father David Neuhaus has been invited by the Jesuits in Canada to share on the Jesuit mission of reconciliation and justice in Israel/Palestine today. Two webinars will be consecrated to this theme. In a first webinar on Tuesday September 13, 2022 at 19.00 (Jerusalem time), he will address the theme: “The history and development of the conflict in Israel/Palestine since 1917”. In a second webinar on Tuesday, September 20 at 19.00 (Jerusalem time), he will address the theme “Where we are and where we might be going in relation to Israel/Palestine”. To register: https://buff.ly/3HTCL5p ..read more

With sacred ritual and festive joy, the 2021-2022 Ignatian Year came to a close on Sunday, July 31 at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.  The year commemorated the 500th anniversary of the conversion of St. Ignatius of Loyola.   In 1521, at the battle of Pamplona, Spain a cannonball struck Ignatius’ legs, wounding one and breaking the other. French soldiers, who admired his bravery, transported him to the Loyola manor on a stretcher.  The physicians set Ignatius’s broken leg twice, the second time out of Ignatius’ vanity because of a foreseeable limp and an unsightly protr ..read more

In the Church of Jerusalem, the scripture account of the road to Emmaus thematically represents the Synodal process, asked for by the Holy Father, Pope Francis.  The Jesuits in the Holy Land spent a morning and afternoon in recollection to reflect on our discipleship and discuss the questions of today’s world and church.  The first stop was at the Saxum Visitor Center (Saxum Center), located along what tradition calls the road to Emmaus.   Although once a Roman road to Jaffa, today it is a hiker’s trail that ends near Emmaus-Nicopolis. Almudena Romero, the center’s directo ..read more

After thirteen years in the Jesuit community of the Holy Land, Father Joseph Nguyên Công Doan, known simply as Father Doan, leaves Jerusalem for Rome, the departure set for December 27, 2021. The community said its farewells at lunch on Christmas day, expressing profound appreciation for his years of service. Father Doan explained: “I have served 18 years in Vietnam, 18 years for the international society in Rome (where he was assistant to Father General) and in Jerusalem. In between 9 years in prison, accused as a spy for the Holy See. Now I am going to the community in Rome for the elderly ..read more

“Christ is born, let us glorify him – Halleluiah!” Members of the Jesuit community went to Bethlehem on the Christmas morning to celebrate mass in the Basilica of the Nativity, in the Chapel of Saint Helena. Six Jesuits were present as the others were busy with their various apostolates. Father David, superior of the community, celebrated together with Fathers Luc, George, Wiesiu, Jaroslav and Mark. The Basilica was packed with local believers for the mass of Christmas day celebrated by Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa. Outside hundreds of migrant workers visited the site, Filipinos, I ..read more

Over the past number of years, Father David Neuhaus, superior of the Jesuit community in the Holy Land, has been invited by a Jewish Israeli teacher of Jewish Heritage to come to his classes and speak to fifth and sixth grade pupils about Christianity. He spent the day in the school on December 22, 2021, just a few days before Christmas. The teacher became aware that in all of his classes there were Christian pupils, most of the children coming from the Asian migrant worker and African asylum seeker population in Israel. There were also children from Christian families from the ex-Soviet Unio ..read more

On Saturday evening, December 18, 2021, members of the Good Shepherd Filipino Community in Jerusalem visited the Jesuit community. They animated the evening mass, ate dinner with the community and then sang Christmas carols. The Good Shepherd community is made up mostly of Filipino migrant workers, many of them caregivers to the aged, sick and handicapped in Jewish Israeli society. The nineteen members who came to sing included those who have been in Israel only a few years and those who have been in the country over twenty years. The Jesuits have provided pastoral support to the community si ..read more

Among the those considered in the International Book Prize competition of the Shoah memorial in Israel, Yad VaShem, was Jesuit professor of philosophy James Bernauer SJ of Boston College. The press release from Yad Vashem said, “The panel of judges found special interest in the book by Prof. James Bernauer, S.J., Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020).” On December 16, 2021, the Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research awarded its prestigious International Book Prize for Holocaust Research t ..read more

Dr. Mellie Brodeth brought her Teresian Association spiritual life and work ethic to the Pontifical Biblical Institute last March. The Teresian Association is an international lay ecclesial community, founded by Saint Pedro Poveda in 1911, in Covadonga, Asturias (Spain).  St. Pedro Poveda, a martyr during the Spanish Civil War, wanted the laity to bring faith, human development, and social development to the world each day. Dr. Mellie Brodeth in the library After graduating from the University of Santo Tomas (Philippines), Mellie arrived in the Holy Land in the early 1970s as a Teresian ..read more

Father Bill was a regular sojourner in the Holy Land, for many years curator of the museum in Jerusalem’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and its archaeological collection. He passed away on November 29, 2021 at the age of 85. William J. Fulco was born in Los Angeles in 1936, entered the Society of Jesus in 1954 and was ordained in 1966. Father Fulco earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages and literatures from Yale University. He spent most of his life as a Jesuit in the world of the university. A popular teacher, Father Fulco’s courses covered a broad range of topics: God and the world of a ..read more