Dear Friends,
The Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice is pleased to announce a new phase in its ongoing commitment to bring about a more just and sustainable world through dialogue in harmony with Creation and our Creator.
Over the past year, the Jesuit Forum, the Jesuit Province of Canada, and many of our lay partners went through a process of communal discernment to reflect on how our vision and mission could respond more deeply to today’s social issues and realities as a faith community. We would now like to share with you the outcome of our reflection.
We have recommitted ourselves to deepening our Ignatian spiritual foundation, the charism of the Jesuit religious congregation. Our mission is rooted in the belief that our Creator is at work within our world, continually drawing us as a community towards the greater common good.
We will answer Pope Francis’ call for faith communities to listen and respond within an ever deepening synodal and collaborative environment. With renewed purpose and depth, the Jesuit Forum hopes to live up to its name and bring together people of all faiths and social backgrounds, to share and enrich our collective awareness of the complexities of the social issues and realities we continue to face: the need to listen more faithfully to Indigenous voices; appreciate integral ecology more closely; and better understand and address the causes of economic inequalities and social marginalization.
We draw inspiration from the words of Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, SJ, former Superior-General of the Society of Jesus, who emphasized that prayer and contemplative imagination involve a genuine awareness and engagement with the world around us. He challenges us to see the reality of those most marginalized among us: to break free of the superficiality of our global society, a world devoid of self-reflection, and one filled with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and undiscerning ideology. He emboldens us to act with greater intellectual, prayerful, and pastoral depth to help alleviate a world where people have difficulty to feel compassion for the suffering of others. The Jesuit Forum hopes to be part of this transformation by working with others through intellectual engagement, pastoral care, thoughtful prayer, contemplative imagination, and courageous action.
The work of justice, rooted in social faith - in reflection of the Creator and all of Creation, - should be a joy-filled endeavour. It is more than just trying to fix the injustices around us, it is about sowing and nurturing seeds… the seeds of the Gospel. |