In early October I spent a week in Japan with the Council of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni (WUJA – www.wuja.org). For the last five and a half years, I have been Father General’s appointed Spiritual Counsellor to the Council — lay representatives of regional and national Jesuit Alumni Associations. Though the Council meets quarterly by Zoom, we meet in person once a year in different parts of the world where we can recognize the good work of Jesuit school alumni and promote Ignatian and Jesuit education.
WUJA is not well known in the United States, but in many parts of the world it is the connection alumni have beyond their own school to the larger Jesuit world in their region and nation. I wish we had such a national alumni association in our country.
This was my first visit to Japan. I found it beautiful, fascinating, friendly and clean! I was fortunate to celebrate Mass with the Council at the former Jesuit Novitiate in Hiroshima where Pedro Arrupe marshaled the novices to care for the sick and dying after the atomic bomb devastated their city. We visited Buddhist shrines in Hiroshima, Kyoto and Tokyo — mostly tourist opportunities, but I was moved at one temple seeing an elderly man show a group of children his devotions using gestures and bows and at another the reverence of a few in the crowd attending to the chant of the monks and the rhythm of the drums.
Most of the week was spent in Tokyo at Sophia University (https://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/), the Jesuit university established in 1913 in the center of the city. I stayed at the Jesuit residence on campus (the WUJA Council members stayed at a nearby hotel) and met Jesuits who had been there for years from Europe and the United States along with Japanese Jesuits.
A poignant moment for me happened at a reception held by the Sophia Alumni Association for the visiting WUJA Council. As an alumnus and I were introducing ourselves to one another, it was clear we were relatively the same age, so I asked him how old he was. He said he was born in 1941. I told him I was born in 1945. We were silent for a moment, then nodded and clasped hands.
What awful pain our two countries caused each other so long ago, yet somehow understanding and a willingness to engage each other beyond the pain has led to friendship. At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, one display features a speech given by the mayor two years after the bombing dedicating his city to peace. A cynic may say, “Well of course, what else could he do.” But seeing his face in the newspaper from that day and reading his words I believe he meant it with his whole heart. He ended his speech with these words: “...what we have to do at this moment is to strive with all our might toward peace, becoming forerunners of a new civilization. Let us join together to sweep away from this earth the horror of war, and to build a true peace. Let us join in renouncing war eternally and building a plan for world peace on this earth. Here, under this peace tower, we thus make a declaration of peace.”
I heard once that if we can love the children of our enemies, after a while we would have no enemies. I pray the pain that people are causing each other today would be washed away by understanding and by engaging each other — and loving each other's children.
In this month of the Holy Souls, let us remember those who have gone before us, and with a special reverence remember those everywhere who have died in war. In this month of Thanksgiving let us pray in gratitude for our families and friends and continue to pray for world peace.
Some Dates to Note in November
Adoption Awareness Month
Native American Heritage Month
1 – Feast of All Saints
First Medical School for Women – Boston, 1848
European Union, established 1993
2 – Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
5 – Feast of All Saints of the Society of Jesus
Guy Fawkes Day
United States Election Day
9-10 – Kristallnacht, 1938
11 – Veterans Day
13 – Feast of St. Stanislaus Kostka, S.J.
Feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation
on buses unconstitutional, 1956
World Kindness Day
14 – Feast of St. Joseph Pignatelli, S.J.
Claude Monet, born 1840
19 – Gettysburg Address, 1863
Peoples Temple, 1978
21 – Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
22 – Feast of St. Cecilia
John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassinated, 1963
24 – Feast of Christ the King of the Universe
Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, published 1859
25 – Pope John XXIII, born 1881
26 – Feast of St. John Berchmans, S.J.
28 – Thanksgiving Day
29 – C.S. Lewis, born 1898
30 – Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle
Pope’s Prayer Intention for November:
For those who have lost a child
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