Tom's communication blog
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Posted: April 29

Clear skies and new ideas

(Brussels) The experienced traveler would not thinking of heading north to Brussels, Belgium, without a sturdy umbrella close at hand. I had one with me on Friday as I set out from the retreat house where the communication group of Jesuits from central and Eastern Europe were to meet. But I did not need it then, nor on Saturday, nor on Sunday—this was without doubt the best weather that I have ever known in Belgium. The spring was just at hand and the grass was a deep, rich green. The retreat house itself is an old Franciscan monastery, a bit on the Spartan side for my tastes, but the meeting went very well anyway.

I introduced some of the themes about communication that came up during the recent general congregation, and I think that they open up a fruitful line for development. Instead of thinking of communication as an extremely specialized endeavor for a few Jesuits, the notion now is that communication is an integral part of all that we do. This opens up a lot more areas to work in and broadens the scope of the communication apostolate dramatically. The Jesuits who came to Brussels are specialists in different areas, some academic, others in production. Fr. Christof Wolf showed us the trailer for a new documentary film he recently completed about a multi-faith prayer service that takes place at Auschwitz every year. It takes a lot of time and money to make a movie, so if we reduce the discussion to such difficult endeavors, then we miss the opportunity for many other things that are perhaps more ordinary, but will have a major impact in our work.

The group scheduled the meeting in Brussels to get a sense of the European Union’s impact on the Society of Jesus. There are a few pastoral works in which Jesuits serve the small army of officials who man the vast bureaucracy of the European parliament, council and commission. People kept explaining those elements of the central government to me, but it is a bit hard for my American head to grasp this method of doing business. One thing that got my attention, though, was the passport an Austrian Jesuit showed me. Right after the official seal were the words, “European Union” and then on the second line came “Republic of Austria.” That brought home to me the fact that Europe is moving closer to being one country than just a collection of allies. French, Spanish, Italian—those identities are no longer paramount. Brussels has a role much like Washington, D.C. Even the Mass we went to on Saturday at the Jesuit center was celebrated in four languages (French, English, Polish and Italian). The chapel was not fancy, but the faith and friendship were evident.

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