~ Fr. Jack Bentz, SJ

Fr. Adolpho Nicholas SJ, the superior general of the Society of Jesus, has recently reminded all Jesuits that we share in a vocation to the universal Society. This is always good news to hear.

Too often US Jesuits, just like other North Americans, can mistake our culture for the only culture, our language for the only language, and our challenges as the only challenges in the world today. Being a Jesuit means being part of an international family and therefore naturally called to share in a wider vision and respond in a broader way.

Whether men join the Jesuits from Portland, Mumbai, Paris, or Manila they all join the universal Society of Jesus. We are available to work anywhere in the world. Through formation we develop strong sentimental bonds with our home province but we are challenged to remain alive to our connections to the rest of the world. In the Oregon Province this deeper human connection is made real in many ways – our work with Native Americans and migrant populations, our education abroad and immersion programs, and most significantly with our historical relationship with the Jesuits of Zambia and Malawi and now in our twinning relationship with the province of Colombia.

Now beginning its ninth year, the Oregon/Colombia twinning agreement has been an exciting opportunity for authentic exchange between two countries in one shrinking hemisphere. As a result of this agreement, our men in formation visit each other and share in language studies and apostolic experiences. Every other year the entire Oregon novitiate travels to Colombia for the summer. And each year Colombian scholastics study English at Gonzaga University. For the past two years the Oregon Province has been blessed by having two Colombian scholastics serving in our regional high schools.

Our works too are discovering ways to engage each other. There are strong projects between our universities, mutual visits between our parishes and an emerging relationship between our high schools. Our leadership remains committed to regular meetings in both countries to expand existing projects and remain open to new possibilities.

This last week the new Colombian provincial, Fr. Francisco de Roux, and the Colombian assistant for the twinning agreement, Fr. Alvaro Velez, traveled through our province meeting many Jesuits and lay partners. We traveled to Portland, Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma getting to know each other along the way and strengthening the bonds of brotherhood and collaboration. Our days together proved once again that we are a universal Society connected through our mutual service of Christ in our world – made tangible by personal relationships with each other. Without this human contact the grand ideas of shared projects remain only ideas but together they come alive in a global mission and a universal vocation.