Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Jesuit Father Peter Klink is currently the school parish chaplain at the Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The Pine Ridge reservation of the Lakota Tribe covers a large, 5,000 square foot swath of land in the southwestern corner of South Dakota.

Here, Fr. Klink ministers to the Lakota’s communities three schools and in its parishes. He’s held many responsibilities during his 26 years of native ministry on the Pine Ridge, including 18 years as the school’s president.

Today, staggering poverty and an unemployment rate that hovers around 80% leave the children of the Pine Ridge facing an uphill struggle as they learn and grown up on the reservation. But, Klink endeavors to make sure the two elementary schools and the high school that make up the school system on the Pine Ridge are a beacon of hope for the possibility of a bright future for the Lakota and their families.

Recently, Klink took the time to speak with National Jesuit News by phone from the Red Cloud School for our monthly podcast series. You can listen to our interview with him below:

Jesuit priests and seminarians, above, in a photo taken at Loyola College in Los Angeles after they were freed by American soldiers in 1945. Jesuit Father John Ruane is in the top row, second from right.

Jesuit Father John Ruane, 91, who was interned in the Los Banos civilian internment camp on the island of Luzon in the Philippines during World War II, said of his survival, “God was protecting us.”

Fr. Ruane said that going to the missions appealed to him, and he was sent to the Philippines to study philosophy at Ateneo de Manila in July 1941. By 1942, all the priests and seminarians were placed under house arrest by the Japanese military, and in 1945, the Jesuits were moved to the Los Banos camp. They could take few belongings, and the 80 Jesuits were assigned to live in huts with 16 internees in each.

Given rice mixed with a little meat and water twice a day, Ruane said, “We were weak.” He said that they didn’t move around too much to preserve their strength and people would blackout often.

The priests would take turns saying Mass with the wine they had smuggled into the camp, and some of the Jesuits professors who would lecture the internees.

Ruane said they never gave up on the Americans and knew they were close since their airplane engines were stronger than the Japanese.

Ruane and the other internees were rescued by the U.S. troops, and he returned to the United States to be ordained; earned a doctorate in philosophy at Louvain, Belgium; and then returned to Cebu in the Philippines to teach Jesuit seminarians until 1969.

Read more about Ruane at NJ.com and NJN.

The 3,000 Magis pilgrims have now fanned out across Spain, Portugal and North Africa for their 100 unique Magis experiences. In small groups of about 25, the experience teams are composed of people from different countries which gives the pilgrims an opportunity to work with people from other cultures and backgrounds and who share in their faith.

The 100 experiences range from working amongst the poor, with immigrants, traveling along a religious pilgrimage “camino” or volunteering with the infirm. Accompanying the pilgrims are Jesuit chaperones like scholastic Michael Rossman, who is currently in his First Studies as a Jesuit at Loyola University Chicago, and is chaperoning a group of pilgrims from Marquette University.

Before they departed from Loyola, Rossman and three Marquette students shared what Magis 2011 is all about  in this video below. You can continue to follow along with the Jesuits at Magis and the students they are chaperoning by visiting our microsite or following us on Facebook and Twitter.

In the mid-1600s, a small band of Jesuit missionaries set out from Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, a settlement in Ontario, Canada, to work among the Indian tribes of the Huron in upstate New York and the territories in Canada. The Jesuits’ goal was to bring Christianity to the Huron but they found themselves in the precarious position of not being trusted by them as there was conflict and wars between the Huron and the neighboring Iroquois. It was this mistrust that resulted in eight of them being killed between 1642 – 1649. Today, in Auriesville, New York, the Shrine of the North American Martyrs is dedicated to the Jesuits who sacrificed their lives and remain the only canonized martyrs of the United States.

Tonight on EWTN, the four part “Footprints in the Wilderness” miniseries highlights one of these Jesuit martyrs, Saint Rene Goupil, a Jesuit brother who was captured and killed by the Iroquois as they believed he was a spy for the French. With interviews with Jesuit author and artist Father William Breault, the series was filmed in three countries on two continents with insights from French, Canadian and American experts, and delves into the experience of Goupil in this new land.

The series starts tonight at 6:30pm Eastern Time. Check your local listings to find ETWN on your television and check out the promo for “Footprints in the Wilderness” below.

In the mid-1600s, a small band of Jesuit missionaries set out from Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, a settlement in Ontario, Canada, to work among the Indian tribes of the Huron in upstate New York and the territories in Canada. The Jesuits’ goal was to bring Christianity to the Huron but they found themselves in the precarious position of not being trusted by them as there was conflict and wars between the Huron and the neighboring Iroquois. It was this mistrust that resulted in eight of them being killed between 1642 – 1649. Today, in Auriesville, New York, the Shrine of the North American Martyrs is dedicated to the Jesuits who sacrificed their lives and remain the only canonized martyrs of the United States.

Tonight on EWTN, the four part “Footprints in the Wilderness” miniseries highlights one of these Jesuit martyrs, Saint Rene Goupil, a Jesuit brother who was captured and killed by the Iroquois as they believed he was a spy for the French. With interviews with Jesuit author and artist Father William Breault, the series was filmed in three countries on two continents with insights from French, Canadian and American experts, and delves into the experience of Goupil in this new land.

The series starts tonight at 6:30pm Eastern Time. Check your local listings to find ETWN on your television and check out the promo for “Footprints in the Wilderness” below.