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Jesuit Father Matthew Ruhl is cycling cross country to call attention to the nation’s staggering poverty level.

After a four hour, 67 mile trek from New Orleans, Fr. Ruhl and his 15-member Cycling for Change team – 11 cyclists and four support team members – recharged their physical and spiritual batteries at Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Church on Aug. 15 before resuming their journey the next morning, en route to Dauphin Island, Ala.

After five years of intense training and planning, the group began its 5,000 mile, 100 day journey on Memorial Day in Cape Flattery, Wash. and, thus far, has traveled more than 3,000 miles. They are slated to wrap up their trip on Labor Day in Key West, Fla.

Ruhl said the idea of cycling cross country to raise poverty awareness was inspired by Catholic Charities USA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty – a plan to cut poverty in half by 2020.

“I thought that was a pretty audacious goal, so I went to Catholic Charities USA with this idea of getting a group of riders together and traveling across country to talk about the plan and why it’s so important and they thought it was a great idea and agreed to sponsor it,” he said.

Why cycling?

“It’s a very good way to meet people and talk with people,” Ruhl said. “It’s also very convenient. It’s a traveling billboard. It always attracts attention and allows us to get from Point A to Point B – from Cape Flattery to Key West – in about 100 days without pushing too hard so we can meet and greet people. It also corresponds with the 100 years that Catholic Charities USA has been in existence.”

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Jesuit Father Tom Neitzke, recently ordained in June, spent a summer two years ago in China working at a leprosarium. The journey to the remote Chinese village to stay among those suffering with leprosy and to understand their subsequent shunning by their community, Fr. Neitzke understood that there is much to learn from those among us who have the least. His reflections on the experience of being in China are below.

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A film about the Holocaust – produced by a Jesuit priest – finds itself on a possible path to the Academy Awards.

The 37-minute documentary is called “The Labyrinth,” and tells the story of Marian Kolodziej, a Polish Catholic resistance fighter during World War II who survived more than five years in Auschwitz. Three years ago, Kolodziej’s work was discovered by Jesuit Father Ron Schmidt, who came to Auschwitz to produce a documentary on an annual interfaith conference held there.

Friends in the film industry who saw an early cut of the project told Fr. Schmidt he had a possible Oscar nominee on his hands. But, to qualify for nomination, films need to be shown in New York and Los Angeles theatres for at least five days – a tall, expensive order for documentary shorts produced on little more than hope and a prayer.

But sometimes that is enough – each year, the International Documentary Association sponsors the DocuWeeks showcase, just to make sure that worthy documentary features and shorts get the exposure they need for a shot at Oscar. Competition is fierce – only five short films are selected from entries submitted worldwide.

“The Labyrinth” will be one of them. It premieres on Friday, August 13th in New York and Los Angeles, and buzz has already begun to build. An Oscar nomination remains a mysterious, distant goal – but this powerful short film has already achieved more than its makers hoped and prayed for.

You can learn more about Schmidt’s documentary at National Catholic Reporter and by watching the trailer for the film below.

Six months after the earthquake devastated Haiti on January 12, more than one million survivors continue to live in appalling conditions, with inadequate sanitation, limited access to services and food shortages, say the Jesuits who are working to provide humanitarian assistance.

Conditions in many of the nearly 1,400 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the capital, Port-au-Prince, are extremely critical. The conditions at the largest Jesuit Refugee Services’ (JRS) camp, Automeca, with a population of 12,000, are typical. Here, residents continue to live in shacks held up by rags and poles. There are no schools or electricity, sanitation is poor and the water barely drinkable. When heavy rain falls, garbage rushes through the camp.

For many years, JRS has had a grassroots presence in Haiti and has provided humanitarian assistance to displaced Haitians in both the Dominican Republic and along the Haitian border. JRS – Haiti is focusing its current relief efforts in the Port-au-Prince area, working in seven camps that serve the needs of more than 21,000 displaced people in and around the capital by providing emergency assistance, psychosocial support, and training to community leaders to manage camps and civil society organizations.

“Camp management and aid delivery structures should always include consultation and cooperation with the displaced people who are swiftly forming their own organizations to advocate for their own particular needs,” said JRS/USA Director Jesuit Father Kenneth J. Gavin. “More attention must be placed on supporting the food and relief needs for IDP recipient communities and people not living in camps so that moving to a camp is not the only way for people to receive minimal food, water, and livelihood assistance.”

At a meeting with JRS – Haiti on June 20, seven IDP camp leaders highlighted numerous concerns, including the lack of security, particularly in camps that don’t have electricity and lighting at night, which pose a particular threat to women and children.

The situation in unofficial camps is even worse. Throughout the city, unofficial camp residents receive little or no care from large aid organizations or international coordinating bodies; many have even been told leave the camps but have not been provided with alternative housing.

“JRS welcomes the moratorium on forced evictions issued by the Haitian government. Unfortunately, pressure from landowners on IDPs to evacuate the sites continues. Actions go so far as intermittent disconnection of the water supply, and refusals to allow the construction of more permanent shelters and street lighting. ,” said JRS – Haiti Director Jesuit Father Wismith Lazard. “The government needs to use its authority to protect camp residents from this kind of harassment, and put more effort into identifying suitable shelter.”

In the video below, Frs. Lazard and Kawas Francois, president of the Jesuit Interprovincial Committee for the Reconstruction of Haiti, discuss the conditions in the camps in Haiti and the plans to open 17 Jesuit Fe y Alegria (Hope & Joy) schools in the next year in Haiti.

At the final mass during the Russian Regional meeting with Jesuit Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, he was presented with an original icon by the regional superior, Jesuit Fr. Tony Corcoran, (New Orleans Province; left) , Jesuit Clemens Werth (right), in the novitiate chapel in Novosibirsk. Deacon Bredelyev Oleksiy, in the background. (Photo Courtesy Jesuit Fr. Don Doll)

Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás visited the Russian region from July 4 – 10. The visit began in Novosibirsk where he  participated in a meeting of Jesuits working in the region. The theme of the meeting was “Apostolic and Communal Life in the Russian Region: a Challenge/Call to Live in Unity of Minds and Hearts.” The gathering was scheduled for three days and was an occasion for Fr. Nicolás to  learn first-hand the opportunities and challenges facing the region, and to offer reflections regarding the future. From Novosibirsk,  Father General traveled to Moscow where, on the morning of July 9, he met with representatives of the Department of External Relations of the Orthodox Russian Church.  That afternoon, he attended a reception at the St. Thomas Institute, the theology, philosophy and history faculty run by the Jesuits in the Russian capital, and visited with the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini. The next day, Father General “played tourist” visiting Red Square and other places of interest in Moscow; he also paid a visit to Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow.