Nijmegen: Not merging but meeting

While Ireland is fretting over the loss of economic sovereignty to ECB and IMF, the Jesuits of four West European Provinces (North Belgium, Netherlands, Britain and Ireland) are observing the process by which the four  are coming closer: to what? a merger? amalgamation? collaboration? or that most anodyne of relationships, a meeting? Already the noviciates have merged in Birmingham. Already the four catalogues which record the personnel and activities of each Province have been merged into one handsome volume which lists the four populations alphabetically, with Cassidy next to Castelein and Kelly to Kerckhof. This weekend the Provincial and four superiors from each of the provinces were to converge on Nijmegem, Netherlands,  for discussions, presumably in English rather than Flemish, about what lies ahead. Alas, only one Irish superior made it through the snow. The brethren are watching the choreography with attention.