The Status for the year ahead
The ‘Status’ for the Irish Jesuit Province was posted this week. It is the list of assignments for Jesuits for the coming year. Did it connote a centrifugal or a centripetal movement within the Province? — a movement to or away from Dublin? Clongowes would say centripetal, since it has lost two precious men to the capital. Peter Sexton, after many years teaching in Clongowes, has been appointed Chaplain in Trinity College (pictured here); and Conor Harper goes as curate to Donnybrook parish. Gardiner Street and Milltown have lost one of our most articulate philosophers in the move of James Murphy to teach in Chicago, USA. There is some evidence of a flow-back from what were missionary countries to the Irish church. R. Rozario from Calcutta is coming to serve part of his Regency in Sacred Space and Sli Eile.
Long long ago the posting of the Status (assignments of Jesuits for the coming year) on the community noticeboard was a moment of drama, occurring on 31 July. Without warning you could be appointed to or demoted from the job of superior, or assigned to Australia or Zambia or places nearer home. The date of the Status was moved to 21 June to facilitate the schools in their arrangements for the coming year. It is unthinkable now that one could be assigned without prior consultation. The Provincial’s job is lighter because he has so few active Jesuits to assign. Still, the 3-page document promulgated last weekend was heavy with meaning for some Jesuits.
