In 2013, the Philippine Jesuits began a process of communal discernment to evaluate and chart the direction for the mission and works of the Province. On May 15, 2016, the Road to Mindanao (Philippine Province Roadmap 2016) was promulgated. That year, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, then Davao City Mayor, became the country’s 16th president, and first from Mindanao. With added hope from this convergence of events, the Province went about implementing the Roadmap.
The Province Roadmap identified for us our “mission areas”: poverty and marginalization, armed conflict and resulting displacements, environmental degradation and resulting vulnerability of peoples, and dividedness of peoples arising from historical injustices and religious and cultural differences. It called for close collaboration within the Province (institutes, Jesuits and lay partners) and cooperation with the local Church, government agencies, and others in civil society who share our objectives. Over the years, executive actions (leading to, among others, a series of Mindanao Conversations, a Province Assistant for Planning, a re-organized Commission on Ministries, a Committee on Indigenous People’s Ministry) and the supportive responses from institutes and individuals have attained several milestones (cf Appendix).
In January 2019, culminating a process involving the whole Society, Fr. General presented to Pope Francis and obtained his confirmation of the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) for the Society: showing the way to God through discernment, walking with the excluded, journeying with youth, and caring for our common home. The UAPs provide a horizon for fulfilling the renewed mission called for by GC36 of a three-fold reconciliation – with God, within humanity, and with creation. They affirm and invigorate our own efforts in the Province.
Meanwhile, the national and political landscape turned volatile and unpredictable. The Duterte administration’s “war on drugs” became more violent and brazen, targeting mostly the poor and catching innocent families in the crossfire. The 2019 midterm elections were hounded by indiscriminate killings sowing a culture of death and fear not felt since the Marcos dictatorship. Although there were some encouraging developments in the economy, democratic institutions were threatened as historical revisions went unchecked. “Trolling” and “fake news” have gone out of control. Local and foreign policies now revolve mainly around pleasing China at the expense of long-term local and international interests.
The January 2020 Meeting of Superiors and Directors of Work (MSDW) made clear the need to address these alarming national concerns as a Province and to update our Province Roadmap with these concerns and with the UAPs. Then in March, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country. The August 2020 MSDW dwelt on the widespread and compounded impact of the pandemic and the prevailing authoritarianism. It deepened the desire for an updated corporate response.
Mindanao remains the periphery which the Province is called to attend to in the long term. But what prompted us to take on the Mindanao Roadmap has gone beyond the metes and bounds of Mindanao. In other parts of the country, poverty and hunger have worsened sharply and the search for peace and justice is critically threatened by red-tagging, rising insurgency, and spreading lawlessness and impunity. The adverse effects of the abuse of the environment are sadly made starker by the string of typhoons that hit Luzon in November, exacerbating the staggering social injustice.
In light of all this, out of a series of meetings with the reconstituted Commission on Ministries and especially with the Executive Committee within it, Fr. Provincial presents the Renewed Province Plan 2021-2024 in five Thrusts:
Thrust 1: Foster integrity and accountability in our communities and institutions
Thrust 2: Feed the hungry (children) and create sustainable livelihoods
Thrust 3: Summon our youth to engaged citizenship
Thrust 4: Build faith-based hope and resiliency
Thrust 5: Cultivate personal and institutional ecological conversion
While we affirm the progress made in the Mindanao Roadmap (cf Appendix) and laud our three Mindanao universities for taking the lead in furthering our gains, the whole Province is enjoined to pursue these Thrusts in this extraordinary period to address the urgent concerns of our people and our Church, drawing from our resources together. We do this fully recognizing that all of our communities and institutions are struggling to creatively respond to the new realities brought about by the ongoing pandemic. The mission is taking on new forms amidst great practical and spiritual challenges, including the care of the poor among our direct stakeholders. There have been and will be new challenges to our mission, and yet we put a spotlight on these Province Thrusts as fundamental to our mission today.
Our troubled times compel us Jesuits (and our mission partners) to re-examine the fidelity of our way of life, to return to the Lord’s call in GC36 for renewal of Jesuit life and mission, and together to beg for God’s grace to fulfill it. The pursuit of these Province Thrusts relies heavily on our capacity, as individuals, communities and institutions, to engage in personal and collective examination of conscience and to see how we live out and struggle with our vowed commitments to Jesuit life and shared mission.
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Download the Letter of Promulgation of the Renewed Province Plan here.
Download the full copy of the Renewed Province Plan here.