French gendarme in the community

Christian Gosée arrived at PBI in June to relieve the lead Gendarme at the French General Consulate of Jerusalem, PBI’s next door neighbor.  Fr. Luc Pareydt, the Counsellor for Religious Affairs, arranged for Christian’s stay while his confrère took scheduled time off. 

Sabbatical with the Jesuit community

Father Terry Kersch, CSB, a Basilian priest from St. Joseph’s College, Edmonton, Canada recently finished over a year in residence at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He came to Jerusalem after nine years as President of St. Joseph’s College, a college of the University of Alberta, to take a well-deserved sabbatical. His goal was to complete a Hebrew University program that included modern Hebrew and sociopolitical studies about Israel. With pre-pandemic booked flights, he arrived as Israel entered complete lockdown and joined the Jesuit community on the Feast of Saint Ignatius, on July 31, 2020.

Visit to Tel Azekah

On Friday 30 July, Scholastic Mark Logtenberg and Frs. Terry Kersch (a Basilian father), George Schultze, and Ryszard Wtorek visited the archaeological excavation at Tel Azekah, at the invitation of Fr Josef Briffa, a member of our community, who is a staff member of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition. Josef introduced the group to Prof. Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University, the Director of the Excavation.  Oded encouraged them to visit the area which Josef supervises and then join the other family, friends, and sponsors participating in the “digs” annual visitor’s day.

Father Francisco receives his PhD

Father Francisco Martins, Portuguese Jesuit and member of the Jesuit community in the Holy land for the past few years, has just received approval of his doctoral dissertation. We congratulate him on this major accomplishment.

Saint Ignatius – 500 years since his conversion

On July 31, 2021, the Jesuit community of the Holy Land celebrated the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and marked the five hundred years since his conversion. Five members of the community presented five steps in his spiritual journey. Here are the texts read at the celebration.

Feast of Saint Ignatius 2021 – 500 years since the conversion

On July 31, 2021, about two hundred people gathered in the garden of the Pontifical Biblical Institute to celebrate the Feast of saint Ignatius of Loyola. This year the celebration was consecrated to the five hundredth anniversary of the conversion of Saint Ignatius.