After thirteen years in the Jesuit community of the Holy Land, Father Joseph Nguyên Công Doan, known simply as Father Doan, leaves Jerusalem for Rome, the departure set for December 27, 2021. The community said its farewells at lunch on Christmas day, expressing profound appreciation for his years of service.
“Christ is born, let us glorify him – Halleluiah!”
Members of the Jesuit community went to Bethlehem on the Christmas morning to celebrate mass in the Basilica of the Nativity, in the Chapel of Saint Helena. Six Jesuits were present as the others were busy with their various apostolates.
Over the past number of years, Father David Neuhaus, superior of the Jesuit community in the Holy Land, has been invited by a Jewish Israeli teacher of Jewish Heritage to come to his classes and speak to fifth and sixth grade pupils about Christianity. He spent the day in the school on December 22, 2021, just a few days before Christmas.
On Saturday evening, December 18, 2021, members of the Good Shepherd Filipino Community in Jerusalem visited the Jesuit community. They animated the evening mass, ate dinner with the community and then sang Christmas carols.
Among the those considered in the International Book Prize competition of the Shoah memorial in Israel, Yad VaShem, was Jesuit professor of philosophy James Bernauer SJ of Boston College. The press release from Yad Vashem said, “The panel of judges found special interest in the book by Prof. James Bernauer, S.J., Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020).”
Dr. Mellie Brodeth brought her Teresian Association spiritual life and work ethic to the Pontifical Biblical Institute last March. The Teresian Association is an international lay ecclesial community, founded by Saint Pedro Poveda in 1911, in Covadonga, Asturias (Spain). St. Pedro Poveda, a martyr during the Spanish Civil War, wanted the laity to bring faith, human development, and social development to the world each day.
Jesuits in the Holy Land 
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