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June 2016

Dear Friends!

When I meet children on the streets or in the poor quarters of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, which I visit from time to time, the children often ask me to throw them up in the air and then catch them again. In most cases I end up doing it more than once. It is good to feel that the children trust me. And it also feels good to be able to make them laugh. For people who live in an environment of resignation and mistrust, experiencing feelings of joy and of being carried by someone you trust is very important to our human flourishing.

In Austria, the Jesuits hosted so-called “Days of Mercy” in three places. We interacted with young people and visited socially marginalized men and women. In different parishes we invited people to liturgy, discussions and confession. We received very good feedback from these days. They showed us that even here in Austria people are grateful for uplifting experiences, messages of hope and the possibility to talk with others about things that burden them.

The topic of this year´s Province-symposium of the Austrian Jesuits was “To Experience and Share the Message of Mercy”. We visited different social projects for people in need, we celebrated an “Evening of Mercy” together and in the end we walked through the “Gate of Mercy” in St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna.

We have had the privilege to experience how the “Year of Mercy” touches and moves us, giving us the opportunity to let other people’s hearts beat faster with Christ’s own joy. I wish all of us more such experiences.

In Solidarity,

Fr. Markus Inama SJRector

Jesuitenkolleg Innsbruck | Sillgasse 6 | A-6020 InnsbruckTel.: +43-512-5346-0 | Fax: +43-512-5346-99

[email protected] | www.jesuitenkolleg-innsbruck.at

www.jesuitenkolleg-innsbruck.at

Fr. Markus Inama SJ | Rector

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Newsletter Nr 13 | 2016 INNsBrUCK

Thomas Söding, Dominik Markl, Georg FischerBibel – Jugendbibel der Katholischen Kirche432 S., Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk / Augsburg: YOUCAT 2015(1) ISBN 978-3-945148-12-9, www.youcat.org(2) ISBN 978-3-460-32587-6, www.bibelwerk.de

Georg Fischerteologie dell’antico testamentoEdizione italiana a cura di Simone Paganini e Benedetta Rossi (Lectio 8). 445 S. Rom: GB Press; Cinisello Balsamo: San Paolo 2015, ISBN 978-8-215-9630-8

Liborius Olaf LummaFeiern im rhythmus des JahresEine kurze Einführung in christliche Zeitrechnung und Feste. Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet 2016. 246 S. ISBN 978-3-7917-2771-4, eISBN 978-3-7917-6083-4 (epub)

J.N. Bremmer, T.R. Karmann, T. Nicklas (Eds.)the ascension of isaiah(Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha 11). 418 S. Ort: Peeters Publishers 2016, XVI, ISBN 978-90-429-3199-2

Christian KanzianWie Dinge sindNoch eine Alltagsontologie (Philosophical Analysis 66). 302 S. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2016. VII, ISBN 978-1-5015-1055-7

Johann Bair, Wilhelm Rees (Hg.)anerkannte religionsgemeinschaften in Österreich und ihre erwartungen an das Staat-Kirche-verhältnis(Conference Series: Religion und Staat im Brennpunkt). 460 S. Innsbruck: uip 2016. ISBN 978-3-903122-08-06

Wolfgang Palaver, Harriet Rudolph, Dietmar Regensburger (Hg.)the european Wars of religionAn Interdisciplinary Reassessment of Sources, Interpreta-tions, and Myths. 280 S. Farnham/UK: Ashgate 2016. ISBN 978-1-4724-2711-3

Bernhard Braun, Otto Neumaier (Hg.)eile mit WeileAspekte der Be- und Entschleunigung in Wissenschaft und Kunst (Schnittstellen: Wissenschaft und Kunst im Dialog 4). 256 S. Wien: LIT Verlag 2015. ISBN 978-3-643-50691-7

Maria Juen, Gunter Prüller-Jagenteufel, Johanna Rahner, Zekirija Sejdini (Hg.)anders gemeinsam – gemeinsam anders? In Ambivalenzen lebendig kommunizieren (Kommunikative Theologie 18). 270 S. Ostfildern: Grünewald 2015. ISBN: 978-3-7867-3051-4

Margit Eckholt, Roman A. Siebenrock, Verena Wodtke-Werner (Hg.)Die große SinnsucheAusdrucksformen und Räume heutiger Spiritualität. 272 S. Ostfildern: Grünewald 2016. ISBN: 978-3-7867-3074-3

On January 19th, 2016, Fr. Josef Németh SJ passed away at the age of 90. He lived and worked in Innsbruck from 1990 till 2013, helping Jesuit scholastics as their beloved Latin, Greek and German teacher. Fr. Németh died in Hungary, where he originally came from, and was buried in the Crypt of the Jesuit Church in Budapest.

This year the group of Jesuit students together with Fr. Goller and Fr. Inama went for a day of recollection to the education house St. Michael, close to the Brenner Pass, and to Brixen/South Tyrol where they stayed at the Seminary of the diocese.

On May 5th, 2016, Fr. John Stanley Sahayaraj SJ from Madurai Province, after having finished his doctorate, returned to India. The title of his dissertation is “Magis Leadership for the Indian CEO with an Ignatian perspective”. He will start working at the Jesuit Seminary in Arul Kadal in June.

On April 27th, the Feast of Peter Canisius, the Faculty of Theology and the Diocese of Innsbruck organized a day of prayer, discussions and workshops on the topic, “Is God, After All, Moving? Personal Relationship and The Mysterious Nature of God.”



> Community neWS <

John Stanley Sahayaraj SJ

> neW BooKS <

Province-symposium of the Austrian Jesuits in Vienna

Day of Recollection in Brixen – T. Karimundackal, M. Inama, R. Strugiński, C. Ekka, H. Goller, J. Sahayaraj, A. Savariyappan

G. Fischer SJ (middle) leading a workshop for young people at the „Days of Mercy“ in Vorarlberg

The Holy Year of Mercy called for by Pope Francis has resonated throughout the whole world. It has called atten-tion to one of the central tenets of the Christian faith: God is merciful, and he extends his mercy to anyone without restrictions. It is remarkable to see the variety of images describing the mercy of God in Biblical texts, sometimes even challenging our traditional androcentric vision of God. God is suddenly like a mother suckling her child (Isaiah 49), or a gardener watering a garden regardless of the quality of plants in it (Matthew 6); in traditional Mediterranean society gardening was usually the work of women. All these images carry another dimension of God’s mercy: the abundant joy God has in mercifully caring for humankind. It is like the joy of the woman at retrieving the lost coin, or of the prodigally merciful father at receiving his ragged son back into his arms (Luke 15). Discovering and experiencing the mercy of God shatters the expectations many of us have of a God of retributory justice. It breaks our traditional images of God and asks us to discover God’s delight in us.

The story of the merciful father already points out that mercy and joy bring with them a challenge. The harder the older son finds it to share in the joy of the father and his younger brother, the more it becomes apparent that he does not find such mercy in himself. This lightness of heart eludes him and drags him into the very sty the younger brother has just escaped. Matthew’s Gospel makes this even clearer with the parable of the unforgiving servant: the king who has just written off an incredible amount of debt has to witness how his servant forfeits the mercy granted him: “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” (Mt 19:33). Mercy is not just a gift; it is a mission for the recipient. Where the active response to mercy is absent, there remains only weeping and gnashing of teeth.

These few allusions present only a tiny slice of the richness of the biblical accounts of God’s mercy. But they highlight something that reappears again and again: mercy and its accompanying joy are the way God shows himself – or her-self – to human beings. Paul speaks about how it delighted God to reveal himself on the Road to Damascus (Gal 1:16). In the famous “Contemplation to Attain Divine Love”, Ignatius takes up this theme and has the retreatants consider the lavish outpouring of God’s love on themselves personally. What is a rather abstract consideration of God’s creative power in the “Principle and Foundation” of the Spiritual Exercises becomes at the end the overwhelming certainty that God addresses me personally. God’s mercy is offered to be experienced by everyone.

Furthermore, the experience of God cannot remain hidden or private. “Be merciful, therefore, as your father in heaven is merciful,” says Jesus (Lk 6:36). Jesus invites his disciples to change themselves and the world around them with that abounding love God has for this world. This is what it means to be a Christian: to learn from the way God acts towards us. The story of the last judgment (Mt 25) encapsulates this in truly astounding terms: Jesus tells of a scene in which account is given on what people have done or not done to their neighbours, and it turns out that some have done

these famous works of mercy, while others have not. But the astonishing feature of this story is that none of those judged would have known that what they did to the least of their brothers and sisters they did to Jesus. They are not praised for doing something commanded by their religious beliefs but for changing the world around them with the same unconditional love that characterizes God.

By calling for a Holy Year Pope Francis focusses the whole church on this foundational self-revelation of God in the experience of mercy and love. This year concentrates what characterizes the whole pontificate of Francis who washes the feet of the marginalized or visits refugees in Lampedusa or Greece. Most people view Francis’ emphasis on mercy as a watershed in the Church, even if not everyone seems to appreciate such a paradigm shift.

The Jesuit journal ZKTh and the Theology Faculty at the University of Innsbruck are cooperating together in order to sponsor an international conference which approaches mercy from the different angles of the various philosophical and theological disciplines. The conference reflects on Christian mercy in scripture and tradition, while also explor-ing new avenues and possibilities opened up by a mercy that is both gift and mission.

> merCy aS GiFt anD miSSion <



Boris Repschinski SJ

One year ago, Father Severin Leitner SJ died during a hiking tour. Dominik Markl SJ spent the last day with him and wrote a letter in which he described their last moments together.

Rome, 8 June 2015Dear Brothers,

I wish to tell you briefly about Severin’s last day.

Yesterday, sunday, we left the Curia by car at 5.30 a.m. Severin was in good spirits, and we were both looking for-ward to this tour, about which we had been speaking for more than a year. At 8 a.m. we arrived at Campo Impera-tore, the starting point for Gran Sasso. There were thousands of wonderful alpine flowers, which Severin photographed with enthusiasm.

We arrived at the starting point of the most direct route (“Direttissima”) around 10 a.m. We had a short break and then moved on to the steeper part; first on rocky terrain, then entering the snowy channel through which one ascends at this time of the year with crampons on the shoes and ice picks in your hands. Severin was in very high spirits, and as the ascent became steeper, he said: “Now I am in my element.”

About 200 meters below the peak, we stopped for a minute to speak with a German lady. Severin was a meter behind me. She indicated that something was happening. I turned and saw Severin gliding over the snow. He gave a slight scream, spread his arms to find a hold, but could not stop. He fell farther and farther, and we lost sight of him. Since the channel veers to the right in the lower part, he could not avoid hitting rocks during his fall. The lady immediately called the rescue team. I descended slowly. When the helicopter arrived, I pointed out the direction in which I now could see Severin lying. Only when I came close did it become irrefutably clear what had happened, since the rescuers had already covered Severin’s body completely.

I was able to see Severin’s body in the morgue of the hospitel at l’Aquila. He had a big wound above his right eye. He seems to have hit a sharp rock or stone while he was falling. He probably died quickly of cerebral trauma.

Despite his fatal injury, Severin’s countenance was radiating dignity, seriousness and peace.

Severin, Farewell. Dominik

> Severin Leitner SJ <




“Haven’t we all experienced moments in the history of our soul during which we had the impression that we could never forget them, that the attitude, the experience, the state of mind which existed then, could never disappear from our being be-cause it was so deeply engraved

in the countenance of our spirit […]? And even when such experiences turn out to be illusions in individual cases (as the hiker has during a mountain hike when he thinks he’s close to his destination because a segment of his path is removed from his view of the rest of the way): Aren’t such illusions in individual cases a proof that what is intended exists […]?” (SW 7, 90) Whoever lives in the Jesuit college in Innsbruck can well imagine the meaning of Karl Rahner’s words here vividly and clearly. Not only because the author lived here for more than 20 years and is buried in the crypt of the Jesuit Church next to the college, or because we always meet people who knew him (for instance, the Jesuits who lived and worked with him), but also because these mountains and hiking tours are a part of our daily life.1

Ever since another novice suggested that I read Fr. Rahner´s Encounters With Silence, I have been fascinated with Karl Rahner. Therefore, it was a great pleasure for me to be able to go on studying in Innsbruck. Shortly after I had complet-ed my theological basic study in Santiago, Chile – my home town - I moved here in April of 2015. I am very happy with both my community and religious life in the Jesuit college as well as with my study.

I am convinced that Theology can contribute significantly to our own personal lives and also to our wider society. Therefore, we Jesuits should develop our theological tradi-tion. If we reflect on our history there are at least two exam-ples where Jesuits contributed to the theological discussion: The first was at the Council of Trent (1545-63) and the so called Reformation and Counter-Reformation; and the Sec-ond Vatican Council (1962-65). Jesuits participated actively at both and our own college in Innsbruck had close ties to both councils. Peter Canisius, who founded our college, not only participated at the Council of Trent, but he also was a very essential figure in the pastoral field where most of the reforms took place. The Fathers J.A. Jungmann, Karl Rah-ner and his brother Hugo Rahner, members of our faculty, were very important for the preparation of Vatican II and its progress. These two key moments of Church history, Trent and Vatican II, represent proudly the contribution of our fel-low Jesuits and the long-standing importance of our Jesuit college here in Innsbruck. Particularly nowadays, when the People of God are longing for the ongoing updating (aggiornamento) of our Church, we will be able to contrib-ute if we look at the older Jesuits, who served the Church well with their theological work both then and now.Hernán Rojas SJ 1Nevertheless, I have to admit that I don´t like hiking very much… But here I found out that Karl Rahner actually liked driving by car better than walking.

> Hernán roJaS <

Hernán Rojas SJ

Severin Leitner SJ

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