Report by Peter Wong ’58.

6th World Congress of Jesuit Alumini/ae was held in Kolkata, India on 21st to 24th January 2003. Fr. A. J. Deignan S.J., Mr. W.S. Lo of Hong Kong Wah Yan and myself have the pleasure of attending the Congress. The opening of the Congress was officiated by His Excellency Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India with His Excellency Shri Uiren J. Shah, the Governor, as the guest of honour.

 

On the second day there was a special Mass by Fr. Superior General, Fr. Kolvenbach. He also addressed the Congress and spelled out the theme of 6th Congress, echoing Fr. Arrupe’s idea of focusing on human dignity. Hence the topics for discussion of the Congress were related to human dignity:

1) Business concerns with respect to ethics.

2) Development and environment.

3) Empowerment to women.

4) Education / Liberty through literacy.

 

There were four group sessions with delegates and participants joining each group with interest in the above subjects. On the last day of the Congress, each group gave a report of the discussion on the subject.

 

Also on the last day of the Congress, Executives and Council members were elected for the year 2003-2009 by delegates and accredited delegates as follows:-

 

                        New WUJA Council 2003-2009

 

                        Executives:

 

                        President:        Bernard Thompson

 

                        V. President:    Jean Toto Moukovo

 

                        Secretary:       Francois Xavier Camernen

 

                        Treasurer:       John Riley

 

                        Council:

 

                        Africa (2):                        - Sina Buraimoh Ademuyewo

                                                        - (1 vacant)

 

                        East Asia (1):          - (1 vacant)

 

                        Europe (2):              - Alain Deneef

                                                        - Filipe Garrido

 

                        Latin American (2):  - Jose Luis Camborda

                                                        - Mario Ayala

 

                        Middle East (1):       - Nagy Khoury

 

                        N. America (2):        - Ron Ferreri

                                                        - Thomas Baush

 

                        Oceania (1):            - Robyn Treseder

 

                        South Asia (2):        - Conrad Gonsalves

                                                        - Krishna Kanoi

 

The Congress was very well attended with delegates and participants from Europe, South America, United States, Australia, East Asia and Africa. As according to “The Statutes” of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni, the next Congress will be held in 2009 in Africa. Cameron was selected to be the venue. I hope that perhaps by then there will be more participants from Hong Kong.

 

As a footnote, each alumni associate is supposed to send in USD100 annually as subscription to the World Union of Jesuit Alumni/ae. In Hong Kong, we have two associations: Wah Yan (Hong Kong) Past Students Association and Wah Yan Kowloon Past Students’ Association.