Posted: October 19

East Asia socii came visiting

The Curia has been enlivened for the past five days by the presence of the Socii (or executive assistants to the provincials from that part of the world) who came to Rome for their regular meeting which also enabled them to meet Jesuits in the Curia. Yesterday they came to my office, which actually held 10 visitors; I had never tried before and it did not quite feel like we were setting records for stuffing people into a Volkswagon. It was OK, but a bit close. The conversation, however, was very interesting. They ranged in age from a young Jesuit just ordained to men of long experience. Nevertheless, they were interested in using the web to communicate better with the men of their provinces and in using new techniques in computer technology. It was very refreshing talking to them. The Australia province is part of the group and they have already taken some great steps forward. I hope that other provinces learn from their example. They think of the province web sites as one entity, be the site sponsored by a school, a parish, a social work or the province itself. They are trying to create a unified "face" on the web. It is an obvious idea, but as far as I know, no other province is trying to do it, or has even really thought of it. Generally, each Jesuit work approaches the web independently. We act like small islands in an enormous digital sea. Perhaps it is time to change our thinking. The Australia experiment bears watching, and encouraging.