Madrid Conference and Assembly
11 September 2007 |
The tenth meeting of European Jesuits in Science (EJS) took place in Madrid on 5-10 September 2007. EJS meetings traditionally comprise two parts: a workshop/conference with some academic presentations, and an assembly dealing with internal EJS matters in general and the organisation of the next meeting in particular. When J. Leach, J. Monserrat (as hosts of the coming conference), A. Balsas, and P. Gabor (on behalf of the European Jesuits in Science), met in Madrid in spring 2006 we thought it would be good if the first part of our biannual EJS meeting, the “conference†part, was more open to the public.
Several months later, the Sophia Iberia in Europe project was successfully launched and the local organisers in Madrid suggested that if we really wanted to open the academic part of the EJS meeting more to non-Jesuits, we could simply join it with Sophia-Iberia’s Academic Conference. Accordingly, among the 80-90 participants of the three-day Conference, there were 25 “Jesuits in science†from Europe, USA and India, as well as a number of Spanish Jesuits involved in other fields.
The Assembly, attended by 21 Jesuits, took place on 9-10 September. In 2005, Fr. Mark Rotsaert, President of the Conference of European Provincials, strongly encouraged the EJS to prepare the group’s Statutes. This was one of the first items on the agenda of the Assembly in Madrid. The guiding principle was that the Statutes should describe of the current practice. There is only one point in which they represent a change. Instead of having a Steering Committee comprising one president or “EJS Coordinator†with an indefinite term of office, and two members elected for a two-year term only, we thought it better to elect a three-member Steering Committee (without a President). The mandate of each Steering Committee member will normally span six years: he will be elected by one biannual EJS Assembly, will be in office during two Assemblies, and step down during the fourth Assembly. In other words, the Steering Committee membership will be renewable by rotation, one of the members ending his term on each successive EJS Assembly.
To take care of the transition, we elected one Steering Committee member for a two-year term (Pavel Gabor, BOH), one for a four-year term (Leandro Sequeiros, BET), and one for a six-year term (Guy Consolmagno, MAR/DIR).
The Statutes and the newly elected Steering Committee were approved by Fr. Rotsaert on 11 September 2007.
The Assembly mandated the Steering Committee with the selection of the venue for our next meeting which should take place in 2009. The reason behind this decision is the success of the formula of this meeting, with its conference/workshop part being linked with an academic conference many of us would have liked to attend even if it had no connection with an EJS meeting. In the coming months, the Steering Committee will therefore select a conference of general interest to most EJS members, and prepare our next meeting accordingly.
The group discussed two postulata prepared by Bill Stoeger and the members of the Vatican Observatory at the suggestion of Fr. Delegate, I. Echarte. One called for more young Jesuits in the scientific apostolate. The other emphasized the importance that all Jesuits have some familiarity with science and technology in order to work in the modern world. In addition, interest was expressed in reviving the position of Father General’s Delegate for Jesuits working in science.