I am writing this piece while directing a retreat at the Pedro Arrupe Institute, Raja, Goa. Ever since I arrived here, I saw people peering at a black statue right in front of the chapel. The statue was of a man dressed apparently in traditional Japanese dress, who was praying in a squatting posture.
The Sisters who had come for the retreat asked me whose statue it was, and I was very happy to tell them: “Pedro Arrupe!”
I am writing this column on him on his 111st birthday and the day he, as the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, founded the JRS (Jesuit Refugee Service) that works now in 52 countries, serving about -640,000 refugees from across the world.
Pedro Arrupe was born on 14 November 1907 in Bilbao in the Basque region of Spain. He studied medicine, butbefore he could complete his studies and become a doctor, he was called to become a Jesuit. He joined the Jesuits in 1927. Five years later, the Spanish government expelled all the Jesuits, and Arrupe had to complete his Jesuit formation in Belgium, Holland and the U.S. He was ordained a priest on 30 July 1936.
In 1938 he was sent to Japan. He hoped he would be allowed to serve in Japan till the end of his life. But the Second World War broke out. On 07 December 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In Japan it was already 08 December, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While Father Arrupe was celebrating the Eucharist, he was arrested by the Japanese Security forces on suspicion of espionage and placed in solitary confinement.
He was released after thirty-three days. He moved to Nagatsuka, outside Hiroshima, to resume his duties as the Master of Novices. On 06 August 1945, he heard the wailing sirens as an American B 29 bomber flew over Hiroshima. Very soon he heard a deafening explosion and felt the deadly impact of the atomic bomb. He was one of the eight Jesuits who were within the blast zone, but all of them miraculously survived.
Arrupe opened the Jesuit Novitiate and welcomed about 150 shocked, suffering victims and treated them using his medical training. He and his Jesuit companions managed to save all of them – except a boy.
In 1958 he was appointed the Provincial of the Japanese Jesuit province and seven years later he was elected the 28th Superior General of the Jesuits. He had to guide the Jesuits through the momentous changes that Vatican II brought.
Eager to get the Jesuits committed to addressing the needs of the poor, he convened a General Congregation that defined the Jesuits’ mission as “service of the faith and the promotion of justice.”
As his heart was always with the poor, he emphasized that we need to strive constantly to win justice for them. One of the most quoted statements of this modern day prophet was about the objective of Jesuit education. It must be to form ‘men and women for others,’ he said.
In 1981 he suffered a stroke. In a move that annoyed some Jesuits and saddened many, Pope John Paul II appointed an elderly Italian Jesuit to administer the Society. In 1983, Father Arrupe was asked to resign. A General Congregation was called to elect his successor. He was brought to the opening session in a wheelchair and his statement was read out. The delegates were moved to tears when they heard his words: “More than ever I find myself in the hands of God…It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to feel myself so totally in God’s hands.” Later he slipped into a coma from which he never recovered. In 1987, when I visited Rome, Fr Michael Amaladoss SJ, who was then a General Assistant, took me to the room where Father Arrupe lay unconscious. Fighting back tears, I bent down and touched his feet and sought his blessings. He died on 05 February 1991 at the age of 83.
As I was writing this column, I chanced to see a letter from the present Jesuit General, informing the Jesuits that the cause of Fr Pedro Arrupe’s beatification has begun and so, technically from now on he is a ‘Servant of God.’ A servant of God who fell in love with his Master. Revealing the secret of living a life of commitment, Arrupe said, “Fall in love (with God) and stay in love and it will decide everything.”
M A Joe Antony SJ
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