To the Band of Brothers: April 30, 2024

Hello from Jamaica!

For the last couple of days, I have been in Kingston for a meeting of our Jesuit province and had the opportunity to visit St. George’s College. A couple of years ago, when the General of the Society of Jesus decided to include Jamaica as part of the Antilles Province, we officially became the Caribbean Province and also joined forces with Guyana. One of the things I didn’t realize is Belen is no longer the oldest Jesuit school in the province. St. George’s was founded in 1850, four years before us. Not only are they now officially our “older brother,” but their history is similar.

Because of the political unrest in Colombia in the 1850s, the government in that country began to persecute the Church. Churches and Catholic schools were confiscated and religious orders were expelled (sound familiar?). Twenty-one Spanish Jesuits who ran a school in Colombia were given 48 hours to leave the country. The only ship available to them was one heading to Jamaica. They boarded and were soon deposited in Kingston, where they got to work. St. George’s Colonial College was founded and has been here ever since.

Like Belen, St. George’s College is one of the best schools on the island. Unlike Belen, it ministers to over a thousand young men, most of whom are not Catholic. Less than 2% of the Jamaican population is Catholic. That being said, because the values of a Catholic-Jesuit education are universal and fundamental in the solid formation of good, Christian men, St. George’s does a phenomenal job of evangelizing through education. It is the reason why the school has found such great success for 175 years.

During one of the breaks in the meeting, I decided to walk the campus on my own. The students in their khaki uniforms were also on break and flooded the hallways and recess areas. As I strolled and observed, a young man walked up to me and asked me in terrible English if I was visiting. I could tell he was not Jamaican and I proceeded to ask him where he was from. He told me he was from Ecuador. I broke into Spanish and asked what he was doing in Jamaica. He went on to tell me his parents were Catholic missionaries sent to Jamaica for five years. Interestingly, we hear stories of priests and nuns who are missionaries all over the world, but rarely hear about missionary families.

Unable to get much detail because my break time and his was almost up, he mentioned they moved from Guayaquil to Kingston as part of an initiative and commitment they, as a family, made to the Catholic Church. They agreed they would spend time going where the Church sent them to spread the faith. He told me it was a bit challenging to learn a new language and get accustomed to a culture so different from his own, but they found purpose in their work and they found it together as a family. Look, for an individual to do that is hard enough, but to do that as a whole family? Well, only by the grace of God.

Tomorrow, I will be back at my post. I’m looking forward to our St. Joseph the Worker Mass and celebrating with the Belen community the many faculty and staff who have spent years giving their lives to our school. While they only have to travel a few miles from their homes to Belen’s campus, they too are missionaries, they too spread the gospel and promote the faith. Our Catholic population at Belen far exceeds 2% (more like 96%), but our students, parents, faculty, and staff still need to be formed in the beautiful and rich traditions of the faith. Tomorrow, we will celebrate many of them.

Auspice Maria