EUROPE/GERMANY - “Living a year with a difference” with Jesuit European Volunteers JEV: 32 young people start commitment as Jesuit Volunteers which will take them to various parts of the world

Munich (Fides Service) - “A year with a difference” starts today, 1 September 2004, for 32 young adults who have signed up for a preparatory Course to work with the Jesuit European Volunteers JEV. According to a report from the German province of the Jesuits, the participants will be trained in keeping with four basic principles which guide JEV activity: commitment for justice, community life, simple life style, living the faith. The new Superior of the German province Father Stefan Dartmann SJ, one of the teachers, will illustrate the history of the Society of Jesus and the Spirituality of St Ignatius.
After completing the course the young volunteers will start work various European countries such as Belgium, Germany, Austria and Rumania and some will go as far as Mexico. They will live in small communities and be involved mainly in social services: feeding centres for the poor, homes for the disabled. In Vienna they will work at a centre for Asylum seekers. In Rumania they will visit the elderly in their homes and in Mexico they will be involved in programmes to support children who have no access to school. (MS) (Agenzia Fides, 1/09/2004 - 16 righe, 192 parole)