He doesn't sound like a Benedict XVI type. This is the opening of a profile written about him last year.
Posted by armand at January 19, 2008 09:34 AM | TrackBack | Posted to ReligionA conversation is an exchange. It leaves neither participant unchanged. This is something that Jesuits and other Christians working in Asia have found for centuries.
It’s been 46 years since Father Adolfo Nicolás first traveled to Japan as a missionary from Spain. His has been a long conversation, first in Japan, but also in Korea and more recently in the Philippines. It’s left him convinced that the West does not have a monopoly on meaning and spirituality, and can learn a lot from the experience of Asian cultures.
"Asia has a lot yet to offer to the Church, to the whole Church, but we haven’t done it yet", he says. "Maybe we have not been courageous enough, or we haven’t taken the risks that we should."
It speaks volumes that when Father Nicolás talks about Asia, he uses the term "we". As President of the Jesuit Conference of South East Asia and Oceania, he’s responsible for bringing Jesuits across the region together to think beyond their own countries, and confront challenges facing the globe.