09 October 2007
Bilbao Campus
Last 9 October, Pedro Arrupe’s biographer gave a lecture entitled ‘Pedro Arrupe, testigo del siglo XX y profeta del XXI’.This lecture was framed within the Deusto Forum conference series entitled ‘Arrupe y Gárate:dos modelos’. In Lamet’s opinion, ‘Arrupe was a prophet because he announced what was yet to come, he envisaged things for the future and, above all, because he condemned the present’, he remembers.‘He was a citizen of the world committed to his times. He acted as a bridge between East and West, and his aim was to work in the Church in the borders, with the underprivileged’.
This lecture opened the activities organised by the Company of Jesus to commemorate Pedro Arrupe’s birth. He was a person who knew how to describe the world in such a way that it would be valid even today. He became the second Basque man to hold the highest position within the Jesuit community worldwide after St.Ignatius of Loyola, as Father General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983. As one of the most important Bilbao-born citizens in history, he became a Freeman of the City in 1965.
The main aim of the various special activities organised by the Company of Jesus is to bring his thinking and life closer to us through different initiatives. Apart from the aforementioned Forum conference series, these also include two retrospective exhibitions and a great musical.The takings from these events will go entirely to the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), devoted to defending refugees’ rights in over 40 countries.
As for the Deusto Forum lectures, they will be held at the University of Deusto and the Arrupe Etxea building and on 13 November, they will include Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Head of the Company of Jesus, who will give a lecture entitled ‘P.Arrupe:profeta de la renovación conciliar’, on Father Arrupe’s influence in the renewal of the Catholic Church under the Second Vatican Council. Other speakers include: Pedro Miguel S.J., who will open this conference series, Ignacio Iglesias S.J., Enrique Figaredo S.J. and Manuel Alcalá S.J. Guest speakers will talk about his work with the refugees and the role he played during the Renewal of the Catholic Church.
With regard to the photographic exhibition on Father Arrupe’s life, it will be held at the Fine Arts Museum in Bilbao from 12 November to 16 December.This exhibition features photographs of great artistic quality and/or informative value, compiled through archives, front covers of periodicals of wide international coverage and pictorial or charcoal portraits of Father Arrupe. They are accompanied by short descriptions that allow us to have some brief and visual details on his biography. This exhibition will show different moments in his life that reflect the different aspects of the personality and vision of this world-renowned Jesuit, who was even featured on the cover of the North American Time magazine.
In addition, on 14 November a temporary exhibition will be opened, and it will include the main moments in Father Arrupe’s life, the activities he promoted and the main features of this thinking, as well as the way in which the Company of Jesus maintains his legacy.This exhibition will be held in the recently renovated Arrupe Etxea building, ‘traditionally known as Los Luises in Bilbao’, which is located next to the Jesuit Residence. It was here where Father Arrupe himself found out about the Company of Jesus’ activities as a child.
The climax of the different commemorative events will take place in the Euskalduna Congress and Concert Hall next 14 November, coinciding with Father Arrupe’s birthdate, with a great format musical entitled ‘Arrupe’.This performance, conducted by Basque artist Gontzal Mendibil, will show Father Arrupe’s life, with over 90 actors and extras, and the participation of the Orfeón Donostiarra (San Sebastian Choral Society), the Ludwig Symphonic Orchestra, the Choir of Bilbao Choral society, Igor Yebra’s Ballet, Beti Jai Alai Dantzak and Oreka Tx Txalaparta.
In this performance, which will be held in the Euskalduna Congress and Concert Hall, the musical themes will be combined with other stage languages such as drama, dance, and an important audiovisual section, which will facilitate its physical and mental journey. The show will be divided into two main parts.The first one will present the tireless traveller, an Arrupe researcher who seeks to explore the world and its spirituality and cultures, while the second part will examine the world of Rome, the times of reflection, agreements, disagreements, and fundamental decisions.
Biographical notes. "Padre Arrupe: A Bilbao-born Father General of the Company of Jesus
Father Arrupe was born on 14 November in 1907 in the famous Calle de la Pelota in Bilbao. He was a Jesuit who was Father General of the Company of Jesus between 1965 and 1983. He was the son of one of the founders of the Gaceta del Norte newspaper and an excellent student of medicine. He was also a fellow student of Nobel Prize Severo Ochoa.
Pedro Arrupe left his medical studies, in spite of the insistence of his teacher and former president of the Republic Juan Negrín, who did everything he could not to lose such an excellent student.Stunned by his experiences during the years he spent with the poor in Vallecas as a student, and following a trip to Lourdes, Father Arrupe left the Faculty of Medicine and entered the Company of Jesus to become a doctor of souls rather than bodies.
Ten years later he was sent to USA, where he supported the prisoners in North American prisons, whom he visited regularly. Once in Japan, his second destination, he worked in the Japanese parish of Yamaguchi, and later he headed the novitiate of Hiroshima, the place that witnessed the atomic bomb explosion in 1945. This led him to immediately turn the novitiate into an emergency hospital.Some years later, Father Arrupe wrote a book about this experience entitled:'Yo viví la bomba atómica', which was a major bestseller at the time.
He was appointed Father General of the Company of Jesus in 1965, which he held for 18 years as a successor of Ignatius of Loyola, thus becoming the second Basque Father General in history.During his years as Father General, he took active part in the Renewal of the Catholic Church under the Second Vatican Council.This renewal has an essential reference point in Arrupe’s thinking and writings still today.
Father Arrupe was known for his endless capacity for work: he travelled across five continents, promoted faith and justice, fostered dialogue with the non-believers, he created the Jesuit Refugee Service, and he was actively involved in the change of social structures so that a fairer and more supportive society could be achieved.
In August 1981, after arriving from a trip across Asia, where he had gone to visit the Cambodian refugees, he suffered a hemiplegia, which did not allow him to continue with his work. After nearly ten years of painful inactivity, he died on 5 February 1991, in the Jesuit headquarters in Rome.
