'Do Not Be Afraid'c
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Pope Francis Meets with Jesuits in Belgium
byAntonio Spadaro, SJ
October 8, 2024
© Antonio Spadaro
On the afternoon of Saturday, September 28, 2024, Pope Francis left the campus of the Catholic University of Louvain and arrived, around 6:15 p.m., at the Collège Saint-Michel, a Catholic school run by the Society of Jesus, located in Etterbeek, Brussels. There he met with about 150 Jesuits who reside in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. With them were the provincial of the Francophone Western European Province, Fr. Thierry Dobbelstein, and the superior of the Netherlands region, Fr. Marc Desmet. Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, was also present. The pope began:
Good evening, everyone! I have been here twice before, and it is good to return. I must tell you the truth: I once committed a theft here. I came to celebrate Mass and saw some papers that intrigued me. They were handouts from lessons on the Book of Job. That year in Argentina I was supposed to teach classes specifically on Job. I flipped through the pages, and they impressed me. Those notes remained with me!
October 8, 2024
© Antonio Spadaro
On the afternoon of Saturday, September 28, 2024, Pope Francis left the campus of the Catholic University of Louvain and arrived, around 6:15 p.m., at the Collège Saint-Michel, a Catholic school run by the Society of Jesus, located in Etterbeek, Brussels. There he met with about 150 Jesuits who reside in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. With them were the provincial of the Francophone Western European Province, Fr. Thierry Dobbelstein, and the superior of the Netherlands region, Fr. Marc Desmet. Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, was also present. The pope began:
Good evening, everyone! I have been here twice before, and it is good to return. I must tell you the truth: I once committed a theft here. I came to celebrate Mass and saw some papers that intrigued me. They were handouts from lessons on the Book of Job. That year in Argentina I was supposed to teach classes specifically on Job. I flipped through the pages, and they impressed me. Those notes remained with me!
