A steadfast commitment
Message from CJI Executive Director Jenny Cafiso
While in prison on unsubstantiated charges of terrorism along with his co-accused, Fr Stan Swamy SJ, an Indian Jesuit priest, wrote: “We sixteen co-accused have not been able to meet each other, as we are lodged in different jails or different ‘circles’ within the same jail. But we will still sing in chorus. A caged bird can still sing.”*
Fr Stan died on July 5, 2021, nine months after being incarcerated, leaving human rights defenders and communities in India and around the world bereft, but also inspired by his life of commitment and compassion for those considered the least among us. Even in death, his call to freedom can still be heard worldwide.
As I reflect on the last five years of our work at Canadian Jesuits International (CJI), Fr. Stan stands as one example of the selfless courage and prophetic vision of the people who continue to humble and inspire us. They also remind me of why CJI’s work of accompaniment and solidarity, matter.
As you will read in these pages, CJI’s Jesuit partners and supporters have remained a beacon of hope for poor and marginalized communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. CJI currently supports over 40 Jesuit projects focused on education and health, human rights defence and community organizing, sustainable agriculture and livelihood, service to forcibly displaced people, and humanitarian action. Despite the unprecedented challenges brought by Covid-19, CJI remained steadfast in working with the most vulnerable communities as they grappled with the crippling pandemic, and the intractable challenges of increasing poverty, human rights violations, war and conflict, environmental degradation, forcible displacement, and lack of access to education.
In 2022, CJI supported new and ongoing projects that help build climate-resistant communities; offer livelihood support, and training to address food insecurity; defend human and environmental rights in the face of resource extraction; promote organic farming and strengthen the solidarity economy; and support Indigenous peoples’ rights, as well as providing humanitarian responses to global and regional crises, including the earthquake in Haiti.
We also continue to build links of solidarity between people in Canada and in the Global South, especially with young people, engaging them in a process of reflection and action to build a better world.
None of this would be possible without the faithful support of people in Canada who share our commitment to social justice.
As I reflect on the work that is ahead of us, I am emboldened by the knowledge that while we live in uncertain times, “a caged bird can still sing.” It is up to us to choose to stand with Fr Stan and others like him who will not be silenced. At CJI, we consider it our calling and our privilege to do so.
* Excerpt from I Am Not A Silent Spectator, by Stan Swamy, published by the Indian Social Institute, 2021
