Jesuits Promote
International Collaboration
“magis”: WYD-Project for 3,000 Young People Is Planned
F r a n k f u r t /M a i n , N o v emb e r 3 0 , 2 0 0 4 .

Ten months before the start of World Youth Day 2005, the largest meeting of
the Roman Catholic Church ever in Germany, plans for an Ignatian preprogram
are taking shape. In an international conference in Frankfurt,
delegates of the Jesuit order and its Ignatian cooperating partners announced
that they are inviting 3,000 young adults from all over the world for a week
long program based on Ignatian spirituality.
During the conference the 30 participants from 22 countries met at St. Georgen, a
Jesuit school of philosophy and theology. Delegates coming from Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain,
Hungaria, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Lebanon, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain arranged for the number of participants who
would attend from approximately 40 countries.
The Ignatian project for World Youth Day combines elements of pilgrimage and
group retreat and takes the Latin term “magis” (“more”) as its motto. This term
stands for the goal of the project, to live more closely with God. The 3,000
participants will arrive in 12 different cities. Divided into 100 groups, they will
engage in social, creative or pilgrimage experiments. The project will culminate in a
celebration on the famous rocks of the Loreley near the Rhine. There, the general
superior of the Jesuits, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. and the local bishop of
Limburg, Dr. Franz Kamphaus, will join them for Mass. Finally, the participants will
go by ship down the Rhine to Cologne, where the official program of World Youth
Day will begin.
During the conference, the provincial of the German Jesuit province, Stefan
Dartmann, S.J. confirmed his support for international collaboration among Jesuits
and their cooperating partners. For him the project for World Youth Day represents
an excellent example of such collaboration. The Jesuits, with more than 20,000
members the largest order in the Roman Catholic Church, are striving to keep
attuned to the pastoral needs of youth now and into the future.
Project coordinator Fr. Ludger Joos, S.J. has succeeded in obtaining a large grant
from a prestigious foundation, the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung.
Yet, the organizers continue to seek more financial support from donors and
sponsors, so that more young people from Eastern European and developing
countries can participate.
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Inquiries to Martin Stark, S.J., Fon +49/69/6061-235 or Mobil +0178/2806741.
More information about the ['magis]-project for World Youth Day and pictures of the
International Conference available: www.magis2005.de