Keeping you up to date with the Railaco Jesuit Mission

Fr Hyoe Murayama SJ, Director of NOSSEF, the Jesuit secondary school in Railaco, shares the story of just one of his students, Julieta.

Julieta, 18, is a Grade 10 student at NOSSEF Secondary School.

Her story combines the commendable traits of kindness, deep faith and action.

It’s an example of how a good Catholic education can lift poor children living in desperate rural circumstances and provide them with opportunity in life.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ STORY.

As we look back on the second year of Covid disruption, there are so many heroic stories to relate, not only here in our own Elizabeth Bay parish but also in our sister parish of Railaco Jesuit Mission in East Timor.

Julieta tells us,
“I lost my father because of illness when I was ten years old.

Sometimes, I feel lonely and sad.

But thanks to generous people like those at St Canice’s, I’m now living with forty other girls in the dormitory at NOSSEF and receiving my secondary education as one of NOSSEF’S scholarship students.”

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ STORY.

 

St Canice’s parish priest Fr Paul Fyfe SJ writes how a Jesuit education adds an impetus and meaning to the spiritual dimension of our involvement in Railaco.

An Ignatian Aspect

We look to support the Railaco Parish in producing people of a deeply grounded faith, some of whom through their rural upbringing and secondary education will have the capacity to affect the direction not just of the area but of the country.

A ‘poor’ school needs certain types of assistance to produce people of deep faith and action. Currently, we believe that the feeding program, the mobile medical clinic, and NOSSEF (with the scholarships, the dormitories, and some excellent teachers, motivated by faith and generosity), are important factors.

But key to all this is that, with the support of the Parish, the school treasures its rural roots, reflects on them in the light of the Gospel, and helps students see beyond, to understand how the planet has got into a mess, and to discern how its spiritual and intellectually grounded understanding of that can show a better way. These necessary elements will no doubt evolve.