Novitiate of the Province of Central Europe moves to Austria
Innsbruck, February 11, 2022 (KAP) The novitiate of the Jesuits in Central Europe will move from Nuremberg to Innsbruck at the end of February. “The house community has become too small due to the declining number of people entering the house,” said novice master P. Thomas Hollweck in a broadcast on Friday, one of the main reasons for the move. In Innsbruck, the novitiate community moves into the Jesuit College. A number of young Jesuits are already living there, mainly postgraduate students, as well as young adults who are also looking for their vocation in the future workshop. “Peer-to-peer contacts are essential for young men who want to find out if they are Jesuit vocations.” The lack of a “peer group” in Nuremberg is therefore another key reason for the move,” explained Hollweck.
For Hollweck, the move to Innsbruck is more than just a change of location: “It is also a new beginning, both concretely, structurally and in terms of the art and way in which we want to design the novitiate. We have to look after ourselves. How is the novitiate going in 2022 with smaller groups? How does the novitiate deal with the social and societal situation? I’m happy to start over in a new place and under different circumstances because I think we need a lot of fresh starts.”
The Jesuit Province of Central Europe, founded at the end of April 2021, comprises a total of 36 locations in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden and the USA with a total of around 420 confreres. It is led by the Austrian Jesuit Father Bernhard Bürgler.
(Information: www.jesuiten.org)