Australian
Provincial Fr Steve Curtin has appointed Fr Peter Hosking as Delegate for
Social Ministry from September 2008, while Fr Richard Leonard will be Delegate
for Mission Formation from January 2009.
Fr Hosking will succeed Fr David Holdcroft, who recently
commenced his tertianship in the United States. He said he is looking forward to supporting those who do such
generous work at Jesuit Social Services, Jesuit Refugee Service Australia, the
indigenous apostolate and other social ministries in the Province.
‘In the good quest for a faith that does justice, it is
always an honour to be able to support others', said Fr Hosking. ‘We have such
a network of committed companions, including many volunteers, in Australia and
abroad.'
Fr Hosking is well experienced in social ministries. He has
served with Jesuit Refugee Service in mental health programmes with Indochinese
refugees in the Philippines
in 1986, in 1988, and in Hong Kong in
1989. He was the Director of JRS Australia from
1988 to 1993, and Director of JRS East Timor in 1999-2000. On behalf of JRS, he
has also been engaged in trauma recovery workshops and psychosocial programme
development at different times in El Salvador,
on the Burma
border, and in East Timor, Solomon Islands, and Aceh.
Fr Hosking helped found the Jesuit social policy centre
‘Uniya' with Fr Frank Brennan in 1989.
He worked there from 1989 to 1995 and was Director of Uniya from 1993 to
1995. He also lived with indigenous
communities as a scholastic.
He has been involved with Jesuit Social Service since
1996. He has worked mainly with the
Connexions programme for young adults with a dual diagnosis. In addition to providing counselling support
for young people with mental health and substance misuse issues, he has been
involved in clinical supervision for staff.
Fr Hosking has been responsible for JSS staff development, coordinating
JSS clinical services, and Programme Director at various times.
Fr Hosking will continue his role as Socius to the Provincial
in addition to his new role as Delegate for Social Ministries.
Meanwhile, Fr Richard Leonard will succeed Fr Brendan Kelly
as the Provincial Delegate for Mission Formation. Fr Kelly has recently been
appointed a Province Consultor, and continues as Novice Master.
Fr Leonard has extensive experience in adult faith formation
across Australia and the
Pacific, Asia, the UK and
the USA.
He has undergraduate degrees in arts, education and theology. His master's
degree in feminist theology has been published as Beloved Daughters:100 Years of Papal Teaching About Women. Fr
Leonard did graduate studies at the London
Film School
at Covent Garden. In 2004 he graduated with a
PhD in cinema studies from Melbourne
University. He presently
directs the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting. He has
lectured at the United Faculty of Theology, the University
of Melbourne and is a visiting
professor at the Gregorian University at Rome.
In 2007 Fr Leonard was appointed an honorary fellow of the Australian Catholic
University.
He is the author of Movies
That Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith (Loyola University
Press, Chicago), Preaching to the
Converted Throughout the Sundays and Feastdays of the Year (Paulist Press, New York) and next year
Melbourne University Press will release The
Mystical Gaze of the Cinema: the Films of Peter Weir. He take up his new
position in January 2009.
Mission Formation has care of Centres of Ignatian
Spirituality at Faber (Qld), Canisius (NSW), Campion (Vic), Sevenhill and
Loyola (SA). He will also be responsible for Magis and the Loyola Institute.