The last time Jesuit communicators were able to meet in person for their yearly gathering called JesWebCom was in 2019 in Madrid. A year later the get-together was scheduled to take place in Vienna, but due to the pandemic, eventually it was held online. Since the Covid situation had not become any better, the assembly this spring also occurred via Zoom from 4 to 6 May.

The more than 50 participants met online every day for two hours to listen to the keynote speeches, then to share their experiences in breakout rooms. On the first day Nikolaas Sintobin SJ, internet pastor of the Low Countries Province, gave a proposal of a spiritual recap of the pandemic times.

  The next day saw a talk by David Birchall SJ and Sarah Young titled “Alone yet in a Multitude” – Reaching Out Online in Lockdown. They presented a fascinating overview of the somewhat unexpected success of online retreats and individual guided retreats in daily life in Scotland and Wales during the Covid.

On the third day, John Dardis SJ from the General Curia in Rome “took the screen” to speak about the strategy of his office of communications. He then answered questions, together with Pascal Calu SJ, coordinator of the Saint Ignatius Year at the Roman Jesuit centre. Beside pastoral work during Covid and the ways of online evangelization, it was the onset of the Jubilee Year that dominated the program and gave opportunity for the communicators to share their best practices.

The participants represented most of the provinces in Europe and many from other continents. According to their testimonies, having been in the same shoes for more than a year, it was enriching to learn from one another’s examples as to how to cope with the extraordinary situation during pandemic times. And when the communicators said farewell to one another by saying “See you next year in Lisbon”, it was not a mere figure of speech. But also the expression of their sincerest hope that by 2022 the lockdown will be completely over, and they will at last be able to meet without any restrictions.