St. Ignatius Called Us To Go Anywhere

Jesuit Priest Dedicated to Aiding Refugees

By Kate Pipkin

It’s hard to reconcile the mild-mannered, grandfatherly Fr. Francis Moan, SJ, with the image of an adventurous globe trotter, trekking through refugee camps in Thailand, witnessing unspeakable horrors in Rwanda, dodging bullets in war-torn Bosnia or being stopped by the military in the midst of El Salvador’s civil war.

In an almost nonchalant way, Moan, 80, recounts some of the more frightening places he traveled as coordinator of the American branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service from 1983 until 1994.

“Not exactly the garden spots of the world,” he quips.

Once he got his first taste of working in ministry with refugees, Moan was hooked, although he stumbled upon it almost accidentally.

A native of Baltimore, Moan was chaplain at Georgetown Law School when he got a call from the now deceased Fr. Edward Brady, SJ. Brady was working with refugees in Thailand and had returned to the States for a visit. Brady knew Moan had a doctoral degree in education and recruited him to work for a summer at a school for Vietnamese refugees in Thailand.

That trip changed Moan’s life. He says his work with refugees was also fueled by his admiration of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, who was superior general of the Jesuit order from 1963 until 1982. Arrupe founded the Jesuit Refugee Service in 1980 with the release of a letter to Jesuits worldwide that said, in part, “St. Ignatius called us to go anywhere we are most needed for the greater service of God. The spiritual as well as material need of nearly 16 million refugees throughout the world today could scarcely be greater. God is calling us through these helpless people. We should consider the chance of being able to assist them a privilege that will, in turn, bring great blessings to ourselves and our Society.”

It was shortly after that letter that a Jesuit Refugee Service office was started in Washington, D.C., and Moan was chosen to head it.

Moan remembers and even keeps in touch with the first refugee he ever helped.

“A Vietnamese man in Hong Kong,” he explains. “He wanted to go to America, and his case had even gone to a number of congressmen, but he was having trouble.”

Moan contacted the American consul in Hong Kong and soon after, the man was allowed entrance to the United States and is now a U.S. citizen with five children, running his own landscaping business.

Working for the Jesuit Refugee Service took Moan to countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Thailand, Vietnam, Uganda, Sudan, the Congo, Israel and El Salvador, listening to the voices of those who had to flee their homes because of civil conflict, war or unrest, often with little but the clothes on their backs.

“To take your family and leave your own homeland requires a great deal of struggle, turmoil and creativity,” says Moan.

Witnessing that level of courage and determination led him to be a tireless advocate for refugees. In addition to directing the Jesuit Refugee Service, Moan also initiated and produced a series of public service radio announcements called Refugee Voices. Several well-known Hollywood actors such as Ossie Davis and Haing Nor, star of the movie The Killing Fields, signed up to record the spots.

“The goal was to get people in local communities to reach out and help those refugees who were already living in their neighborhoods,” he says.

Moan also wrote opinion pieces for The New York Times, America magazine and other publications, always advocating for the care of refugees.

These days Moan can be found residing at the Columbiere Jesuit Community in Baltimore. He continues to write and is still inspired by his experiences with refugees. In fact, Moan recently wrote a fictional short story that he actually started in 1984 during a trip to Burundi. Moan’s story is about a group of priests living in an African country who are being forced by the government to leave their home and the school they operate there. It can be read on page 33 of this magazine.

Kate Pipkin is director of communications for the Maryland Province Jesuits.