Frank Turner SJ

For the past six years I occupied a post that came right out of the blue, working for the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, with the task of briefing and representing the bishops on matters of international justice, insofar as the Church in this country can respond to them.  I also belong to the Board of the Catholic development agency, CAFOD, and chair its committee on Latin America and the Caribbean.

The job was always fascinating, often tense and poignant since it is focused on situations of crisis and suffering.  It has taken me to Iraq, to Colombia, Syria, Lebanon and (twice) to Israel-Palestine, meeting a range of people from community leaders and voluntary workers to Cardinals, Patriarchs and the ministers of several governments.  Meeting Yasser Arafat surrounded by tanks in Ramallah and Tariq Aziz in Baghdad, felt a long way from the university library in Leeds and from my former council flat in Moss Side, Manchester.  But I can see the joins - and perhaps only membership of the Society of Jesus would have allowed me to experience this 'variety in unity'.