Over the past four centuries or so the Jesuit Order has been a defender of the Catholic faith and the rights of the Maltese people, Culture and Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said yesterday as he addressed the 22nd international conference on Jesuits and cooperation with laymen.

An Aloysian himself, Dr Zammit Dimech said that since independence, St Aloysius College had produced some of Malta’s most eminent people, including presidents of the Republic, prime ministers, many ministers, artists, professionals, journalists and scientists.

“These people honour the Jesuit Order and the country by living the maxim that the result of a good education is measured not so much by a person’s academic qualifications as by the level of a person’s total preparedness to take up the various challenges presented to him throughout his life.”

The conference brings together students in their late teens from six Jesuit colleges in Italy, Spain, Albania, Lebanon and Malta.

Dr Zammit Dimech pointed out that today, apart from the college, the Jesuits in Malta manage a host of charitable organisations including the Jesuit Refugee Service, the Paolo Frere Centre in Zejtun, the Spiritual Centre Injazjana and the University Chaplaincy.

“Jesuits from Malta have also been sent abroad as missionaries as well as to Europe and America,” he said, making special mention of a project started by the Maltese province of the order in Santal Parganas in India, where a number of Maltese Jesuits still work, even though the mission is now self-supporting.

The presence of the Jesuit Order in Malta has formed part of the country’s heritage and is interlinked with its history, said Dr Zammit Dimech. He emphasised that the collaboration between the Jesuits and laymen was dynamic, pointing out that the proof of this was the popularity of St Aloysius College and the good work carried out by the Jesuit Refugee Service and Paolo Frere Centre.