I first remember hearing the name of Nelson Mandela when I was a student in England in the early 80’s. At the time, it was a mark of the political correctness of a university to name something after the world’s most famous prisoner of conscience: you would find the Mandela room, the Mandela conference centre, the Mandela dorm, even the Mandela bar!

No doubt some of the people behind that outbreak of baptising did it with integrity: they had a good understanding of the politics of the ANC and the Nats, they knew what Mandela stood for, their interest was in the real people of South Africa and not just in the celebrities. But there were also many of them – of us, since I would count myself in that number – for whom Mandela was just another famous name, alongside Madonna, Maradonna and Marley.

I still think that the money spent on building new stadia was a waste of public resources, even though – in fairness – the public works programme that it created some jobs at a time when the world economy went through a crisis. FIFA and their friends in South Africa have certainly made a fortune even if some of this has ‘trickled down’ to the poor guys who sell flags at stop lights.

The world has been cajoled into believing that we absolutely have to have FIFA to enjoy international football. An insider tells me that ten years ago the branding gurus advised FIFA to equate itself with the World Cup. Hence ‘The World Cup’, became ‘The FIFA World Cup’ and with even less shame they added the slogan ‘For the good of the game; for the good of the world’. Happily the South African World Cup has shown that it’s about much more than the organisers and their branding consultants.

Ignatian Spirituality is a way of being contemplative in action. That stance in the world requires that we reflect daily on our experience. As vital as it is to be aware of what it happening in the context in which we live politically, socially and economically, we also need to engage with our inner responses to those events which shape the circumstances of our lives.

Journaling can be one of the most helpful ways to do that.

At the end the first half of the academic year, the students at the Jesuit Institute School of Theology have conducted evaluations of the courses they have been attending. Students come from all across the archdiocese. There are 26 students attending the second year of theology, and 24 in the course in Scripture being taught at the Catholic Bible College. Most are Catholic. However, one or two members of other churches were referred to us by St Augustine College, because they specifically wanted to study theology and biblical studies at the certificate level. So an ecumenical respect prevails, while the the ethos of the courses remains Catholic.

Several traditional soccer powers have now been made to look played-out and past it at the hands of arrivistes from the New World, East Europe and the Antipodes, England being among them. The Economist’s ‘Bagehot’ recently used football as a metaphor for the country’s place in the world, writing sadly that, ‘The team represents a people less certain than they were a few years ago that global greatness is their destiny and much less sure that they can afford it’. Across the Atlantic, the US strategic think-tank Stratfor suggested a little unkindly that England had an ‘aura as a perennial football power which obfuscates its World Cup disappointments’. That was before the US got its comeuppance against Ghana!

‘Is South Africa an independent country?’ A disarming question from a perceptive Mexican fan suggesting there is no independence without it being financial. To illustrate, he added that after 400 years many banks and businesses in his country are still Spanish. The commercial grip that Fifa has exercised over this World cup adds urgency to his question. Indeed some commentators have used the term ‘colonisation’, albeit temporary, to describe Fifa’s extraordinary level of control. Whose needs are being met around here? is a question worth asking as sovereignty seems suddenly ceded to a globalised bureaucratic behemoth.

The 30 day retreat being offered later this year has, as one of the directors, a distinguished British Jesuit with a deep interest in spirituality and social justice.

Robert Ronald Darwen (Ron) was born in 1931, in Preston, a very Catholic part of England. He grew up aware that his home county of Lancashire was the stronghold of the English Catholic survival during penal times. He attended high school at Preston Catholic College and then entered the Jesuits at the age of 18. He was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 33.

Ron spent his early years in the priesthood working in parishes in Glasgow, Worcester, Coventry and Liverpool. During these years he became very concerned about issues of social justice in Britain's inner cities. He was particularly concerned about the inadequate housing for the poor and vulnerable, and was involved in several Catholic housing projects providing sheltered housing to the elderly and marginalised.

At the age of 51 Ron went to the Ignatian retreat house in Wernersville, USA, where he trained in giving the Spiritual Exercises. The following year he became novice master of the British Province, and directed novices from South Africa, Zimbabwe and the UK.

After six years as novice master, he was appointed director of tertians (the final years of Jesuit formation) in the joint Irish-British tertianship in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In this capacity he helped Jesuits from all over the world to prepare for their final vows and integration into the Society.

Ron is currently a member of the novitiate community in Birmingham, England, where he is a sought-after director of the Spiritual Exercises, and continues his work in issues of social justice.

A wise Jesuit confrere predicted not long ago that after the clergy abuse crisis in the Church, we would shortly have to deal with money scandals.