The prelates hail from 11 different nations and represent multiple religious orders, including the Society of Jesus.

The cross is made from a piece of a wooden boat used by migrants to cross the Mediterranean to land on the island of Lampedusa.

“Our vocation is to help men and women to live their human lives and to live them to the full,” said Father Czerny. “This is the big mission. This is what it means to preach the Gospel and to bring the Good News to the ends of the earth.”

His work is increasingly to support what synod organizers call creating a more “Amazon-like” church. A more Amazon-like church incorporates the customs and sensibilities of the local population, like indigenous spirituality, and promotes new forms of evangelization.

“Someone once said to me that the St. Louis Jesuits wrote the spiritual soundtrack to our lives,” said John Limb, former publisher of Oregon Catholic Press, the publisher of the St. Louis Jesuits. “For those of us of a certain age, that was true.”

Lithuania's cardinal-designate Sigitas Tamkevicius, a Jesuit and a veteran of Soviet prisons and labor camps, will receive the red hat from Pope Francis Oct. 5 at the Vatican.