General Congregations 32 (1975)

The 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus convened nearly a decade after the previous congregation closed in 1966. During the intervening years, as the following decree states, “the life of the Society has been an effort under the leadership of Father General to implement the decrees of the 31st General Congregation.” So, rather than meeting to elect a new superior general, the delegates at the 32nd General Congregation had the purpose of addressing the problem that “progress” in implementing the previous congregation’s decrees “has not been uniform,” as noted below. The introductory decree also states that those decrees to follow were “an invitation to even greater progress in the way of the Lord.” In short, the congregation’s decrees were for the “practical implementation” through “cooperation of all Jesuits under the leadership of their superiors.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

I

1. The past decade in the life of the Society has been an effort under the leadership of Father General to implement the decrees of the 31st General Congregation, which aimed at adapting our life to the directives of the Second Vatican Council. The success of this effort has been significant in our apostolic work as a community, in our prayer and our faith. This is clearly a gift of God’s generosity, though not realized without a painful struggle for sincere renewal.

2. The 32nd General Congregation makes its own and confirms all of the declarations and dispositions of the 31st General Congregation unless they are explicitly changed in the present decrees. The documents of the preceding Congregation accurately and faithfully express the genuine spirit and tradition of the Society. Therefore, the whole Society is urged to reflect thoughtfully and sincerely upon those documents once again, and superiors are directed to see to their ever fuller implementation.

II

3. One reason for this directive is that the progress mentioned above has not been uniform. Some Jesuits have resisted renewal and have even criticized the 31st General Congregation publicly, as though it were somehow a departure from the genuine Ignatian spirit. Others, at times, have carried new orientations to excess in their impatience to accommodate themselves and their work to the needs of the world. Out of their desire to overcome a distorted emphasis upon the transcendence of the Christian religion—one which would divorce it from experience of the world—they have fallen into a type of “immanentism” which runs counter to the Gospel message.

4. These two exaggerations, each tending in an opposite direction, have threatened unity within the Society and have given non-Jesuits cause for concern and wonder. Some among them fear that the Society may have lost the forcefulness and precision with which it once exercised its priestly and apostolic mission of service to the faith. Others, when they read publications in which Jesuits unsympathetically criticize one another, their own Father General, the magisterium of the Church, and even the Holy Father, ask whether Jesuits have lost their traditional loyalty, obedience, and devotion to the Society and the Church. Sometimes they wonder, too, and not without reason, about the depth and sincerity of faith in those Jesuits who live independent lives, unmarked by poverty, and comfortably accommodated to the world.

5. Out of his deep affection and concern for the Society, the Holy Father brought these points to the attention of the Congregation in his allocution of December 3, 1974. He took that occasion to request that the 32nd General Congregation preserve and reaffirm the Society as a priestly, apostolic, and religious body, bound to the Holy Father by a special vow regarding missions. It was to a balanced renewal of religious life and a discerning rededication to apostolic service that the Holy Father clearly wished to call us. In his various letters to the whole Society, Father General has expressed the same desire.

6. The whole Society ought to take the firm and paternal words of the Holy Father gratefully and humbly to heart. We sincerely acknowledge our failings and seek, with God’s grace, a more radical renewal and closer unity, both among ourselves and with the Holy Father.

III

7. Mindful that for the majority of Jesuits the years since the 31st General Congregation have been a time of grace and spiritual and apostolic growth, the 32nd General Congregation has formulated these decrees as an invitation to even greater progress in the way of the Lord. We offer them now to our fellow Jesuits in a spirit of humility and hope—not forgetful of past shortcomings, but, with God’s help, looking confidently to the future.

8. The following documents treat of challenges and opportunities arising out of our life and work; of our identity as companions of Jesus in today’s world; of the Society’s apostolic mission as the service of faith and the promotion of justice; of prayer and obedience, and of discernment of spirits in common, nourished by and further strengthening our union together; of a more authentic poverty and of the formation of young Jesuits.

9. These documents are commended to personal reading and community dialog in a spirit of prayer and discernment. They look far beyond words and verbal analysis. They are offered as a stimulus for conversion of heart and apostolic renewal.

10. These decrees, then, are meant for practical implementation. Only the cooperation of all Jesuits under the leadership of their superiors can achieve this goal.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 1, “Introductory Decree,” pg. 287–288 [1–10].

At the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), Jesuits, as with other Catholics, engaged in new labors and in new contexts. The Council’s decree Perfectae Caritatis encouraged those in a religious order to first know their institute’s “original spirit” so that they might make “the best adjustments…in accordance with the needs of our new age.” At General Congregation 32, the first congregation convoked since the end of Vatican II, the Jesuit delegates examined the Society’s original charism in order, they said, to define the “Jesuit identity in our time.” The following decree—one of sixteen issued by the assembly—articulated that definition in light of what the members described as “the crucial struggle of our time: the struggle for faith and that struggle for justice which it includes.”

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A response of the 32nd General Congregation to requests for a description of Jesuit identity in our time.

1. What is it to be a Jesuit? It is to know that one is a sinner, yet called to be a companion of Jesus as Ignatius was: Ignatius, who begged the Blessed Virgin to “place him with her Son,” and who then saw the Father himself ask Jesus, carrying his Cross, to take this pilgrim into his company.

2. What is it to be a companion of Jesus today? It is to engage, under the standard of the Cross, in the crucial struggle of our time: the struggle for faith and that struggle for justice which it includes.

3. The Society of Jesus, gathered together in its 32nd General Congregation, considering the end for which it was founded, namely, the greater glory of God and the service of men, acknowledging with repentance its own failures in keeping faith and upholding justice, and asking itself before Christ crucified what it has done for him, what it is doing for him, and what it is going to do for him, chooses participation in this struggle as the focus that identifies in our time what Jesuits are and do.

A. Whence This Decision

4. We arrive at this decisive choice from several different points of departure. The postulata received from the provinces, the panorama of the state of the Society presented at the Congregation, and the instructions given us by the Pope, all direct our attention to the vast expanse and circuit of this globe and the great multitude and diversity of peoples therein.

5. Two-thirds of mankind have not yet had God’s salvation in Jesus Christ proclaimed to them in a manner that wins belief, while in societies anciently Christian a dominant secularism is closing men’s minds and hearts to the divine dimensions of all reality, blinding them to the fact that while all things on the face of the earth are, indeed, created for man’s sake, it is only that he might attain to the end for which he himself was created: the praise, reverence, and service of God.

6. Ignorance of the Gospel on the part of some, and rejection of it by others, are intimately related to the many grave injustices prevalent in the world today. Yet it is in the light of the Gospel that men will most clearly see that injustice springs from sin, personal and collective, and that it is made all the more oppressive by being built into economic, social, political, and cultural institutions of worldwide scope and overwhelming power.

7. Conversely, the prevalence of injustice in a world where the very survival of the human race depends on men caring for and sharing with one another is one of the principal obstacles to belief: belief in a God who is justice because he is love.

8. Thus, the way to faith and the way to justice are inseparable ways. It is up this undivided road, this steep road, that the pilgrim Church must travel and toil. Faith and justice are undivided in the Gospel which teaches that “faith makes its power felt through love.” They cannot therefore be divided in our purpose, our action, our life.

9. Moreover, the service of faith and the promotion of justice cannot be for us simply one ministry among others. It must be the integrating factor of all our ministries; and not only of our ministries but of our inner life as individuals, as communities, and as a worldwide brotherhood. This is what our Congregation means by a decisive choice. It is the choice that underlies and determines all the other choices embodied in its declarations and directives.

B. Original Inspiration of the Society

10. We are confirmed in this bask choice by being led to it from another point of departure, namely, the original inspiration of the Society as set forth in the Formula of the Institute and the Constitutions.

11. Our Society was founded principally for the defense and propagation of the faith and for the rendering of any service in the Church that may be for the glory of God and the common good. In fact, the grace of Christ that enables and impels us to seek “the salvation and perfection of souls”—or what might be called, in contemporary terms, the total and integral liberation of man, leading to participation in the life of God himself—is the same grace by which we are enabled and impelled to seek “our own salvation and perfection.”

12. Not only does the insight of Ignatius justify our basic choice, it specifies it. It enables us to determine what must be our specifically Jesuit contribution to the defense and propagation of the faith and the promotion of justice in charity.

13. At the very center of that insight is the sense of mission. No sooner was our companionship born than it placed itself at the disposal of “the Roman Pontiff, Christ’s Vicar on earth,” to be sent wherever there is hope of God’s greater glory and the service of men.

14. A Jesuit, therefore, is essentially a man on a mission: a mission which he receives immediately from the Holy Father and from his own religious superiors, but ultimately from Christ himself, the one sent by the Father. It is by being sent that the Jesuit becomes a companion of Jesus.

15. Moreover, it is in companionship that the Jesuit fulfills his mission. He belongs to a community of friends in the Lord who, like him, have asked to be received under the standard of Christ the King.

C. Fulfillment in Companionship

16. This community is the entire body of the Society itself, no matter how widely dispersed over the face of the earth. The particular local community to which he may belong at any given moment is, for him, simply a concrete—if, here and now, a privileged—expression of this worldwide brotherhood.

17. The local Jesuit community is thus an apostolic community, not inward but outward looking, the focus of its concern being the service it is called upon to give men. It is contemplative but not monastic, for it is a communitas ad dispersionem. It is a community of men ready to go wherever they are sent.

18. A communitas ad dispersionem, but also a koinonia, a sharing of goods and life, with the Eucharist at its center: the sacrifice and sacrament of the Deed of Jesus, who loved his own to the end. And each member of every Jesuit community is ever mindful of what St. Ignatius says about love, that it consists in sharing what one has, what one is, with those one loves. When we speak of having all things in common, that is what we mean.

19. The Jesuit community is also a community of discernment. The missions on which Jesuits are sent, whether corporately or individually, do not exempt us from the need of discerning together in what manner and by what means such missions are to be accomplished. That is why we open our minds and hearts to our superiors and our superiors, in tum, take part in the discernment of our communities, always on the shared understanding that final decisions belong to those who have the burden of authority.

D. Distinguishing Mark of the Society

20. Not only our community life, but our religious vows are apostolic. If we commit ourselves until death to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, it is that we may be totally united to Christ and share his own freedom to be at the service of all who need us. In binding us, the vows set us free:

—free, by our vow of poverty, to share the life of the poor and to use whatever resources we may have not for our own security and comfort, but for service;

—free, by our vow of chastity, to be men for others, in friendship and communion with all, but especially with those who share our mission of service;

—free, by our vow of obedience, to respond to the call of Christ as made known to us by him whom the Spirit has placed over the Church, and to follow the lead of our superiors, especially our Father General, who has all authority over us ad aediftcationem.

21. In our Society, the call to the apostolate is one, though shared in manifold ways. We are many members, but one body, each member contributing what in him lies to the common task of continuing Christ’s saving work in the world, which is to reconcile men to God, and men among themselves, so that by the gift of his love and grace they may build a peace based on justice.

22. Because this is its common task, the Society of Jesus is, in its entirety, a sacerdotal society. But it is sacerdotal not merely in the sense of the priesthood of all the faithful. For the Society began as, and continues to be, a band of ordained ministers of the Gospel which comprises in the self-same company both those willing to share the presbyteral function of being coadjutors of the episcopal order and those willing to give themselves to those aspects of our apostolic mission for which priestly orders are not required.

23. Moreover, following Ignatius, we have asked Christ our Lord to let us render this service in a manner that gives us a personality of our own. We have chosen to give it in the form of a consecrated life according to the evangelical counsels, and we have placed ourselves at the service not only of the local churches but of the universal Church, by a special vow of obedience to him who presides over the universal Church, namely, the Successor of Peter.

24. This, then, is the distinguishing mark of our Society: it is a companionship that is, at one and the same time, “religious, apostolic, sacerdotal, and bound to the Roman Pontiff by a special bond of love and service.”

E. What Our Mission Demands of Us

25. Because the missions on which the Holy Father and our superiors are likely to send us will demand well trained minds and dedicated spirits, we test the vocation of those whom we admit to our ranks in various ways over an extended period of time, and we try to give them, to the best of our ability, a spiritual and intellectual formation more than ordinarily exacting. But even during their period of training these young men are already our companions, in virtue of the perpetual vows they take after the noviceship.

26. Coming from many different countries, cultures, and social backgrounds, but banded together in this way, we try to focus all our efforts on the common task of radiating faith and witnessing to justice. We are deeply conscious of how often and how grievously we ourselves have sinned against the Gospel; yet it remains our ambition to proclaim it worthily: that is, in love, in poverty, and in humility.

27. In love: a personal love for the Person of Jesus Christ, for an ever more inward knowledge of whom we daily ask, that we may the better love him and follow him; Jesus, whom we seek, as St. Ignatius sought, to experience; Jesus, Son of God, sent to serve, sent to set free, put to death, and risen from the dead. This love is the deepest wellspring of our action and our life. It was this personal love that engendered in Ignatius that divine discontent which kept urging him to the magis—the ever more and more giving—the ever greater glory of God.

28. In poverty: relying more on God’s providence than on human resources; safeguarding the freedom of the apostle by detachment from avarice and the bondage imposed by it; following in the footsteps of Christ, who preached good news to the poor by being poor himself.

29. In humility: realizing that there are many enterprises of great worth and moment in the Church and in the world which we, as priests and religious inspired by one particular charism, are not in a position to undertake. And even in those enterprises which we can and should undertake, we realize that we must be willing to work with others: with Christians, men of other religious faiths, and all men of good will; willing to play a subordinate, supporting, anonymous role; and willing to learn how to serve from those we seek to serve.

30. This availability for the meanest tasks, or at least the desire to be thus available, is part of the identity of the Jesuit. When he offers to distinguish himself in the service of the Eternal King, when he asks to be received under his standard, when he glories with Ignatius in being placed by the Father “with the Son,” he does so not in any spirit of prideful privilege, but in the spirit of him who “emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, even to accepting death, death on a cross.”

F. Conclusion: A Jesuit Today

31. Thus, whether we consider the needs and aspirations of the men of our time, or reflect on the particular charism that founded our Society, or seek to learn what Jesus has in his heart for each and all of us, we are led to the identical conclusion that today the Jesuit is a man whose mission is to dedicate himself entirely to the service of faith and the promotion of justice, in a communion of life and work and sacrifice with the companions who have rallied round the same standard of the Cross and in fidelity to the Vicar of Christ, for the building up of a world at once more human and more divine.

32. Deeply conscious of our utter unworthiness for so great a mission, relying only on God’s love and grace, we offer together the prayer of Ignatius:

Take, O Lord, and receive

all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding, and my entire will.

Whatever I have or hold,

You have given to me;

I restore it all to You

and surrender it wholly

to be governed by your will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

and I am rich enough

and ask for nothing more.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Section I, Decree 2, “Jesuits Today,” pg. 291–297 [11–42].

The delegates of the 32nd General Congregation, in the following decree, reaffirm the “reverence and fidelity which all Jesuits should have toward the magisterium of the Church and in a special way toward” the pope. Their decree also regrets that “some members of the Society” had failed to adhere to the “long and venerable tradition in the Society” of such reverence and fidelity. In response, the decree reminds superiors to “apply the norms of the Church and the Society in a firm and fatherly way.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

1. In considering the reverence and fidelity which all Jesuits should have toward the magisterium of the Church and in a special way toward the Supreme Pontiff, the 32nd General Congregation makes the following declaration:

2. The Congregation acknowledges the obligation of this reverence and fidelity as well as our proper responsibility to the Church.

3. Mindful of the long and venerable tradition in the Society of serving the Church by explaining, propagating, and defending the Faith, the Congregation supports our Jesuits who are working in scholarly research, in publishing, or in other forms of the apostolate, and urges all of them to continue to remain faithful to this tradition. At the same time, the Congregation regrets particular failings in this matter on the part of some members of the Society in recent years. This behavior can undermine our apostolic effectiveness and firm commitment to serving the Church.

4. The Congregation recommends to all superiors that they apply the norms of the Church and the Society in a firm and fatherly way. Freedom should be intelligently encouraged, but care should be taken to prevent and correct the failings which weaken fidelity to the magisterium and service to the faith and the Church, virtues in which the Society has always striven to be outstanding.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 3, “Fidelity of the Society to the Magisterium and the Supreme Pontiff,” pg. 297 [43–46].

General Congregation 32 signified a major transition in how the Jesuits understood the connection between their mission and the service of faith and promotion of social justice. That connection was articulated in the congregation’s fourth decree, “Our Mission Today.” “In short,” as the decree’s introduction observes, “our mission today is to preach Jesus Christ and to make Him known in such a way that all men and women are able to recognize Him whose delight, from the beginning, has been to be with the sons of men and to take an active part in their history.” The remainder of the decree considers the implications of that mission: in its context with the Society’s charism, in its contemporary challenges, and in its influences on apostolic decisions, on the Society’s missionary activities, and other practical concerns.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

Introduction and Summary

1. To the many requests received from all parts of the Society for clear decisions and definite guidelines concerning our mission today, the 32nd General Congregation responds as follows.

2. The mission of the Society of Jesus today is the service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement. For reconciliation with God demands the reconciliation of people with one another.

3. In one form or another, this has always been the mission of the Society; but it gains new meaning and urgency in the light of the needs and aspirations of the men and women of our time, and it is in that light that we examine it anew. We are confronted today, in fact, by a whole series of new challenges.

4. There is a new challenge to our apostolic mission in a fact without precedent in the history of mankind: today, more than two billion human beings have no knowledge of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, yet feel an increasing hunger for the God they already adore in the depths of their hearts without knowing Him explicitly.

5. There is a new challenge to our apostolic mission in that many of our contemporaries, dazzled and even dominated by the achievements of the human mind, forgetting or rejecting the mystery of man’s ultimate meaning, have thus lost the sense of God.

6. There is a new challenge to our apostolic mission in a world increasingly interdependent but, for all that, divided by injustice: injustice not only personal but institutionalized: built into economic, social, and political structures that dominate the life of nations and the international community.

7. Our response to these new challenges will be un-availing unless it is total, corporate, rooted in faith and experience, and multiform.

—total: While relying on prayer, and acting on the conviction that God alone can change the human heart, we must throw into this enterprise all that we are and have, our whole persons, our communities, institutions, ministries, resources.

—corporate: Each one of us must contribute to the total mission according to his talents and functions which, in collaboration with the efforts of others, give life to the whole body. This collaborative mission is exercised under the leadership of Peter’s Successor who presides over the universal Church and over all those whom the Spirit of God has appointed Pastors over the churches.

—rooted in faith and experience: It is from faith and experience combined that we will learn how to respond most appropriately to new needs arising from new situations.

—multiform: Since these situations are different in different parts of the world, we must cultivate a great adaptability and flexibility within the single, steady aim of the service of faith and the promotion of justice.

8. While offering new challenges to our apostolic mission, the modern world provides new tools as well: new and more effective ways of understanding man, nature and society; of communicating thought, image and feeling; of organizing action. These we must learn to use in the service of evangelization and human development.

9. Consequently we must undertake a thoroughgoing reassessment of our traditional apostolic methods, attitudes and institutions with a view to adapting them to the new needs of the times and to a world in process of rapid change.

10. All this demands that we practice discernment, that spiritual discernment which St. Ignatius teaches us in the Exercises. Moreover discernment will yield a deeper grasp of the movements, aspirations and struggles in the hearts of our contemporaries, as well as those in the heart of mankind itself.

11. In short, our mission today is to preach Jesus Christ and to make Him known in such a way that all men and women are able to recognize Him whose delight, from the beginning, has been to be with the sons of men and to take an active part in their history.

12. In carrying out this mission, we should be convinced, today more than ever, that “the means which unite the human instrument with God and so dispose it that it may be wielded dexterously by His divine hand are more effective than those which equip it in relation to men.”

A. Our Mission Yesterday and Today

The Charism of the Society

13. The mission we are called to share is the mission of the Church itself, to make known to men and women the love of God our Father, a love whose promise is eternal life. It is from the loving regard of God upon the world that the mission of Jesus takes its rise, Jesus who was sent “not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” The mission of Christ, in turn, gives rise to the mission shared by all Christians as members of the Church sent to bring all men and women the Good News of their salvation and that “they may have life and have it to the full.”

14. St. Ignatius and his first companions, in the spiritual experience of the Exercises, were moved to a searching consideration of the world of their own time in order to discover its needs. They contemplated “how the Three Divine Persons look down upon the whole expanse or circuit of all the earth, filled with human beings” and decide “that the Second Person should become man to save the human race.” Then they turned their eyes to where God’s gaze was fixed, and saw for themselves the men and women of their time, one after another, “with such great diversity in dress and in manners of acting. Some are white, some black; some at peace, and some at war; some weeping, some laughing; some well, some sick; some coming into the world, some dying, etc.” That was how they learned to respond to the call of Christ and to work for the establishment of His Kingdom.

15. United in a single vision of faith, strong in a common hope and rooted in the same love of Christ whose companions they wished to be, Ignatius and his first band of apostles believed that the service they could give to the people of their time would be more effective if they were more closely bound to one another as members of a single body, at once religious, apostolic and priestly, and united to the Successor of Peter by a special bond of love and service reflecting their total availability for mission in the universal Church.

16. It is in this light that we are asked to renew our dedication to the properly apostolic dimension of our religious life. Our consecration to God is really, a prophetic rejection of those idols which the world is always tempted to adore, wealth, pleasure, prestige, power. Hence our poverty, chastity and obedience ought visibly to bear witness to this. Despite the inadequacy of any attempt to anticipate the Kingdom which is to come, our vows ought to show how by God’s grace there can be, as the Gospel proclaims, a community among human beings which is based on sharing rather than on greed; on willing openness to all persons rather than on seeking after the privileges of caste or class or race; on service rather than on domination and exploitation. The men and women of our time need a hope which is eschatological, but they also need to have some signs that its realization has already begun.

17. Finally, the Apostolic Letters of Paul III (1540) and Julius III (1550) recognize that the Society of Jesus was found “chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defense and propagation of the faith, and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching, lectures, and any other ministrations whatsoever of the word of God, and further, by means of the Spiritual Exercises, the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity, and the spiritual consolation of Christ’s faithful through hearing confessions and administering the other sacraments,” as well as “in reconciling the estranged, in holily assisting and serving those who are found in prisons and hospitals, and indeed in performing any other works of charity, according to what will seem expedient for the glory of God and the common good.” This primordial statement remains for us a normative one.

18. The mission of the Society today is the priestly service of the faith, an apostolate whose aim is to help people become more open toward God and more willing to live according to the demands of the Gospel. The Gospel demands a life freed from egoism and self-seeking, from all attempts to seek one’s own advantage and from every form of exploitation of one’s neighbor. It demands a life in which the justice of the Gospel shines out in a willingness not only to recognize and respect the rights of all, especially the poor and the powerless, but also to work actively to secure those rights. It demands an openness and generosity to anyone in need, even a stranger or an enemy. It demands towards those who have injured us, pardon; toward those with whom we are at odds, a spirit of reconciliation. We do not acquire this attitude of mind by our own efforts alone. It is the fruit of the Spirit who transforms our hearts and fills them with the power of God’s mercy, that mercy whereby he most fully shows forth His justice by drawing us, unjust though we are, to His friendship. It is by this that we know that the promotion of justice is an integral part of the priestly service of the faith.

19. In his address of December 3, 1974, Pope Paul VI confirmed “as a modern expression of your vow of obedience to the Pope” that we offer resistance to the many forms of contemporary atheism. This was the mission he entrusted to us at the time of the 31st General Congregation, and in recalling it he commended the way in which the Society down the years has been present at the heart of ideological battles and social conflicts, wherever the crying needs of mankind encountered the perennial message of the Gospel. Thus if we wish to continue to be faithful to this special character of our vocation and to the mission we have received from the Pope, we must “contemplate” our world as Ignatius did his, that we may hear anew the call of Christ dying and rising in the anguish and aspirations of men and women.

20. There are millions of men and women in our world, specific people with names and faces, who are suffering from poverty and hunger, from the unjust distribution of wealth and resources and from the consequences of racial, social, and political discrimination. Not only the quality of life but human life itself is under constant threat. It is becoming more and more clear that despite the opportunities offered by an ever more serviceable technology, we are simply not willing to pay the price of a more just and more humane society.

21. At the same time, people today are somehow aware that their problems are not just social and technological, but personal and spiritual. They have a feeling that what is at stake here is the very meaning of man: his future and his destiny. People are hungry: hungry not just for bread, but for the Word of God. For this reason the Gospel should be preached with a fresh vigor, for it is in a position once again to make itself heard. At first sight God seems to have no place in public life, nor even in private awareness. Yet everywhere, if we only knew how to look, we can see that people are groping towards an experience of Christ and waiting in hope for His Kingdom of love, of justice and of peace.

22. Of these expectations and converging desires the last two Synods of Bishops have reminded us in their reflections on Justice in the World and Evangelization in the Modern World. They point to concrete forms which our witness and our mission must take today.

23. The expectations of our contemporaries—and their problems—are ours as well. We ourselves share in the blindness and injustice of our age. We our-selves stand in need of being evangelized. We ourselves need to know how to meet Christ as He works in the world through the power of His Spirit. And it is to this world, our world, that we arc sent. Its needs and aspirations are an appeal to the Gospel which it is our mission to proclaim.

B. The Challenges We Face

New Demands, New Hopes

24. The first thing that must be said about the world which it is our mission to evangelize is this: everywhere, but in very; different situations, we have to preach Jesus Christ to men and women who have never really heard of Him, or who do not yet know of Him sufficiently. a) In what were once called “mission lands” our predecessors endeavored by their preaching of the Gospel to set up and foster new Christian communities. This task of direct evangelization by the preaching of Jesus Christ remains essential today, and must be continued, since never before have there been so many people who have never, heard the Word of Christ the Savior. At the same time dialog with the believers of other religions is becoming for us an ever more important apostolate. b) In the traditionally Christian countries, the works we established, the movements we fostered, the institutions—retreat houses, schools, universities—we set up, are still necessary for the service of faith. But there are many in these countries who can no longer be reached by the ministries exercised through these works and institutions. The so-called “Christian” countries have themselves become “mission lands.”

25. The second decisive factor for our preaching of Jesus Christ and his Gospel is this: the new opportunities—and problems—disclosed in our time by the discoveries of technology and the human sciences. They have introduced a relativism, often of a very radical kind, into the picture of man and the world to which we were accustomed, with the result that traditional perspectives have altered almost beyond recognition. Changes of this kind in the mind-sets and structures of society inevitably produce strong repercussions in our lives as individuals and as members of society. As a result, there has been gradual erosion of traditional values, and gradual diminution of reliance on the power of traditional symbols. Simultaneously, new aspirations arise which seek to express themselves in the planning and implementation of practical programs.

26. The secularization of man and the world takes different forms in different groups, classes, ages and parts of the world, and in all its forms offers challenges to the preaching of the Gospel to which there is no ready-made answer.

a. On the one hand, certain false images of God which prop up and give an aura of legitimacy to unjust social structures are no longer acceptable. Neither can we admit those more ambiguous images of God which appear to release man from his inalienable responsibilities. We feel this just as much as our contemporaries do; even more, perhaps, given our commitment to proclaim the God who has revealed himself in Christ. For our own sake, just as much as for the sake of our contemporaries, we must find a new language, a new set of symbols, that will enable us to leave our fallen idols behind us and rediscover the true God: the God who, in Jesus Christ, chose to share our human pilgrimage and make our human destiny irrevocably his own. To live our lives “in memory of Him” requires of us this creative effort of faith.

b. On the other hand, part of the framework within which we have preached the Gospel is now perceived as being inextricably linked to an unacceptable social order, and for that reason is being called into question. Our apostolic institutions, along with many of those of the Church herself, are involved in the same crisis that social institutions in general are presently undergoing. Here again is an experience we share with our contemporaries, and in a particularly painful way. The relevance of our work as religious, priests and apostles is often enough not evident to the men and women around us. Not only that; despite the firmness of our faith and our convictions the relevance of what we do may not be clear, sometimes, even to ourselves. This unsettles us, and in our insecurity we tend to respond to questioning with silence and to shy away from confrontation. Yet there are signs of a contemporary religious revival which should encourage us to reaffirm our commitment with courage, and not only to welcome but to seek new opportunities for evangelization.

27. Finally, a third characteristic of our world particularly significant to our mission of evangelization is this: it is now within human power to make the world more just but we do not really want to. Our new mastery over nature and man himself is used, often enough, to exploit individuals, groups and peoples rather than to distribute the resources of the planet more equitably. It has led, it is leading, to division rather than union, to alienation rather than communication, to oppression and domination rather than to a greater respect for the rights of individuals or of groups, and a more real brotherhood among men. We can no longer pretend that the inequalities and injustices of our world must be borne as part of the inevitable order of things. It is now quite apparent that they are the result himself, man in his selfishness, has done. Hence there can be no promotion of justice in the full and Christian sense unless we also preach Jesus Christ and the mystery of reconciliation He brings. It is Christ who, in the last analysis, opens the way to the complete and definitive liberation of mankind for which we long from bottom of our hearts. Conversely, it will not be possible to bring Christ to people or to proclaim His Gospel effectively unless a firm decision is taken to devote ourselves to the promotion of justice.

28. From all over the world where Jesuits are working, very similar and very insistent requests have been made that, by a clear decision on the part of the General Congregation, the Society should commit itself to work for the promotion of justice. Our apostolate today urgently requires that we take this decision. As apostles we are bearers of the Christian message. And at the heart of the Christian message is God revealing Himself in Christ as the Father of us all whom through the Spirit He calls to conversion. In its integrity, then, conversion means accepting that we are at one and the same time children of the Father and brother and sisters of each other. There is no genuine conversion to the love of God without conversion to the love of neighbor and, therefore, to the demands of justice. Hence, fidelity to our apostolic mission requires that we propose the whole of Christian salvation and lead others to embrace it. Christian salvation consists in an undivided love of the Father and of the neighbor and of justice. Since evangelization is proclamation of that faith which is made operative in love of others, the promotion of justice is indispensable to it.

29. What is at stake here is the fruitfulness of all our apostolic endeavors, and notably of any coherent attempt to combat atheism. The injustice that racks our world in so many forms is, in fact, a denial of God in practice, for it denies the dignity of the human person, the image of God, the brother or sister of Christ. The cult of money, progress, prestige and power has as its fruit the sin of institutionalized injustice condemned by the Synod of 1971, and it leads to the enslavement not only of the oppressed, but of the oppressor as well—and to death.

30. At a time when so many people are sparing no effort to put the world to rights without reference to God, our endeavor should be to show as clearly as we can that our Christian hope is not a dull opiate, but a firm and realistic commitment to make our world other than it is, to make it the visible sign of another world, the sign—and pledge—of “a new heaven and a new earth.” The last Synod vigorously recalled this for us: “The Gospel entrusted to us is the good news of salvation for man and the whole of society, which must begin here and now to manifest itself on earth even if mankind’s liberation in all its fullness will be achieved only beyond the frontiers of this life.” The promotion of justice is, therefore, an integral part of evangelization.

31. We are witnesses of a Gospel which links the love of God to the service of man, and that inseparably. In a world where the power of economic, social and political structures is now appreciated and the mechanisms and laws governing them are now understood, service according to the Gospel cannot dispense with a carefully planned effort to exert influence on those structures.

32. We must bear in mind, however, that our efforts to promote justice and human freedom on the social and structural level, necessary though they are, are not sufficient of themselves. Injustice must be attacked at its roots which are in the human heart by transforming those attitudes and habits which beget injustice and foster the structures of oppression.

33. Finally, if the promotion of justice is to attain its ultimate end, it should be carried out in such a way as to bring men and women to desire and to welcome the eschatological freedom and salvation offered to us by God in Christ. The methods we employ and the activities we undertake should express the spirit of the Beatitudes and bring people to a real reconciliation. In this way our commitment to justice will simultaneously show forth the spirit and the power of God. It will respond to humanity’s deepest yearnings, not just for bread and freedom, but for God and His friendships—a longing to be sons and daughters in His sight.

34. The initiatives required to respond to the challenges of our world thoroughly surpass our capabilities. Nonetheless we must set ourselves to the task with all the resourcefulness we have. By God’s grace, a new apostolic awareness does seem to be taking shape gradually in the Society as a whole. There is evidence of a widespread desire, and often of a whole-hearted effort, to renew and adapt our traditional apostolates and to embark on new ones. The guidelines that follow are meant to confirm or focus decisions and to urge us to more definite programs of action.

35. Our involvement with the world. Too often we are insulated from any real contact with unbelief and with the hard, everyday consequences of injustice and oppression. As a result we run the risk of not being able to hear the cry for the Gospel as it is addressed to us by the men and women of our time. A deeper involvement with others in the world will therefore be a decisive test of our faith, of our hope, and of our apostolic charity. Are we ready, with discernment and with reliance on a community which is alive and apostolic, to bear witness to the Gospel in the painful situations where our faith and our hope are tested by unbelief and injustice? Are we ready to give ourselves to the demanding and serious study of theology, philosophy and the human sciences, which are ever more necessary if we are to understand and try to resolve the problems of the world? To be involved in the world in this way is essential if we are to share our faith and our hope, and thus preach a Gospel that will respond to the needs and aspirations of our contemporaries.

36. New forms of apostolic involvement, adapted to different places, have already been developed. The success of these initiatives, whatever form they take, requires of us a solid formation, intense solidarity in community and a vivid awareness of our identity. Wherever we serve we must be attentive to “inculturation;” that is, we must take pains to adapt our preaching of the Gospel to the culture of the place so that men and women may receive Christ according to the distinctive character of each country, class or group and environment.

37. Our collaboration with others. The involvement we desire will be apostolic to the extent that it leads us to a closer collaboration with other members of the local churches, Christians of other denominations, believers of other religions, and all who hunger and thirst after justice; in short, with all who strive to make a world fit for men and women to live in, a world where brotherhood opens the way for the recognition and acceptance of Christ our Brother and God our Father. Ecumenism will then become not just a particular ministry but an attitude of mind and a way of life. Today it is essential for the preaching and acceptance of the Gospel that this spirit of ecumenism embrace the whole of mankind, taking into account the cultural differences and the traditional spiritual values and hopes of all groups and peoples.

38. The wellspring of our apostolate. We are also led back again to our experience of the Spiritual Exercises. In them we are able continually to renew our faith and apostolic hope by experiencing again the love of God in Christ Jesus. We strengthen our commitment to be companions of Jesus in His mission, to labor like Him in solidarity with the poor and with Him for the establishment of the Kingdom. This same spiritual experience will teach us how to maintain the objectivity needed for a continuing review of our commitments. Thereby we gradually make our own that apostolic pedagogy of St. Ignatius which should characterize our every action.

C. Apostolic Decisions for Today

People and Structures

39. For the greater glory of God and salvation of men, Ignatius desired that his companions go wherever there was hope of the more universal good; go to those who have been abandoned; go to those who are in greatest need. But where is the greatest need today? Where are we to locate this hope for the more universal good?

40. It is becoming more and more evident that the structures of society are among the principal formative influences in our world, shaping people’s ideas and feelings, shaping their most intimate desires and aspirations; in a word, shaping mankind itself. The struggle to transform these structures in the interest of the spiritual and material liberation of fellow human beings is intimately connected to the work of evangelization. This is not to say, of course, that we can ever afford to neglect the direct apostolate to individuals, to those who are the victims of the injustice of social structures as well as to those who bear some responsibility or influence over them.

41. From this point of view of desire for the more universal good is perfectly compatible with the determination to serve the most afflicted for the sake of the Gospel. Our preaching will be heard to the extent that witness accompanies it, the witness of commitment to the promotion of justice as an anticipation of the Kingdom which is to come.

Social Involvement

42. Our faith in Christ Jesus and our mission to proclaim the Gospel demand of us a commitment to promote justice and to enter into solidarity with the voiceless and the powerless. This commitment will move us seriously to verse ourselves in the complex problems which they face in their lives, then to identify and assume our own responsibilities to society.

43. Our Jesuit communities have to help each of us overcome the reluctance, fear and apathy which block us from truly comprehending the social, economic, and political problems which exist in our city or region or country, as well as on the international scene. Becoming really aware of and understanding these problems will help us see how to preach the Gospel better and how to work better with others in our own particular way without seeking to duplicate or compete with their strengths in the struggle to promote justice.

44. We cannot be excused from making the most rigorous possible political and social analysis of our situation. This will require the utilization of the various sciences, sacred and profane, and of the various disciplines, speculative and practical, and all of this demands intense and specialized studies. Nothing should excuse us, either, from undertaking a searching discernment into our situation from the pastoral and apostolic point of view. From analysis and discernment will come committed action; from the experience of action will come insight into how to proceed further.

45. In the discernment mentioned above, the local superior, and at times the provincial as well, will take part. This will help to overcome the tensions that arise and to maintain union of minds and hearts. The superior will enable the members of the community not only to understand and appreciate the particular—and possibly unusual—apostolates undertaken by their companions under obedience, but also to take joint responsibility for them. And if contradictions arise as a result of a particular course of action, the community will be better prepared to “suffer persecution for justice’s sake” if the decision to take that course has been prepared for by a discernment in which it had taken part or was at least represented by its superior.

46. Any effort to promote justice will cost us something. Our cheerful readiness to pay the price will make our preaching of the Gospel more meaningful and its acceptance easier.

Solidarity with the Poor

47. A decision in this direction will inevitably bring us to ask ourselves with whom we are identified and what our apostolic preferences are. For us, the promotion of justice is not one apostolic area among others, the “social apostolate;” rather, it should be the concern of our whole life and a dimension of all our apostolic endeavors.

48. Similarly, solidarity with men and women who live a life of hardship and who are victims of oppression cannot be the choice of a few Jesuits only. It should be a characteristic of the life of all of us as individuals and a characteristic of our communities and institutions as well. Alterations are called for in our manner and style of living so that the poverty to which we are vowed may identify us with the poor Christ, who identified Himself with the deprived. The same questions need to be asked in a review of our institutions and apostolic works, and for the same reasons.

49. The personal backgrounds of most of us, the studies we make, and the circles in which we move often insulate us from poverty, and even from the simple life and its day-to-day concerns. We have access to skills and power which most people do not have. It will therefore be necessary for a larger number of us to share more closely the lot of families who are of modest means, who make up the majority of every country, and who are often poor and oppressed. Relying on the unity we enjoy with one another in the Society and our opportunity to share in one another’s experience, we must all acquire deeper sensitivity from those Jesuits who have chosen lives of closer approximation to the problems and aspirations of the deprived. Then we will learn to make our own their concerns as well as their preoccupations and their hopes. Only in this way will our solidarity with the poor gradually become a reality.

50. If we have the patience and the humility and the courage to walk with the poor, we will learn from what they have to teach us what we can do to help them. Without this arduous journey, our efforts for the poor will have an effect just the opposite, from what we intend, we will only hinder them from getting a hearing for their real wants and from acquiring the means of taking change of their own destiny, personal and collective. Through such humble service, we will have the opportunity to help them find, at the heart of their problems and their struggles, Jesus Christ living and acting through the power of the Spirit. Thus can we speak to them of God our Father who brings to Himself the human race in a communion of true brotherhood.

The Service of Faith

51. The life we lead, the faith-under-standing we have of it and the personal relationship to Christ which should be at the heart of all we do are not three separate realities to which correspond three separate apostolates. To promote justice, to proclaim the faith and to lead others to a personal encounter with Christ are the three inseparable elements that make up the whole of our apostolate.

52. We must therefore review not only our commitment to justice but our effectiveness in communicating the truths which give it meaning and in bringing men to find Christ in their daily lives. We must attentively examine our efforts to strengthen the faith of those who already believe in Christ, taking into account the formidable forces that in our time tend to undermine that faith. We must subject to a similarly searching examination our efforts to bring the Gospel to unbelievers.

53. In recent years the Church has been anxious to give fuller expression to her catholicity by paying more attention to the differences among her various members. More, perhaps, than in the past, she tries to take on the identity of nations and peoples, to align herself with their aspirations, both toward a socio-economic development and an understanding of the Christian mystery, in accord with their own history and traditions.

54. The incarnation of the Gospel in the life of the Church implies that the way in which Christ is preached and encountered will be different in different countries, different for people with different backgrounds. For some Christian communities, especially those in Asia and Africa, this “economy of the Incarnation”calls for a more intensive dialog with the heirs of the great non-Christian traditions. Jesuits working in these countries will have to take account of this. In some Western countries which can hardly be called Christian any longer, the language of theology and of prayer will also have to be suitably adapted. In those countries dominated by explicity atheist ideologies, a renewed preaching of the Gospel demands not merely that our lives be, and be seen to be, in conformity with the commitment to justice Christ demands of us, but also That the structures of theological reflection, catechesis, liturgy and pastoral ministry be adapted to needs perceived through a real experience of the situation.

55. We are members of a Society with a universal vocation and a missionary tradition. We therefore have a special responsibility in this regard. We have a duty to ensure that our ministry is directed toward incarnating the faith and life of the Church in the culture and traditions of the people among whom and with whom we work and, at the same time, toward communion with all who share the same Christian faith.

56. Moreover, the Church is aware that today the problematic of inculturation must take into account not only the cultural values proper to each nation but also the new, more universal values emerging from the closer and more continuous interchange among nations in our time. Here, too, our Society is called upon to serve the Church; take part in her task of aggiornamento, of “bringing-up-to-date;” that is, of incarnating the Gospel in these values as well, these new values that are becoming increasingly planetary in scope.

The Spiritual Exercises

57. The ministry of the Spiritual Exercises is of particular importance in this regard. A key element in the pedagogy of the Exercises is that its aim is to remove the barriers between God and man so that the Spirit speaks directly with man. Inherent in this Ignatian practice of spiritual direction is a deep respect for the exercitant as he is and for the culture, background and tradition that have gone into making him what he is. Moreover, the pedagogy of the Exercises is a pedagogy of discernment. It teaches a man to discover for himself where God is calling him, what God wants him to do, as he is, where he is, among his own people.

58. The Exercises also help to form Christians who, having personally experienced God as Savior, are able to stand back from the spurious absolutes of competing ideologies, and because of this detachment can play a constructive part in the reform of social and cultural structures. Thus, the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises is one of the most important we can undertake today. We should by all means encourage studies, research and experiment directed toward helping our contemporaries experience the vitality of the Exercises as adapted to the new needs which are theirs. Moreover the spirit of the Exercises should pervade every other ministry of the Word that we undertake.

Guidelines for Concerted Action

59. In presenting this review of our apostolate in its various dimensions, the General Congregation wishes to continue along the lines given by Father General to the Congregation of Procurators of 1970 and to emphasize once more the importance of theological reflection, social action, education and the mass media as means of making our preaching of the Gospel more effective. The importance of these means rests in the fact that, in touching its most profound needs, they permit a more universal service to humankind.

60. In the concrete:

—We must be more aware of the need for research and for theological reflection, carried on in a context which is both interdisciplinary and genuinely integrated with the culture in which it is done and with its traditions. Only thus can it throw light on the main problems which the Church and humanity ought to be coming to grips with today.

—Greater emphasis should be placed on the conscientization according to the Gospel of those who have the power to bring about social change, and a special place given to service of the poor and oppressed.

—We should pursue and intensify the work of formation in every sphere of education, while subjecting it at the same time to continual scrutiny. We must help prepare both young people and adults to live and labor for others and with others to build a more just world. Especially we should help form our Christian students in such a way that animated by a mature faith and personally devoted to Jesus Christ, they can find Him in others and having recognized Him there, they will serve Him in their neighbor. In this way we shall contribute to the formation of those who by a kind of multipliereffect will share in the process of educating the world itself.

—We have to take a critical look at our ability to communicate our heart-felt convictions not only to persons we deal with directly, but also with those we cannot meet individually, and whom we can only help to the extent that we succeed in humanizing the social climate—attitudes and behavior—where we are engaged. In this regard the communications media would seem to play a role of great importance.

61. We should pursue these objectives not separately, in isolation, but as complementary factors of a single apostolic thrust toward the development of the whole person and of every person.

D. A Missionary Body

62. The dispersal imposed on us today by our vocation as Jesuits makes it imperative that we strengthen and renew the ties that bind us together as members of the same Society.

63. That is why it is so important that our communities be apostolic communities, and it is the primary responsibility of the local superior to see to it that his community approach this ideal as closely as possible. Each one of us should be able to find in his community—in shared prayer, in converse with his brethren, in the celebration of the Eucharist—the spiritual resources he needs for the apostolate. The community should also be able to provide him with a context favorable to apostolic discernment.

64. It is this stress on the apostolic dimension of our communities that this 32nd General Congregation wishes to add to what the 31st General Congregation has already set forth in detail regarding the requirements of community life in the Society. Our communities even those whose members are engaged in different ministries, must have for their principle of unity the apostolic spirit.

65. It is important that whether a Jesuit works in a team or whether he works alone, he must be, and must feel himself to be, sent. It is the responsibility of the superior, after he has shared with the individual Jesuit in his discernment, to see to it that the apostolic work of each is properly integrated into the global mission of the Society. The individual Jesuit normally receives his mission from his provincial superior; but it belongs to the local superior to adapt that mission to local circumstances and to promote the sense of solidarity of the members of the community with each other and with the whole body of the Society to which they belong.

66. This solidarity with the Society is primary. It ought to take precedence over loyalties to any other sort of institution, Jesuit or non-Jesuit. It ought to stamp any other commitment which is thereby transformed into “mission.” The “mission” as such is bestowed by the Society and is subject to her review. She can confirm or modify it as the greater service of God may require.

67. This kind of responsibility on the part of the superior cannot be exercised without the living practice of the account of conscience, by which the superior is made capable of taking part in the discernment done by each of the members and can help him therein. It presupposes that, with the help of his companions, he engage in a continual, communitarian reflection upon fresh needs of the apostolate and upon the ways and means by which they can best be met. And it asks the superior to encourage the shy and the hesitant and to see to it that each individual finds a place in the community and a place in the apostolate which will bring out the best in him and enable him to cope with the hardships and risks he may encounter in God’s service.

68. The apostolic body of the Society to which we belong should not be thought of just in terms of the local community. We belong to a province, which should itself constitute an apostolic community in which discernment and coordination of the apostolate on a larger scale than at the local level can and should take place. Moreover, the province is part of the whole Society, which also forms one single apostolic body and community. It is at this level that the over-all apostolic decisions and guidelines must be made and worked out, decisions and guidelines for which we should all feel jointly responsible.

69. This demands of all of us a high degree of availability and a real apostolic mobility in the service of the universal Church. Father General, with the help of his advisers, has the task of inspiring the Society as a whole to serve the cause of the Gospel and its justice. But we ask all our brothers, especially the provincials, to give Father General all the support, all the ideas and assistance which they can, as he tries to carry out this task of inspiring and coordinating, even if this should shake up our settled habits or stretch horizons sometimes all too limited. The extent to which our contemporaries depend on one another in their outlook, aspirations and religious concepts, to say nothing of structural connections that span our planet, makes this over-all coordination of our efforts indispensable if we are to remain faithful to our mission of evangelization.

E. PRACTICAL DISPOSITIONS

70. The decisions and guidelines about our apostolic mission set forth above have certain practical consequences which we now propose to detail in some points.

A Program for Deepening Awareness and for Apostolic Discernment

71. Considering the variety of situations in which Jesuits are working, the General Congregation cannot provide the programs each region will need to reflect upon and implement the decisions and guidelines presented here. Each province or group of provinces must undertake a program of reflection and a review of our apostolates to discover what action is appropriate in each particular context.

72. What is required is not so much a research program as a process of reflection and evaluation inspired by the Ignatian tradition of spiritual discernment, in which the primary stress is on prayer and the effort to attain “indifference,” that is, an apostolic readiness for anything.

73. The general method to be followed to produce this awareness and to engage in this discernment may be described (see Octogesima Adveniens, n.4) as a constant interplay between experience, reflection, decision and action, in line with the Jesuit ideal of being “contemplative in action.” The aim is to insure a change in our habitual patterns of thought, a conversion of heart as well as of spirit. The result will be effective apostolic decisions.

74. The process of evaluation and discernment must be brought to bear principally on the following: the identification and analysis of the problems involved in the service of faith and the promotion of justice and the review and renewal of our apostolic commitments. Where do we live? Where do we work? How? With whom? What really is our involvement with, dependence on, or commitment to ideologies and power centers? Is it only to the converted that we know how to preach Jesus Christ? These are some of the questions we should raise with reference to our membership individually, as well as to our communities and institutions.

Continuing Evaluation of Our Apostolic Work

75. With regard to the choice of ministries and the setting up of priorities and programs, the General Congregation asks that the following guidelines be taken into account.

76. The review of our ministries and the deployment of our available manpower and resources must pay great attention to the role in the service of faith and the promotion of justice which can be played by our educational institutions, periodicals, parishes, retreat houses, and the other apostolic works for which we are responsible. Not only should our structured activities undergo this review, so should our individual apostolates.

77. In each province or region, or at least at the Assistancy level, there should be a definite mechanism for the review of our ministries. Now is a good time to examine critically how these arrangements are working and, if need be, to replace them by others which are more effective and allow for a wider participation in the process of communal discernment. The appropriate major superior should make an annual report to Father General on what has been accomplished here.

Some Special Cases

78. The General Congregation recognizes how important it is that we should be present and work with others in different areas of human activity, especially in those parts of the world which are most secularized. It also recognizes the real opportunities for apostolic work afforded, in some cases, by the practice of a profession or by taking a job not directly related to the strictly presbyteral function.

79. The General Congregation considers that such commitments can be a part of the Society’s mission, provided they meet the following conditions: They must be undertaken as a mission from our superiors. Their aim must be clearly apostolic. Preference should be given to work in an area which is de-Christianized or underprivileged. The activity must be in harmony with the priestly character of the Society as a whole. It must be compatible with the essential demands of the religious life—an interior life of prayer, a relationship with a Jesuit superior and a Jesuit community, poverty, apostolic availability.

80. Any realistic plan to engage in the promotion of justice will mean some kind of involvement in civic activity. Exceptional forms of involvement must conform to the general practice of the Church and the norms laid down by Father General. If, in certain countries, it seems necessary to adopt more detailed norms and directives, this must be seen to by provincials—as far as possible in regional conferences. These norms and directives should be submitted to Father General for approval. It will then be for the provincial —with the agreement, where the case demands it, of the local bishop or the bishops’ conference —to give or refuse the permission that may be required.

International Cooperation

81. All the major problems, of our time have an international dimension. A real availability and openness to change will thus be necessary to foster the growth of cooperation and coordination throughout the whole Society. All Jesuits, but especially those who belong to the affluent world, should endeavor to work with those who form public opinion, as well as with international organizations, to promote justice among all peoples. To this end, the General Congregation asks Father General to make one or other of his advisers specifically responsible for the necessary organization of international cooperation within the Society, as required by our service of faith and promotion of justice.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Section I, Decree 4, “Our Mission Today: The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice,” pg. 298–316 [47–130].

According to historian John Padberg, there was “something new” in the decision by the delegates at the 32nd General Congregation to issue the following decree, specifically commenting on the “work of inculturation of the faith and promotion of Christian life.” Padberg observes that previous congregations did not address the topic (see the congregation’s historical preface in Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 268). The decree asks “all Jesuits to promote” inculturation. It also recommends that the superior general “clarify for all of Ours the true meaning and theological understanding of the task and process of inculturation as well as its importance for the apostolic mission of the Society today.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

1. In furthering the mission of evangelization and the building up of Christ’s Church, the 32nd General Congregation is aware of the great importance that must be given today to the work involving inculturation of both faith and Christian life in all the continents of the world, but especially in the regions of Asia and Africa1 and in some countries of Latin America. Mindful that from its very beginning the Society has had a long and venerable missionary tradition of promoting inculturation, the Congregation judges that this work must be pursued with even greater determination in our own day and that it deserves the progressively greater concern and attention of the whole Society. Therefore, the Congregation urgently requests all Jesuits to promote this effort according to the mind and authentic teaching of the Church in order to provide greater help and service not only to the local Churches but especially to the universal Church under the Vicar of Christ on earth, to the end that all peoples and nations may be restored to unity in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

2. The Congregation entrusts to Father General the further development and promotion of this work throughout the Society. In the first place, it recommends that, after he has considered the whole question with the help of expert assistance, Father General write a letter or instruction to the entire Society, in order to further this work in and by the Society. His purpose in writing will be to clarify for all of Ours the true meaning and theological understanding of the task and process of inculturation as well as its importance for the apostolic mission of the Society today. The Congregation also recommends to Father General that he further this effort in any other ways which seem to him more conducive to God’s greater glory.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 5, “The Work of Inculturation of the Faith and the Promotion of Christian Life,” pg. 317–318 [131–132].

The delegates to the 32nd General Congregation approved the following decree, a lengthy statement on the process of Jesuit formation in light of the “many changes in the world at large.” The influence of those changes meant that “constant adaptation is required in order to be sure of achieving the essential purpose of our formation.” What follows are “some practical norms for the evaluation of various features of formation and their execution.” The decree also expands the concept of “formation” beyond the traditional understanding of the process of training and educating the newest members of the Society of Jesus, even reminding “older Jesuits” of their own need for “a permanent and continuing formation.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

Especially with Regard to the Apostolate and Studies

1. Since the 31st General Congregation the many changes in the world at large have brought influences to bear on the training of our scholastics and brothers. Among these changes we might mention: the development of new structures, institutions, and mentalities in many nations; a deeper appreciation of the identity and autonomy of different cultures; the profound renewal of the Church in recent years; new arrangements in many provinces for the education of our men, which is often pursued in institutions not belonging to the Society or in circumstances where the academic program is distinct from religious formation; a restructuring of community life located now in urban centers; new cultural values which often have an influence on our young men; new aspirations of young Jesuits: their sensitivity to the world of today and the problems of society, their desire to be more closely associated with their peers; the difficulty—affecting most young people today—of remaining for a long time in the status of students while desirous of taking a genuine role in the active life of the Society; their regret oftentimes at what appears an isolated existence; their desire, finally, that the Society embrace an apostolic perspective more suited to the growth of their own vocations.

2. In this context, an adequate evaluation of the present formation of Jesuits—which has not yet been done sufficiently—seems all the more necessary because, in continually changing times, constant adaptation is required in order to be sure of achieving the essential purpose of our formation. Moreover, certain defects which are apparent both in formation generally and in the organization of studies sometimes stem from a failure to fulfill the prescribed norms, as found in the following documents: Decrees 8 and 9 of the 31st General Congregation, An Instruction of Father General on the Spiritual Training of Jesuits, and the General Norms for Studies (1968).

3. Therefore, the 32nd General Congregation proposes some practical norms for the evaluation of various features of formation and their execution. At the same time, it provides, in declarative form, some preliminary reflections which may help to give both young Jesuits and those who in various ways help to educate them, and indeed all of our men, a perspective on formation adapted to our times. Within this perspective the above-mentioned documents can be reread and explained. Little is said, however, about spiritual formation, because in this area the General Congregation confirms and stresses what has been prescribed in the eighth decree of the 31st General Congregation.

4. The present document, then, although dealing principally with the formation of young Jesuits, looks, in a certain sense, to all our members since all are involved in formation as that task is presented here. All of us, after all, constitute an apostolic body into which the younger members are gradually integrated. Moreover, older Jesuits themselves need a permanent and continuing formation, which our formal training must have in view from the start. Our apostolic calling requires personal and ever-deepening study not only on the part of the young but on the part of all Jesuits.

A. The Integrated Character of Apostolic Formation

5. The decision made by the 32nd General Congregation concerning the mission of the Society in today’s world calls us to give renewed emphasis to the apostolic character of our formation process. This was already clearly affirmed by the 31st General Congregation. Moreover, the total formation of Jesuits, both scholastics and brothers, must be equal to the demands of evangelization in a world deeply troubled by atheism and social injustice.

6. It is with this world in view that our formation must prepare witnesses and ministers of the faith who, as members of the Society, are ready to be sent for the greater service of the Church into situations which are characterized by uncertainty. Their formation must make our men capable of dialogue with others, capable of confronting the cultural problems of our day. For these are the circumstances under which they must labor to promote the spiritual growth of mankind according to the tradition of the Society.

7. To respond to this apostolic vision, the whole formation of our members must be understood and promoted as a process of integration into the apostolic body of the Society.

8. This notion of integration expresses, in a synthetic way, a most important aspect of contemporary Jesuit formation which is used in this document in two different senses: as meaning both personal integration and integration into the apostolic body of the Society. These aspects should not be separated. Integration among disciplines and structures of the formation process will be treated later.

a. Personal Integration

9. First of all, it might be good to recall some of the elements by which an apostolic personality is formed:

a. The process of apostolic formation must favor the personal assimilation of Christian experience. This demands a deep knowledge of revelation based on Sacred Scripture and on the living tradition of the Church and the ability, in the light of this knowledge, to reflect in a discerning way on the apostolate as it is concretely experienced.

b. In an apostolic formation an important place must be given to spiritual experience which is personal, vital, rooted in faith, nourished by daily prayer and the Eucharist: an experience that makes us capable of witnessing to the gift of faith before nonbelievers and of cooperating with God for the spiritual growth of those who do believe.

c. Our style of life and its attendant circumstances, both personal and communitarian, ought to favor apostolic formation. It should have the young Jesuits live in real conditions and come to know themselves, where responsibilities prevent a lapse into carelessness and individualism. This should mean that young Jesuits should not, during their time of formation, be oblivious to the actual living conditions of the people of the regions in which they live. Their style of life therefore must help them to know and understand what the people around them seek, what they suffer, what they lack.

10. Accordingly, an experience of living with the poor for at least a certain period of time will be necessary for all, so that they may be helped to over- come the limitations of their own social background. For this reason, the conditions of such an experience must be thought out carefully, so that it will be genuine, free of illusions, and productive of an inner conversion. And it must be added that our whole personal and community life ought to be characterized by the radical standard of the Gospel, in the sense that our fidelity to the evangelical choice we have made by our vows must lead us to a critical vision of ourselves, of the world, and of society. This radical standard must be appropriate to a personal insertion into the human culture of the region where the apostolate is carried out, so that one’s own faith may be intelligible to other people and influence their life and culture.

11. In the whole course of formation, these diverse elements, necessary for an apostolic and priestly mission in today’s world, must be harmoniously united. We should conceive and plan for the total formation of our men as a process of progressive integration of the spiritual life, of the apostolate, and of studies in such a way that the richness of the spiritual life should be the source of the apostolate, and the apostolate, in turn, the motive for study and for a more profound spiritual life.

12. This process of integration begins in the novitiate, which may be common for both scholastics and brothers, and whose purposes are formation and probation. Right from the novitiate members of the Society are to be carefully instructed in spiritual discernment. This Ignatian discernment is an essential ingredient of our apostolic formation. Indeed, today’s conditions demand that a member of the Society during the whole course of formation should practice spiritual discernment about the concrete choices which, stage by stage, the service of Christ and the Church require of him. It is through this discernment that a sense of personal responsibility and true freedom will be achieved.

b. Integration into the Apostolic Body of the Society

13. The whole process of formation, through its various stages from no- vitiate to tertianship, should favor this integration. It should prepare our young men to be eager to fulfill the missions and perform the ministries which the Society may wish to assign to them.

14. To achieve this, the provincial must follow the entire course of development of each individual; he must take care that each understand the purpose of the stage of formation in which he is involved and profit from it according to the measure of grace granted to him. Moreover, through the whole course of this development, each young man should also be assisted by his local superior, the spiritual father, the director or prefect of studies, and his teachers to integrate intellectual reflection with apostolic experience—both personal and communitarian—in order to prepare his own apostolic orientation. Those who direct the young must therefore challenge them to develop a sense of personal responsibility. Ultimately, all who work in formation must try to become so filled with God’s own wisdom that they teach and form our young as much by the lively sharing of their personal knowledge of God and man as by the communication of academic learning.

15. This integration, moreover, is to be aided by the continual experience of participating in the life of the Society as an apostolic body. On the one hand, such experience is fostered in houses of formation by a community, which the young constitute among themselves and with other Jesuits, in which there is real communication and a sharing of life, even on the spiritual level, as well as cooperation and mutual responsibility in studies and in apostolic works. If, indeed, young Jesuits live at times in apostolic communities, care must be taken that: (a) the communities are such as can willingly assume the responsibility of formation, along with those who have special charge of formation in the province; and (b) a priest, designated by the provincial, be responsible for helping them to pursue serious studies and carry on their apostolic work while still maintaining close ties with their companions.

16. On the other hand, this experience supposes a formation that is closely bound up with the activities of the province or region; those in charge of formation therefore must be men who are capable both of assisting other Jesuits and of receiving help from others. Contact, information, and cooperation with other communities and works, especially with those in the same province, should help young Jesuits to experience the whole province, indeed the whole Society, as an apostolic body united in one spirit. To achieve this, the provincial, or someone designated by him, should see that the young are given this apostolic orientation in progressive stages and by a variety of experiences, according to the talents of each and with a view to the apostolic works of the province and the Society.

17. The goal of the whole process of integration should be to assist each one, with the help of spiritual discernment, to learn not to indulge his own aspirations in an individualistic way, but to come to understand that he is a member of the body of the whole Society and shares its apostolic mission.

c. Continued Formation as the Renewal of the Whole Apostolic Body of the Society

18. Especially in our times, when everything is subject to such rapid change and evolution, and when new questions and new knowledge, both in theology and in other branches of learning, are constantly developing, a truly contemporary apostolate demands of us a process of permanent and continuing formation. Thus formation is never ended, and our “first” formation must be seen as the beginning of this continuing process.

19. Continuing formation is achieved especially through a constant evaluation of and reflection on one’s apostolate, in the light of faith and with the help of one’s apostolic community. It also needs the cooperation of our professors and experts, whose theory can shed light on our praxis, even while they themselves are led to more profound reflection by the apostolic experience of their fellow Jesuits. This kind of communication will also assist the integration of the young into the apostolic life of the province, and the contact between formation and the apostolate will profit the whole Society.

20. This continuing formation demands that definite periods of time be given to formal courses or simply to private study, whether in theology or other disciplines, as required for one’s apostolate.

B. Integration of Studies into the Apostolic Life

21. Since our mission today is the proclamation of our faith in Jesus Christ, which itself involves the promotion of justice, our studies must be directed toward this mission and derive their motivation from it. In a world where faith is fostered only with great difficulty and in which justice is so broadly violated, our wish is to help others arrive at a knowledge and love of God and a truly fraternal love of men, to help them lead lives according to the Good News of Christ and to renew the structures of human society in justice. Ministers of the Word of God can bring such help to others only if they have themselves acquired a profound vision of reality, from personal reflection on the experience of man in the world and on his transcendent finality in God. They must make their own God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ, as it is contained in Sacred Scripture and expressed in the life of the Church and in the teaching of the Magisterium. Such personal and accurate assimilation cannot be obtained without continued discipline and the labor of tireless and patient study.

22. Thus the Society has opted anew for a profound academic formation of its future priests—theological as well as philosophical, humane, and scientific— in the persuasion that, presupposing the testimony of one’s own life, there is no more apt way to exercise our mission. Such study is itself an apostolic work which makes us present to men to the degree that we come to know all the more profoundly their possibilities, their needs, their cultural milieu. Our studies should foster and stimulate those very qualities which today are often suffocated by our contemporary style of living and thinking: a spirit of reflection and an awareness of the deeper, transcendent values. For this reason, our young men should be re- minded that their special mission and apostolate during the time of study is to study. Thus, the desire for a more active service, which the young feel so deeply, ought to be itself the animating force which penetrates all their studies.

23. The brothers also who participate in the apostolic activity of the Society according to Decrees 7 and 8 of the 31st General Congregation, should receive appropriate theological instruction and a better formation in what concerns their work, according to the measure of the gifts they have received from God.

24. From different parts of the Society it has been reported that our philosophical studies in recent years have, for various reasons, suffered deterioration. The General Congregation urges both superiors and professors to take the necessary means to strengthen the philosophical training of our men. Sufficient time must be given to it, and it must be done in a mature, unified, and coherent fashion, reaching a serious level of academic quality. The Society expects for its scholastics the kind of long-term philosophical training which is in touch with the radical problems of human existence and which is a mature reflection on the different intellectual traditions of mankind, in such a way that it can be integrated with subsequent or concomitant theological reflection.

25. The numerous points of contact between philosophy and other fields of learning, contact with contemporary problems and with the present and future lives of students, ought to be pointed out. Because of today’s diversity of cultures, sciences, ideologies, and social movements, priests in the Society ought to be men who possess balance and depth in their thinking and who can communicate to others with credibility their own convictions regarding meaning and values.

26. Theological training should be well integrated, sufficiently systematic, adapted to the exigencies of our mission, and conducted according to the norms of the Church. The whole of this training supposes above all a personal experience of the faith which must be developed and explained by a knowledge of Sacred Scripture, Christian doctrine, and moral theology. Students should be encouraged to establish a critical dialogue between theology and human culture, between faith and the real questions and problems which occupy the minds of the people among whom we exercise our apostolate. This reflection cannot be effective today except through an integration of the human sciences with philosophy and theology, both in teaching and in learning. Cooperation and communication among professors can be a great help towards this.

27. In accord with the norm of Decree 9, n. 18, of the 31st General Congregation, those studies should be fostered that readily help our young men attain a harmonious, balanced human and religious maturity; studies leading not only to a living knowledge of man and his modern world, but also suited to expressing ourselves to the people of our times. Also, our formation must be such that the Jesuit can be one with the people to whom he is sent, capable of communicating with them. He must be able to share their convictions and values, their history, their experience and aspirations; at the same time, he must be open to the convictions and values of other peoples, traditions, and cultures. Hence training in the sciences, in languages, in literature, in the classic “liberal arts,” in modern media of communication, and in the cultural traditions of the nation, must be undertaken with much greater care.

28. Moreover, the apostolic activities of the scholastics and brothers, accepted as a genuine mission from superiors, must be so directed and so subjected to evaluation that a real connection will be possible between apostolic activities and studies. Such activities are a part of apostolic formation for everyone, and part of the strictly priestly formation for those who are called to the ministerial priesthood: they ought to be integrated into the curriculum of studies as a basis for further reflection. For studies can be so tied in with these diff rent experiences that by the experiences, the studies themselves can be appreciated in a new light.

29. In the whole course of formation, especially during philosophical and theological studies, a deep and authentic involvement with the local culture should be fostered, according to regional differences; yet care should also be taken to promote unity of minds and hearts in the Society. To foster this union, all the young members of the Society must cultivate Ignatian spirituality and be taught a theology which is grounded in the tradition and official teaching of the Church, though adapted to the needs of the times and of local cultures. For this purpose, meetings of those responsible for formation and professors of Ours in the various regions and in the whole Society can be very helpful. The young men themselves, by communication among the various provinces and regions, should acquire better knowledge of the unity and diversity of the Society, which will lead them to a true sense of its universality.

30. Those who teach our men ought to manifest by their labor and living example this integration of the intellectual, spiritual, and apostolic life. To them is committed a prime role in the intellectual apostolate of the Society. They teach in the name and by the mandate of the Church. By their scholarship and with openness of mind, they seek out ways to develop a more profound understanding of the faith and to make it known to men, taking into account the questions and the needs of our times and of their own nations. They are called by the Society not only to teach their disciplines and to carry on scholarly research, but are also responsible for fostering each in his own way, the integral formation of our men— intellectual and spiritual, priestly and apostolic—in the spirit of the Society.

C. Norms

31. The provincial is responsible for all aspects of the formation of those who belong to his province. He is responsible for both the persons and the institutions of the Society charged with formation. However, it is appropriate that there be a delegate who should have the immediate care for the various aspects of formation of each young Jesuit in the province (or in the region, where circumstances so dictate).

a. There should be regional or provincial commissions to advise superiors in the direction of formation in accord with local conditions.

b. These commissions should be made up both of those who are in charge of formation and also of some who are working in various apostolic ministries. They should evaluate the status of formation in the province or region on a regular basis.

32. The General Congregation suggests to Father General that one of the general counsellors should have special concern for the integral formation of Jesuits throughout the Society. He ought also to help Father General in insisting on the execution of the decrees of this Congregation on formation, in adapting the General Norms for Studies and in evaluating experiments relative to formation.

33. Those who are in charge of formation should take care that our scholastics and brothers, especially in the period immediately after the novitiate, become familiar with the sources of the spirituality of the Church and the Society and with its history and traditions and that they study them with a view toward their own progress and the progress of others.

34. Provincials should be mindful of poverty in the matter of expenses for new arrangements of formation communities and institutions and in the pursuit of special studies.

35. In accord with the resources and the apostolic needs of the different regions or provinces, provincials should provide for the spiritual, intellectual, and apostolic renewal of all our men. At determined times, all should be given sufficient opportunity for study and for reflection about their apostolic life. This program should be carried out with serious application according to a plan approved by the provincial.

36. It is suggested that, more or less ten years after completing tertian- ship, Jesuits who have had experience in apostolic ministries and offices be given the opportunity for intensive spiritual renewal during two or three months.

37. Studies in the Society are governed by the common law of the Church and by Decree 9 of the 31st General Congregation unless this present decree in a particular case provides otherwise. All the decrees of previous General Congregations which are contrary either to this decree or to Decree 9 of the 31st General Congregation or to the General Norms for Studies are definitively abrogated. These General Norms which Father General promulgated in place of the previous Ratio Studiorum are to be continually revised and adapted to new needs.

38. Because of the importance of philosophical and theological studies in the tradition and apostolic life of the Society, provincials should see to it that in general all acquire the licentiate in either theology or philosophy and that those who manifest greater interest and talent should continue further studies in order to acquire higher degrees. What is said in Decree 9, nn. 33–40, of the 31st General Congregation concerning special studies should also be implemented.

39. In faculties or institutions where the curriculum in philosophy and theology is flexible, the superior of the scholastics or the prefect of studies, according to the determination of the provincial, is responsible for arranging the curriculum of each scholastic according to his ability and his future apostolic work.

40. The studies of brothers should be in accord with the needs of the province as well as their ability, interest, and future apostolic work. Their education in religious studies should be commensurate with their ability and adapted to their other studies.

41. Scholastics are to devote at least two years to the study of philosophy. But when these studies are combined with other subjects or with the study of theology, they must be pursued in such a way that the equivalent of two years is devoted to them.

42. a. The four year study of theology, prescribed by the Church for all who are preparing for the priesthood, is to be observed. But when the regular curriculum of theology is completed in three years, a fourth year is to be added which should be dedicated either to preparation for a degree in theology or, in an approved program, to the integration of theological studies into one’s formation, especially one’s pastoral formation.

b. If, however, there is an introductory course in theology, under the direction of a faculty of theology, beginning in the novitiate and continued through the period of philosophical studies, a careful evaluation should be made to determine whether the quality of this program is such that it might be equivalent to the first year of the theological curriculum.

43. Special studies, understood according to their apostolic character, should be earnestly fostered by superiors. Those who undertake such studies, especially in secular universities, should be assisted to understand and personally to assimilate the interrelationship between these studies and their philosophy and theology. They should have special spiritual assistance and should be integrated into the life of a community of the Society.

44. A solid education should also be fostered in literature, the arts, sciences, history, and the various aspects of the culture of the region where the apostolate will be carried on. The study of modern means of social communication should also be encouraged. An academic degree should be required as the usual means to evaluate our education in these fields in order to make our apostolic service more effective.

45. Besides their own language, our young men should learn one or other of the more common modern languages which would facilitate communication with other cultures and with the universal Society.

46. Although the curriculum of studies for the scholastics may be arranged in a number of ways, such unity ought to be observed in the regional programs as to make it possible for the scholastics, without extreme difficulty, to take part of their training in another province or region.

47. Formation in apostolic activities ought to be carried on in a progressive fashion under the direction of a competent coordinator who should direct the young Jesuits in their activities, bring them to examine the activities critically, and help them to carry them out. Such activities, which are to be undertaken as a mission from superiors, should be so arranged that they lead to a deeper level of spiritual and intellectual reflection. For this purpose, it will be especially helpful, according to the mind of the Constitutions, for the scholastics to become accustomed to directing others in the Spiritual Exercises under the supervision of an experienced director. Moreover, these apostolic experiences should be an integral part of the curriculum of studies.

48. In institutions where scholastics are taught by Jesuits, these Jesuit professors should remember that the mission which they have received from the provincial extends also to the formation of scholastics. Therefore, a team of professors should be chosen which has the aptitude for carrying on scholarly work, for teaching, and for cooperating in the integral formation of the scholastics. With regard to this point, professors should be conscious of their responsibility toward the Society.

49. a. In provinces where scholastics study in faculties or institutions which do not belong to the Society, superiors should see to it that the formation proper to the Society is provided with all the necessary means, for example, by complementing the curriculum with special courses.

b. Where, however, the faculty or institution is directed by the Society but the academic direction is separate from the religious direction (of the community), superiors are responsible for promoting mutual cooperation in order to achieve the integral formation of our men.

50. The Regional Orders of Studies are to be sufficiently revised so that they will truly correspond to the requirements of this decree. Such revisions are, in good time, to be submitted to Father General for approval.

51. To establish the level of learning required of those who may be admitted to the profession of four vows, of all those who have not acquired a higher degree, at least a licentiate, in sacred studies an examen ad gradum is required according to the Constitutions. It must be an oral examination in philosophy and theology, before four examiners. Decree 9, n. 29, of the 31st General Congregation is abrogated. Everything else dealing with the length of the examination, its program, and the way of giving the grades for the examination is to be deter- mined in the Regional Orders of Studies approved by Father General.

52. In each province there should be a serious consideration of how this decree is to be implemented. A report on this matter is to be sent to Father General.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 6, “The Formation of Jesuits,” pg. 321–332 [133–186].

The 31st General Congregation’s tenth decree encouraged “new experiments” with the structure of the tertianship process, the time just before a Jesuit makes final vows. In the following decree, the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation revisit the topic. The decree approves two plans for tertianship to be adopted by in “different provinces and regions” in the Society of Jesus.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

1. Just as the 31st General Congregation, so also the 32nd General Congregation holds the institution of tertianship in high regard. Therefore, provincials should urge priests and coadjutor brothers who have not yet made their tertianship to do so as soon as possible.

2. The tertianship of the coadjutor brothers enjoined by the 30th General Congregation is to be observed faithfully, for it has contributed much to the spiritual advancement of the brothers. When it is judged opportune, and the provincial permits, this period of formation may be made together with our priests or candidates for the priesthood.

3. The 32nd General Congregation approves two tertianship plans, A and B, understanding that, with Father General’s approval, they may be adopted in different provinces and regions:

Plan A: After completing the Society’s required studies of theology, the candidate will enter his third probation. The experiment of the month-long Spiritual Exercises is to be made within the first months of the tertianship. Then, allowing for a suitable interval after the retreat, ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood will take place. During the course of the tertianship, a solid knowledge of the Institute and a deeper understanding of the spirit of the Society are to be fostered; but a notable part of the time after priestly ordination is to be devoted to ministries, primarily pastoral, under competent supervision. At the end of this tertianship year, the priests can be promoted to final vows. In individual cases, and for a just cause, the provincial is authorized to postpone a scholastic’s entry into tertianship; but if this is done, priestly ordination and final vows will likewise be postponed.

Plan B: When the third year of theology is completed and an appropriate spiritual preparation has been made, the scholastic can receive ordination to the priesthood. After ordination, and some time after the course of studies is finished, tertianship is to be made; this should be done not later than three years after priestly ordination, except for a just cause, with the provincial’s approval.

It is better that the tertian have an assignment and work in an apostolic community, provided that, in the judgment of the Instructor, this assignment and work are compatible with the experiments and duration of residence required in the forms of tertianship approved by Father General, so that while in an active life, the tertian may be formed to be a Jesuit contemplative in action.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 7, “Tertianship,” pg. 333–334 [187–190].

As did the delegates in the previous congregation, the delegates of 32nd General Congregation examined the topic of grades within the Society of Jesus. The following decree endorses the promotion of “the participation of the temporal coadjutors in the life and apostolic activity of the Society,” as did a decree from the previous congregation.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

1. The 32nd General Congregation again lays very great stress on promoting the unity of vocation of the entire body of the Society, as enshrined in our Constitutions. It asks each and every member to make this unity shine forth in the life, work, and apostolate of all communities; to ensure that grades be not a source of division, let there rather be, by means of the day-to-day efforts of everyone, a complete union of the one religious, priestly, and apostolic body in the love of Christ the Lord and the service of the Church.

2. Furthermore, the Congregation commends and urges:

a. that the participation of the temporal coadjutors in the life and apostolic activity of the Society be further promoted, fulfilling the recommendations of the 31st General Congregation completely;

b. that the norms for the promotion of priests to the profession of four vows, better adapted by the 31st General Congregation to today’s circumstances, be put into practice both for those who are at present spiritual coadjutors and for approved scholastics. Candidates, however, are to be selected in such a way as in fact to meet the demands of those criteria of selection.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 8, “Grades in the Society of Jesus,” pg. 334 [191–192].

The following decree from the 32nd General Congregation amends the Jesuits’ policy on the permanent diaconate as articulated in a decree from the previous congregation. The decree and amendments were necessary, as historian John Padberg notes, because the Holy See had requested religious orders to “clearly determine the juridical status of their permanent deacons” (see the congregation’s historical preface in Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 271–272). This decree articulates the status for those Jesuits ordained as permanent deacons.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

The 32nd General Congregation amends Decree 6 of the 31st General Congregation as follows:

1. In willing compliance with the desire of the Church, which commends the restoration of the permanent diaconate in the Eastern Churches, where the custom was discontinued, and also in the Western Church, where in the judgment of the bishops and with the approval of the Holy See such renewal may lead to the spiritual progress of the faithful, the General Congregation declares that our Society can be helped by having some members who are permanently engaged in the service of the Church by means of the holy order of the diaconate.

2. Those members who for good reasons approved by Father General are ordained permanent deacons will retain the grade that they already have in the Society; if they are approved coadjutors, they are to be advanced to the grade of formed temporal coadjutors, all requisites having been observed; if they are scholastics, they can be admitted by Father General to the grade of spiritual coadjutors, by way of exception, once all requisites have been observed, but they cannot be made superiors in the strict sense.

3. It is entrusted to Father General to obtain the necessary faculties from the Holy See so that there can be permanent deacons in the Society; and also to establish, whenever he judges it opportune, general or particular norms concerning the permanent diaconate in the Society.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 9, “The Permanent Diaconate,” pg. 335 [193–195].

The following decree provides some clarifications as to when a Jesuit would make his final vows. In doing so, it makes changes to policies set forth by both the 12th General Congregation and the 31st General Congregation.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

1. As to decree 11, of the 31st General Congregation:

a. n. 2, 6°, is abrogated.

b. n. 2, 7°, shall be revised to read: “At least ten full years in the Society, including the years spent in initial studies of philosophy and theology in the Society.”

c. n. 2, 8°, is abrogated.

d. n. 6, 3°, shall be revised to read: “If they are temporal coadjutors, they have completed ten years of religious life and have made the tertianship required by Decree 42 of the 30th General Congregation; if they are approved scholastics, they have completed the length of time in the Society prescribed in n. 1.b above.”

2. In the case of scholastics, ordination to the priesthood (which, generally, is not to be deferred more than three years after studies of theology are completed) and the tertianship prescribed in the Constitutions must precede final vows.

3. The 9th Decree of the 12th General Congregation is abrogated; but the days on which final vows have traditionally been pronounced in the Society are commended anew.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 10, “Time of Last Vows,” pg. 336 [196–198].

This lengthy decree is the response of the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation to the “rather large number of postulta” (or petitions) they received on the “spiritual life”—especially prayer and obedience—and on common “spiritual discernment,” notes historian John Padberg (see the congregation’s historical preface in Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 274–276). The decree states its intention to provide a “sharper focus to our religious life as Jesuits” since the previous general congregation. It also states the Jesuits’ mission as: “with renewed vigor to bear witness to the Gospel and, by the ministry of the Word, made operative in Christian charity, to help bring about in our world the reign of Christ in justice, love, and peace.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

Orientations and Guidelines for Our Spiritual Life and Our Life in Community

1. The 32nd General Congregation confirms and commends the declarations and directives of the 31st General Congregation on the religious life contained in its Decrees 13–17 and 19. We believe them to be as helpful today in promoting our continual progress in spirit as when they were formulated, and hence they are implicitly assumed throughout the following statement.

2. It must, however, be added that our experience during the last ten years of trying to live up to those declarations and directives, and the choices we have now made regarding our mission today, seem to call upon us, as well as to enable us, to give a sharper focus to our religious life as Jesuits. We believe that focus is the union of minds and hearts [unio animorum] in the Society. It is toward preserving and strengthening that union of minds and hearts under present-day conditions that the following orientations and practical norms are directed.

3. We see our mission today as this: with renewed vigor to bear witness to the Gospel and, by the ministry of the Word, made operative in Christian charity, to help bring about in our world the reign of Christ in justice, love, and peace. For just as Christ by his words and deeds, by his death and resurrection, made God’s justice the world’s salvation, and by so doing gave all men hope of becoming truly and wholly free, so we, his followers, are called upon to bear the witness of word and life to God’s salvific love of the world in which we live.

4. The carrying out of this mission demands a very wide dispersion both of men and of ministries, given the great social and cultural diversity of our world. Hence, what St. Ignatius says about the need for union of minds and hearts among us was never more true than now: “The more difficult it is for members of this congregation to be united with their head and among themselves, since they are so scattered among the faithful and among unbelievers in diverse regions of the world, the more ought means to be sought for that union. For the Society cannot be preserved, or governed, or, consequently, attain the end it seeks for the greater glory of God, unless its members are united among themselves and with their head.”

5. Moreover, that very union of minds and hearts which participation in Christ’s mission requires will at the same time be a powerful aid to that mission, since it will be a visible sign of the love of the Father for all men. In the following orientations, therefore, we treat of our union with God in Christ, from which flows our brotherly communion with one another, a communion strengthened and made apostolically efficacious by the bond of obedience.

A. Union with God in Christ

6. Where, then, do we begin? We begin with the Ignatian insight that the unity of an apostolic body such as ours must be based on the union of each and all with God in Christ. For if we have come together as a companionship, it is because we have, each of us, responded to the call of the Eternal King.

7. In seeking this union with God in Christ, we experience a difficulty peculiar to our times, and we must be prepared to meet it. The material conditions of our world—a world of sharply contrasted affluence and misery—and the spiritual climate engendered by them, tend to produce in our contemporaries an inner emptiness, a sense of the absence of God. The expressions, signs, and symbols of God’s presence which reassured men in the past do not seem to be able to fill the present emptiness. We are still groping for the new expressions, signs, and symbols that can do so. In the meantime, we ourselves are sometimes plunged in this climate of emptiness; and so it is crucial for us somehow to regain that continual familiarity with God in both prayer and action which St. Ignatius considered absolutely essential to the very existence of our companionship.

8. We are thus led, inevitably, to the absolute necessity of personal prayer, both as a value in itself and as a source of energy for apostolic action. “The charity of Christ urges us to personal prayer and no human person can dispense us from that urgency.” We need it for the familiarity with God which consists in finding him in all things, and all things in him. Christ himself gave us an example of this. St. Ignatius urges it in both the Exercises and the Constitutions. Our own personal experience confirms it. For while it is “in action” that we are called to be contemplative, this cannot obscure the fact that we are called to be “contemplative.”

9. And yet, many of us are troubled because, although we want to pray, we cannot pray as we would like and as our apostolic commitments demand we should. In the midst of our individual, isolated efforts to pray as we should, perhaps we should listen to Christ’s reminder that “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.” Does this not suggest that if we need assistance it is in our companionship that we must seek it: in dialogue with the spiritual counsellor, in openness to the superior, in shared prayer with our brothers?

10. Moreover, let us not forget that while our world poses obstacles in the way of our search for union with God in Christ, it also offers suggestions for surmounting those obstacles, which we should submit to an Ignatian discernment of spirits in order to determine where in them the Spirit of God is moving us. There is, for instance, the contemporary stress on spontaneous prayer, with a minimum of formalism. There is the interest in, and understanding of, the different approaches to union with God developed by the non-Christian religions. There are the various forms of prayer in community which lead to a mutually enriching exchange of faith experiences. There is, finally, the remarkable renewal taking place today in the giving and the making of the Spiritual Exercises, whose vivifying influence extends beyond the limits of the formal retreat into the daily life of prayer.

11. Not only that; fidelity to the Exercises energizes our apostolic action. It enlarges our inner freedom to respond readily to the demands which the service of faith may make of us. It deepens in us the self-abnegation that unites us to Christ crucified, and thus to the poverty, humiliations, and sufferings by which he saved the world. And, not least, it fills us with joy: the joy of service which, more than anything else, will attract others to join our companionship; the abiding joy of men whom nothing can separate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus, the Spiritual Exercises, in which as Jesuits we especially experience Christ and respond to his call, lie at the heart of our Jesuit vocation. Returning every year to the Exercises, each Jesuit renews in them his dedication to Christ.

12. Our union with God in Christ is furthered not only by formal prayer, personal and communitarian, but also by the offering of Christ’s sacrifice and the reception of his sacraments. Every Jesuit community is a faith community, and it is in the Eucharist that those who believe in Christ come together to celebrate their common faith. Our participation at the same table in the Body and Blood of Christ, more than anything else, makes us one companionship totally dedicated to Christ’s mission in the world.

13. Inwardly strengthened and renewed by prayer and the sacraments, we are able to make apostolic action itself a form of union with God. Our service of the faith [diakonia fidei] and our service of men then become, not an interruption of that union but a continuation of it, a joining of our action with Christ’s salvific action in history. Thus contemplation flows into action regularly, and we realize to some extent our ideal of being contemplatives “in action.”

B. Brotherly Communion

14. From union with God in Christ flows, of necessity, brotherly love. Love of the neighbor, which union with Christ and with God in Christ implies and includes, has for its privileged object in our case, the companions of Jesus who compose our Society. They are our companions; and it is our community ideal that we should be companions not only in the sense of fellow workers in the apostolate, but truly brothers and friends in the Lord.

15. a. By forming in this way a community of brothers, we bear witness to the presence of God among men: God who, as Trinity, is, beyond all imagining, a community of Love; God who, made Man, established with men an everlasting covenant. Even our interpersonal relationship within the community, then, has an apostolic dimension, in that it must set the tone of our relationship with those outside the community who serve in the apostolate with us, and, indeed, with all men of good will who work for justice or sincerely seek the real meaning of human life. Not only that; it must set the tone of our relationship with those we seek to serve: with those who are our neighbors not simply by local propinquity, but by a sharing of concerns and aspirations.

16. But let us realistically face the facts that make community building difficult today. More so today than in the past, our membership is drawn from very different social and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, the modern world places a much heavier stress on individual freedom than on the subordination of the individual to the group. Our response to these realities will be to transform them from obstacles to aids in community building. Our basic attitude toward cultural differences will be that they can enrich our union rather than threaten it. Our basic altitude toward personal freedom will be that freedom is fulfilled in the active service of love.

17. Not that we should adopt an attitude of indiscriminate tolerance, a weary attitude of “peace at any price.” Our attitude should be, rather, that of the Contemplation for Obtaining Love: “to consider how all blessings and gifts descend from above, such as my limited power from the supreme and limitless power on high, and so with justice, goodness, piety, mercy; as rays from the sun, as water from the spring.” We come to the Society from many lands, many ways of thought and life, each one of which has received a particular grace from God’s infinite bounty. As companions of Jesus and each other, we wish to share with one another what we have and are, for the building up of communities dedicated to the apostolate of reconciliation.

18. b. Hence the need of opening up and maintaining clear channels of communication within our communities and among them, a need which St. Ignatius foresaw when, in terms of the communication facilities of his time, he called for regular and frequent letter writing back and forth between communities and individuals, and between head and members. In any case, it is clear that our communities should not be self-enclosed but most open; they are communities for mission. They receive their mission from authority; but authority itself expects the community to discern, in union with its superior and in conformity with his final decision, the concrete ways whereby that mission is to be accomplished and the procedure by which it is to be evaluated and revised in the light of actual performance. In other words, it is with the community as with the individual: it is from the inner life of grace and virtue that force flows outward to the works proposed to us. Hence the need to structure in our communities, flexibly, to be sure, but firmly, a way of life that favors personal and community prayer, provides for the relaxation of tensions and the celebration of life, and establishes a climate in which men dedicated to apostolic service can—as the apostles of Jesus did—gradually grow to the height of their vocation.

19. Fraternal communication within the community can take many forms according to different needs and circumstances. But its basic presupposition is, at the human level, sincerity and mutual trust and, at the level of grace, those gifts of God with which our companionship began and by which it is maintained.

20. Certain features of our Ignatian heritage can be given a communitarian dimension; provided, of course, the personal practice for which they were originally intended is not abandoned. For instance, the examination of conscience could, at times, be made a shared reflection on the community’s fidelity to its apostolic mission. Similarly, fraternal correction and personal dialogue with the superior can usefully become a community review of community life style.

21. c. We can go further and say that community spiritual interchange can, under certain conditions, become communitarian discernment. This is something quite distinct from the usual community dialogue. It is “a corporate search for the will of God by means of a shared reflection on the signs which point where the Spirit of Christ is leading,” and the method to follow in such communitarian discernment is analogous to that which St. Ignatius teaches for the making of a personal decision on a matter of importance.

22. There are prerequisites for a valid communitarian discernment. On the part of the individual member of the community, a certain familiarity with the Ignatian rules for the discernment of spirits, derived from actual use; a determined resolution to find the will of God for the community whatever it may cost; and, in general, the dispositions of mind and heart called for and cultivated in the First and Second Weeks of the Exercises. On the part of the community as such, a clear definition of the matter to be discerned, sufficient information regarding it, and “a capacity to convey to one another what each one really thinks and feels.”

23. Clearly, the requisite dispositions for true communitarian discernment are such that they will not be verified as often as those for ordinary community dialogue. Nevertheless, every community should seek to acquire them, so that when need arises it can enter into this special way of seeking the will of God. Indeed, inasmuch as it should be characteristic of a Jesuit to be in familiar contact with God and to seek his will constantly in a spirit of true Ignatian indifference, even ordinary community meetings and house consultations can incorporate elements of true communitarian discernment, provided we seriously seek God’s will concerning the life and work of the community.

24. What is the role of the superior in communitarian discernment? It is, first, to develop, as far as he can, the requisite disposition for it; second, to decide when to convoke the community for it, and clearly to define its object; third, to take active part in it as the bond of union within the community and as the link between the community and the Society as a whole; and, finally, to make the final decision in the light of the discernment, but freely, as the one to whom both the grace and the burden of authority are given. For in our Society the discerning community is not a deliberative or capitular body but a consultative one, whose object, clearly understood and fully accepted, is to assist the superior to determine what course of action is for God’s greater glory and the service of men.

25. d. Times of stress and trial that might threaten our fraternal communion from time to time can become moments of grace, which confirm our dedication to Christ and make that dedication credible. For, obviously, there is a reciprocal relationship between the religious vows and community life. The living of the vows promotes and strengthens community life; community life, in turn, if truly fraternal, helps us to be faithful to our vows.

26. The orientations of this 32nd General Congregation regarding the vow of poverty are to be found in a separate declaration.

Our vow of chastity consecrates a celibacy freely chosen for the sake of the Kingdom of God. By it, we offer an undivided heart to God, a heart capable of a self-giving in service approaching the freedom from self-interest with which God himself loves all his creatures. This is the witness we are called upon to give to a world which calls the value of celibacy into question; and the 32nd General Congregation simply and wholly confirms what the 31st General Congregation declared regarding the apostolic value of the vow of chastity. We might simply add that celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom has a special apostolic value in our time, when men tend to put whole classes of their fellow human beings beyond the margins of their concern, while at the same time identifying love with eroticism. In such a time, the self-denying love which is warmly human, yet freely given in service to all, can be a powerful sign leading men to Christ who came to show us what love really is: that God is love.

C. Obedience: The Bond of Union

27. “This union is produced, in great part, by the bond of obedience.” And precisely because it is our bond of union, it is the guarantee of our apostolic efficacy. Today, especially, given the wide dispersion of our apostolic enterprises, the need for us to acquire highly specialized skills in highly specialized works, and the consequent need, in many places, to make a distinction between our apostolic institutes and our religious communities, the preservation of unity of purpose and direction becomes a prime necessity.

28. In this task of unification the role of the major superior has been well defined by the 31st General Congregation. What this 32nd General Congregation would like to stress is the equally important role of the local or community superior. Given the conditions alluded to above, even if the local superior does not have the direction of the apostolic work owing to the appointment of a director of the apostolate, he nevertheless retains the responsibility to confirm his brethren in their apostolic mission and to see to it that their religious and community life is such as to enable them to fulfill that mission with God’s grace. Moreover, the task of the superior is not only to support the mission of the members of his community, but at times to determine it more precisely, “in such wise that the individuals dwelling in some house or college have recourse to their local superior or rector and are governed by him in every respect.”

29. His part is to stimulate as well as to moderate the apostolic initiatives of the members of his community. But, above all, the preservation of the community as a fraternal union depends on him. Whatever the kind of community over which he presides—and our mission today demands an astonishing variety of them—his task is to keep it together in love and obedience by that spiritual mode of governance “in all modesty and charity in the Lord” recommended and exemplified by St. Ignatius.

In addition to superiors, there are also directors of works. Where fitting, and in accord with norms that must be approved by Father General, the director of a work can have true religious authority in directing the efforts of those who have been assigned to work in that apostolate so that everything may be directed to the greater glory of God and the progress of others in Christian life and teaching. In carrying out his office, the director of the work should be alert to the advice and suggestions of his brother Jesuits and ready to receive their help. If any difficulties arise in reconciling the duties of the superior or superiors of communities and the director of the work, they should be resolved in statutes drawn up for this purpose.

30. Today, more than ever before, that spiritual mode of governance is needed. The contemporary stress on individual initiative mentioned earlier, combined with the wide range of opportunities open to that initiative, tends to obscure the sense of mission essential to Ignatian obedience and may dislodge it altogether, unless we make fuller use of the special instrument for spiritual governance bequeathed to us by St. Ignatius: the account of conscience.

31. Vowed obedience, whether in humdrum or in heroic matters, is always an act of faith and freedom whereby the religious recognizes and embraces the will of God manifested to him by one who has authority to send him in the name of Christ. He does not necessarily have to understand why he is being sent. But both the superior who sends and the companion who is sent gain assurance that the mission is really God’s will if it is preceded by the dialogue that is the account of conscience. For by it the superior acquires an inner knowledge of those subject to his authority: what they can and what they cannot do, and what help they need by way of counsel or resource to do what they can. The companion, in turn, learns what the mission on which he is being sent involves and what, concretely, he must do to discharge his responsibility.

32. The more the account of conscience is genuinely practiced, the more authentic will our discernment be of God’s purpose in our regard and the more perfect that union of minds and hearts from which our apostolate derives its dynamism. A community from which sincerity and openness in mutual relationships are absent soon becomes immobilized in purely formal structures which no longer respond to the needs and aspirations of the men of our time, or else it disintegrates altogether.

33. Beyond the limits of the strict matter of our vow of obedience extends our duty of thinking with the Church. Our being united among ourselves depends, in the last analysis, on our being united in both mind and heart to the Church that Christ founded. The historical context in which St. Ignatius wrote his Rules for Thinking with the Church is, of course, different from ours. But there remains for us the one pillar and ground of truth, the Church of the living God, in which we are united by one faith and one baptism to the one Lord and to the Father. It behooves us, then, to keep undimmed the spirit of the Ignatian rules and apply them with vigor to the changed conditions of our times.

34. Clearly, the union of minds and hearts of which we speak is difficult of achievement. Equally clearly, it is demanded by our apostolic mission. Our witness to the Gospel would not be credible without it. The sincere acceptance and willing execution of these orientations and norms set forth by this present Congregation will help toward that union. But human means fall short. It is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of love, that must fill the Society. For this we humbly pray.

D. Guidelines

35. Because “the work of our redemption is constantly carried on in the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice,” all of our members should consider daily celebration of the Eucharist as the center of their religious and apostolic life. Concelebrations are encouraged, especially on days when the community can more easily gather together.

36. In order to respond to the interior need for familiarity with God, we should all spend some time each day in personal prayer. Therefore, for those still in formation, “the Society retains the practice of an hour and a half as the time for prayer, Mass, and thanksgiving. Each man should be guided by his spiritual father as he seeks that form of prayer in which he can best advance in the Lord. The judgment of superiors is normative for each.”

For others, “our rule of an hour’s prayer is to be adapted so that each Jesuit, guided by his superiors, takes into account his particular circumstances and needs, in the light of a discerning love.”

37. The time order of the community should include some brief daily common prayer and at times, in a way that is appropriate for each apostolic community, a longer period for prayer and prayerful discussion. Shared prayer, days of recollection, and the Spiritual Exercises in common are recognized as fruitful means for increasing union, since they provide the opportunity for reflecting before God on the mission of the community and, at the same time, express the apostolic character of our prayer.

38. Our entire apostolic life should be examined with the spiritual discernment proper to the Exercises, so that we might increasingly put into practice what God expects of us and purify the motivation of our lives. One means available to us is the daily examination of conscience, which was recommended by St. Ignatius so that we might be continually guided by the practice of spiritual discernment.

39. Since we need the grace of continual conversion of heart “to the love of the Father of mercies” that the purity and freedom of our lives in God’s service might increase, all should frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We should also willingly participate in communal penitential services and strive to promote the spirit of reconciliation in our communities.

40. Dialogue with a spiritual director on a regular basis is a great help for growing in spiritual insight and learning discernment. Every Jesuit, especially during formation but also when he is engaged in an active apostolate, should make every effort to have a spiritual director with whom he can speak frequently and openly. The provincials should endeavor to identify and prepare spiritual fathers who are experienced in personal prayer and who have good judgment. This is especially true for the formation communities.

41. The local superior is also responsible for the spiritual vitality of the community. He should take care that the community is a true faith community precisely because he is concerned with its apostolic mission. For this reason, he should consider it part of his job to provide the conditions that foster personal and community prayer, the sacramental life, and communication on a spiritual level. He should also take care that every Jesuit be able to find in the organization of community life whatever is necessary for recollection and for a suitable balance between work and rest.

42. The Spiritual Exercises are a privileged means for achieving renovation and union in the Society and for revitalizing our apostolic mission. They are a school of prayer and a time when a man has the spiritual experience of personally encountering Christ.

For this reason, the 32nd General Congregation confirms n. 16 of Decree 14 of the 31st General Congregation. In addition, it recommends:

a. That, especially at the time of the annual visitation, the provincials inquire about the way our members are making the Spiritual Exercises;

b. That, especially during this period of renovation in the Society, those who are already formed be encouraged to make the full Exercises extended over a month. This can be an effective means of implementing the conclusions of the 32nd General Congregation;

c. That, in the provinces, the greatest care be given to the formation of those who have the talent to direct the Exercises;

d. That those already formed should at times make the annual retreat under the personal direction of a skilled director.

43. The 32nd General Congregation confirms and recommends all that is contained in the decrees of the 31st General Congregation concerning devotion to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady, as they pertain to both the spiritual life of Ours and the apostolate. In the promotion of these devotions, account should be taken of the differences which exist in various parts of the world.

44. All Jesuits, even those who must live apart because of the demands of their apostolate or for other justifiable reasons, should take an active part in the life of some community. To the extent that the bond with a community and its superior is more than merely juridical, that union of minds and hearts which is so desirable will be kept intact.

45. Every community of the Society should have its own superior.

46. The account of conscience is of great importance for the spiritual governance of the Society, and its practice is to be esteemed and cultivated. Therefore, all should give an account of conscience to their superiors, according to the norms and spirit of the Society. In addition, the relationships between superiors and their brethren in the Society should be such as to encourage the account of conscience and conversation about spiritual matters.

47. Taking into account the mission it has been given, every community should after mature deliberation establish a time order for community life. This time order should be approved by the major superior and periodically revised.

48. Since our communities are apostolic, they should be oriented toward the service of others, particularly the poor, and to cooperation with those who are seeking God or working for greater justice in the world. For this reason, under the leadership of superiors, communities should periodically examine whether their way of living sufficiently supports their apostolic mission and encourages hospitality. They should also consider whether their style of life testifies to simplicity, justice, and poverty.

49. Communities will not be able to witness to Christian love unless each member contributes to community life and gives sufficient time and effort to the task. Only in this way can an atmosphere be created which makes communication possible and in which no one goes unnoticed or is neglected.

50. To the extent possible, superiors should strive to build an Ignatian apostolic community in which many forms of open and friendly communication on a spiritual level are possible. Since it is a privileged way to find God’s will, the use of communal spiritual discernment is encouraged if the question at issue is of some importance and the necessary preconditions have been verified.

51. Solidarity among communities in a province as well as fraternal charity require that communities be open to men of different ages, talent, and work.

52. The dwelling and arrangement of the community should be such that it allows for needed privacy and encourages the spiritual, intellectual, and cultural development of community members. These are necessary conditions for the fulfillment of our apostolic mission.

53. Within limits imposed by our profession of poverty, communication and union among members of the Society should be strengthened in the following ways:

a. gatherings of communities in the same city or regions should be encouraged;

b. workshops and task forces should be established for each area of the apostolate;

c. regular meetings should be held of the superiors of each province and the provincials of each assistancy or major region.

E. The Common Rules

54. The Common Rules approved by the 4th General Congregation and revised by the 27th General Congregation are abrogated. Number 14 of Decree 19 of the 31st General Congregation is also abrogated.

a. This Congregation recommends to Father General that at his discretion he publish a summary of the decrees of the 31st and 32nd General Congregations, together with a summary of the letters he has written to the Society since the 31st General Congregation. This summary can serve as an index of principal features of our religious life.

b. It is left to provincials, with the approval of Father General, to determine for each province or group of provinces more particular norms which shall be adapted to local circumstances.

F. Declaration Concerning Decree 17, Number 10 of the 31st General Congregation

55. What is contained in Decree 17, n. 10, should be understood in the following way:

a. The ordinary means of dealing with a conflict of this type is through sincere dialogue, according to the Ignatian principle of representation and following upon prayer and appropriate consultation.

b. A Jesuit is always free to approach a higher superior.

c. If the conflict cannot be resolved either through dialogue or recourse to a higher superior, other persons—some of whom may be from outside the Society—may be called by mutual consent to assist in forming one’s conscience more clearly. This should be done privately and without publicity.

d. The procedure cannot be imposed on either the superior or the Jesuit involved. It is entirely voluntary and unofficial. It is nothing more than a new effort to find the divine will.

e. The opinion of those consulted has no juridical effect on the authority of the superior. It is merely advisory.

f. If, after this procedure, a Jesuit still feels he cannot obey in good conscience, the superior should determine what should be done. “But a man who, time after time, is unable to obey with a good conscience, should take thought regarding some other path of life in which he can serve God with greater tranquility.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 11, “Union of Hearts and Minds in the Society,” pg. 339–352 [199–256].

The Jesuits’ superior general, acting in accordance to the wishes of the 31st General Congregation, provided new statutes on poverty for experimental use in 1967. When the 32nd General Congregation convened nearly a decade later, its delegates revisited the topic and its spiritual as well as juridical elements. Their decree, appearing below, notes the need for reform towards a “more authentic poverty.” It does regret the term “poverty” in the context of mass starvation, as “poverty means very different things to different people.” Therefore, “at the very least,” the decree believes “religious poverty should try hard to limit rather than to expand consumption.” It suggests that the “standard of living of our houses should not be higher than that of a family of slender means whose providers must work hard for its support.” The decree offers several norms and expresses how “a poverty profoundly renewed” would appear: “simple in community expression and joyous in the following of Christ; happy to share with each other and with all; apostolic in its active indifference and readiness for any service; inspiring our selection of ministries and turning us to those most in need; spiritually effective, proclaiming Jesus Christ in our way of life and in all we do.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

For a More Authentic Poverty

1. In recent times and especially since the Second Vatican Council, the Church, her families of religious, indeed the whole Christian world have been striving for a deeper understanding and new experiential knowledge of evangelical poverty. This Congregation, like its predecessor, has tried earnestly to enter into this movement and to discern its implications for our Society.

2. Voluntary poverty in imitation of Christ is a sharing in that mystery revealed in the self-emptying of the very Son of God in the Incarnation. The Jesuit vocation to poverty draws its inspiration from the experience of St. Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises and is specified by the Formula of the Institute and by the Constitutions. It is the charism of the Society to serve Christ poor and humble. The principle and foundation of our poverty, therefore, is found in a love of the Word made Flesh and crucified.

A. Signs of the Times

3. Reflection on the Gospel in the light of the signs of our times has illumined new aspects of this religious poverty. Contemporary man has become very aware of massive, dehumanizing poverty, not only material but spiritual as well. Everywhere there are to be found men of good will working for a social order of greater justice and the abolition of oppressive structures. At the same time, the appetite for enjoyment and consumption of material goods spreads everywhere and verges on a practical atheism. The rich, individuals and nations, are thereby hardened in their readiness to oppress others, and all, rich and poor, are duped into placing man’s whole happiness in such consumption. Still, there are those who react against this materialism and seek a new liberty and another happiness in a simpler way of life and in the pursuit of higher values. On all sides there is felt a desire to discover new communities which favor a more intimate interpersonal communication, communities of true sharing and communion, concerned for the integral human development of their members. Our lives, our communities, our very poverty can and should have a meaning and a message for such a world.

4. These common experiences of contemporary man are signs of the times which prompt us to seek a deeper insight into the mystery of Christ. Religious poverty still calls to the following of Christ poor, but also to a following of Christ at work in Nazareth, identifying with the needy in his public life, the Christ of heartfelt compassion, responding to their needs, eager to serve them. For centuries, the perfection of religious poverty was found in mendicancy. He was counted poor who lived on alms, placing all his hopes in the providence of God operative through benefactors. With growing clarity the Church invites religious to submit to the common law of labor. “Earning your own living and that of your brothers or sisters, helping the poor by your work—these are duties incumbent upon you.” Indeed the Church encourages religious “to join the poor in their situation and to share their bitter cares.” Response to such invitations is presented as an expression of vowed poverty suited to our times. Calling all the faithful more urgently than ever to spend themselves in the promotion of social justice, the Church shows that she places high hopes in the efforts of those who have consecrated themselves and all they have to Christ by the vow of poverty. Something of an evolution seems to have taken place: today the primary import of religious poverty is found not only in an ascetic-moral perfection through the imitation of Christ poor, but also, and more in the apostolic value of imitating Christ, forgetful of self in his generous and ready service of all the abandoned.

5. The Society cannot meet the demands of today’s apostolate without reform of its practice of poverty. Jesuits will be unable to hear the “cry of the poor” unless they have greater personal experience of the miseries and distress of the poor. It will be difficult for the Society everywhere to forward effectively the cause of justice and human dignity if the greater part of her ministry identifies her with the rich and powerful, or is based on the “security of possession, knowledge, and power.” Our life will be no “witness to a new and eternal life won by Christ’s redemption or to a resurrected state and the glory of the heavenly kingdom,” if individually or corporately, Jesuits are seen to be attached to earthly things, even apostolic institutions, and to be dependent on them. Our communities will have no meaning or sign value for our times, unless by their sharing of themselves and all they possess, they are clearly seen to be communities of charity and of concern for each other and all others.

B. Our Response

6. That the Society has long been uneasy about the practice of poverty by individuals, communities, and apostolic institutes is evidenced by hundreds of postulates from all parts of the world. The Congregation, mindful of its duty, has tried to answer this call of the Society, not so much by words and exhortation as by new structures of temporal administration. The single intent is to strengthen and confirm the practice of poverty.

7. The first aim of the reform to be outlined below is finally to “answer the demands of this real and not pretended poverty.” In a world of mass starvation, no one can lightly call himself poor. It is perhaps regrettable that we have no other word to designate this note of religious life, since poverty means very different things to different people. At the very least, religious poverty should try hard to limit rather than to expand consumption. It is not possible to love poverty or experience its mysterious consolations, without some knowledge of its actuality. The standard of living of our houses should not be higher than that of a family of slender means whose providers must work hard for its support. The concrete exigencies of such a standard are to be discerned by individuals and communities in sincere deliberation with their superiors. It should look to food and drink, lodging and clothing, but also and perhaps especially to travel, recreation, use of automobiles, and of villas, vacations, etc. Some should scrutinize their leisure, sometimes such as hardly the rich enjoy. The need for reform is so frequently evident and demanded by so many Provincial Congregations that no person or community may decline this examination.

8. The grace of our vocation demands loyal and generous effort to live that poverty required by the Society’s spirit and law. The frequent engagement of Ours in professions and salaried offices is not without dangers, not only for the spirit of gratuity, but even for the observance of common life itself. Such work is to be chosen only as a more effective means to the communication of the faith or to spiritual advancement, without thought of remuneration or of the privileges attached to an office. Independence from the community in acquisition or expenditure, a vice with manifold disguises, cannot be tolerated. Every Jesuit must contribute to the community everything he receives by way of remuneration, stipend, alms, gift, or in any other way. He receives from the community alone everything he needs. In the same way, by cheerfully and gratefully accepting the community’s standard of living, each undertakes to support his brothers in their efforts to live and to love poverty. Those who are unwilling to observe this double law of common life, separate themselves from the fraternity of the Society in spirit if not in law.

9. The voluntary poverty of religious is the attempt of fallen men to achieve that liberty from inordinate attachment, which is the condition of any great and ready love of God and man. In the Society this very liberty to love is in the service of the apostolate. Every Jesuit, no matter what his ministry, is called “to preach in poverty,” according to the sacra doctrina of the Two Standards, and this poverty has a spiritual power not to be measured in human terms. Apostolic efficiency and apostolic poverty are two values to be held in an on-going tension, and this is a rule for apostolic institutes as well as for individuals. The expedience of retaining rich and powerful institutions, requiring great capital outlay, is to be weighed prudently and spiritually. Since these institutions are but means, the attitude of the Society should be that of the Third Class of Men, and according to the rule of tantum-quantum, fully as ready to abandon as to retain, to the greater service of God. The faithful practice of religious poverty is apostolic, too, in its contempt of personal gain, which commends the Gospel and frees the apostle to preach it in all its integrity. It is apostolic, finally, in that communities which are really poor, by their simplicity and fraternal union, proclaim the beatitudes, “manifesting to all believers the presence of heavenly goods already possessed here below.”

10. This Congregation has spoken elsewhere of the necessity of commitment to the cause of justice and to the service of the poor. The Church regards such ministry as integral to the contemporary practice of poverty. Such commitment is everywhere needed, but in many places it is a very condition of credibility for the Society and for the Church. The insertion of communities among the poor so that Jesuits may work for them and with them, or at least may acquire some experience of their condition, is a testimony of love of the poor and of poverty to which the Church encourages religious. Implementation of this proposal will have to be different in our widely differing circumstances. Unless there be evident reason to the contrary, however, provincials should encourage those communities which, in union and charity with the rest of the province, choose to practice a stricter poverty, or to live among the poor, serving them and sharing something of their experience.

C. New Structures

11. The better to meet the new demands of our poverty, the Congregation has undertaken a reform of the structures of temporal administration. The keystone of this reform is the distinction between apostolic institutes and the communities which serve them. The former are governed by the present law of the “colleges” [technically so called in the law of the Society], and so may possess endowments and needful revenue. Communities, however, are assimilated to “professed house” [also technically so called], and may have no stable revenues from capital.

12. With the recognition of remuneration for work as a legitimate source of support, there is less emphasis on alms as the only legitimate source of income for a community. On the other hand, there is greater stress on the apostolic use of all revenues. Communities must live a simple and frugal life within an approved budget. They may not accumulate capital but must dispose of any annual surplus, according to a provincial plan which will look to the needs of communities, of apostolates, and of the poor. As far as possible, apostolic institutes, too, are bound by this law of fraternity and solidarity towards other ministries. Neither the capital nor the revenues of our institutes may profit our communities, except for approved remuneration for services rendered. If an institute is suppressed, its assets are reserved for use in other apostolic enterprises.

D. Conclusion

13. It is clear that admission of sin and true conversion of heart will help more toward a lived poverty than any revision of law. For that favor we must pray God earnestly as part of the grace of our vocation, to which we must remain open. While law can support spirit, no legal reform will profit anything unless all our members elect evangelical poverty with courage at the invitation of the Eternal King, Christ Our Lord. Let all superiors in meditation and prayer become deeply conscious of their responsibility to forward this renovation of poverty. Each member should recall that this reformed poverty will never be realized unless all unitedly and generously support superiors in this task.

14. This is the desire of the Congregation, this its prayer to God for the Society, a poverty profoundly renewed,

— simple in community expression and joyous in the following of Christ;

— happy to share with each other and with all;

— apostolic in its active indifference and readiness for any service;

— inspiring our selection of ministries and turning us to those most in need;

— spiritually effective, proclaiming Jesus Christ in our way of life and in all we do.

The authenticity of our poverty after all does not consist so much in the lack of temporal goods, as in the fact that we live, and are seen to live, from God and for God, sincerely striving for the perfection of that ideal which is the goal of the spiritual journey of the Exercises: “Give me only your love and your grace, and I am rich enough, and ask for nothing more.”

15. The following norms are the principles for the revision of the statutes on poverty. It will take time to reduce them to familiar practice. It is the internal law of charity and love which will be their best interpreter, that law which leads all of us to “love poverty as a mother, and…when occasions arise, feel some effects of it.” The Congregation earnestly commends this decree to the faithful observance of all.

E. Norms

Terminology

16. In this decree by community is understood any group of Jesuits legitimately constituted under the authority of a local superior.

17. Apostolic institutes are those institutions or works belonging to the Society which have a certain permanent unity and organization for apostolic purposes, such as universities, colleges, retreat houses, reviews, and other such in which our members carry on their apostolic work.

All communities can have apostolic institutes

18. All communities can have attached to them one or more apostolic institutes in which the whole community or some of its members exercise their apostolate.

The separation to be put into effect

19. By the law of the Society, there is to be established a distinction between communities and apostolic institutes, at least with regard to the destination and usufruct of their goods and between the financial accounts of each.

20. A distinction of moral persons, canonical or civil, is also recommended, where this can be affected without great inconvenience, preserving always the apostolic finality of the institutes and the authority of the Society to direct them to such ends.

The resources of institutes may not be diverted to the use of the communities

21. The goods of apostolic institutes of the Society may not be diverted to the use or profit of our members, except for a suitable remuneration, to be approved by the provincial, for work in such institutes or for services rendered to the same.

Poverty of communities

22. All communities dedicated to pastoral work or to any other apostolic functions are equated to professed houses in what pertains to poverty. However, all may be the juridical subject of all rights, including ownership, pertaining to the apostolic institutes attached to such communities.

23. Seminaries for our members retain their own regime of poverty. Houses or infirmaries for our aged or sick are equated to the former.

Annual community budgets

24. In each community the responsible administrators will draft each year at the appointed times and according to the norms established by the provincial, a projected budget as well as a statement of revenues and expenses. These will be communicated to the community as soon as convenient and are to be approved by the provincial.

Disposition of surplus

25. That the life of our communities may be “removed as far as possible from all infection of avarice and as like as possible to evangelical poverty,” the surplus of each community will be distributed yearly according to the provision of nn. 27–31 except for a moderate sum to be approved by the provincial for unforeseen expenses. This sum is never to exceed the ordinary expenses of one year.

26. The first beneficiary of such surplus in each community will be the apostolic institute or institutes attached to the same if these stand in need, unless the provincial with his consultors should decide otherwise.

Sharing resources

27. According to the norms to be established by the provincial and approved by Father General, there is to be provision for the distribution of the communities’ surplus mentioned in n. 25, for the benefit of those communities or works of the province which are in greater need.

28. In this sharing of resources, the needs of other provinces, of the whole Society, and of non-Jesuits will be considered.

29. Major superiors can require that individual communities, according to their capacities, contribute a certain sum of money to the relief of the needs of other communities or apostolic institutes of the province or of other provinces, even if this should require some reduction in their standard of living, which in any case must always be frugal.

30. Provinces are permitted to provide insurance for old age and for sickness, either through their own “Arca,” or with other provinces, or by participation in governmental or in private plans.

31. A Charitable and Apostolic Fund of the Society is to be established for the benefit of communities and works of the Society, and, should need arise, for externs as well. It is not to be permanently invested but what it receives is to be distributed.

Father General is to determine the sources of this fund, its administration and manner of distributing benefits, with the assistance of advisers from different parts of the Society.

Poverty of apostolic institutes

32. Apostolic institutes, churches excepted, can have revenue-bearing capital and stable revenues, adequate to their purposes, if such seem necessary to the provincial.

33. Superiors and directors, mindful that we are sent to preach in poverty, will take great care that our apostolic institutes avoid every manner of extravagance and limit themselves strictly to the functional, attentive to the standards of similar institutes or works of their region and to the apostolic finality of our institutes. It is the responsibility of the provincial to determine what is required so that the apostolic institutes belonging to the Society manifest this character and mark of apostolic evangelical poverty.

34. With due respect for the needs of apostolic institutes and, if this applies, for the statutes of the institute and the will of benefactors, provincials, with the approval of the General, will provide for a more equitable and apostolically effective sharing of resources among the apostolic institutes of the province, looking always to God’s greater service.

35. Those responsible for the administration of apostolic institutes will present to the provincial at the appointed times, the annual budget of the institute, a statement of the year’s revenues and expenses, and, if required, a balance sheet.

36. If an apostolic, institute be suppressed, the superiors, according to their respective competence, will take care that its assets be devoted to another apostolic work or placed in the fund for apostolic works of the province or of the Society, respecting always, if this applies, the statutes of the institute and the will of benefactors. Such assets may never be destined to the use or benefit of a community, of a province, or of the Society.

Norms of transition

37. The Statutes on Poverty, promulgated by Father General on September 15, 1967, continue in force with the same authority as at promulgation, except for those norms which are contrary to the provisions of this decree.

38. The General Congregation charges Father General, with the help of a commission to be constituted by himself, to have the Statutes revised according to the principles, prescriptions, and recommendations of this decree and to promulgate them as soon as possible on his own authority.

Recommendations to the commission for the revision of the statutes on poverty

39. The General Congregation recommends the following to the commission for the revision of the statutes on poverty:

a. The statutes should prescribe that in temporal administration and especially in investments of the Society, of provinces, or communities and apostolic institutes, care be had for the observance and due promotion of social justice.

b. In editing the revised statutes, the provisions which look to the personal and community practice of poverty should be so published in a compendium as to serve in the best manner possible for reflection and spiritual discernment, while those matters which have little to do with the daily practice of poverty of our members should be relegated to an appendix or to an Instruction on Temporal Administration.

c. The commission should give serious study to many well considered postulates, either of provincial congregations or of individuals, to the end that according to the diligent prudence of the commission,

— provision may be made in the Statutes for those matters which do not exceed the competence of Father General;

—those which exceed his authority may be thoroughly investigated so that clear proposals in their regard can be made to the 33rd General Congregation.

F. Capacity of the Society and of Provinces to Possess Temporal Goods

40. The General Congregation, confirming the provisions of the statutes on poverty promulgated September 15, 1967, concerning the capacity of the Society and of provinces to possess temporal goods, decrees the following:

1. The Society, provinces, vice-provinces, and missions dependent and independent, as distinguished from communities and apostolic institutes, are capable of possessing even revenue-bearing capital and of enjoying fixed and stable revenues, within the limits here defined, provided always that such goods and revenues are not applied to the support of the professed or formed coadjutors, except as permitted below, 3a and b.

2. The Society may possess such revenue-bearing capital and fixed and stable revenues only to promote certain apostolic works of a more universal kind or to relieve the needs of missions and provinces.

The Society is owner of the Charitable and Apostolic Fund mentioned above in n. 31

3. Provinces, vice-provinces, and missions dependent and independent, can possess revenue-bearing capital and can enjoy fixed and stable revenues, only for the following purposes:

a. For the support and education of those in probation or engaged in studies (Arca Seminarii) ;

b. For the support of the aged and the sick;

c. To set up or develop houses or foundations, whether these have already been established or are yet to be established, according as necessity or opportunity may indicate (Arca Fundationum);

d. To promote certain works, such as retreat houses, especially for non-Jesuits, centers for the social apostolate or for the diffusion of Catholic teaching by means of the media of social communication, for charitable enterprises both in and outside the Society, and for other apostolates which otherwise would lack sufficient resources (Arca Operum Apostolicorum).

G. Definition of Revenues Prohibited to Communities

41. The 32nd General Congregation authentically declares that the fixed and stable revenues prohibited to our communities are completely defined to be those revenues from property, moveable or immoveable, either belonging to the Society or so invested in foundations, which the Society can claim in law.

H. Amendment of Decree 18 of General Congregation XXXI

42. In Decree 18, n. 16, d, of the 31st General Congregation after the words “may be accepted;” the following is to be added: “so also the remuneration attached to certain stable ministries, such as those of hospital chaplains, catechists, and the like.”

I. A Faculty of Dispensation to Be Asked of the Holy See

43. The General Congregation charges Father General to request of the Holy See, at least as a precaution, the faculty to dispense in individual cases, both communities and churches of Jesuits from the prohibition of having stable revenues, in the case of revenues not deriving from investment with the intention of gain, and which are judged necessary or very useful.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 12, “Poverty,” pg. 353–363 [257–302].

The delegates of the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus examined the practical operations of a general congregation. The results of that examination appear in the decree appearing below. The decree also recommends that the superior general appoint a commission to study how many delegates should attend a general congregation and how those delegates ought to be apportioned (“according to criteria which are not only quantitative but also qualitative”), with a goal of “reducing the numbers of those who attend a general congregation.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

1. The 32nd General Congregation confirms Decree 38 of the 31st General Congregation on the preparation for a general congregation. It further defines this decree in the following ways:

a. The preparation for a general congregation should be complete, in the sense that it should include the drafting of the preliminary reports which are now described in the first sentence of n. 119, No. 3, of the Formula of the General Congregation. In as far as possible, these reports should be prepared for all the topics which the coming general congregation will be likely to treat.

b. The preparation for a general congregation should also be authoritative, in the sense that the preliminary reports and studies described in (a) above, to the extent that they are produced or approved by the official preparatory committee described in (c) below, should be recognized by the general congregation as part of its official work, although the congregation retains the power to complete this preparatory work itself.

c. If it seems useful, the preliminary committees foreseen in n. 7 of Decree 38 of the 31st General Congregation may be set up, but, in any case, an official preparatory committee should be established in due time. Its members are to be chosen by the General or the Vicar General, acting with his council, from among those who will attend the coming congregation. This committee should meet early enough to complete the preparations described in (a) and (b) above.

2. The Formula of the General Congregation should be revised with regard to both its procedure and its method of handling business from the calling of the congregation until its closing.

3. The additional procedural norms adopted by the 32nd General Congregation for its own use should also be reviewed.

4. In the future, those who attend the congregation only “ad negotia” (according to the norm contained in n. 7, of the Formula of the General Congregation) may be elected secretary or assistant secretary of the congregation and members of the committee on the state of the Society and the committee for screening postulates. They may also be elected “Definitores.”

5. In addition to what is contained in n. 3 of Decree 39 of the 31st General Congregation, the power of both the congregation of procurators and the congregation of provincials is augmented so that they may:

1° prepare and present to the Society a report on the state of the Society;

2° suspend decrees of previous general congregations until the next general congregation, if this seems necessary.

The 32nd General Congregation gives the following commission and authority to Father General: That, with the help of a commission and with the deliberative vote of those fathers of the General Curia who have a right by reason of their office to attend a general congregation, he should:

a. revise the Formula of the General Congregation as well as the additional procedural norms, as described in nn. 2 and 3 above, in light of the experience of this general congregation;

b. introduce into the Formula of the General Congregation the changes mentioned in nn. 1 and 4 above and determine the particulars which may be required to carry out the decisions of this General Congregation regarding these changes.

c. as far as necessary, adapt and change the Formula of the General Congregation to accomplish the above;

d. make any decisions, of a more particular nature, which may be required to implement n. 5 above. As far as necessary, he may also change the Formulas of both the congregation of procurators and the congregation of provincials to include the new decisions which pertain to those congregations.

7. The 32nd General Congregation recommends to Father General that he establish a commission to examine the following questions in more detail in preparation for their consideration and decision by the next general congregation:

— stabilizing the number of those who attend a general congregation;

— apportioning the members of the general congregation according to criteria which are not only quantitative but also qualitative;

— reducing the numbers of those who attend a general congregation.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 13, “The General Congregation and Congregations of Procurators and Provincials,” pg. 367–368 [303–311].

Several aspects of the provincial congregations were addressed by the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation. The following decree discusses the election process for a provincial congregation as well as other topics. It stipulates the necessary changes to the Formula of the Provincial Congregation, the guidelines governing the congregation process.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

The 32nd General Congregation has decided the following about the provincial congregation.

A. The Congregation in General

1. The power of the provincial congregation is not to be increased. However, before the provincial congregations meet, Father General may send to the delegates questions about the state of the province so that on these questions action might be taken in the provincial congregation.

2. In the Formula of the Provincial Congregation:

—n. 6; the clause is omitted: “The day of arrival of the delegates be so set that the next day is the first day of the congregation.”

—n. 32, §1, is to begin: “The members legitimately begin the congregation immediately, and at the appointed time…”

—n. 49 is thus corrected: “From the beginning of the congregation there be posted…”

—n. 50 is thus corrected: “At the time established by the provincial for the first session, whoever are present…”

—n. 58 is thus corrected: “Ninth, unless the congregation should prefer to make the choice in the following session, it should determine the day after which it will not be allowed to present any other postulatum, which should be the second day or at most the fourth day after the day on which the first session was held.”

3. In the Formula, n. 95, the following fourth paragraph is to be added: “In cases of provinces which have been dispersed both within and outside their native country because of religious persecution or other adverse conditions and in which the group existing outside the province constitutes a quasi-province, even if the provincial himself or a delegate elected according to the norm of n. 10 can come from the province to the general congregation, the General or Vicar-General, having consulted and received the approval of the general assistants, can name as a full delegate one of the professed of four vows from among those working outside the territory of their native country.”

4. The minor questions treated in Postulatum 9471 are to be left to the decision of Father General with a deliberative vote of those fathers of the General’s Curia who have a right ex officio to attend a general congregation.

5. With reference to the Formula of the Provincial Congregation, the General Congregation directs and empowers Father General, with a deliberative vote of those fathers of the General’s Curia who have a right, ex officio, to attend a general congregation, to bring that Formula up to date and, where necessary, change it and introduce those points on which the General Congregation gave an affirmative vote.

B. Participation in the Congregation

6. As to the number of delegates to be elected to a provincial congregation, Father General has the power to allow Vice-provinces which have a large number of members to use the norms of provinces for that number, without increasing the number of delegates whom they may send to the general congregation.

7. The number of those who attend the provincial congregation ex officio should be in some way decreased.

a. To be retained ex officio are those superiors ordinarily named by Father General. But at this time it is recommended that Father General review the list of superiors whom he names in each province and use criteria based on the importance of different offices and even the separation of office of superior from that of director of the apostolic work so that he move toward reducing the number of superiors named by himself.

b. The consultors of the province do not attend the provincial congregation ex officio; the treasurer of the province, however, does.

8. In the Formula of the Provincial Congregation:—n. 19, §1, 2° is changed to read as follows: “That there be included in the congregation and computed within the forty members of the congregation (twenty in a vice-province) two or more persons from this territory to be determined by the General or Vicar-General according to the number of Jesuits within the territory and its distance from the province. The General or Vicar-General will designate one of these because of the office he holds. The others will be elected from the list of those who have passive voice by those who have active voice in the territory. The election will be conducted by the superior of the territory. This election process will take place and the results will be reviewed by the superior with his consultors before the rest of the province proceeds to vote on naming the other delegates to the congregation. In the case of such a special election, the members of that territory lose active and passive voice in the election of delegates from the rest of the province.”

9. To n. 21, §1, 1°, the following is to be added; “It is recommended, however, that as far as possible, they choose delegates from different apostolic works and houses.” In his letter convoking the congregation, the provincial should make the same recommendation.

10. To n. 21, §1, 4°, in place of “It is permitted to seek in confidence information from one or another prudent man,” the following is to be substituted: “It is permitted, with discretion and charity, to seek information from other persons.”

11. To Jesuits without final vows, participation in the provincial congregation is granted under the following conditions:

a. All scholastics and brothers without final vows have active voice five years after their entrance into the Society; they have passive voice eight years after their entrance into the Society. With regard to the number of those without final vows in the provincial congregation: there should be at least one; there may not be more than five in the provinces, nor more than three in the vice-provinces.

b. More specific norms concerning this participation should be determined by Father General with the deliberative vote of those fathers of the General Curia who have the right, ex officio, to attend a general congregation. This should be done in a flexible way but within the norms given above.

c. These norms and determinations should be reviewed by the next general congregation.

12. In the Formula of the Provincial Congregation, n.29, §3, the first words are to be changed to read as follows: “Those who according to the judgment of the committee of assessors mentioned in paragraph 2 or the preparatory committee…etc.” In n. 13 the following words are to be added: “5th—Those ex-claustrated according to the Code of Canon Law, n. 639; 6th—Those who have sought a change to the lay state or to be dismissed from the Society. If the petition is still secret and the person seeking a change to the lay state or dismissal wishes his name to remain on the list of those having passive voice so that his petition remain secret, his name can be kept on the list. But if it happens that he is elected, he must, ipso facto, be considered ineligible by the committee of assessors.”

C. Actions within the Congregation

13. In the Formula of the Provincial Congregation, n.26 is to be changed to read as follows: “Before the beginning of the congregation, let two lists be prepared and sent in due time to the delegates to the provincial congregation…etc.”

14. The Formula of the Provincial Congregation is so to be changed as to meet the concerns expressed below without imposing on all provinces the obligation of following this method of procedure:

a. Setting a deadline beyond which postulata may not be sent for consideration by the congregation, without however limiting the right of delegates to submit postulata during the course of the congregation;

b. Sending the postulata to the delegates to the provincial congregation early enough to permit them to study them and to propose amendments before the congregation;

c. Establishing small committees to arrange the postulata in order, and to develop further the topics proposed;

d. All the above should be done in such a way that the anonymity of the authors of the postulata is preserved. It should also be done in a way that preserves the obligation of secrecy and without prejudice to any decision which the committee for screening postulata may wish to make.

15. The Formula of the Provincial Congregation is to be changed to meet the concerns expressed below without however ordering that this method be followed. In this revision, provision should be made for harmonizing these changes with the power of the committee for screening postulata.

a. That there be committees to study the postulata;

b. That the conclusions of these committees be explained to the congregation by a reporter;

c. That after receiving suggestions, the committee can again study or reshape the postulata;

d. That all the above be carried out according to the regulations of the Formula of the Provincial Congregation concerning the method of voting.

16. The Formula, n. 44, §2, is to read as follows: “In public votes different methods can be used at the discretion of the provincial according to the importance of the different subjects involved, but the directive in n. 83, §1, must be maintained.”’

17. In the election of the committee for screening postulata, if it seems fitting to the provincial congregation, a prior indicative vote can be taken.

18. In the Formula, n. 73, §2, is to be changed so that the phrase “immediately before the election of all substitutes” replaces the phrase “immediately after the election of all substitutes.”

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 14, “The Provincial Congregation,” pg. 369–372 [312–329].

A decree from the 31st General Congregation made experimental proposals to improve the central government of the Society of Jesus, requesting that those proposals be “submitted to the judgment of the next General Congregation.” In response, the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation issued the decree below. It considers the distinction between general assistants and other counsellors to the superior general, concluding, in part, that “general counsellors should form a council which in its manner of working goes beyond the consultation of the individual counsellors.” The council would serve as a “regular and stable working group to collaborate organically with Father General in the formation of policy, in decision-making, and in planning execution.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

A. Assistants and Counsellors of Father General

1. Decree 44 of the 31st General Congregation, in force experimentally until now,1 is definitively confirmed by the 32nd General Congregation, with however the following modifications:

a. At the end of I, 1, should be added: “who will also be general counsellors.”

b. I, 4, now reads as follows: “Even a general congregation called for business should proceed to a new election of general assistants. Former assistants may be reelected to the same office.”

c. At the end of II, 7, should be added: “At least the general counsellors will normally give their advice gathered together in council.”

d. At the end of II, 8, is added: “In addition to the four general counsellors elected by the general congregation as general assistants, Father General should name at least two more general counsellors, having first consulted the regional assistants and obtained the deliberative vote of the general assistants.”

2. All the contrary dispositions of previous general congregations, which were suspended by the 31st General Congregation (cf. I, 6; II, 9), are now definitively abrogated.

B. Recommendations Made to Father General

3. The General Congregation recommends to Father General the following:

a. The general counsellors should form a council which in its manner of working goes beyond the consultation of the individual counsellors. It will be a regular and stable working group to collaborate organically with Father General in the formation of policy, in decision-making, and in planning execution. It will not only take up problems proposed to it but also propose matters to be considered. Its members should examine together what matters ought to be treated, especially in the light of the varied perspectives of the different members. Finally, it will promote discernment regarding serious and universal matters.

b. Father General should give the care of some sector of the life of the Society or of some geographical region, or even of both, to each of the general counsellors.

c. A general assistant or general counsellor should not ordinarily remain in office for more than about eight years, nor should all of them be changed at the same time.

d. The regional assistants should be brought together as a group once a month for discussion of business.

e. A review should be undertaken of the organization and coordination of the administration of the General Curia by people expert in this matter. In this review, the possibility of lessening the number of Jesuits engaged in the central administration should be considered.

Meanwhile, every effort should be made to coordinate as much as possible the work of the different counselors and officials of the Curia; some form of structural intercommunication and collaboration should be encouraged. Father General should commit the special care of this matter to the Secretary of the Society.

C. Reviewing the System of World Secretariats

4. The 32nd General Congregation gives the General the mandate and the authority to review the system of world secretariats of the Society, suspending contrary decrees of previous general congregations until the next general congregation. In this review of the secretariats, however, the purposes intended by the previous general congregations should be kept in mind.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 15, “Central Government of the Society,” pg. 373–374 [330–333].

The delegates to the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus empowered the newly elected superior general with certain authorities to act after the congregation closed. The following decree articulates those areas of responsibility, which are in keeping with those given by previous congregations to the superior general.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

1. For the proper completion of the legislative work of the 32nd General Congregation, Father General is empowered, after obtaining the deliberative vote of those fathers of the General Curia who have a right ex officio to attend a general congregation, and without prejudice to the powers given him in other decrees, to abrogate or modify decrees of past general congregations that seem not to be in accord with the decrees of this 32nd General Congregation.

2. Moreover, the 32nd General Congregation grants to Father General the following:

1 ° That he himself, if it should be a matter of necessity, can suppress colleges and professed houses, with the deliberative votes, however, of the general counsellors and of the provincial of the province in whose territory the house to be suppressed is located and after consulting the regional assistant.

2° That the minutes of some sessions that could not be distributed to the fathers of the Congregation should be approved by Father General and the general assistants.

3° That with respect to decrees that must be promulgated after the close of the Congregation, it should be permitted to Father General:

a. to make whatever corrections seem obviously needed;

b. to reconcile contradictions, if any are detected, according to the mind of the Congregation, but after having ascertained the deliberative vote of those fathers of the General Curia who have a right ex officio to attend a general congregation;

c. to edit the decrees with regard to style;

d. where necessary, to combine different decrees into one, while preserving the meaning and intent of each;

e. to fix a vacatio legis or delay with respect to enforcement, in the light of circumstances, when promulgating the decrees.

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 32, Decree 16, “Powers Granted to Father General,” pg. 375 [334–335].

Pope Paul VI addressed the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation on December 3, 1974, noting similar “joy and trepidation” to when the last congregation began nearly a decade before. Looking to the assembled Jesuits, the pontiff declares, “there is in you and there is in us the sense of a moment of destiny for your Society.” Indeed, “in this hour of anxious expectation and of intense attention ‘to what the Spirit is saying’ to you and to us,” Paul VI asks the delegates to answer: “Where do you come from?” “Who are you?” “Where are you going?”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

Esteemed and beloved Fathers of the Society of Jesus,

As we receive you today, there is renewed for us the joy and trepidation of May 7, 1965, when the Thirty-first General Congregation of your Society began, and that of November 15 of the following year, at its conclusion. We have great joy because of the outpouring of sincere paternal love which every meeting between the Pope and the sons of St. Ignatius cannot but stir up. This is especially true because we see the witness of Christian apostolate and of fidelity which you give us and in which we rejoice. But there is also trepidation for the reasons of which we shall presently speak to you. The inauguration of the 32nd General Congregation is a special event, and it is usual for us to have such a meeting on an occasion like this; but this meeting has a far wider and more historic significance. It is the whole Ignatian Society that has gathered at Rome before the Pope after a journey of more than four hundred years, and is reflecting, perhaps, on the prophetic words that were heard in the vision of La Storta: “I will be favorable to you in Rome.”

There is in you and there is in us the sense of a moment of destiny for your Society, which in our hearts concentrates memories, sentiments, and the presages of your role in the life of the Church. Seeing you here as representatives of all your provinces throughout the world, our glance embraces the whole Ignatian family, some thirty thousand men, working on behalf of the Kingdom of God and making a contribution of great value to the apostolic and missionary works of the Church—religious men who are dedicated to the care of souls, often passing their whole lives in hiddenness and obscurity. Certainly each one of your confreres sends forth from his heart towards this Congregation profound desires, many of which are expressed in the postulata, and which therefore require from you, the delegates, a careful understanding and a great respect. But more than the number, it seems to us that there must be taken into account the quality of such wishes, whether they be expressed or silent, which certainly embrace conformity to the vocation and charism proper to Jesuits—transmitted by an uninterrupted tradition—conformity to the will of God, humbly sought in prayer, and conformity to the will of the Church in the tradition of the great spiritual impulse that has sustained the Society in the past, sustains it now, and will always sustain it in the future.

We realize the special seriousness of the present moment. It demands of you more than a routine performance of your function: it demands an examination of the present state of your Society, one that will be a careful synthesis, free and complete, to see how it stands with regard to the difficulties and problems that beset it today. It is an act that must be accomplished with extreme lucidity and with a supernatural spirit-to compare your identity with what is happening in the world and in the Society itself—listening exclusively, under the guidance and illumination of the magisterium, to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and consequently with a disposition of humility, of courage, and of resoluteness to decide on the course of action to be adopted, lest there be prolonged a state of uncertainty that would become dangerous. All this with great confidence.

And we give you the confirmation of our confidence: we love you sincerely, and we judge that you are able to effect that renewal and new balance which we all desire.

This is the meaning of today’s meeting, and we want you to reflect on it. We already made known our thought in this regard through the letters that the Cardinal Secretary of State sent in our name on March 26, 1970, and on February 15, 1973, and with that letter of September 13, 1973, In Paschae Sollemnitate, which we sent to the General and through him to all the members of the Society.

Continuing along the line of thought of the last-mentioned document, which we hope has been meditated and reflected upon by you, as was our wish, we speak to you today with special affection and a particular urgency. We speak to you in the name of Christ and—as you like to consider us—as the highest Superior of the Society, by reason of the special bond which from the time of its foundation links the Society itself to the Roman Pontiff. The Popes have always placed special hope in the Society of Jesus.

On the occasion of the previous Congregation, we entrusted to you, as a modern expression of your vow of obedience to the Pope, the task of confronting atheism. And today we are turning to you, at the beginning of your work to which the entire Church is looking, to strengthen and stimulate your reflections. We observe you in your totality as a great religious family, which has paused for an instant and is deliberating about the road to be followed.

And it seems to us, as we listen in this hour of anxious expectation and of intense attention “to what the Spirit is saying” to you and to us, that there arise in our heart three questions which we feel bound to answer: “Where do you come from?” “Who are you?” “Where are you going?” So we stand here before you, like a milestone, to measure in one sweeping glance, the journey you have already made.

I. Hence, where do you come from? Our thought goes back to that complex sixteenth century, when the foundations of modern civilization and culture were being laid, and the Church, threatened by schism, began a new era of religious and social renewal founded on prayer and on the love of God and the brethren, that is, on the search for genuine holiness. It was a moment bound up with a new concept of man of the world, which often—although this was not the most genuine humanism—attempted to relegate God to a place outside the course of life and history. It was a world which took on new dimensions from recent geographical discoveries, and hence in very many of its aspects—upheavals, rethinking, analyses, reconstructions, impulses, aspirations, etc. —was not unlike our own.

Placed against this stormy and splendid background is the figure of St. Ignatius. Yes, where do you come from? And we seem to hear a united cry—a “voice like the sound of the ocean”—resounding from the depths of the centuries from all your confreres: We come from Ignatius Loyola, our Founder—we come from him who has made an indelible imprint not only on the Order but also on the spirituality and the apostolate of the Church.

With him, we come from Manresa, from the mystical cave which witnessed the successive ascents of his great spirit: from the serene peace of the beginner to the purifications of the dark night of the soul, and finally to the great mystical graces of the visions of the Trinity.

There began at that time the first outlines of the Spiritual Exercises, that work which over the centuries has formed souls, orienting them to God, and which, among other things, teaches the lesson of treating “the Creator and Lord with great openheartedness and generosity, offering him all one’s will and liberty, so that his divine Majesty may avail himself in accordance with his most holy will, of the person and of all that he has.”

With St. Ignatius—you answer us again—we come from Montmartre, where our Founder on August 15, 1534, after the Mass celebrated by Peter Faber, pronounced with him, with Francis Xavier, whose feast we celebrate today, with Salmeron and Lainez and Rodrigues and Bobadilla, the vows which were to mark as it were the springtime bud from which in Rome the Society would flower.

And with St. Ignatius—you continue—we are in Rome, whence we departed fortified by the blessing of the Successor of Peter, from the time when Paul III, responding to the ardent appeal of Cardinal Gaspare Contarini in September, 1539, gave the first verbal approval—the prelude to that Bull Regimini Ecclesiae Militantis of September 27, 1540, which sanctioned with the supreme authority of the Church the existence of the new Society of Priests. It seems to us that its originality consisted in having grasped that the times required people who were completely available, capable of detaching themselves from everything and of following any mission that might be indicated by the Pope and called for, in his judgment, by the good of the Church, putting always in first place the glory of God: ad maiorem Dei gloriam. But St. Ignatius also looked beyond those times, as he wrote at the end of the Quinque Capitula or First Sketch of the Institute of the Society of Jesus: “These are the matters which we were able to explain about our profession in a kind of sketch. We now complete this explanation in order to give brief information both to those who ask us about our plan of life and also to those who will later follow us if, God willing, we shall ever have imitators along this path.”

This is what your predecessors wanted of you, this is how you came to be: it can be said that these facts give the definition of the Society. This definition is extracted from the origins of the Society; it indicates the Society’s constitutional lines and imprints upon it the dynamism which has supported it throughout the centuries.

II. We know then who you are. As we summarized in our Letter, In Paschae Sollemnitate, you are members of an Order that is religious, apostolic, priestly, and united with the Roman Pontiff by a special bond of love and service, in the manner described in the Formula Instituti.

You are religious, and therefore men of prayer, of the evangelical imitation of Christ, and endowed with a supernatural spirit, guaranteed and protected by the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. These vows are not an obstacle to the freedom of the person, as though they were a relic of periods that have sociologically been superseded, but rather a witness to the clear desire for freedom in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. By means of these commitments, the one who is called as Vatican II has emphasized—“in order to derive more abundant fruit from the grace of Baptism … intends to be freed from the obstacles which might draw him away from the fervor of charity and the perfection of divine worship and consecrates himself to the service of God.” As religious you are men given to austerity of life in order to imitate the Son of God, who “emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave” and who “was rich but became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty.” As religious you must flee—as we wrote in the above-mentioned Letter—”from those facile compromises with a desacralized mentality, which is evidenced in so many aspects of modern behavior,” and you must likewise recognize and live—courageously and in an exemplary way—“the ascetical and formative value of the common life,” guarding it intact against the tendencies of individualism and singularity.

You are, moreover, apostles, that is, preachers of the Gospel, sent in every direction in accordance with the most authentic and genuine character of the Society. You are men whom Christ himself sends into the whole world to spread his holy doctrine among the people of every state and condition. This is a fundamental and irreplaceable characteristic of the true Jesuit, who indeed finds in the Exercises, as in the Constitutions, continuous inducements to practice the virtues proper to him, those virtues indicated by St. Ignatius, and this practice even more strongly, with greater striving, in a continual search for the better, for the “magis,” for the greater. The very diversity of ministries to which the Society dedicates itself takes from these sources its most profound motive of that apostolic life which must be lived pleno sensu.

You are likewise priests: this, too, is an essential character of the Society, without forgetting the ancient and established tradition of enlisting the help of Brothers who are not in Sacred Orders and who have always had an honored and effective role in the Society. Priesthood was formally required by the Founder for all professed religious, and this with good reason, because the priesthood is necessary for the Order he instituted with the special purpose of the sanctification of men through the Word and the sacraments. Effectively, the sacerdotal character is required by your dedication to the active life—we repeat—pleno sensu. It is from the charism of the Order of priesthood, which conforms a man to Christ sent by the Father, that there principally springs the apostolic character of the mission to which, as Jesuits, you are deputed. You are therefore priests, trained for that familiaritas cum Deo on which St. Ignatius wished to base the Society; priests who teach, endowed with the sermonis gratia; oriented to see “that the Lord’s message may spread quickly and be received with honor.” You are priests who serve or minister the grace of God through the sacraments; priests who receive the power and have the duty to share organically in the apostolic work of sustaining and uniting the Christian community, especially with the celebration of the Eucharist; priests who are therefore aware, as we mentioned in one of our talks in 1963, of “the antecedent and consequent relationship [of the priesthood] with the Eucharist, through which the priest is the minister of so great a sacrament and then its first adorer, wise teacher, and tireless distributor.”

And finally you are united with the Pope by a special vow: since this union with the Successor of Peter, which is the principal bond of the members of the Society, has always given the assurance—indeed it is the visible sign—of your communion with Christ, the first and supreme head of the Society which by its very name is his—the Society of Jesus. And it is union with the Pope that has always rendered the members of the Society truly free, that is, placed under the direction of the Spirit, fit for all missions—even the most arduous and most distant ones—not hemmed in by the narrow conditions of time and place, and endowed with truly Catholic and universal energy.

In the combination of this fourfold note we see displayed all the wonderful richness and adaptability which has characterized the Society during the centuries as the Society of those “sent” by the Church. Hence there have come theological research and teaching, hence the apostolate of preaching, of spiritual assistance, of publications and writings, of the direction of groups, and of formation by means of the Word of God and the Sacrament of Reconciliation in accordance with the special and characteristic duty committed to you by your holy Founder. Hence there have come the social apostolate and intellectual and cultural activity which extends from schools for the solid and complete education of youth all the way to all the levels of advanced university studies and scholarly research. Hence the puerorum ac rudium in christianismo institutio, which St. Ignatius gives to his sons, from the very first moment of his Quinque Capitula, or First Sketch, as one of their specific aims. Hence the missions, a concrete and moving testimony of the “mission” of the Society. Hence the solicitude for the poor, for the sick, for those on the margins of society. Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and extreme fields, in the crossroads of ideologies, in the front line of social conflict, there has been and there is confrontation between the deepest desires of man and the perennial message of the Gospel, there also there have been, and there are, Jesuits. Your Society is in accord with and blends with the society of the Church in the multiple works which you direct, also taking account of the necessity that all should be unified by a single aim, that of God’s glory and the sanctification of men, without dissipating its energies in the pursuit of lesser goals.

And why then do you doubt? You have a spirituality strongly traced out, an unequivocal identity and a centuries-old confirmation which was based on the validity of methods, which, having passed through the crucible of history, still bear the imprint of the strong spirit of St. Ignatius. Hence there is absolutely no need to place in doubt the fact that a more profound commitment to the way up till now followed—to the special charism—will be the source of spiritual and apostolic fruitfulness. It is true that there is today widespread in the Church the temptation characteristic of our time: systematic doubt, uncertainty about one’s identity, desire for change, independence, and individualism. The difficulties that you have noticed are those that today seize Christians in general in the face of the profound cultural change which strikes at one’s very sense of God. Yours are the difficulties of all today’s apostles, those who experience the longing to proclaim the Gospel and the difficulty of translating it into a language accessible to modern man; they are the difficulties of other religious orders. We understand the doubts and the true and serious difficulties that some of you are undergoing. You are at the head of that interior renewal which the Church is facing in this secularized world, especially after the Second Vatican Council. Your Society is, we say, the test of the vitality of the Church throughout the centuries; it is perhaps one of the most meaningful crucibles in which are encountered the difficulties, the temptations, the efforts, the perpetuity and the successes of the whole Church.

Certainly it is a crisis of suffering, and perhaps of growth, as has been said many times. But we, in our capacity as Vicar of Christ, who must confirm the brethren in faith, and likewise you, who have the heavy responsibility of consciously representing the aspirations of your confreres—all of us must be vigilant so that the necessary adaptation will not be accomplished to the detriment of the fundamental identity or essential character of the role of the Jesuit as is described in the Formula Instituti, as the history and particular spirituality of the Order propose it, and as the authentic interpretation of the very needs of the times seem still today to require it. This image must not be altered; it must not be distorted.

One must not call apostolic necessity what would not be other than spiritual decadence. Just as St. Ignatius is said to have clearly advised, any confrere sent on mission must by all means take care not to forget his own salvation in order to attend to that of others. Not only was it wrong to commit even the slightest sin for the greatest possible spiritual gain; it was not even right to put himself in danger of sinning. If your Society puts itself at risk, if it enters onto paths full of danger which are not its own, there suffer also thereby all those who, in one way or another, owe to the Jesuits so very much of their Christian formation.

You are as well aware as we are that today there appears within certain sectors of your ranks a strong state of uncertainty, indeed a certain fundamental questioning of your very identity. The figure of the Jesuit, as we have traced it out in its principal aspects, is essentially that of a spiritual leader, an educator of his contemporaries in Catholic life, within, as we have said, his proper role, as a priest and as an apostle. But we are asking, and you are asking yourselves, as a conscientious verification and as a reassuring confirmation, what is the present state of the life of prayer, of contemplation, of simplicity of life, of poverty, of the use of supernatural means? What is the state of acceptance and loyal witness in regard to the fundamental points of Catholic faith and moral teaching as set forth by the ecclesiastical magisterium? The will to collaborate with full trust in the work of the Pope? Have not the “clouds on the horizon” which we saw in 1966, although “in a great measure dispersed” by the Thirty-first General Congregation, unfortunately continued to cast a certain shadow on the Society? Certain regrettable actions, which would make one doubt whether the man were still a member of the Society, have happened much too frequently and are pointed out to us from many sides, especially from bishops of dioceses; and they exercise a sad influence on the clergy, on other religious, and on the Catholic laity. These facts require from us and from you an expression of sorrow, certainly not for the sake of dwelling on them, but for seeking together the remedies, so that the Society will remain, or return to being, what is needed, what it must be in order to respond to the intention of the Founder and to the expectations of the Church today. There is needed an intelligent study of what the Society is, an experience of situations and of people. But there is also needed—and it is as well to insist on this—a spiritual sense, a judgment of faith on the things we must do and on the way that lies ahead of us, taking into account God’s will, which demands an unconditioned availability.

III. Therefore, where are you going? The question cannot remain unanswered. You have, in fact been asking it for some time, asking it with lucidity, perhaps with risk.

The goal to which you are tending, and of which this General Congregation is the opportune sign of the times, is and must be without doubt the pursuit of a healthy, balanced, and suitable aggiornamento to the right desires of our day in essential fidelity to the specific character of the Society and in respect for the charism of your Founder. This was the desire of the Second Vatican Council, with the Decree Perjectae Caritatis which hoped for “the continued return to the sources of every Christian life and to the original spirit of institutes, and the adaptation of the institutes themselves to the changed conditions of the times.” We would like to inspire you with full confidence and encourage you to keep pace with the attitudes of the world of today, recalling to you, nevertheless, as we did in a general way in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelica Testificatio, that such necessary renewal would not be effective if it departed from the particular identity of your religious family which is so clearly described in your fundamental rule or Formula Instituti. As we said: “For a living being, adaptation to its surroundings does not consist in abandoning its true identity, but rather in asserting itself in the vitality that is its own. Deep understanding of present tendencies and of the needs of the modern world should cause your own sources of energy to spring up with renewed vigor and freshness. It is a sublime task in the measure that it is a difficult one.”

Hence we encourage you with all our heart to pursue the aggiornamento willed so clearly and authoritatively by the Church. But at the same time, we are all aware of both its importance and its innate risk. The world in which we live places in crisis our religious outlook and sometimes even our option of faith: we live in a dazzling perspective of worldly humanism, bound up with a rationalistic and irreligious attitude with which man wants to complete his personal and social perfection exclusively by his own efforts. On the other hand for us, who are men of God, it is a question of the divinization of man in Christ, through the choice of the Cross and of the struggle against evil and sin. Do you remember the “sub crucis vexillo Deo militare et soli Domino atque Romano Pontifici …servire?”

The century of Ignatius underwent a humanistic transformation equally powerful even though not as turbulent as that of the succeeding centuries which have seen in action the teachers of systematic doubt, of radical negation, of the idealistic Utopia of an exclusively temporal kingdom on earth, closed to every possibility of true transcendence. But “where is the master of worldly argument? Has not God turned the wisdom of this world into folly? Since in God’s wisdom the world did not come to know him through ‘wisdom,’ it pleased God to save those who believe through the absurdity of the preaching of the Gospel.” We are the heralds of this paradoxical wisdom, this proclamation. But as we recalled to our brethren in the Episcopate at the end of the Synod, so we also repeat to you, that, notwithstanding the difficulties: “Christ is with us, he is in us, he speaks in us and by means of us and will not let us lack the necessary help” in order that we may pass on the Christian message and wisdom to our contemporaries.

A realistic glance at this world makes us alert to another danger: the phenomenon of novelty for its own sake—novelty which questions everything. Novelty is the stimulus for human and spiritual progress. This is true only when it is willing to be anchored to fidelity to him who makes all things new, in the ever self-renewing mystery of his death and resurrection, to which he assimilates us in the sacraments of his Church. This is not true when novelty becomes a relativism that destroys today what it built up yesterday. It is not difficult to see what you should use to combat these temptations, and these same means will keep you moving forward yourselves—they are faith and love.

Hence, in the road that opens before you in this remaining part of the century, marked by the Holy Year as a hopeful presage for a radical conversion to God, we propose to you the double charism of the apostle—the charism which must guarantee your identity and constantly illumine your teaching, your centers of study, your periodical publications. On the one hand, fidelity—not sterile and static, but living and fruitful—to the faith and to the institution of your Founder, in order that you may remain the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Guard what has been entrusted to you. “Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. Our battle is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness…. You must put on the armor of God if you are to resist on the evil day; do all that your duty requires, and hold your ground.”

On the other hand, there is the charism of love, that is of generous service to all men, our brethren traveling with us towards the future. It is that anxiety of Paul which every true apostle feels burning within him: “I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost …. I try to be helpful to everyone at all times, not anxious for my own advantage but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved.”

Perfection lies in the simultaneous presence of two charisms—fidelity and service—without letting one have the advantage over the other. This is something that is certainly difficult, but it is possible. Today the attraction of the second charism is very strong: the precedence of action over being, of activity over contemplation, of concrete existence over theoretical speculation, which has led from a deductive theology to an inductive one; and all this could cause one to think that the two aspects of fidelity and love are mutually opposed. But such is not the case, as you know. Both proceed from the Holy Spirit, who is love. People are never loved too much, provided they are loved only in the love and with the love of Christ. “The Church endeavors to show in every argument that revealed doctrine, to the extent that it is Catholic—embraces and completes all the right thoughts of men, which in themselves always have something of the fragmentary and paltry.” But if this is not the case, readiness to serve can degenerate into relativism, into conversion to the world and its immanentist mentality, into assimilation with the world that one wanted to save, into secularism and into fusion with the profane. We exhort you not to be seized by the spiritus vertiginis.

For this purpose, we wish to indicate to you some further orientations which you can develop in your reflections:

A. Discernment, for which Ignatian spirituality especially trains you, must always sustain you in the difficult quest for the synthesis of the two charisms, the two poles of your life. You will have to be able always to distinguish with absolutely lucid clarity between the demands of the world and those of the Gospel, of its paradox of death and life, of Cross and Resurrection, of folly and wisdom. Take your direction from the judgment of St. Paul: “But because of Christ, I have come to consider all these advantages that I had as disadvantages. Not only that, but I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead.” We recall always that a supreme criterion is the one given by Our Lord: “You will be able to tell them by their fruits;” and the effort which must guide your discernment will be that of being docile to the voice of the Spirit in order to produce the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

B. It will also be opportune to remember the need to make a proper basic choice among the many appeals that come to you from the apostolate in the modern world. Today—it is a fact—one notes the difficulty of making properly thought-out and decisive choices; perhaps there is a fear that full self-realization will not be achieved. Hence there is the desire to be everything, the desire to do everything and to follow indiscriminately all the human and Christian vocations—those of the priest and the lay person, those of the Religious Institutes and of the Secular Institutes—applying oneself to spheres that are not one’s own. Hence then arise lack of satisfaction, improvisation, and discouragement. But you have a precise vocation, that which we have just recalled, and an unmistakably specific character in your spirituality and in your apostolic vocation. And this is what you must profoundly study in its main guidelines.

C. Finally, we once more remind you of availability of obedience. This, we would say, is the characteristic feature of the Society: “In other Orders,” St. Ignatius wrote in his famous letter of March 26, 1553, “one can find advantages in fastings, vigils, and other austerities…but I greatly desire, beloved brothers, that those who serve our Lord God in this Society may be marked by the purity and perfection of obedience, with true renunciation of our wills and the abnegation of our judgments.”

In obedience there is the very essence of the imitation of Christ, “who redeemed by obedience the world lost by its lack, foetus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.” In obedience lies the secret of apostolic fruitfulness. The more you do the works of pioneers, the more you need to be closely united with him who sends you: “All apostolic boldness is possible, when the apostles’ obedience is certain.” We are certainly aware that if obedience demands much from those who obey, it demands even more of those who exercise authority. The latter are required to listen without partiality to the voices of all of their sons, to surround themselves with prudent counsellors in order to evaluate situations sincerely, to choose before God what best corresponds to his will and to intervene with firmness whenever there is departure from that will. In fact, every son of the Church is well aware that obedience is the proof and foundation of his fidelity: “the Catholic knows that the Church only commands because of the fact that she first obeys God. He wants to be a ‘free man,’ but recoils from being among those ‘who make use of freedom as a pretext for evil.’ Obedience is for him the price of freedom, just as it is the condition for unity.”

Beloved sons!

At the end of this encounter we believe that we have given you some indications concerning the path which you must take in today’s world; and we have also wanted to indicate to you the path which you must take in the world of the future. Know it, approach it, serve it, love it—this world; and in Christ it will be yours. Look at it with the same eyes as St. Ignatius did; note the same spiritual requirements; use the same weapons: prayer, a choice for the side of God, of his glory, the practice of asceticism, absolute availability. We think that we are not asking you too much when we express the desire that the Congregation should profoundly study and restate the essential elements (essentialia) of the Jesuit vocation in such a way that all your confreres will be able to recognize themselves, to strengthen their commitment, to rediscover their identity, to experience again their particular vocation, and to recast their proper community union. The moment requires it, the Society expects a decisive voice. Do not let that voice be lacking!

We are following with the most lively interest this work of yours, work which ought to have a great influence upon your holiness, your apostolate, and your fidelity to your charism and to the Church. We accompany your work especially with our prayer that the light of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, may illumine you, strengthen you, guide you, rouse you, and give you the incentive to follow ever more closely Christ crucified. So let us now together turn to Jesus in prayer, in the very words of St. Ignatius:

“Receive, Lord, my entire liberty. Take my memory, my intellect, and my whole will. Whatever I have or possess you gave to me. I give it all back to you, Lord. Dispose of it according to your will. All that I ask and desire is your holy will; give me your love and your grace. That is enough for me, and I ask for nothing: more.”

This is the way, this is the way, brothers and sons. Forward, in Nomine Domini. Let us walk together, free, obedient, united to each other in the love of Christ, for the greater glory of God. Amen.

December 3, 1974

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, “Address of Pope Paul VI to the Members of the 32nd General Congregation,” pg. 379–390.

In a letter to Arrupe during General Congregation 32, Pope Paul VI reiterates his desire that “no change can be introduced to the fourth vow” taken by the Jesuits. He continues that the Jesuits’ superior general to encourage “yet deeper reflection on your responsibilities, and on your great potentialities as well as on the dangers which threaten the future of that farsighted and deserving ‘Society of Priests’ founded by St. Ignatius.” The congregation would continue for nearly another month after Paul VI’s letter.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

February 15, 1975

To his beloved son, Pedro Arrupe, S.J.,

General of the Society of Jesus

We have received the letter which you sent to us and the account which we requested of the reasons which moved the General Congregation in its voting on the problem of grades and the fourth vow. We have not failed duly to consider it. As regards more recent events, we confirm what our Cardinal Secretary of State wrote to you at our request on December 3 last. Again we repeat with all regard for you and for the Fathers of the Congregation: no change can be introduced related to the fourth vow.

As the supreme guarantor of the Formula of the Institute, and as universal pastor of the Church, we cannot allow this point in any way to be infringed upon, since it constitutes one of the pivotal points of the Society of Jesus. In excluding the extension of the fourth vow what moves us is not some less important feeling or an anguish-free knowledge of the problems. Rather it is that profound respect and deep love which we have for the Society as well as the persuasion of the great good which the Society in the future is called upon to provide for the ever more difficult work of the Church, if it is kept what its founder wished it to be—obviously with opportune adaptations which do not go beyond the limits of its basic identity.

Precisely in this view of things we want to express to you a doubt which arises in us from certain orientations and dispositions which are emerging from the work of the General Congregation: Is the Church able to have faith in you here and now, the kind of faith it has always had? What will the relationship of the ecclesiastical hierarchy toward the Society be? How will the hierarchy itself in a spirit free from fear be able to trust the Society to carry on works of such moment and of such a nature? The Society now enjoys a prosperity and an almost universal extension which as it were set it apart and which are in proportion to the trust which was always placed in it. It has a spirituality and doctrine and discipline and obedience and service and an example which it is bound to maintain and to witness to. Therefore we repeat confidently the question which we asked in our address on the 3rd of December at the beginning of the Congregation “Where are you going?”

In the days which you still have left to you for your common work, we ardently exhort you, my dear son, you and your brethren, to a yet deeper reflection on your responsibilities, and on your great potentialities as well as on the dangers which threaten the future of that farsighted and deserving “Society of Priests” founded by St. Ignatius.

As we wrote to you on September 15, 1973, this is a decisive hour “for the Society of Jesus, for its future and also for all religious congregations.” Let us think of the innumerable repercussions that a line of action which—God forbid—was contrary to what we set out above could have on the Society and even on the Church. For this reason we “most insistently” ask you to consider seriously before the Lord the decisions to be made. It is the Pope who humbly but with an intense and sincere affection for you repeats with fatherly alarm and utter seriousness: Think well, my dear sons, on what you are doing.

For this reason we request that you send to us before their publication the decisions already made or soon to be made by the General Congregation. In this serious hour we pray intensely for our beloved Society of Jesus while with a full heart we impart to you and to all its members all over the world, in the name of the Lord our apostolic benediction.

From the Vatican, February 15, 1975, the twelfth year of our Pontificate.

Paul VI

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, “Autograph Letter of His Holiness Paul VI to Father General,” pg. 392–393.

The 32nd General Congregation convened in Rome in 1974 not to elect a new superior general but to respond to the charge issued by the Second Vatican Council, in Perfectae caritatis, that religious orders rediscover their original charism. The congregation ultimately issued sixteen decrees, though none exceeded the importance of defining the Society’s mission as Decree 4, “Our Mission Today: The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice.” As the delegates debated the decree, its promulgation remaining uncertain, Superior General Pedro Arrupe addressed his conferrers. In his remarks, Arrupe pushes them to act in their “decisive hour.”

For more sources from Arrupe, please visit The Arrupe Collection. For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

I speak of a certain aspect of our first option, that is of the option concerning justice. We should notice that this option is first in the sense that it is treated first in our Congregation and should influence our whole life, for the very work of promoting justice is a sure obligation born from the Gospel itself. The 1971 Synod of Bishops expressed itself thus on the subject of justice in the world:

Action for justice and participation in the transformation of the world stand out for us as the essential reason for preaching the Gospel, that is the mission of the Church concerning the redemption and liberation of mankind from every form of oppression.

In our Society, which is a priestly body, this work on behalf of justice should always be distinguished by its sacerdotal and Ignatian character. This indeed was St Ignatius’s idea of the priesthood. Gifted with true intuition, that would seem to be four centuries ahead of his time, Ignatius had a vision of the priestly ministry that is closer to Vatican II than to the Council of Trent. For him the integration of many activities of the priestly ministry, proceeding as it does from specifically priestly ministries and extending all the way to corporal works of mercy, constitutes an essential element.

The problem lies precisely in this, that that equilibrium and integration must be kept; thus it happens that activities that seem most distant from the priesthood, because they seem more secular or material, are assumed, integrated, directed and vivified by the very priestly character of the apostolic man.

Therefore, that sacerdotal character that leads us to total identification with Christ and deeper union with Him automatically leads us to evangelize just as Christ Himself did, that is, by means of the cross; and in that evangelization, to promote and accomplish properly the work of justice.

It is necessary that our Congregation be truly conscious that the justice of the Gospel should be preached through the cross and from the cross. If we intend seriously to work for justice even to its ultimate consequences (and Ignatian evangelical radicalism does indeed require this of us) the cross will immediately appear, frequently accompanied by bitter pain. For, although we be faithful to our priestly and religious charism and work prudently, we shall see those rise against us who perpetuate injustice in today’s industrial society, who otherwise are sometimes considered very fine Christians and often are our benefactors or friends or even relatives, who argue for Marxism and subversion, eventually cease to be our friends, and consequently take away their former backing and financial assistance.

Are we ready not so much to write beautiful declarations as to work at the truth of the matter and to accomplish concrete results? It helps to remember the words of Paul VI in Octogesima adveniens :

So as to make a good Judgment, let each one, therefore, ask himself what he has done up to now and what he still ought to do. Indeed it is not enough Just to recall to men’s minds certain precepts or to speak eloquently of premises or to condemn grave injustices or to utter threats with prophetic boldness: all these things are of no use unless in each man they are Joined to more lively consciousness of one’s duty and to a specific and definite action. Undoubtedly it is easier to blame others for the present adverse condition of things, without thereby considering to what extent one is free of this same guilt and especially to what extent correction may be called for on the part of each individual.

Is our General Congregation ready to take up this responsibility and to carry it out to its ultimate consequences? Is it ready to enter upon the more severe way of the cross, which surely will mean for us a lack of understanding on the part of civil and ecclesiastical authority and of our best friends? Does the General Congregation find itself disposed to offer true witness in its life, works and ways of acting? Is it prepared to give testimony not just by a decree or declaration that expresses in words the sense or manner of thinking of all or of the greater part of the Congregation, but by reducing that testimony to practice by means of concrete decisions which ought necessarily to change our way of thinking and working, our field of activity, the social level of those with whom we deal, even our very image and social esteem?

If we are not ready for this, what other use would these discussions have, except perhaps a merely academic one? If indeed we are prepared, we ought to take up this responsibility and consider this apostolate as our own. The Society of Jesus, as such, should directly assume this initiative of which we speak, it should inspire its sons so that they will give themselves entirely to this apostolate; it should sustain them in difficulties, and even defend them when they are subjected to unjust persecutions arising from this or that source.

Let us be aware of whither we must go. The Lord is surely calling us, but we must first consider whether we have enough money to build the tower. Together with this special vocation that He gives us, the Lord certainly offers us the necessary grace to accomplish what He asks of us, even if it may seem difficult; but on our part it requires that we offer ourselves to follow Him, even though we may not yet be allowed to see clearly all the sacrifices that are included in this response.

In this “decisive hour” our response will be the concrete expression of that “oblation of greater worth and moment” that we have so often made in the Exercises.

“Throw your cares upon the Lord, and He will look after you” (Ps 54: 23).

Original Source (English translation):

Justice with Faith Today: Selected Letters and Addresses—II, ed. Jerome Aixala. St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1980, “When Decree 4—Justice with Faith—Was on the Anvil, Rome, December 20, 1974,” pg. 317–320.

Pope Paul VI, in addressing Pedro Arrupe and Arrupe’s general assistants near the close of the 32nd General Congregation, reminds the delegates, “Be loyal!” He encourages “all the companions of Ignatius to continue with renewed zeal to carry out all the works and endeavors upon which they have so eagerly embarked in the service of the Church.” Paul VI asks the men to “be aware of the importance of their tasks while at the same time they rely on the help and assistance of God who alone suffices just as he alone was always sufficient for Ignatius and Francis Xavier in the midst of the great needs which they experienced.”

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

Beloved Members of the Society of Jesus:

Almost three months ago, on the third of last December, it was a consolation for Us to receive in audience all the Fathers of the Society of Jesus who are members of the 32nd General Congregation just when they were undertaking their work. We were happy to indicate to them, the representatives before our eyes of the entire Ignatian family, our esteem for all the members “who labor for the Kingdom of God and carry on very valuable work for the apostolic and missionary endeavors of the Church.” We now have, therefore, a great occasion for rejoicing since we have yet another opportunity of once again giving evidence of our great, paternal, and sincere good will for this religious order that is so clearly joined with Us and is certainly very dear to Us.

For our part, We admit that We were impelled by the very spirit of love, by which We embrace all of you, to interpose our authority with the superiors of your Society—as you well know—in rather recent circumstances. We thought that this action had to be taken because of our consciousness that We are the supreme protector and guardian of the Formula of the Institute, as well as the Shepherd of the Universal Church. Actually, at that time We were not a little pleased by the fact that the members of the General Congregation favorably understood the force and meaning of our recommendations and showed that they received them with a willingness to carry them out. Now We wish once again to cite the words of the Apostle Paul: “I wrote [what] I did … [confident that] you all know that I could never be happy, unless you were. When I wrote to you, in deep distress and anguish of mind, and in tears, it was not to make you feel hurt but to let you know how much love I have for you.”

Some of you, perhaps in order to inject new vigor into the life of your Society, thought that it would be necessary to introduce substantially new elements into the Formula of the Institute, that is, into its primary norms or into its adaptation to the present social milieu. For our part, We cannot allow changes based on such reasoning to enter into your religious institute, which is of its very nature so special and so fully approved, not only by historical experience but also by hardly doubtful indications of divine protection. We feel that the Society must indeed be adapted and adjusted to this age of ours and must be enriched with new vitality, but always in accord with the principles of the Gospel and the Institute. It must not be transformed or deformed.

In view of this persuasion and our abundant love, We shall continue to take a solicitous part in all your affairs as often as the good of the Society or the Church seems to demand such involvement.

At the close of this Congregation, We gladly take advantage of the occasion to give this reminder to each and every son of St. Ignatius, scattered as they are throughout the world: Be loyal! This loyalty, which is freely and effectively shown to the Formula of the Institute, will safeguard the original and true form of the companions of Ignatius and strengthen the fruitfulness of their apostolate. This same loyalty must be considered a condition that is absolutely necessary to every type of ministry to which you are called, so that the name of Jesus may be spread and glorified throughout the world in the many and diverse areas of endeavor where you labor as members of a priestly and apostolic religious order that is united to the Supreme Pontiff by a special vow.

When We consider the great quantity of works which have been entrusted to you and which demand minds of proven maturity of judgment and firm wills outstanding in humility and generosity, it is our wish that all the members of the Society of Jesus be supported by supernatural helps and that they always rely on them! For no salvation can be brought to the world except through the selfless outpouring of the cross of Jesus Christ and “the foolishness of the message that we preach.”

Therefore We exhort all the companions of Ignatius to continue with renewed zeal to carry out all the works and endeavors upon which they have so eagerly embarked in the service of the Church and that they be aware of the importance of their tasks while at the same time they rely on the help and assistance of God who alone suffices just as he alone was always sufficient for Ignatius and Francis Xavier in the midst of the great needs which they experienced. You should be aware of the fact that not only the eyes of contemporary men in general but also and especially those of so many members of other religious orders and congregations and even those of the universal Church are turned toward you. May such grandly conceived hopes, then, not be frustrated! Go, therefore, and proceed in the name of the Lord. As sons and brethren, go forth always and only in the name of the Lord.

With our Apostolic Blessing, We wish to confirm this desire of our heart.

March 7, 1975

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, “Address of Pope Paul VI in the Presence of Father General and the General Assistants,” pg. 394–395.

The Cardinal of State, replying to Pedro Arrupe, provided the responses of Pope Paul VI to the decrees of the 32nd General Congregation. After “carefully” examining the decrees, the pontiff found some “somewhat confusing and could, because of the way they are expressed, give grounds for misinterpretation.” Therefore, Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot provides Arrupe with Paul VI’s “Particular Observations about Certain Decrees” as an appendix to his letter.

For more from the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.

The Secretary of State

N. 281428

Vatican City, May 2, 1975

Very Reverend Father,

In fulfillment of my office, I submitted to the Holy Father for his consideration the decrees of the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus which the Congregation presented to him in accord with the desire he expressed to you in a letter dated the 15th of last February.

The Holy Father carefully examined these texts which represent the culmination of the work of the General Congregation, whose progress he followed with keen, loving, and personal concern. He has commissioned me to return these decrees to you, together with the following observations.

From an examination of the decrees, it appears that well-known circumstances prevented the General Congregation from achieving all that His Holiness had expected from this important event, and for which, at different times and in various ways, he gave some paternal suggestions, especially in his allocution of the 3rd of December, 1974, when he indicated his hopes for the Congregation. In any case, he has directed that the decrees be returned to you so that they can be put into effect according to the needs of the Society, with the hope that your worthy Jesuit brothers may draw strength from these decrees as they continue their progress in genuine fidelity to the charism of St. Ignatius and the Formula of the Institute.

However, while some statements in the decrees merit total acceptance, others are somewhat confusing and could, because of the way they are expressed, give grounds for misinterpretation. Therefore, the Holy Father desires that some particular recommendations pertaining to certain decrees be sent to you and to your companions. You will find them appended to this letter, and I would ask that you regard them in that spirit of obedience which has always characterized the Society.

Finally, with reference to the decree, “On Poverty,” which you presented to him in your filial letter of the 14th of last March, His Holiness could not help but notice how thoroughly you undertook the complicated task of adapting the Society’s legislation in this area to contemporary needs in accord with the norms I conveyed in my letter of February 26, 1973. Because of the sensitive nature of this subject, however, and because of the character of the innovations introduced, it would be well if this decree were implemented “experimentally,” in such a way that the next general congregation can reexamine the whole question in depth against the background of experience gained in the years ahead. As to the faculty for dispensing from the vow of poverty which you requested in your letter, I am to inform you that the Vicar of Christ grants you this in the individual cases where, with the deliberative vote of your council, it seems necessary questions may arise about the interpretation of the decrees as a whole. In this event, the Holy Father sincerely desires that reference always be made to the norms and directives contained either in his address to you on the 3rd of December or in other documents of the Holy See pertaining to the Congregation.

The Holy Father hopes that these remarks will be taken as the context within which the decrees of the 32nd General Congregation are accurately understood and correctly implemented. For this reason, it seems most appropriate that this letter and the added reflections be published along with the decrees and thus be available to those responsible for reading and applying these decrees.

The Holy Father follows the work of the Society with special and fervent prayer to the Lord that it always remain true—as he said in his final talk of March 7th last—to itself and to its mission in the bosom of the Church. It is also his prayer that the Society continue to perform those ministries of apostolic service and evangelical witness, in the name of Jesus, which are expected of it today.

These desires the Holy Father confirms with his special blessing.

Devotedly yours,

J. Cardinal Villot

Appendix

Particular Observations about Certain Decrees

The decree Our Mission Today:

Diakonia Fidei and the Promotion of Justice,

and the declaration Jesuits Today

The promotion of justice is unquestionably connected with evangelization, but as the Holy Father said in his closing remarks to the last Synod of Bishops in October of 1974—“Human development and social progress in the temporal order should not be extolled in such exaggerated terms as to obscure the essential significance which the Church attributes to evangelization and the proclamation of the full Gospel.”

This applies to the Society of Jesus in a special way, founded as it was for a particularly spiritual and supernatural end. Every other undertaking should be subordinated to this end and carried out in a way appropriate for an Institute which is religious, not secular, and priestly. Moreover, we must not forget that the priest should inspire lay Catholics, since in the promotion of justice theirs is the more demanding role. The tasks proper to each should not be confused.

It is also helpful to recall that work for the promotion of justice should be undertaken in accord with directives drawn up by the local hierarchy and in consideration of the conditions peculiar to each region.

The decree On Fidelity to the Magisterium and the Roman Pontiff

It is most opportune that the General Congregation has confirmed the traditional fidelity of the Society to the magisterium and the Holy Father. However, the expression, “Freedom should be intelligently encouraged” should not be allowed to provide grounds for disregarding the rules for “Thinking with the Church,” which are proper to the Society.

The decree Concerning the Formation of Jesuits

There is laudable insistence upon solid philosophical and theological education. However, in keeping with the Conciliar Decree Optatam Totius, those engaged in philosophical instruction should bear in mind that organized body of solid doctrine gathered—as a patrimony—by the Church.

Moreover, in theological studies, after a careful investigation of the sources, “by way of making the mysteries of salvation known as thoroughly as they can be, students should learn to penetrate them more deeply with the help of speculative reason exercised under the tutelage of St. Thomas, and they should learn, too, how these mysteries are interconnected.”

The decree On Poverty

Superiors should take very seriously their responsibility to see that the distinction between the apostolic institute and the religious community is properly observed so that ways of acting which are contrary to the genuine Ignatian poverty may be avoided. Furthermore, the performance of ministries which, by tradition, are undertaken gratuitously should not be lightly abandoned.

The decree Concerning the Province Congregation

The extension of active and passive voice to nonformed members significantly expands the process of election to a provincial congregation. However, since the decree itself stipulates that the norms therein contained should be reviewed by the next general congregation, timely and serious study should be given to this whole question, so that it can be resolved in a way which is both more equitable and more in keeping with the spirit of the Society.

May 2, 1975

Original Source (English translation):

Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, “Letter of the Cardinal of State to Father General,” pg. 396–399.