Once the election of the Jesuits' new general was held, the more than 200 Jesuits in attendance turned to another task: formulating decrees that will chart paths for the Society's ministries and members.
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| Once the election of the Jesuits' new general was held, the more than 200 Jesuits in attendance turned to another task: formulating decrees that will chart paths for the Society's ministries and members. |
A JESUIT general congregation is the ultimate governing body in the Society of Jesus. It meets essentially for two purposes: to elect a new superior general if the former one has died or has asked to resign, and to deal with matters of greater importance for the whole Society. The 35th general congregation (GC 35) took the first of those actions when it elected a new superior general, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, on January 19, 2008. Since the election is no longer "new news," it will occupy the shorter part of this article. The second and longer part takes up the important matters about which GC 35 dealt in its very recently published "decrees." But first, a bit of context to the congregation.
GC 35 was both a summing up and a move forward. It summed up a special chapter in the history of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 2008 when four general congregations took place, all in the aftermath of Vatican II, and it wrote the beginning of the next chapter of that history. GC 31 (1965-66) elected Fr. Pedro Arrupe as superior general and took seriously the council's recommendation to religious congregations to return to their sources for inspiration and to bring up to date the structures of their communities and apostolates.
GC 32 (1974-75) affirmed the work of the previous congregation and, through its famous statement that the "mission of the Society of Jesus today is the service of faith of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement," oriented in a special way the external or apostolic life of the Society.
Arrupe's illness occasioned GC 33 (1983), which elected Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach as general, while GC 34 (1995) strongly reaffirmed GC 32's mission statement and also broadened it to include interreligious dialogue and inculturation. Most important, it provided for the Society a set of current norms for how it is to live and work that are complementary to the Jesuit Constitutions themselves.
Kolvenbach convoked GC 35 to submit his resignation because of a diminishment of the energy and the health necessary to carry on the office of general. In accepting that request, GC 35 closed a chapter of more than 40 years in Jesuit history. In electing a new general and in producing its six "decrees," GC 35 moved forward to build on the accomplishments of those four decades.
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The Society's reins were passed from Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach to Fr. Adolfo Nicolás this past January in a thoughtful yet decisive manner at the beginning of the 35th general congregation. | 
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"Decree," an English translation of the Latin decretum, is one of those Jesuit jargon words that needs some explanation. The word can be applied to two very different kinds of congregation documents. It can refer to a statute or law that sets down a specific way of acting. The same word can also refer to a broad statement of principle or a visionary statement of aspirations and an encouragement toward carrying them out. A great number of the decrees of the last five congregations are of that second type.
GC 35 issued six decrees or documents. Together with a historical introduction of 12 pages they totaled more than 60 pages of single-spaced typewritten text. Here only a "flavor" of each can be presented, but they are fully available at www.sjweb.info. The first decree (D1) responds gratefully to the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for the confidence in the Society and in its mission that he expressed especially in his address on February 21 to the delegates. He stated "with complete clarity and firmness" that that mission was "the defense and proclamation of the faith, which leads us to discover new horizons and to reach new social, cultural and religious frontiers." The five other decrees deal with rediscovering the charism of the Society (D2), challenges to our mission today (D3), obedience in the life of the Society (D4), governance at the service of our universal mission (D5), and collaboration at the heart of mission (D6). In addition, the congregation commended several topics to Father General for the ordinary government of the Society rather than for specific decrees. What is most striking in all that the congregation produced is the centrality of "mission." The results of GC 35 are best read and understood in the light of that overarching concept.
"A Fire That Kindles Other Fires: Rediscovering Our Charism" (D2) is an almost poetic evocation of that charism, in which "the Society desires to keep the fire of its original inspiration alive in a way that offers warmth and light to our contemporaries." It affirms as "fundamental for the life and mission of every Jesuit . . . an experience that places him, quite simply, with Christ at the heart of the world." Jesuits are to be men following Christ in the Church and for the world as an apostolic religious community. All of this recalls the words of Jerome Nadal, an early companion of Ignatius: "The world is our house."
The "Challenges to Our Mission Today" (D3) are set in the new contexts presented by a globalized world. As such, they involve "being sent to the frontiers" on a mission of reconciliation in the "tradition of Jesuits building bridges across barriers." Such a response involves reconciliation with God, with one another, with creation. Where and how? While recalling and supporting the great variety of works in which Jesuits are engaged corporately and individually, the congregation noted certain "apostolic areas requiring special or privileged attention" in realizing the mission of the Society. They are Africa, China, the intellectual apostolate, the international/inter-provincial institutions in Rome, and immigration and refugees.
Obedience in the life of the Society (D4) is central to that mission and vision. It is grounded in the desire "to be sent on mission in the image of the Son and so to serve the Lord in companionship." As companions, Jesuits make an act of trust in superiors, and superiors equally make an act of trust in their brethren when they send them on mission. In that context, obedience in the Society of Jesus has rightly been described as creative fidelity, creative because it calls on the individual's freedom and resourcefulness, and fidelity because it calls on the generous response to the persons whose responsibility ultimately it is to make decisions.
The famous so-called "Fourth Vow" of obedience expresses what is specific to the Society: "Total availability to serve the Church wherever the Pope sends us." It came into being precisely so that Jesuits might be prompt and faithful as they are sent to carry out the missions, the tasks, they have received from the pope in his universal care for the Church. In a mutual act of trust, individual Jesuits and the Society as a whole strive to be united with the pope both effectively and affectively.
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Fr. John Padberg, SJ, is the director of the Institute of Jesuit Sources in St. Louis. He has written extensively on the history of the Jesuits' general congregations and served as a delegate at the 32nd and 34th congregations. |
The return to charism, the centrality of mission, and the care to update structures and procedures in religious life over the last 40 years have quite understandably influenced the practice of governance in the Society of Jesus. GC 35 set down principles and practices that should guide "Governance in the Service of Universal Mission" (D5). This document is far more nuts and bolts than any of the others, and as such it is very important in helping "to give a body to the spirit." It does so in attempting to organize better the general governance of the Society in general congregations, in the central governance in Rome and in the several regional conferences of major superiors. It also deals with province governance, e.g., province planning and training for leadership, and also local governance, for instance, where the role of the superior is critical to community life and apostolic works, and where the real success of an apostolic work involves a trusting relationship between a religious superior and the director, religious or lay, of that work.
Finally, the last decree affirms more strongly than ever before "Collaboration at the Heart of Mission" (D6). It encourages what GC 34 had urged as "collaboration with the laity in mission," recognizes the great variety of structure and activities in which such collaboration can and does take place, and attempts to further it by asking and responding to three major questions: What constitutes and sustains a Jesuit work? What are the elements of formation for collaborative mission? What connections or bonds might unite us as collaborators in mission and make our work more fruitful? As it affirms, collaboration in mission "expresses our true identity as members of the Church, the complementarities of our diverse calls to holiness."
GC 35, in its decrees' response with gratitude to the pope's confidence in the Society and through reflection and decisions on charism, mission, obedience, governance, and collaboration, recalls its founding inspiration and ongoing life. It also draws on the rich experience of the generation since Vatican II and broadens and deepens the legacy of its four predecessor congregations.
It also recognizes the great variety of structures and activities internal and external to the Society in which collaboration takes place, and it asks that Jesuits individually and corporately, together with those with whom they work, respond in the service of the Lord to the challenges of a new generation. 
All the decrees and documents of the Jesuits' 35th general congregation are on line at www.sjweb.info