Letter of Provincial concerning GC35 decrees

John Dardis SJ, Irish Jesuit Provincial, writes to the Province on the occasion of the official release of the decrees of General Congregation 35. For a useful summary of the decrees, see the Australian Province Express.

Father General has now officially issued the documents of General Congregation 35 and they are available on the Society’s website: www.sjweb.info/35/index.cfm. The delay in making them available was because of the difficulty in harmonising the three official texts (English, French and Spanish). Read more »

Feedback for Jesuits on GC35

The Irish Jesuits held their annual Assembly on 30 March, which was entitled ‘Called to the Frontiers‘ and focused on the recent General Congregation 35 in Rome. The two Irish delegates (pictured) who had attended the Congregation, Provincial John Dardis SJ and Jim Corkery SJ, addressed the Assembly on the Election of the new Father General, Adolfo Nicolás, the Congregation documents produced, and on strengthening the relationship with Rome. John Dardis gave a warm account of the process of electing the General and Jim Corkery gave his account of what it was like to be involved in writing one of the Congregation documents. These documents are currently being translated and prepared, and should hopefully be available by the end of April.

High turnout for Assembly

Over 120 Jesuits attended the annual Province Assembly this year in Clongowes, which was entitled ‘Called to the Frontiers‘ and focused on the recent General Congregation in Rome. The two Irish delegates, Provincial John Dardis and Jim Corkery, addressed the Assembly on the Election of Father General, the documents produced, and on our relationship with the Pope and the Vatican. Jim gave his account of what it was like to be involved in writing one of the documents, and both Jim and John addressed the complexities of relations with Rome. See the pictures of the Assembly on Photo Gallery.

Mass of closure: homily of Fr Nicolás

The homily given by Father Adolfo Nicolás at the closing Mass of General Congregation 35 has been released in English. Speaking in Italian at the Church of the Gesù on March 6, Fr Nicolás reflected on ‘the logic of the Christian experience’: ‘God is love, and so we too love. God is mercy, and so we too show mercy. God is good, and so we too desire to be good.’ Echoing the Pope’s words, he affirmed that ‘love for the poor does not have an ideological but a Christological basis’. Relating the Gospel of the Mass to the experience of the General Congregation, Fr Nicolás remarked that ‘everything we have done is for mission’. Jesuits are invited, he added, to ‘go to the source’ of the General Congregation experience and ‘make sure that it is being transformed into mission, an all-embracing mission, a mission which will continue to bear fruit in others’. Read more »

Conclusion of General Congregation

The 35th General Congregation of the Jesuit Order concluded on Thursday 6 March 2008.The new Father General, Aldofo Nicolás presided at the final Mass in the Church of the Gésu. Over two hundred and twenty delegates from around the world who had been in Rome since the beginning of January, are now returning home to inspire their Provinces , drawing on the insights of the Congregation. Click here for GC35 news.
General Congregation 35
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S.J. Press Office, Rome, Italy, Tel. +39-06-68977.289, infosj@sjcuria.org

Rome, March 10 2008, n. 21 Read more »

GC35 adopts first three decrees

Three decrees have been adopted by the General Congregation in Rome in recent days. The first of them (29 February) concerns ‘Governance at the Service of the Universal Mission‘ and calls for a renewal of the Jesuit mode of government in such a way that it remains authentically Ignatian. The second decree is ‘On Obedience’. It looks at issues which arise from the integration of individual efforts into the mission of the entire Society and offers reflections on how Jesuits may live their relationship of obedience to the papacy today. The third decree is entitled ‘Collaboration at the Heart of Mission‘. It provides instructions on how Jesuits ought to proceed in collaborating with lay people, other religious, and people of other religions so that all concerned may go deeper, both spiritually and practically, in the mission they share. For more detail and for more news from GC35, see SJWeb.info.

Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI

The address of His Holiness Benedict the Sixteenth to the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus.

Dear Fathers of the General Congregation of the Society of Jesus,
I am happy to welcome you today as your demanding work is coming to an end. I thank the new Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolás, for having conveyed your feelings and your effort to respond to the expectations that the Church places in you. I referred to them in the message addressed to Reverend Father Kolvenbach and – through him – to your Congregation at the beginning of your labours. I thank Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach once again for the precious service he has rendered to your Order for almost a quarter century. I also greet the members of the new General Counsel and the Assistants who will help the Superior in his delicate task of religious and apostolic guidance of your Society. Read more »

GC35 delegates meet Pope

Thursday 21 February was a highlight for the GC35 delegates in Rome. Normal business was suspended, as they were all invited to meet with the Holy Father in the Clementine Hall, one of the audience halls of the Vatican. “There was an air of excitement as we were shepherded up immense staircases,” Jim Corkery SJ writes; “Swiss Guards standing at the ready, frescoes of breathtaking beauty drawing our gaze upward once we reached the magnificent Sala Clementina, where we were to meet the Pope. But my air of excitement gave way to quite a different mood once we were seated and the Pope arrived.” Read his full account here.

Keeping people posted

The GC35 section of SJWeb.info, the website of the Jesuit Press Office in Rome, draws attention in a recent post to the defining nature of its own role in Jesuit history. In an article entitled ‘A “Global” General Congregation’, it comments that “new technology is revolutionizing the way we transmit information, also in the Society of Jesus”. “We no longer rely on sporadic faxes and short communications just about the greater events,” it continues, “as in previous General Congregations. We are making a great effort to transmit sufficient information to share the rhythm of the Congregation with the rest of the world and, at the same time, maintain privacy and a prudent distance that allows the delegates to do their work with freedom.” Read the full piece.

Jesuits for a networking age

The emergence of the internet has impacted on a lot more than how society communicates, argues Nicolas Standaert SJ. It is symptomatic of a much more profound shift in the way society both sees itself and functions, and the effect of this is evident even at General Congregation 35.  “We have not yet found solutions (nor has the secular world),” he comments, “but through the repeated insistence on ‘networking’ by many members I sense the increasing ‘web-thinking’ in the Congregation. Maybe we are gradually moving towards a ‘Network Society of Jesus’?” Read the whole piece here.

Jesuit Assistants announced

Tuesday 12 February 12, during a plenary session of the General Congregation, Father General announced the appointment of Regional Assistants. The Western Europe Assistant is Antoine Kerhuel, a French sociologist, expert on the European Union. He has been director of the Centre de recherche et d’actions sociales (Ceras) and editor of Projet. Born in 1957, he has most recently been Vice-Provincial of Southern France. Read more »

GC35 Jesuits are not acting their age

Young men cheerfully take on everything and only later realise that they’ve overstretched themselves. “One would think,” reflects Francis de Melo SJ thinking about the GC35 delegates, “that a group of mostly older men would be cautious in planning, wisely restraining unbounded enthusiasm”. Not at all. Read more »

GC35 looks at youth ministry

For what seems to be the first time in the history of Jesuit General Congregations, apostolic activities for youth was the subject of discussion at the plenary sessions on 1-2 February. According to a report from the Press Office in Rome, the Congregation had been asked to focus on “the importance of youth in our faith and justice mission, to direct more of the Society’s apostolate toward youth, and to emphasize the characteristics of youth ministry in today’s context”. The commission appointed to consider this issue reported on their progress. They sought to identify the characteristics of youth, though their description was “occasionally contested” during the discussion. Read more »