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The Second Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops took place in Rome in 1971, gathered to consider two topics: the ministerial priesthood and justice in the world. On the latter topic, a report on justice and peace was published in spring of 1972. Pedro Arrupe, in his positions as the Superior General of the […]

The Ignatian Center for Spirituality in Rome closed a five-week conference on Ignatian Spirituality on February 18, 1978, with Pedro Arrupe delivering the following remarks. The Superior General of the Society of Jesus based his remarks on a phrase from the Jesuits’ Formula, approved by Pope Julius III in 1550.  For Arrupe, the phrase “To

Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus on July 21, 1773. In the preceding decades, the Jesuits had suffered expulsions from the Catholic empires of Portugal (1759), France (1764), and Spain (1767), where they had become handy scapegoats for kings or princes under civic pressure. In Portugal, for example, charges against the Society included

Historian John Padberg observes that the delegates to the 31st General Congregation did not have the necessary time or expertise to properly revise the Jesuits’ catalog of censures and precepts (see the congregation’s historical preface in Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 39). Therefore, the delegates gave authority to the superior general to “abrogate the

For the Jesuit delegates at the 31st General Congregation, consecrated chastity was a “gift” from God, “a sign of charity and likewise a stimulus to it.” Those delegates, nevertheless, also issued the following decree to acknowledge how contemporary attitudes and contexts have caused “new problems” on the topic. The decree urges the new superior general

In the following decree, the delegates of the 31st General Congregation assert “the importance of prayer,” while proposing “specific orientations on the manner and conditions of prayer” for members of the Society of Jesus. The decree closes with a reminder for “every Jesuit that personal daily prayer is an absolute necessity.” To that end, it

According to historian John Padberg’s historical account of the congregation, Jesuits sent more than 160 postulata (or petitions) on the topic their brethren’s spiritual formation for consideration at the 31st General Congregation (see Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 18–19). That formation, the following decree observes, “is the work of divine grace,” helping Jesuits in

The delegates at the 31st General Congregation issued the following decree to indicate changes to the Jesuits’ Collection of Decrees, done so with the desire to “provide the juridical principles for the adaptation of our body of laws.” The decree defines the “Institute of the Society” as “both our way of living and working, and

The following text was first orally approved by Pope Paul III in 1539. More commonly known as the “Five Chapters,” the document serves the first foundational document of what became the Society of Jesus, stating the key purposes of the proposed religious order. The document was later revised in 1540 (approved in the papal bull

In July 1940, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Society of Jesus, Pope Pius XII issued the following apostolic letter to Wlodimir (Włodzimierz) Ledóchowski. Pius notes to the superior general how the Catholic Church “is deeply indebted to your religious society for its glorious record of service.” The letter chronicles some