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The decrees promulgated by the 31st General Congregation required changes to how future congregations would operate as described in the Formula of the General Congregation. The following decree outlines those changes. Among the alterations are those concerning the postulta (or petitions) Jesuits send for consideration at a general congregation. The decree notes that such postulta […]

According to historian John Padberg, the topic of cooperation between Jesuit provinces was “deliberated at length” by the delegates at the 31st General Congregation (see Jesuit Life & Mission Today, pg. 37). The delegates conclude, in the following decree, that the Society of Jesus should promote “open and complete cooperation” among its members, echoing the

Consultors in the Society of Jesus are appointed to provide advice to Jesuit superiors. The delegates of the 31st General Congregation, responding to the requests of an apostolic letter (Ecclesiae sanctae, issued in 1966), sought to define the process of selecting consultors. In the following decree, the delegates outline the selection processes for consultors in

In the following decree, the delegates of the 31st General Congregation urge that provincials in the Society of Jesus receive greater responsibility and “broader faculties” in the governance of the Society of Jesus. Provincials, in return, were to “carefully listen to their subjects and direct them in the Lord, taking into consideration the internal knowledge

On the issue of the governance of the Society of Jesus, the delegates at the 31st General Congregation use the following decree to reaffirm that the Jesuits’ superior general “is to be elected for life.” Still, the delegates allow for the general’s resignation “for a grave reason that would render him permanently incapable of the

The following decree continues the thoughts of an earlier decree from the 31st General Congregation, stating the process by which provincials would gather every three years (rather than having more regular general congregations). The Congregation of Provincials would have two purposes: “to cast a deliberative vote as to whether or not a general congregation should

Among the postulate (or petitions) received in advance of the 31st General Congregation, several expressed a desire for more regular general congregations. The delegates rejected those requests, in part because of historical precedent but also because the purpose of such gatherings could be fulfilled by meetings of other individuals (for example, of procurators or of

The following decree is the last of seventeen decrees used by the delegates of the 31st General Congregation to address the topic of the Jesuit apostolate. Regarding the topic of information service, the delegates state the importance of communicating “all that goes on in the Society or outside of it which in any way affects

The following decree echoes a sentiment the delegates of the 31st General Congregation of the Society of Jesus expressed in a previous decree, namely the recognition of the apostolic importance of mass media. Here, the delegates discuss the Vatican Radio Station, entrusted to the Jesuits by the pope since the radio’s establishment in 1931. The

In the following decree, the delegates at the 31st General Congregation of the Society of Jesus note how the daily growth in the “intensity and extent” of new mass media’s “presence and influence” actually presented an opportunity for their fellow Jesuits. Radio, films, and television could provide Jesuits “with very suitable aids to our apostolate