Search Results for: Urban

United Nations Secretary-General U Thant welcomed Pedro Arrupe to his New York City office on May 4, 1971. Arrupe’s visit to the United Nations was the first made by the Jesuits’ superior general. The text of the men’s public exchange appears below. Arrupe speaks on behalf of his fellow Jesuits (“relatively few but active in […]

In November 1967, every Jesuit in the United States received the following letter from Pedro Arrupe, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Arrupe issued this letter after conversations with Whitney Young (a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States) and after the country experienced nearly 160 race riots in what

On August 4, 1975, Pedro Arrupe addressed several leading officials at Jesuit universities. The gathering in Rome included rectors, presidents, and principals as well as provincial representatives and the presidents of regional educational associations. Arrupe’s remarks to the group appear below. Those gathered also heard from Cardinal Garrone, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, and

In the text below, from his second of two addresses to the Synod of Bishops on Catechesis in October 1977, Superior General Pedro Arrupe speaks on the “enormous field … a large segment of humanity” that is open to catechesis by the Catholic Church when compared to the “very small remnant” of those who actually

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

One month after he had sent a letter to entire Society of Jesus on the topic in 1978, Pedro Arrupe sent the following letter to the members of the Indian Assistancy. The Jesuit Conference of India (comprising Jesuit works in India and Sri Lanka) had recently published a report by its Commission on Inculturation. “Inculturation,”

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

In the following decree, the delegates of the 34th General Congregation note that since the 32nd and 33rd congregations of 1975 and 1983, respectively, Jesuit secondary education had experienced “significant apostolic renewal,” increased Jesuit-lay collaboration, and an improvement in educational quality. The recommendations and words of caution in this following decree seek to encourage further

The 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus took place, according to its delegates, as the Catholic Church “reacted strongly against” the “continuing discrimination and prejudice” against women. In the decree below, the Jesuits delegates argue for a need for the Society of Jesus to “join with interchurch and interreligious groups in order to