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 a house and for those in a province.
For more from the 31st General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.
In order that the members of the Society may take a truly effective part in the selection of those who make up councils, the General Congregation decrees that:
1° With regard to the consultors of a house: the provincial should inquire into the opinion of members of the community concerning the current or prospective consultors (this can, as a rule, be done readily during the visitation of a house), and in naming consultors he should give proper weight to the members’ judgment.
2° With regard to the consultors of the province: in their official letters to the general, local superiors, having heard the views of the members of their community, to whom they shall offer a clear opportunity of expressing their minds, shall submit their opinion of the province consultors. They shall state whether these consultors are satisfactory or not, and if they are not, they should indicate others who may seem to them to be suited for this post. The consultors of each house, in their official letters to the general, shall submit a similar opinion.
Original Source (English translation):
Jesuit Life & Mission Today: The Decrees & Accompanying Documents of the 31st–35th General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, ed. John W. Padberg. St. Louis, Mo.: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2009, General Congregation 31, Decree 47, “Selecting House and Province Consultors,” pg. 205 [672–673].