In the degree below, the delegates of the 34th General Congregation grant certain powers and responsibilities to their order’s new superior general, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, with those powers mainly concerning the issuance of the congregation’s decrees and recommendations. They also require Kolvenbach “to complete the work on the Complementary Norms and the Notes to the Constitutions according to the mind of the general congregation.”
For more from the 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, please consult this page.
1. General Congregation 34 grants to Father General the power and responsibility to establish the authoritative and definitive version of the congregation’s decrees and recommendations. This work will include the following:
1, 1. To make whatever corrections are clearly needed, including the correction of discriminatory language
1, 2. To edit the decrees and recommendations with regard to style, and to reconcile contradictions if any are detected
1, 3. Thus to establish the authoritative text, based on the original language(s) in which each decree or recommendation was written
1, 4. To have the decrees and recommendations translated accurately into the three official languages of the congregation
2. This work will be accomplished by members of the General Curia assisted, if necessary, by Jesuits from elsewhere; it will be finally approved by Father General with the deliberative vote of those Fathers of the General Curia who have a right ex officio to attend a general congregation.
3. GC 34 grants Father General the power to abrogate or modify decrees of past general congregations that are not in accord with the decrees of this present general congregation, after obtaining the deliberative vote of those Fathers of the General Curia who have a right ex officio to attend a general congregation, and without prejudice to the powers given him in other decrees.
4. GC 34 entrusts to Father General the power and responsibility to complete the work on the Complementary Norms and the Notes to the Constitutions according to the mind of the general congregation, with the deliberative vote of four delegates elected by the general congregation:
4, 1. To complete the definitive choice of texts from the decrees of GC 34 to be incorporated into the Complementary Norms, based on but not limited to the list drawn up by the commissions and collated by Commission 4 towards the end of the congregation
4, 2. To assure that discriminatory language, inconsistencies, and unnecessary repetitions are corrected
4, 3. To establish the final authoritative Latin text of the Notes and Complementary Norms and to authorize their accurate translation into the three official languages
4, 4 Thus to declare the Constitutions, Notes, and Complementary Norms ready for publication in one volume
5. GC 34 grants Father General the power to approve the minutes which could not be communicated to the delegates of the congregation, in accordance with the norms of the Formula of the General Congregation, n. 142, §4, 1ª.
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 34, Decree 25, “Powers Granted and Mandates Entrusted by the General Congregation to the Father General,” pg. 655–656 [522–534].