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The “long and permanent tradition of service proper to the Society” is reaffirmed by the following decree from the 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus. The decree notes that Jesuit service can be “the dangerous commitment of witness and struggle against the forces of injustice and persecution, both social and religious, a witness […]

The following decree from the 34th General Congregation is a lengthy discussion of chastity within the context of the Society of Jesus: the call to chastity, its apostolic character, the meaning of the vow of chastity, and some normative principles and guidelines for a chaste lifestyle). The delegates, in approving this decree, did so as

Appearing below, the first decree promulgated by the 33rd General Congregation (an event convoked to accept the resignation of the Jesuits’ superior general) presents the views of the congregation’s delegates on the state of the Society of Jesus “in today’s world.” It consists of a brief introduction and conclusion but is primarily divided into two,

More famous for their promulgated decrees, the General Congregations also feature important addresses, homilies, and statements–remarks that help guide the work of the Jesuit delegates assembled at the congregations but also the subsequent work at the Jesuit apostolates around the globe. Below is a selection of those addresses from the most recent General Congregations. For

In 1965, the Second Vatican Council issued Perfectae caritatis, a proclamation that mandated religious orders seek renewal through reflection and honoring “their founders’ spirit and special aims.” In 2008, the delegates at the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, in part, responded to that mandate with their second decree, “A Fire that Kindles

One month after they elected Alfonso Nicolás to succeed Peter-Hans Kolvenbach as the Jesuits’ superior general, the delegates of the 35th General Congregation gathered, at the pontiff’s invitation, in the Vatican’s Sala Clementina. There, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the men with words of gratitude. He states, “I very much hope, therefore, that the entire Society

 The 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus opened on January 5, 1995, with a Mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit, located across from the Jesuits’ Curia in Rome. At noon that same day, the delegates proceeded to the Vatican’s Sala Clementina for an audience with Pope John Paul II. To the

King Ferdinand I requested that the Jesuits come to Vienna in 1551. The success of the Jesuits in teaching there led to a discussion of the ways to restore the decayed faculty of theology at the University of Vienna, so as to provide Germany with educated Catholic priests. In this letter, sent by commission to

The Society of Jesus—much like “all well-organized communities or congregations”—appoints a person “whose proper duty,” according to the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, “is to attend to the universal good.” For the Jesuits in particular, the superior general’s “duty is the good government, preservation, and growth of the whole body of the Society.” (Rather