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The delegates of the 31st General Congregation articulate, in the following decree, the duties of the vicar general following the death of the Jesuits’ superior general. The decree, according to historian John Padberg, intends to help with the preparation of a general congregation convened, in part, to elect the departed general’s successor. Padberg explains that […]

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 of the 31st General Congregation states who would attend, ex officio, a province congregation and how others would be elected to attend the gatherings. Included in the election are “all the solemnly professed and formed spiritual and temporal coadjutors” in the province, meaning brothers were to be included. For more from the

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

The following decree from the 31st General Congregation briefly addresses the Society of Jesus’s relationship with the laity, a topic more fully addressed by the congregation’s delegates in another decree. Here, though, the delegates of the congregation give the newly elected superior general the responsibility for studying how the bonds between Jesuits and lay people—which

Teachings and decrees emerging from the Second Vatican Council “demand,” according to the following decree of the 31st General Congregation, “that the Society of Jesus “examine the relationship it has to laymen and their apostolate,” hoping to “bring this relationship into greater harmony with the norms and spirits” of the council. Of the lay people,

The Jesuits’ social apostolate was addressed by the 28th, 29th, and 30th general congregations. Yet, according to Jesuit historian John Padberg, the following decree, promulgated by the 31st General Congregation, sought to “repair certain defects in our legislation on social matters” (see the congregation’s historical preface in Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 29). The