Search Results for: Ferrer

Before the delegates to the 31st General Congregation set out “for the four corners of the world,” Pope Paul VI welcomed the Jesuits to the Sistine Chapel. His remarks urge the delegates “to renew in [their] hearts in an almost palpable and solemn way the sense of the apostolic mandate that characterizes and strengthens your […]

The members of the 31st General Congregation issued the following statement to Pope Paul VI at the closing of more than 140 days of sessions. The statement notes how the delegates had “taken care to adapt our laws to the new needs of our times” while trying “to renew and encourage the religious life of

The 31st General Congregation held its first session in the summer of 1965, towards the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. It held a second session a year later, after the council had formally closed, after which time it promulgated its decrees. The congregation’s first decree sought to define and, in the end, to encourage

The delegates of the 31st General Congregation gathered, in part, to select the successor to Jean-Baptiste Janssens as the 28th superior general. In these remarks before the congregation, Pope Paul VI believes that the next general would “take every care to ensure that your harmony be not disrupted by discordant voices, but rather that you

In July 1940, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Society of Jesus, Pope Pius XII issued the following apostolic letter to Wlodimir (Włodzimierz) Ledóchowski. Pius notes to the superior general how the Catholic Church “is deeply indebted to your religious society for its glorious record of service.” The letter chronicles some

Fluvio Androzzi was already a priest when he made the Spiritual Exercises under the direction of Diego Laínez and entered the Society. Almost immediately, he embarked upon a life of successful ministries. Androzzi was one of the Society’s earliest spiritual writers, and his works, published posthumously, appeared in many editions and translations. In this letter,

Ignatius uses this letter as a reproof to a discontented temporal coadjutor brother. Giovanni Battista Guidini was the buyer at the college of Padua, and he was agitating to study for the priesthood. Several letters between the rector at Padua and Ignatius were exchanged on the matter. On the same day he wrote to Guidini

Valentín Marín, a young Spanish Jesuit working in Sicily, was known as an excellent preacher despite having a disagreeable voice. His superior greatly praised him for his learning and his holiness. But Marín was constantly beset by scruples. Ignatius, who took a personal interest in the young man’s troubles, had earlier instructed his provincial and

The difficulties that the Society experienced in Zaragoza, Spain, weighed heavily on the Jesuits in the city and their rector. For example, the archbishop was firmly opposed to their presence in his archdiocese, excommunicating them and anyone who frequented their church or heard their sermons. The populace had been encouraged to throw stones at their

The following is one of Ignatius’s most direct and blunt letters. The recipient, Antonio Soldevila, apparently gave more than occasion for it. The Catalan had entered the Society of Jesus in 1551 and came to Rome in 1553. At first, he had a reputation for devotion and spirituality, but Soldevila soon showed eccentric and hardheaded