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Academic formation of young Jesuits proved a popular topic in advance of the 31st General Congregation, as historian John Padberg notes that some 600 postulta (or petitions) were received from across the Society of Jesus (see Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 19–20). The delegates responded with the following decree, which begins with the statement […]

According to historian John Padberg’s historical account of the congregation, Jesuits sent more than 160 postulata (or petitions) on the topic their brethren’s spiritual formation for consideration at the 31st General Congregation (see Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 18–19). That formation, the following decree observes, “is the work of divine grace,” helping Jesuits in

The delegates of the 31st General Congregation used their seventh decree to address the matter of temporal adjuators, or brothers, within the Society of Jesus. The delegates were responding both to the declining numbers of brothers over the last several decades but also to postulata (or petitions) that requested both a clarification of the brothers’

The delegates at the 31st General Congregation issued the following decree to indicate changes to the Jesuits’ Collection of Decrees, done so with the desire to “provide the juridical principles for the adaptation of our body of laws.” The decree defines the “Institute of the Society” as “both our way of living and working, and

Pope John VI opened the 31st General Congregation by noting the “fearful danger of atheism threatening human society.” Through the Jesuit delegates gathered for the congregation, the pontiff gave to the entire Society of Jesus (the “champion of the Church and holy religion in adversity”) a special task: “the charge of making a stout, united

“The founding of the Society of Jesus,” Jesuit historian Joseph Conwell has argued, “begins with a discernment process.” The fruits of that process of discernment appear in the following document, Cum ex plurim, written by Ignatius and his companions in 1539. The document articulates the founders’ vision for what became the Jesuit order. Indeed, five

In the following letter, Ignatius writes to Stefano Casanova, an ailing young Jesuit who was teaching in the college at Tivoli. Ignatius instructs Casanova to systematically repress only his sinful sensual cravings, adding, however, that for health’s sake it can sometimes be more meritorious to indulge harmless craving than to mortify them. Whether the young

The 35th General Congregation took place during the first two months of 2008. Its delegates approved six decrees and appointed a new superior general. At a Mass closing the congregation, Adolfo Nicolás remarks to his brethren: “I believe that we are all aware that we have had a great experience. The Word of God, however,

Nicolás delivered the following homily in Rome’s Church of the Gesù on January 20, 2008. The day before, the 217 members of General Congregation 35 had elected Nicolás, the former provincial of Japan and president of the Conference of Major Superiors of East Asia and Oceania, as their order’s new general. For more from the

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