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The following are notes, rather incomplete yet intimate ones, written by Pedro Arrupe before his stroke in August 1981. The Jesuits’ Superior General describes celebrating Mass, alone, in his private chapel reserved at the Curia in Rome. He provides glimpses of his passionate intimacy with the Eucharist and of his burdens of his office: “the […]

Simão Rodrigues, one of Ignatius’s first companions in founding the Society of Jesus, became the founding provincial of the Portuguese province in 1546. In Coimbra, Portugal, his fellow Jesuits opposed Rodrigues’s unique training methods for Jesuit scholastics. Men like Francisco Estrada and others objected to the policy that scholastics had to reproduce the saints’ humiliating

The issue of priestly vocations within the Society of Jesus, according to the following letter sent to all the Jesuit major superiors, is a troubling matter “much too serious to ignore or set aside.” Arrupe sent his letter on July 11, 1973, a time when worldwide membership in the Society of Jesus had dropped from

Pedro Arrupe issued the following position paper at a meeting of the Union of Religious Superiors General in Rome in February 1974. Arrupe believes that it is “clear that religious life must be an evangelizing force,” one that adapts in order to help the Catholic Church adapt as well. The “effectiveness” of an evangelizer, then,

The Jesuits of the Province of Turin met in Genoa in December 1973, in order to make preparations for upcoming 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus. At this meeting, Pedro Arrupe first delivered the following remarks on “the simplicity of life,” which he considers “the measure of our spirit of poverty, the practical

Superior General of the Society of Jesus Pedro Arrupe issued the following letter to every Jesuit in the world in October 1977. Arrupe’s topic is apostolic availability, an issue at “the heart of our identity, the mark that should characterize us as followers of Jesus, namely “‘to be available.’” He provides questions, based on decrees

“Do not expect a doctrinal treatise on the priesthood,” Pedro Arrupe declares to the more than 700 Italian priests gathered for a day of recollection on June 18, 1975. “We have at our disposal rich and abundant doctrine in the perennial sources of Theology, Vatican II, the 1971 Synod and the Magisterium of Paul VI,

Montreal hosted the Third Inter-American Congress of Religious in November 1977. Pedro Arrupe, as the President of the Union of Superiors General, was invited to address the assembly. In light of the congress’s theme— “The Future of Religious Life that We are Building Together for Tomorrow”—Arrupe’s remarks, appearing below, seek to answer the question, “What

Some 2,500 men and women representing religious congregations met in Madrid on April 12, 1977, in part, to hear the following remarks by Pedro Arrupe. In these remarks, the Jesuits’ Superior General uses the “crisis” facing religious life as an opportunity rather than a negative. “Religious life is a privileged place today,” Arrupe argues, simply

On April 10, 1972, Pedro Arrupe delivered the following remarks in Rome to a meeting of the Vatican officials, superiors, priests, and professors (these periodic meetings were organized under the Approdo Romano). To these leading figures in the Catholic Church, Arrupe speaks about the religious superior in the modern context. He cites the reasons why