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The Jesuits’ superior general, acting in accordance to the wishes of the 31st General Congregation, provided new statutes on poverty for experimental use in 1967. When the 32nd General Congregation convened nearly a decade later, its delegates revisited the topic and its spiritual as well as juridical elements. Their decree, appearing below, notes the need […]

This lengthy decree is the response of the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation to the “rather large number of postulta” (or petitions) they received on the “spiritual life”—especially prayer and obedience—and on common “spiritual discernment,” notes historian John Padberg (see the congregation’s historical preface in Jesuit Life & Mission Today (2009), pg. 274–276). The decree

The following decree from the 32nd General Congregation amends the Jesuits’ policy on the permanent diaconate as articulated in a decree from the previous congregation. The decree and amendments were necessary, as historian John Padberg notes, because the Holy See had requested religious orders to “clearly determine the juridical status of their permanent deacons” (see

As did the delegates in the previous congregation, the delegates of 32nd General Congregation examined the topic of grades within the Society of Jesus. The following decree endorses the promotion of “the participation of the temporal coadjutors in the life and apostolic activity of the Society,” as did a decree from the previous congregation. For

The delegates to the 32nd General Congregation approved the following decree, a lengthy statement on the process of Jesuit formation in light of the “many changes in the world at large.” The influence of those changes meant that “constant adaptation is required in order to be sure of achieving the essential purpose of our formation.”

The 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus convened nearly a decade after the previous congregation closed in 1966. During the intervening years, as the following decree states, “the life of the Society has been an effort under the leadership of Father General to implement the decrees of the 31st General Congregation.” So, rather

Postulta (or petitions) sent by Jesuits in advance of the 31st General Congregation requested that the congregation’s delegates revise the norms that previously censored some books. The delegates, in the following decree, respond to those requests by giving the superior general the authority to later “adapt the particular norms of our own law in this

According to historian John Padberg, the topic of cooperation between Jesuit provinces was “deliberated at length” by the delegates at the 31st General Congregation (see Jesuit Life & Mission Today, pg. 37). The delegates conclude, in the following decree, that the Society of Jesus should promote “open and complete cooperation” among its members, echoing the

In the following decree, the delegates of the 31st General Congregation urge that provincials in the Society of Jesus receive greater responsibility and “broader faculties” in the governance of the Society of Jesus. Provincials, in return, were to “carefully listen to their subjects and direct them in the Lord, taking into consideration the internal knowledge