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A decree from the 31st General Congregation made experimental proposals to improve the central government of the Society of Jesus, requesting that those proposals be “submitted to the judgment of the next General Congregation.” In response, the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation issued the decree below. It considers the distinction between general assistants and […]

Several aspects of the provincial congregations were addressed by the delegates to the 32nd General Congregation. The following decree discusses the election process for a provincial congregation as well as other topics. It stipulates the necessary changes to the Formula of the Provincial Congregation, the guidelines governing the congregation process. For more from the 32nd

The delegates of the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus examined the practical operations of a general congregation. The results of that examination appear in the decree appearing below. The decree also recommends that the superior general appoint a commission to study how many delegates should attend a general congregation and how those

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