Search Results for: Young

The delegates at the 31st General Congregation of the Society of Jesus chose to address three pastoral institutions—and how they might change, “under the present circumstances of the Church”—namely pastoral services, residences, and parishes. The following decree urges Jesuits to renew and to “energetically” promote some pastoral works and also to cease those that “cannot […]

The following decree is the attempt of the delegates of the 31st General Congregation to explain the nature and reaffirm the purpose of Jesuit missionary work within the context of the Second Vatican Council. It attributes to Ignatius and his companions the reason why Jesuits have the “task of announcing the Gospel that God in

The delegates of the 31st General Congregation assessed the apostolic works of the Society of Jesus and acknowledged that “our labors” were not yielding the desired results. The decree below credits some poor results to a failure to “renew our apostolic or missionary spirit” and a “too great scattering of our forces.” The main reason

This extended decree represents the thoughts on Jesuit community life by the delegates to the 31st General Congregation of the Society of Jesus. The decree declares that “the foundation and aim of community life in the Society of Jesus” is “a community of men who are called by Christ to live with Christ, to be

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

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

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

 The 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus opened on January 5, 1995, with a Mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit, located across from the Jesuits’ Curia in Rome. At noon that same day, the delegates proceeded to the Vatican’s Sala Clementina for an audience with Pope John Paul II. To the

At the Mass opening the 33rd General Congregation, Pope John Paul II offered the following homily. The pontiff declares a special interest in the Jesuits’ gathering, as the “General Congregation is an event that is destined also to have some important repercussions in the life of the Church.” He remained at the Jesuits’ Curia (or