The 1979 General Assembly of the National Federations of Christian Life Communities took place in outside of Rome, organized on the theme of “Towards a World Community at Service of One World.” Pedro Arrupe, as superior general of the Society of Jesus, addressed the group, largely of laymen, which took its inspiration from the Jesuits’ […]
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One month after he had sent a letter to entire Society of Jesus on the topic in 1978, Pedro Arrupe sent the following letter to the members of the Indian Assistancy. The Jesuit Conference of India (comprising Jesuit works in India and Sri Lanka) had recently published a report by its Commission on Inculturation. “Inculturation,”
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After delivering prepared remarks to the 1979 General Assembly of delegates of the National Federations of the Christian Life Communities, Pedro Arrupe answered questions from the audience. An edited transcript of that exchange appears below. The audience members offered questions on how to integrate role of a Christian as a professional man and a member
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Pedro Arrupe had the following interview with the director of the Jesuit Central Social Secretariat in the summer of 1979. Questions focus on the need for exposure to and experience with the poor and why Arrupe believes it to be so important for Jesuits to identify with the poor. Arrupe provides details of how Jesuits
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The Ignatian Center for Spirituality in Rome closed a five-week conference on Ignatian Spirituality on February 18, 1978, with Pedro Arrupe delivering the following remarks. The Superior General of the Society of Jesus based his remarks on a phrase from the Jesuits’ Formula, approved by Pope Julius III in 1550. For Arrupe, the phrase “To
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Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus on July 21, 1773. In the preceding decades, the Jesuits had suffered expulsions from the Catholic empires of Portugal (1759), France (1764), and Spain (1767), where they had become handy scapegoats for kings or princes under civic pressure. In Portugal, for example, charges against the Society included
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Gaspar Loarte published The Exercise of the Christian Life in 1557 (just a year after the death of Ignatius de Loyola) as the Spanish Jesuit served as the rector of a Jesuit college in Genoa. The slim volume provided prayers, meditations, and general advice to Christians who desired to live a more devout life. Exemplifying
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On February 1 and 2, the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp and the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp co-host a two-day conference on “Jews and Jesuits: Contacts Across the Ages.” The event celebrates the tenth year of Antwerp’s Chair for Jewish-Christian Relations. According to the program, the conference examines “the interactions and
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The fifth of six decrees promulgated by the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus concerned the order’s “governance structures and ways of proceeding.” The decree, appearing below, is a highly technical and internally focused document. Among its measures, the decree directs the new superior general “to undertake a comprehensive review of the central
The final decree promulgated by the 34th General Congregation articulates the delegates’ views on the combination of “certain attitudes, values, and patterns of behavior” that forms the “Jesuit way of proceeding.” Among that way’s components, according to this decree, are a “deep personal love for Christ,” being a “contemplative in action,” being part of the
