Lisa Reiter Saint Louis University

 Understanding “Charism”  Bernard loved the hills,  Benedict the valleys  Francis the towns  Ignatius the great cities

 The Charism of the Society is different  Jesuits are on the frontiers  In the past those frontiers have been physical and geographical  Today, those frontiers have different dimensions: intellectual

 1540: Society of Jesus is founded  Pope Paul III papal Bull  : Council of Trent  Jesuits were sought after as advisors  Missionary Activity

 Political and economic,  Not theological  1767  Promulgated in Catholic countries  Georgetown is founded during suppression  Restored in 1814 by Pope Pius VII

 1965  Vatican II document: Gaudium Et Spes (The Church in the Modern World)  Pedro Arrupe, S.J. becomes Superior General  1971  Bishop’s Synod document: Justice in the World ▪ ‘preferential option for the poor’  1973  Arrupe’s address “Men and Women for Others”

 : General Congregation 32, Decree 4  The mission of the Society of Jesus today is the service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement. For reconciliation with God demands the reconciliation of people with one another.  In one form or another, this has always been the mission of the Society; but it gains new meaning and urgency in the light of the needs and aspirations of the men and women of our time, and it is in that light that we examine it anew. We are confronted today, in fact, by a whole series of new challenges.

 1977: Rutillo Grande, S.J. is murdered in El Salvador  Followed in 1989 by the 6 Jesuits & 2 Women at the UCA  1981  Arrupe suffers a stroke  John Paul II appoints Fr. Paola Dezza, S.J. the pontifical delegate

 1983: General Congregation 33  Arrupe resigns  Peter Hans Kolvenbach elected Superior General  April 2005  John Paul II dies  Cardinal Ratzinger is elected Pope Benedict

 January – March 2008  Kolvenbach resigns  Nicolás is elected Superior General  Pope Benedict meets with GC 35 delegates  In a private audience with Pope Benedict,  Nicolás renews his vows

 Today I should like to encourage you and your confreres to go on in the fulfilment of your mission, in full fidelity to your original charism, …..  As my predecessors have often told you,  the Church needs you,  counts on you,  and continues to turn to you with confidence, particularly to reach the geographical and spiritual places where others do not reach or find it difficult to reach.  Those words of Paul IV have remained engraved in your hearts: “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and exposed fields, in the crossroads of ideologies, in the social trenches, there has been or is confrontation between the burning exigencies of humanity and the perennial message of the Gospel, there have been and are the Jesuits” (3 December 1974, to the 32nd General Congregation).

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