general congregation 35 - tertianship · while recent general congregations have touched on themes...

6/01/2007 - 6/03/2008 SOCIETATIS IESU 10/18/2012 editer jvdp 1

General Congregation 35

10/18/2012 editer jvdp 2

7 january 2008


Chiesa di gesù


photographers

• Election of Fr General

• Decrees on Identity, Mission - statements for our time about what it is to be Jesuit

• Relationship with the Pope and Vatican

• Other

• Decree on Governance: role of conferences

• Collaboration: juridical bond

• Obedience: 4th vow discussion


Main Outcomes GC35

Arrival in Rome: Saturday 5 January

First Week 7 – 11 January Opening mass: Cardinal Rodé

Set up the GC (elect secretary, officials, committee to write ‘de Status Societatis Iesu’)

Second Week 14 – 19 January

Murmurationes 15 -18 January

Saturday 19 January: Mass for Election and Election

(217 electors from 110 provinces and regions)


The Election of a General


Official Photos

• 29 April 1936 Born in Palencia, Spain • 15 September 1953 Novitiate in Aranjuez (Toledo) • 1958-1960 Licence in Philosophy (Alcalá, Madrid) • 1964-1968 Theology Tokyo • 17 march 1967 Ordained priest • 1968-1971 Doctorate in theology

• ‘theology of progress’ (Gregorian) • 1971 Professor of Theology (Systematics)

Sophia University,Tokyo • 1978-1984 Director Pastoral Institute, Manila • 1991-1993 Rector Scholasticate (Tokyo) • 1993-1999 Provincial –Japan • 2000-2004 Work with migrants, Japan • 2004-2007 Moderator Conference

East Asia-Oceania


Adolfo Nicolás

Private meeting with Pope 10/18/2012 editer jvdp 25

General Counsellors 10/18/2012 editer jvdp 26

•Weeks 3-9

21 January to 6 March


GC35 – Business (‘Ad Negotia’) Phase

Overview sessions

Short overview of GC 35

Some significant themes in the decrees

Meetings!!! Of all the 74 Delegates from 4

European Assistancies


And also from the : 19 Delegates from East Asia and

Oceania Assistancy. The 19th Delegate is the New

General himself.


20 Delegates from the Assistancy of Africa and Madagaskar 10/18/2012 editer jvdp 33

• Six documents

• Response to Holy Father

• Identity

• Mission

• Obedience

• Governance

• Collaboration


The decrees

1. Governance at the Service of Universal Mission, 2. Obedience in the Life of the Society of Jesus, 3. Challenges to our Mission Today: Sent to the Frontiers, 4. A Fire that Kindles Other Fires: Rediscovering our

Charisma, 5. Collaboration at the Heart of Mission and 6. "With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism" (a formal

response to the letter that Pope Benedict XVI sent to Father General Kolvenbach before the congregation.)


GC 35 Approves the 6 Decrees in following order:

GC35 Treated 15 Ordinary Governance Topics

Africa

Intellectual Apostolate *

International Houses in Rome

Communications

China

Ecology/Envir/Globalization*

Finances *

Formation *

Reli-Fundamentalism*

Brothers

Youth Ministry

Migrants-Refugees*

Indigenous peoples*

Community life

Vocations

* = ppt present!


Decree 1 ‘With greater fervour’ GC’s Response to Pope Benedict

‘To serve the Lord alone and

the Church his Spouse under the Roman pontiff’

In workgroups

In plenum (Aula)

In Assistency meetings

In language groups

In private talks

Public and electronic interventions

(also very personal like the following:)

After long talks



Discussing amendments

The Society of Jesus responds to the invitation of the Holy Father

A spiritual experience of consolation in the Lord


With renewed vigour and zeal

• GC calls all Jesuits to live with the great spirit and generosity that is at the centre of our vocation – ‘to serve …beneath the banner of the Cross..the Lord alone and the Church his spouse, under the Roman pontiff’

• We must be and remain men familiar with the things of God



Formation: essential to give young Jesuits a human, spiritual, intellectual and ecclesial formation as deep, strong and vibrant as possible

We must continually return to the spiritual experience of the Spiritual Exercises



Intellectual apostolate:

We encourage our theologians to carry out their task with courage and intelligence

Essential that they live in the Ignatian spirit of feeling with the Church…to love and serve the Vicar of Christ ..with an effective and affective devotion



Each Jesuit

Called to consider ‘the proper attitude of service in the Church’

Some of our reactions and attitudes have not always been expressed as our Institute demands of us: to be ‘men quite humble and prudent in Christ’ (Formula, 9)

‘We call on each Jesuit to help the Pope with a resolutely constructive attitude, to create a spirit of ‘communion’ so that the Church can make the Gospel of Christ heard



The Team That Worked on IDENTITY….! Jim Corkery from Ireland, Hans Zollner from Germany,

Benjamin from Cuba, George Pattery from Calcutta and Ntima from C.Africa, with Father General – Adolfo

Nicolas.


Specifically Jesuit: we and our mission today are sparks from an original flame (hence title: “Un Fuego Que Enciende Otros Fuegos”)

As with Ignatius, so with all Jesuits: the grace to see God working in the world and to be with Christ in that world as servants of his mission (GC 34)

‘Contemplatives in action’: in Him we find the world, in the world we find Him. ‘Polarities’ (creative tensions) mark a Jesuit’s way of being

Our mission, rooted in Ignatius’s experience, continues today


DECREE 2: IDENTITY

A Life That is Shaped by the Vision of La Storta (here is found the most significant experience for the founding of the Society)

The following of Christ bearing his Cross…

In the Church…

For the world…

As an apostolic religious community…

Community, identity and mission as a kind of tryptich shedding light on SJ companionship


IDENTITY

To New Frontiers (‘Identity’ and ‘Mission’ inseparable)


IDENTITY

New document, because new context How this global context requires that we act as a universal

body with a universal mission Globalisation, marginalization, environmental concern “The world is our house” (Nadal);

“a stable monastery does not serve us” (P. Kolvenbach)

‘Discerning’ culture and world: new ‘Nations’ await us (P. Nicolás) and we are sent to them

Ever contemplative, ever active…


IDENTITY

The Team That Worked on Mission Decree

On February 15th, the deputatio appointed five members to draft a new decree on Mission: Fernando Franco, Fred Kammer, Tomasz Kot, Bienvenido Nebres,

and Eugenio Valenzuela. 10/18/2012 editer jvdp 56

Reaffirming our Mission – Rich traditions

A New Context – Globalising world and ecological awareness

Our Mission - Establishing right relationship with God, with others and with creation

Our Apostolic Response:

Building Right Relationship with God

Building Right Relationship with Others

Building Right Relationship with Creation

Global Preferences: 10/18/2012 editer jvdp 59

Challenges to our

Decree 3 : Mission Today: Sent to the Frontiers

• This congregation emphasizes the importance of structures for apostolic planning, implementation and accountability at all levels of government that are appropriate to carry out our mission today

• Shift from provincial mission to universal mission and establish global and regional priorities


Global Preferences

Mi s s i o n

• Global apostolic preferences: Africa, China, intellectual apostolate, inter-provincial institutions in Rome, migrants and refugees

• Fr. General need to continue to discern the preferences for the Society, to review the above preferences, to update their specific content, and develop plans and programmes that can be monitored and evaluated


Global Preferences

Mi s s i o n

• Integration for the mission: our personal relationship with the Lord, our relationship to one another, our solidarity with the poor and marginalised, and a life style responsible to creation


The Imperatives

Mi s s i o n

While recent general congregations have touched on themes related to obedience, the last time a general congregation issued a decree on the topic was GC 31 in 1966. Vatican II had just ended, and we had just begun to respond to the council’s call to renew our Jesuit life from two sources: scripture and the charism of our founder. That renewal has matured, so the decree on obedience of GC 35 begins with a reflection on what the experience of the First Companions and the scriptures’ portrayal of Jesus teach us about Jesuit obedience.


Decree 4: Obedience

At the time of GC 31, many were asking how we can ensure that structures which sustain the body of the Society not stifle individual creativity. The terrain has shifted in forty years. Now many are asking how we can ensure that individual efforts are integrated into the mission of the body. The decree suggests that both the account of conscience and renewed structures of community life are essential to achieving balance in that regard.


Anyone who looks at the history of the

Society will see that we have always

understood our role of service in the Church

in relation to the papacy. Therefore, the

decree goes on to offer some reflections on

living our relationship of obedience to the

papacy today, especially with regard to our

mission in the broadest sense.


Before work on the decree began,

discussion groups of delegates surfaced

some areas of our life of obedience in the

Society where they felt a word of advice or

reminder was needed. In response, the

decree ends with some reflections on

obedience in our day to day life directed to

Jesuits in formation, formed Jesuits, and

superiors.


• Two main issues

• General congregations: need for reform

• Conferences of Provincials and their powers


Decree 5 : Governance Decree

Fr General

Mandate to review and change the formula of a General Congregation (number 2, governance decree)

and of a Province Congregation (same decree)


Governance Decree General Congregations - outcome of GC35

g o v e r n a n c e

• Provinces need to work more together to tackle issues that have an international dimension e.g. secularism, refugees

• But need to avoid an intermediary level of governance between the General and the Provincials

• And need to safeguard the link between the account of conscience and missioning of a Jesuit

• So how do we give more powers to Conferences and Presidents of conferences while avoiding the pitfalls?


Governance Decree Conferences of Provincials - Issues

g o v e r n a n c e

• The work of Conferences has been given priority (20, A, a1): ‘all other things being equal, the needs of Conference activities and works have priority over those of individual provinces’

• A conference president does NOT have the power to assign a man without the agreement of the local provincial

• Fr General is the ultimate appeal if the provincial and conference president cannot work something out (no 20, A, a3)


Governance Decree Conferences of Provincials - outcome

g o v e r n a n c e

Collaboration at the Heart of Mission


Collaboration

• What are the characteristics of a Jesuit work? What happens when the work is no longer directed by a Jesuit? (Decree 6, no 10, 11)

• How can Jesuits and their partners be formed in order to go deeper, both in spiritual and practical ways, in the mission they share?

• What are the ties the Society of Jesus needs to bind with some people, what are the apostolic and spiritual networks that need to be developed at a national or international level in order to have a more fruitful collaboration?


Decree 6 Collaboration

The first section aims to expand the impulse given by GC34, as our collaboration with others doesn't just refer to lay people, but also to people of other religions; men and women of good will who want to work for a world in which peace and justice will be predominant.


Collaboration

The second section gives some instructions on how to proceed in collaboration. These instructions refer to three fields in which the enforcement of the decree of the previous General Congregation presented some issues:


Collaboration

• What are the characteristics of a Jesuit work? What happens when the work is no longer directed by a Jesuit?

• How can Jesuits and their partners be formed in order to go deeper, both in spiritual and practical ways, in the mission they share?

• What are the ties the Society of Jesus needs to bind with some people, what are the apostolic and spiritual networks that need to be developed at a national or international level in order to have a more fruitful collaboration?


This decree of GC 35 tried to mobilise Jesuits all over the world, making collaboration with others one of the core dimensions of their way of proceeding.


collaboration

Go into the

world of studies

and researches

and of religions

and cultures… !

Lord , We Thank You for all the Graces of the GC 35.

In return we offer our limited selves, all our companions, our communities, our collaborators

and our apostolates for your greater glory and service


“ Today, we feel more confirmed that the Holy Spirit and we, the Delegates, have done a good job, electing you as our General. Thank you, Father General, for being our General…..” ! Fr. Rotsaert, Secretary of the GC35.


general congregation 35 - tertianship · while recent general congregations have touched on themes...

Documents