Changing to best serve the universal mission
23 May 2012

Changing to best serve the universal mission

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The Society is now at a new stage brought about by a couple of converging factors – the demographic realities and how we can best serve the universal mission today.

Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years – from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today.  The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia and a small rise in Africa.  

Fr General on refugees, communications and social justice
20 Mar 2012

Fr General on refugees, communications and social justice

by | posted in: Education, Social Communications, Social Justice, Spirituality | 0

While he was in Australia in January, Fr General Adolfo Nicolás SJ responded to questions on vital areas for the Society in the country, including refugees, communications and social justice.

Refugees

How can we advance and expand the educational work that is being done to foster peace-building and reconciliation in post-conflict settings?  

Fr General’s response.

The holiness of Fr Arrupe
14 Dec 2011

The holiness of Fr Arrupe

by | posted in: Beyond JCAP | 0

The International Postulator General for the Society of Jesus has called for information about the life and holiness of Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, to determine whether a cause for sainthood can be made.

In a letter to the Society on November 17, Fr Anton Witwer SJ said the General Curia had received a number of enquiries about the introduction of a case for beatification for Fr Arrupe, the former General of the Society who died on  February 5, 1991.

Fr General: Evangelisation-through-dialogue
21 Nov 2011

Fr General: Evangelisation-through-dialogue

by | posted in: Interreligious Dialogue | 0

Father General Adolfo Nicolás SJ speaks to The Way about Interreligious Dialogue: The Experience of some Pioneer Jesuits in Asia.

Before becoming Superior General of the Jesuits in 2008, Adolfo Nicolás worked for many years in Asia. Here he draws on that experience to argue for the contemporary emergence of a new paradigm for the work of spreading the gospel, that of ‘evangelisation-through-dialogue’. He finds seeds of this in the work of the first Jesuits in that continent, seeds that at the time failed to flourish in an unprepared world.

Bridges between the young and the Church
21 Nov 2011

Bridges between the young and the Church

by | posted in: Education | 0

Jesuits need to be “real bridges between the young and the Church”, said Father General Adolfo Nicolás in a letter to the Society written as a synthesis of the ex-officio 2011 letters. 

The ex-officio letters are the annual letters from every Province on a subject which Father General indicates each year. Last year, he asked for information about Jesuit work for youth.

Healing our broken relationship with creation
17 Oct 2011

Healing our broken relationship with creation

by | posted in: Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

Father General Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ has called on all Jesuits to restore and heal humanity’s broken relationship with creation with the same urgency as we are called to serve a faith that does justice.

In a letter to the whole Society on September 16, Father General encouraged the Society to make a commitment to the sustainability of our planet and invited Jesuits to review personal, communal and institutional lifestyles and practices in accordance with this mission of reconciliation with creation.