| This
site offers links
to the texts of some critical documents to help understand the the
Jesuit
and Catholic tradition of the service of faith and the Promotion of
Justice.
Of particular importance are the decrees of several General
Congregations
of the Society of Jesus. The General Congregation is the way the
Society of Jesus selects a new Superior General and sets policy that
governs
the Society of Jesus. There have been 34 General Congregations
since
St. Ignatius' day, 450 years ago. |
The 32nd
General Congregation
of the Society of
Jesus
December 2nd, 1974 - March 7th,
1975
Decree 4:
Our
Mission Today
The Service of
Faith and
the Promotion of
Justice.
77 28. From all over the world
where Jesuits
are working, very similar and very insistent requests have been made
that,
by a clear decision on the part of the General Congregation, the
Society
should commit itself to work for the promotion of justice. Our
apostolate
today urgently requires that we take this decision. As apostles
we
are bearers of the Christian message. And at the heart of the
Christian
message is God revealing Himself in Christ as the Father of us all whom
through the Spirit He calls to conversion. In its integrity,
then,
conversion means accepting that we are at one and the same time
children
of the Father and brothers and sisters of each other. There is no
genuine conversion to the love of God without conversion to the love of
neighbor and, therefore, to the demands of justice. Hence,
fidelity
to our apostolic mission requires that we propose the whole of
Christian
salvation and lead others to embrace it. Christian salvation consists
in
an undivided love of the Father and of the neighbor and of
justice.
Since evangelization is proclamation of that faith which is made
operative
in love of others, the promotion of justice is indispensable to it.
Decree 4 of
G.C. 32 transformed
the
identity and
ministry of the
Society of Jesus.
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The 34th
General Congregation
of the Society of
Jesus
December 5 to March
22, 1995
Decree 3:
Our
Mission and Justice
50 1. In response to the Second
Vatican Council, we,
the Society of Jesus, set out on a journey of faith as we committed
ourselves
to the promotion of justice as an integral part of our mission. That
commitment
was a wonderful gift of God to us, for it put us into such good
company--the
Lord’s surely, but also that of so many friends of his among the poor
and
those committed to justice. As fellow pilgrims with them towards the
Kingdom,
we have often been touched by their faith, renewed by their hope,
transformed
by their love. As servants of Christ’s mission, we have been greatly
enriched
by opening our hearts and our very lives to “the joys and the hopes,
the
griefs and the anxieties of the men and women of this age, especially
those
who are poor or in any way afflicted.”1
51 2. And we have done so in many
ways. The promotion
of justice has been integrated into traditional ministries and new
ones,
in pastoral work and social centers, in educating “men and women for
others,”
in direct ministry with the poor. We also acknowledge our failures on
the
journey. The promotion of justice has sometimes been separated from its
wellspring of faith. Dogmatism or ideology sometimes led us to treat
each
other more as adversaries than as companions. We can be timid in
challenging
ourselves and our institutional apostolates with the fullness of our
mission
of faith seeking justice.
52 3. Therefore we want to renew our
commitment to
the promotion of justice as an integral part of our mission, as this
has
been extensively developed in General Congregations 32 and 33. Our
experience
has shown us that our promotion of justice both flows from faith and
brings
us back to an ever deeper faith. So we intend to journey on towards
ever
fuller integration of the promotion of justice into our lives of faith,
in the company of the poor and many others who live and work for the
coming
of God’s Kingdom.
Other documents of GC 34
Including important decrees on:
Our Mission and Culture
Our Mission and Inter-religious
Dialogue
Cooperating with the Laity in
Mission
Jesuits and the Situation of Women
in Church
and Civil Society
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The
Service of Faith
and
the
Promotion
of Justice
in
American Jesuit Higher Education
Rev. Peter-Hans
Kolvenbach, S.J.
Superior General
of the Society of Jesus
COMMITMENT TO JUSTICE IN JESUIT
HIGHER EDUCATION
Santa Clara University,
October 6, 2000
Fr. Kolvenbach outlines how the
Jesuit emphasis
on the promotion of justice has become so central to Jesuit sponsored
universities
today.
He offered several concrete
challenges for
Jesuit universities. The talk is well worth reading for anyone
desiring
to understand how seriously the Society desires that Jesuit
universities
give themselves to that service of the faith which promotes justice.
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This is
the speech that
started it all.
Men
and Women
for
Others
Pedro Arrupe, S.J.
Superior General
of the Society
of Jesus
This is the speech that Fr. Arrupe
gave to the
gathering of Alumni of Jesuit schools. Valencia, Spain,
1973.
Many in his audience walked out.
Defining what he meant by doing
the "works
of justice" he said:
First, a basic attitude of
respect for all people
which forbids us ever to use them as instruments for our own profit.
Second, a firm resolve never
to profit from,
or allow ourselves to be suborned by, positions of power deriving from
privilege, for to do so, even passively, is equivalent to active
oppression.
To be drugged by the comforts if privilege is to become contributors to
injustice as silent beneficiaries of the fruits of injustice.
Third, an attitude not simply
of refusal but
of counterattack against injustice; a decision to work with others
toward
the dismantling of unjust social structures so that the weak, the
oppressed,
the marginalized of this world may be set free.
NEW: It turns out that the talk above was s condensed summar of the talk Fr. Arrupe gave.
See the full text of the original presentation Fr. Arrupe gave, in this new English translation.
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