Gratitude to Michael Perry

A few days ago, Michael P. posted best wishes to me and to the Society of Jesus as the Thirty-fifth General Congregation of the order was about to convene in Rome. I am grateful to Michael for his wishes and for the prayers of all those who have the interests of the Society in mind.

This morning the General Congregation convened, and the first matter at hand was the celebration of Mass at which His Eminence Franc Cardinal Rodé, C.M., Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The Cardinal is no stranger to religious orders in that he himself is a member of the Congregation for Missions, aka the Vincentians.

Cardinal Rodé began his homily by pointing out the significance of the election of the new Superior General who will replace Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach. Under the law of the Society, Superiors General serve for life; however, Fr. Kolvenbach has requested and was granted a dispensation permitting him to step down.

The Cardinal then offered this observation:

This Congregation also gathers together to treat important and very difficult matters which touch all members of the Society, such as the direction which the Society is presently taking. The themes upon which the General Congregation will reflect have to do with basic elements for the life of the Society. Certainly you will deal with the identity of today’s Jesuit, on the meaning and value of the vow of obedience to the Holy Father which has always defined your religious family, the mission of the Society in the context of globalization and marginalization, community life, apostolic obedience, vocation recruitment and other important themes.

The Cardinal also noted that the impact of the Society’s work extends beyond its own territory. As he said,

It is not only for your own Jesuit brothers that you provide a religious and apostolic formation. There are many institutes of Consecrated Life who, following an Ignatian spirituality, pay attention to your choices; there are many future priests in your Colleges and Universities who are preparing for their ministry. There are many peoples from both within and outside the Church who frequent your centers of learning seeking a response to the challenges which science, technology and globalization pose to humanity, to the Church, and to the faith, with the hope of receiving a formation which will make it possible for them to construct a world of truth and freedom, of justice and peace. Your work must be eminently apostolic with a universal human, ecclesial and evangelical fullness.  It must always be carried out in the light of your Charism, in such a way that the growing participation of laity in your activities does not obscure your identity but rather enriches it with the collaboration of those who, coming from other cultures, share your style and your objectives.

The Cardinal referred to himself as “a brother who is following your works with great interest and expectation…” He then indicated that he wished to share his “joys and hopes” and his “sorrows and anguish” regarding apostolic service through religious life. In this context, he said of the Society,

The authenticity of religious life is characterized by the following of Christ and by the exclusive consecration to Him and to his Kingdom through the profession of the evangelical counsels. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council teaches that “this consecration will be the more perfect, in as much as the indissoluble bond of the union of Christ and His bride, the Church, is represented by firm and more stable bonds” (Lumen Gentium, N. 44) Consecration to service to Christ cannot be separated from consecration  to service to the Church. Ignatius and his first companions considered it thus when they wrote the Formula of your Institute in which the essence of your charism is spelled out: “To serve the Lord and his Spouse the Church under the Roman Pontiff” (Julius III, Formula I).  It is with sorrow and anxiety that I see that the sentire cum ecclesia of which your founder frequently spoke is diminishing even in some members of religious families. The Church is waiting for a light from you to restore the sensus Ecclesiae.

The Cardinal was not reticent to express melancholy about a sentiment present today amongst some members of religious institutes:

With sadness and anxiety I also see a growing distancing from the Hierarchy. The Ignatian spirituality of apostolic service “under the Roman Pontiff” does not allow for this separation. In the Constitutions which he left you, Ignatius wanted to truly shape your mind and in the book of the [Spiritual] Exercises (n 353) he wrote “we must always keep our mind prepared and quick to obey the true Spouse of Christ and our Holy Mother, the Hierarchical Church”. Religious obedience can be understood only as obedience in love. The fundamental nucleus of Ignatian spirituality consists in uniting the love for God with love for the hierarchical Church. Your XXXIII Congregation once again took up this characteristic of obedience declaring that “the Society reaffirms in a spirit of faith the traditional bond of love and of service which unites it to the Roman Pontiff.”

But he noted that there is an antidote to this problematic sentiment—apostolic zeal based on fidelity to scripture and tradition. As he exhorted the Congregation,

Times have changed and the Church must today confront new and urgent necessities, I will mention one, which in my judgment is urgent today and is at the same time complex and I propose it for your consideration.  It is the need to present to the faithful and to the world the authentic truth revealed in Scripture and Tradition. The doctrinal diversity of those who at all levels, by vocation and mission are called to announce the Kingdom of truth and love, disorients the faithful and leads to a relativism without limits. There is one truth, even though it can always be more deeply known. It is the “living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ” (Dei Verbum, N. 10) which is the voucher for revealed truth. The exegetes and theological scholars are involved in working together “under the watchful care of the sacred teaching office of the Church, to an exploration and exposition of the divine writings” (Dei Verbum, N. 23). Through your long and solid formation, your centers of research, your teaching in the philosophical-theological-biblical fields you are in a privileged position to carry out this difficult mission. Carry it out with study and in-depth examination, carry it out with humility, carry it out with faith in the Church, carry it out with love for the Church.

Cardinal Rodé also addressed the duties associated with evangelization, a topic I recently addressed in several of my December postings but specifically including this one [HERE]. He emphasized his concerns for the growing separation between faith and culture, which impedes evangelization. He pointed out that the Society has been well disposed in the past to breach this partition. As he stated,

A culture immersed with a true Christian spirit is an instrument which fosters the spreading of the Gospel, faith in God the Creator of the heavens and of the earth. The Tradition of the Society, from the first beginnings of the Roman College always placed itself at the crossroads between Church and society, between faith and culture, between religion and secularism. Recover these avant-garde positions which are so necessary to transmit the eternal truth to today’s world, in today’s language. Do not abandon this challenge. We know the task is difficult, uncomfortable and risky, and at times little appreciated and even misunderstood, but it is a necessary task for the Church. The apostolic tasks demanded of you by the Church are many and very diverse, but all have a common denominator: the instrument which carries them out, according to an Ignatian phrase must be an instrument united to God. It is the Ignatian echo to the Gospel proclaimed today: I am the vine, you are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit (John, 15:5).

He ended his homily with this exhortation: “The Lord has chosen you to go and bear fruit, fruit that lasts. Go, bear fruit confident that ‘all that you ask the Father in my name, He will give you.’ (John, 15:16).” I am confident that many Jesuits will take the Prefect’s exhortation to heart and mind and translate it into their individual and corporate apostolic zeal. I pray that God grant me the grace to join them in this work to which the Society has been called. Again, I thank Michael for his kind expression of prayerful best wishes.    RJA sj