Pope Benedict XVI
In 2008, the Society of Jesus held its 35th General Congregation, at which it accepted the resignation of Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, who was requesting to retire, at 80 years of age and after almost 25 years as superior general. The request had been approved earlier by the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, who had asked Father Kolvenbach to remain in office until the moment when the General Congregation would accept his resignation.
The General Congregation then proceeded to elect the new Father General; and on the first day of voting, the election fell to Father Adolfo Nicolás, of Spanish origin, a missionary in Japan and East Asia all his Jesuit life.
Then the entire group of 217 Jesuits were invited to the Vatican to listen to a talk by the Holy Father and to ask his blessing on the work of the General Congregation and of the entire Society of Jesus.
In that warm, fraternal talk by the Holy Father, he said:
As the Formula of your Institute states, the Society of Jesus was founded chiefly "for the defense and propagation of the faith". At a time when new geographical horizons were being opened, Ignatius' first companions placed themselves at the Pope's disposal "so that he might use them where he judged it would be for God's greater glory and the good souls" (Autobiography, n. 85). They were thus sent to announce the Lord to peoples and cultures that did not know him as yet. They did so with a courage and zeal that still remain as an example and inspiration: the name of St. Francis Xavier is the most famous of all, but how many others could be mentioned! Nowadays the new peoples who do not know the Lord or know him badly, so that they do not recognize him as the Savior, are far away not so much from the geographical point of view as from the cultural one. The obstacles challenging the evangelizers are not so much the seas or the long distances as the frontiers that, due to a mistaken or superficial vision of God and of man, are raised between faith and human knowledge, faith and modern science, faith and the fight for justice.
This is why the Church is in urgent need of people of solid and deep faith, of a serious culture and a genuine human and social sensitivity, of religious priests who devote their lives to stand on those frontiers in order to witness and help to understand that there is in fact a profound harmony between faith and reason, between evangelical spirit, thirst for justice and action for peace. Only thus will it be possible to make the face of the Lord known to so many for whom it remains hidden or unrecognizable. This must therefore be the preferential task of the Society of Jesus. Faithful to its best tradition, it must continue to form its members with great care in science and virtue, not satisfied with mediocrity, because the task of facing and entering into a dialogue with very diverse social and cultural contexts and the different mentalities of today's world is one of the most difficult and demanding. This search of quality and human solidity, spiritual and cultural, must also characterize all the many activities of formation and education of the Jesuits, as it meets the most diverse kinds of persons wherever they are.
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St. Ignatius Loyola first Superior General of the Society of Jesus |
Fr. Adolfo Nicolás |
