The Vatican official in charge of overseeing the activities of Roman Catholic religious orders and congregations spoke to a worldwide meeting of the Society of Jesus, a.k.a. The Jesuits, meeting in Rome on January 7.Cardinal Franc Rodé of Slovenia spoke to the meeting of the Jesuits, who are gathered to elect a new Superior General.
This will be the second time in the history of the storied order of priests and brothers that a new Superior General will be elected while the incumbent is still living. The current leader of the order is the Hans-Peter Kolvenbach who hails from the Netherlands.
The current "black pope" succeeded the Spaniard Pedro Arrupe, who was the first Jesuit Superior General in history to resign. Arrupe, after overseeing reforms of the order following the Second Vatican Council, suffered a stroke in 1981 and resigned in 1983.
While Rodé said he joined his prayers with those of the Jesuits who are voting to elect a new leader, he also used the occasion to direct pointed remarks at the order, which in recent years has been assailed within the Catholic Church for allegedly departing from doctrinal postions of the faith.
Said Rodé, "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."
Founded in 1500s by the Spanish Basque nobleman Iñigo de Loyola - who was to become known as St. Ignatius of Loyola - the Jesuits were long seen as the the most loyal defenders of the Papacy. Indeed, numerous English and Irish Jesuits were executed during the reign of Elizabeth I of England for supposedly undermining the British government and its Established Church.
Referring to the founder of the order, Rodé said "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 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” You once again took up this principle in the motto “In all things love and serve”.
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