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The Jesuit Way of Going Global:Outlines for a Public Presence of the Society of Jesus in a Globalized World

in the Light of Lessons Learned from the Jesuit Refugee Service

---------------------------------------

Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the S.T.L. Degree

of Weston Jesuit School of Theology

By: Daniel Villanueva, SJDirected by: David Hollenbach, SJ

Second Reader: Thomas Massaro, SJ

Cambridge, Massachusetts

May, 2008


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This work is dedicated to the people of Voinjama (Liberia) and

Kakuma (Kenya) in whose company I finally understood the vocation

of the Society and rediscovered my own.


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Preface

Sometimes even brief experiences can create major waves in ones thinking. In

2004 I was in Voinjama, a little town cut out of the jungle in the north of Liberia. I was

there working for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), writing assessments about the state

of the surrounding schools. JRS asked me to gather information to facilitate planning for

school reconstruction and food delivery after 14 years of war. Voinjama had electricity

only three hours per day. Separated from my computer, I had a lot of time to think.

It was my first experience with refugees and I was astonished by the high-quality

contribution JRS was making in the midst of that chaos. Several thoughts swirled around

in my mind: JRSs incredible work in Liberia was barely known outside of JRSs

context. Widespread knowledge of the project could greatly improve the effect of JRSs

work. Moreover, if JRS could use the potentiality of the structures of the Society of Jesus

(Jesuits) as an international institution, the impact of the work would bear a great deal

more fruit. Further, JRS was (and still is) the most Ignatian institution I have ever known.

So many things about it impressed me: the type of work, the way of proceeding, the

radical orientation to mission, the composition of the teams, the flexibility of the

institution, and the overlap between community and mission. Why is the Society not

learning from JRS, which embodies Jesuit principles so well? Today, I still believe that

there a fresh spirit within JRS which could serve to renovate the institutional thinking of

the entire Society.

My experiences in Liberia raised some very deep and persistent questions inside

of me. Finding myself submerged in the deep forest, and far from my experience of the

Society in Spain, I was wondering why the Jesuits are not using our strong institutions

for the service of those refugees. Are refugees not an important part of the Jesuit

mission? Are not Africa and the refugees two of the Jesuit apostolic priorities? For me it

looked like JRS was struggling along quite alone, with little support from the

heavyweight institutions of the Jesuits in the north. It looked like JRS was not part of

the same mission as, for example, the Jesuit schools or universities in Spain. It looked as

if JRS was not part of the Jesuit structure, but a group of renegades working off to the


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side with many good intentions and sound procedures, but without consciousness of the

potentiality that the Society of Jesus could offer worldwide.

I remember growing excited thinking about the possibilities: What if the Jesuits

could get all our institutions to dance together? What if I, while sitting on the stump of

a Liberian tree, could integrate the Society of Jesus as a whole into the best answer to

this local situation? What if I could call into play universities, high schools, writers,

advocacy groups, media, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), parishes, and social

centers from throughout the Jesuit world? Do these varied entities not share the same

Ignatian charism? Do they not have similar roots to their missions? Can we imagine the

strategic potential of the Jesuit network and the weight of its social capital? What could

be more urgent and more Ignatian? These ideas and questions remain alive in me today,

four years removed from the little town of Voinjama.


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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 6

CHAPTER I. ARRUPE AND THE IGNATIAN GLOBAL VISION ........................................................ 91.0 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................... 91.1 THE HYPOTHESIS...................................................................................................................................... 101.2 NEED OF RENEWAL...................................................................................................................................111.3 LINK WITH IGNATIAN GLOBAL VISION ................................................................................................... 12

1.3.1 Trinitarian Foundation ................................................................................................................... 131.3.2 Sense of Apostolic Mission .............................................................................................................141.3.3 Ideal of Mobility .............................................................................................................................. 151.3.4 Intrinsic Availability........................................................................................................................ 161.3.5 Union of Hearts ...............................................................................................................................17

1.4 THE JESUIT POTENTIALITY ...................................................................................................................... 191.5 THE FOUNDATIONAL MOMENT ................................................................................................................22

1.5.1 A Challenge to the Society ..............................................................................................................221.5.2 An Intentional New Structure ......................................................................................................... 25

1.6 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 26

CHAPTER II. GLOBALIZATION AND JESUIT MISSION .................................................................. 29

2.0 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................... 292.1 JESUITS & SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT AFTER VATICAN II ...........................................................................30

2.1.1 Voluntary disestablishment .............................................................................................................312.1.2 A New Public & Prophetic Church ................................................................................................ 322.1.3 Justice and the Society of Jesus ...................................................................................................... 33

2.2 GLOBAL MISSION FOR GLOBAL TIMES ................................................................................................... 362.2.1 Globaliza tion and Religion .............................................................................................................372.2.2 The Churchs Answer to Globalization ..........................................................................................402.2.3 Mission in a Global Age.................................................................................................................. 42

2.2.4 Globalization and Jesuit Mission ................................................................................................... 452.3 JESUIT WAYS OF AGENCY ......................................................................................................................... 47

2.3.1 Evolution of the Social Apostolate ................................................................................................. 482.3.2 The Era of the Networks.................................................................................................................. 50

2.4 JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE AND JESUIT MISSION..................................................................................... 522.5 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 56

CHAPTER III. JRS AS MODEL FOR JESUIT TRANSNATIONALITY ............................................ 58

3.0 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................... 583.1 A FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSNATIONAL RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS......................................................... 583.2 JRS AS A MODEL FOR JESUIT TRANSNATIONALITY ............................................................................... 62

3.3.1 JRS Institutional development ........................................................................................................ 633.3.2 JRS Dilemmas..................................................................................................................................68

3.3.3 Implications ..................................................................................................................................... 753.3.4 JRS Jesuit Practices ........................................................................................................................ 783.4 TOWARDS A JESUITNETWORKING: COMPARISON JRS-AJAN .............................................................. 82

3.4.1 Vision and Structure........................................................................................................................ 833.4.2 Comparison JRS-AJAN ................................................................................................................... 843.4.4 Characteristics of a Jesuit Networked Institution .........................................................................86

3.5. OUTCOMES: JESUIT TRANSNATIONAL POTENTIALITIES ........................................................................883.6 CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................................................... 93


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CHAPTER IV. JESUIT MISSION TRANSNATIONAL NETWORK................................................... 95

4.0 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................... 954.1 JESUIT TRANSNATIONAL TENDENCIES .................................................................................................... 964.2 TOWARDS A REAL GLOBAL MISSION ...................................................................................................... 99

4.2.1 Global Apostolic Preferences .......................................................................................................1004.2.2 Synergic Networking ..................................................................................................................... 102

4.2.3 New Structures for a Universal Mission ......................................................................................1054.2.4 Lessons Learned ............................................................................................................................107

4.3 JESUIT MISSION TRANSNATIONALNETWORK......................................................................................1094.3.1 The Proposal ..................................................................................................................................1094.3.2 The Focus ....................................................................................................................................... 1124.3.3 The Examples.................................................................................................................................114

4.4 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................... 118

CHAPTER V. FINAL CONCLUSIONS..................................................................................................... 120

BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................................... 126

A. SOCIETY OF JESUS ....................................................................................................................................126B. GLOBALIZATION AND RELIGION..............................................................................................................128C. TRANSNATIONALITY ANDNETWORKS .................................................................................................... 129D. JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE........................................................................................................................ 130E. OTHERS .....................................................................................................................................................132


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Introduction

On February 21st, 2008 Benedict XVI reminded the Society of Jesus of its

vocation to work on the frontiers. Recalling the missionary spirit which has animated

Jesuits through the centuries, from the travels of St. Francis Xavier to the establishment

of the Paraguay Reductions, the Pope urged the Society to reach the geographical and

spiritual places where others do not reach or find it difficult to reach.1As

encouragement to renew the Jesuit mission, Benedict XVI explicitly talked about the

immense value of the Jesuit Refugee Service as one of the latest prophetic intuitions of

Arrupe. This thesis is an attempt to understand why JRS is a prophetic intuition and in

what sense it can be a model for Jesuit apostolic initiatives.

In the preface, talking about my first experience of working with JRS, I recall my

strong sense of admiration for the most Ignatian institution I had ever encountered. I also

remember my strong sense of frustration stemming from the lack of synergies among

JRS and other large Jesuit institutions, synergies potentially able to multiply the effect of

JRSs work through small but meaningful investments. Both dimensions, the Ignatian

attraction of JRS and the potential for synergies within the Jesuit network, are at the

foundation of my decision to write this thesis.

Since then I have been reading that many Jesuits point to JRS as a product of the

remarkable intuition of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ (the Superior General of the Society of

Jesus from 1965 to 1981) and a provocative way of rethinking the Jesuit apostolic answer

in modern times. But I did not find any systematic approach to this new type of

organizational structure that is different from the usual Jesuit way, a structure in which

resides a potential model to re-imagine a truly global Jesuit mission. The originality of

this research is its focus on the structural dimensions of JRS and JRSs novelty within

the body of the Society of Jesus.

This creative approach displays certain pitfalls, such as the lack of previousmodels or elaborated bibliography. The main sources of information have been the

official documents of the last four General Congregations of the Society, together with

documentation from the Social Justice Secretariat, and JRS documents. The JRSs

1Benedict XVI, Address to the 35thGeneral Congregation of the Society of Jesus, 21 February

2008.


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documents were either published or photocopied during my research in the central JRS

archives in Rome. JRSs short history and its dynamic nature made difficult and almost

impertinent every attempt at systematization. But the advantage has been the

possibility of interviewing a large number of protagonists of this interesting piece of

history of the Society of Jesus. Therefore, one of the most interesting sources of data for

my research has been the direct words (or e-mails) of many individuals who have had

first-hand involvement in JRSs history. My previous experience with JRS facilitated

most of the contacts, but especially providential in this sense was the opportunity to work

as a communication officer for the 35thGeneral Congregation (GC 35), facilitating two

months of opportunities to talk and interchange information with key people regarding

the history of JRS, the Social Apostolate, and other related institutions.

These pages are an experiment written from my admiration for Arrupe and his

tremendous impact on the Society, along with my devotion to JRS and its tremendous

impact in my own life. I have gathered here much information regarding the foundation

of JRS and Arrupes insights of that moment, and the evolution of JRS over its twenty-

eight years through the eyes of many of the institutional protagonists. I have

researched the early Society looking for what I have called the Ignatian global vision,

embodied by Arrupe 450 years later, and the process of renewal the Society has been

passing through since this prophetic Superior General. I have consulted literature about

Globalization and religion, trying to understand how JRS can be seen as an apostolic

body and how it fits into the public mission of the Society. I have used bibliography from

transnational religious institutions looking for a framework to understand the possibilities

of a structure like JRS, and I have recalled my background as a Computer Science

Engineer and bibliography on networks to typify and analyze in general terms different

transnational structures. Finally, in what I think is a confirmation of the reliable direction

of these insights, I have intensively referred to the documents produced by the recently

concluded GC 35, still in their draft versions at the moment of printing these pages.2

2The final version of the decrees is not yet available at the moment of finishing this thesis [May

2008]. The official versions are still awaiting corrections of style and translation adjustments. I have tried

to avoid quoting directly the decrees except in the entirely necessary cases. The decrees on Governance

and Mission have been key sources, especially for the last chapter.


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But this thesis is mainly about the need for structures to embody the Jesuit

vocation towards the global, motivated by the example of a small institution that

understood that challenge. Many of the insights are based on my own sense of being

Jesuit and my own experience of JRS and the universal Society. This is why I have given

preference to the exposition of the whole argument rather than the foundation of every

minor step. My intention has not been to develop a theory or engage in a theological

argument, but to point toward a direction, to be suggestive and provocative about a

horizon that I think is embedded in the Arrupe intuition of JRS.

I cannot finish this introduction without expressing my gratitude to all the people

who have helped me with the research or with the methodological difficulties in the

midst of a field without landmarks. I would like to name the people of JRS and the Social

Apostolate, specially: Alberto Plaza, Dieter Scholz, Elas Lpez, Fernando Franco,

Giuseppe Riggio, Jojo Fung, Josep Sugraes, Lluis Magri, Mark Harrington, Mark

Raper, Michael Campbell Johnston, Michael Czerny, Peter Balleis, and Uta Sievers. I am

also grateful to my Jesuit Provincial, Joaqun Barrero, whose faith in me yielded this

opportunity to study. There are also people who gave part of their precious time for

helping in the research or just helping me to contextualize the work. In this sense I have

to thank especially Bill Murphy, Brad Schaeffer, Cristbal Fones, Gasper Lo Biondo,

Jos Garca de Castro, Jose Ignacio Garca, Miguel Gonzlez, Pablo Veiga, Peter Bisson,

and the whole Arrupe House community for helping me with my constant and untimely

proofreading requests. Finally I am most grateful to Thomas Massaro and David

Hollenbach for their comments, orientations, and especially their support and

encouragement, even when the destination of this work was unclear.


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Chapter I. Arrupe and the Ignatian Global Vision

1.0 Introduction

Pedro Arrupe, whose 100thanniversary we celebrated recently, was one of the

most influential General Superiors in the history of the Society of Jesus. Biographers and

historians recall him as the one who refounded the Society upon the bold spirit that

followed Vatican II.3Among his main contributions is the transformation of Ignatian

spirituality in the midst of a general return to the sources4and the renewal of the sense

of mission that placed the Jesuits back on the frontier of the Church.

The purpose here is not to write a biography or to develop systematically

Arrupes theological positions. Rather, it is to show how Arrupe was embodying theroots of the Ignatian global vocation when he founded the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)

as a new international body within the Society. To accomplish this, I will develop a

twofold strategy: (a) To follow the mind of Arrupe around 1980 by analyzing his letters,5

interviews, and some conversations with first-hand witnesses; and (b) to go back to the

origins of the Society of Jesus in search for traces of the Ignatian global mindset.

The intention of this research is to prove my hypothesis: At the foundation of the

Jesuit Refugee Service is Arrupes intention to renew the original dynamism and

3He is credited with refounding the Jesuit Order during his generalate, from 1965 to 1983, in the

wake of profound social changes during the 1960s. Mark Raper, JRS and The Ignatian Tradition, inDanielle Vella (Ed),Everybodys Challenge: Essential Documents of Jesuit Refugee Service 1980-2000,

(Rome: JRS, 2000), 111. Arrupe was known almost unanimously as the prophet of the post-Vatican

Council. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Interview by Ignacio Arregui during Arrupes 100th

anniversary;

available from http://www.jesuitas.es/media/Archivos/Pdf/Entrevista%20al%20P%20General.pdf;

Internet; Accessed 19 December 2007.4The Vatican II document on religious life, Perfectae Caritatis, urged religious to return to the

sources to find new life and vitality. In the Society of Jesus this urgency of renewal is stated in GC31,

which tried to renew the Society based on the urgings of the II Vatican council.5For my research I am using several texts from Arrupe, but I am especially focused on a selection

of letters gathered by the Centro de Espiritualidad of the Argentinean province of the Society of Jesus. In

July 1979, Arrupe encouraged a group of Latin American Jesuits to put together the letters about the

integration of action and the spiritual life, availability, the intellectual apostolate, one called Our Answerto the Challenge, and the conference titled Our Way of Proceeding. Then Arrupe stated to those Jesuits

that in these writings "you have what the Society want from you. This is the Society of Jesus." Pedro

Arrupe, Cartas del Padre Arrupe, (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Centro de Espiritualidad de la Provincia

Argentina de la Compaa de Jess, 1980) 5. This legacy is perfect for my research as it contains Arrupe's

emphases after GC32, especially close to the time of the foundation of JRS.


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universality of the mission of the Society of Jesus. This will allow me, in further

developments, to use it as a model for a Jesuit apostolic answer to global challenges.

1.1 The Hypothesis

The most obvious and primary parallel between the institution of JRS and the

original Society of Jesus is that both are based on the works of mercy.6The first

companions practiced them in Rome and the inclusion of this type of mission appears in

the criteria for the Formula of the Institute. Without denying this view, which is

absolutely correct, my approach emphasizes a different one. I see JRS not only as a work

of mercy but specifically as a new global apostolic response on the part of the whole

Society, imbued with a new understanding of mission and a new structural dimensions,

which, as I try to demonstrate here, is Arrupes inheritance from the universal and global

vision of Ignatius and the first companions.

That is to say, my position is that Don Pedro did not choose to answer to the

refugee problem because of its similarity with the original work of the early Society, or

simply to strengthen the social commitment of the Jesuits, but because of the complex

and global dimension of the problem and the suitability of our infrastructure and vision

to offer a global and qualified response to that problem. I will contend, further on, that

JRS is a current model for other Jesuit public presences. This is not because of the

specificity of the work with refugees, but because of the intentionality of JRSs structure

and its way of proceeding that plans to be a Jesuit apostolic answer for our globalized

times.

When he founded JRS, Arrupe was not only starting a new apostolic structure in

the Society of Jesus, but he was also inaugurating a new way of answering the signs of

the times; one more appropriate, in accord with the needs of the current era, and also

with the infrastructure and the vocation of the Jesuits. Founding this new structure,

Arrupe was seeking to renew the passion of the Jesuit apostolic mission. He was trying to

assure that contact with refugees would bring the entire Society of Jesus to the necessary

6Kevin OBrien has authored an STL thesis on this idea of the JRS as a modern model of the

works of mercy, what he calls ministries of consolation. Kevin OBrien, Consolation in Action: The

Jesuit Refugee Service and the Ministry of Accompaniment. in Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits,37/4,

winter, 2005.


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conversion towards the faith that does justice. But in a particular way, this charismatic

Father General was trying to embody, towards the end of the twentieth century, the

global vision that a small group of companions had started almost four hundred and fifty

years before.

1.2 Need of renewal

Arrupe was so deeply rooted in the Ignatian spirituality, and his familiarity with

Ignatius and the foundational insights was extraordinarily strong. Maybe this was

because of the missionary work that pushed Arrupe to adapt his message to the Japanese

context, his time as novice master with the task of transferring the core of the Jesuit

spirituality to the newcomers, or all the cultural changes that he had to pass through in

his own personal history. The fact is that during his whole life of ministry, Arrupe was

concerned with the correct interpretation of Ignatian charisms7, and that sense of fidelity

to our vocation is present in most of his letters and decisions.8

It is no secret that Arrupe was seriously concerned about the situation of the

Society of Jesus even before he became General.9As provincial of Japan, he insisted on

his concern about the limit situation10

of the Society. The General Congregation that

elected him was clear about the need for revitalizating the mission of the Society11

and

the following one, known as the Arrupe congregation, could be understood as an

answer to this situation.12

His letters as general are full of references to the urgency of

7I was always very concerned that the true charisms of St. Ignatius be correctly interpreted.

Pedro Arrupe, One Jesuits Spiritual Journey, (St Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1986) 23.8Fidelity to our vocation does not allow us to step back. Arrupe, Cartas, 70. We are rooted in

our specific vocation. Ibid, 60. Criterion of our founder are safe and precious. Ibid, 74.9 Arrupe is worried about signs of real deterioration in both areas [spiritual life and apostolate]

and of a fruitless split between them. Pedro Arrupe,A Challenge to Religious Life Today,(St. Louis:

Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1979),193.10Arrupe, Spiritual Journey, 23.11

GC 31, D 1, n.6. See also n.7. In order that our Society may more aptly fulfill in this new age

its mission under the Roman Pontiff, the GC31 has striven with all its power so to promote a renewal that

those things may be removed from our body which could constrict its life and hinder it from fully attainingits end, and that in this way its internal dynamic freedom may be made strong and vigorous, and ready for

every form of the service of God.12

GC32 presented, following Arrupe, the utopia of the apostolic mission. Arrupe, Cartas, 13. He

has no doubt affirming that the answer of the Society to todays challenges is simply the progressive

execution of the GC32 decrees. Arrupe, Cartas, 70.


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conversion, change, and renewal of the Jesuits.13

He was explicit about the deteriorating

situation of both the spiritual and apostolic aspects of the Jesuits. Only the praxis of our

life will be the measure of our sincerity with Gods will.14

One of his obsessions, probably enhanced by the criticisms he received from within

the Jesuits, was to differentiate the core of the Ignatian legacy from the secondary and

rescindable details, in order to let the Spirit narrow down the specificity of the Jesuit

contribution to the modern world without being overly fixed and closed on precise

stances.15

He was trying to open the traditional practices to the new required apostolic

creativity.16It is in this sense that Vatican IIs claim for renovation of the charisms17fit

perfectly with Arrupes sense of a need for renewal. He was convinced that in their

circumstances they could be more Ignatian than Ignatius himself.18

His references to

the early society and Ignatius insights are a commonplace in his letters and exhortations.

1.3 Link with Ignatian Global Vision

It was not until the mid 80s that references to the globalization processes and

worldwide dynamics of all types started.This is why, even while reference to the concept

of universality is almost constant in Arrupes documents, I have found no use of the

word global and just a few references pointing to the concept of globality.19

Not until

GC34 does this concept, and the more explicit need of putting in practice the global

vision of Ignatius, become prevalent.20

But even before 1975 we find frequent reference

to Arrupes vision of the international and universal aspects of our vocation. This section

demonstrates how Arrupe is using his Ignatian inheritance when focusing on the

universality of our vocation and the need for rethinking the modes of Jesuit apostolic

13There is need of a more wide and deep application of the GC32 recommendations for our

personal conversion and the conversion of our apostolic activity. Arrupe, Cartas, 73. The two last

congregations [31 and 32] have motivated the renewal, actualization, and adptation of the Society in the

light of Vatican II. Arrupe, Cartas, 103.14

Arrupe, Cartas, 12.15We need to question if what we are doing is a priority or whether we should stop doing it to

engage in other ministries. Arrupe, Cartas, 72.16

Ibid, 12.17

Perfectae Caritatis 2.18

Arrupe, Spiritual Journey, 90.19

He talks about the world as a global village emphasizing the interconnectedness of the time.

Arrupe, Cartas, 77. He also compares the current situation of cultural revolution with the times of

discovery when Ignatius started the Society. Ibid, 56.20GC34 expressed clearly the need of practicing Ignatian universalism. GC 34, D 21, n.2.


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presence. When Ignatius founded the Society, his global vision was key to the shaping of

a new religious institution with a worldwide vision of universal engagement. Most of the

initial features of the Society had, at least in part, this intention. In the following pages I

will trace Arrupes intuitions in five loci in which I think the Ignatian global vision

resides with special strength: (1) the Trinitarian foundation; (2) the Jesuit sense of

apostolic mission; (3) the intrinsic availability of the Society; (4) the ideal of worldwide

mobility; and (5) the need for union of hearts. These are five key points of Ignatius

global vision that, as I will demonstrate, Arrupe renewed and revitalized as part of his

universalizing tendency.

1.3.1 Trinitarian Foundation

Arrupe is constantly going back to the sources in search of what he called thesecret of St. Ignatius.21As part of this thread to the sources he wrote an entire letter

about the Trinitarian inspiration of the Ignatian charism,22and he pushed the Society to

be inspired by the Ignatian vision that is evangelical and Trinitarian in its scope,

embracing the whole world, envisaging the role [the] Society would play in it.23

The

origin of the missionary vocation of the Society lies in this Trinitarian dialogue.24

That is

to say that Arrupe is using precisely the Trinitarian intuition of Ignatius as the source of

inspiration to discern the role of the Society in the world: Sent by the Father to the whole

word, with the Son, in a mission of redemption, helped by the constant presence of a

discernible Spirit. This intuition, best expressed in the contemplation on the Incarnation25

in the Spiritual Exercises, is precisely the origin of the universality of Ignatius vision.26

This is the theological framework to understand the universal vision, to explain what

21Pedro Arrupe,A Planet to Heal(Rome: International Center for Jesuit Education, 1977), 309.22

Kevin Burke (Ed),Pedro Arrupe, Essential Writings (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2004), 150.23Pedro Arrupe,A Planet to Heal, 309.24

Pedro Arrupe, Challenge to Religious Life Today,59-60.25

The contemplation of the Incarnation is the composition of place to rethink the mission. The

most important decrees about the mission in the last congregations (GC 32, D4 : Our Mission Today andGC 34, D2: Servants of Christ Mission.) used this contemplation as a framework to understand the

mission of the Society.26

The international character of our mission finds its genesis in the Trinitarian vision of

Ignatius GC 34, D 21, n.1. Barry also describes Ignatian spirituality as Trinitarian. William A. Barry and

Robert G. Doherty, Contemplatives in Action, The Jesuit Way(New York: Paulist Press, 2002), 10.


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moves Ignatius to embrace the entirety of humankind27

and to understand the apostolic

mission as participation in the Sons mission.

1.3.2 Sense of Apostolic Mission

John OMalley has studied in depth how the Jesuits were one of the groups that

first used the concept of mission in the apostolic sense, contrary to the usual tendency in

the Middle Ages to use it to refer to the missions of the Trinity.28

Linked with the already

pointed Trinitarian intuition, the deep sense of being sent with the Son, and thus the

strong identity rooted on this idea of apostolic mission, was the most original feature of

the early Society.29

The first Jesuits, in the midst of a Renaissance return to the New

Testament and early Christianity, were impregnated by a sense of apostolicity modeled

upon the first disciples and St. Paul.30

This self-image of men on mission is basic tounderstanding the global shaping of the early Society of Jesus.

Back to our era, the rediscovery of the centrality of mission in Jesuit identity is

clearly linked with Arrupe and Arrupes congregation. GC32 restated the utopian

elements of the apostolic mission.31

Don Pedro stated clearly that the Jesuits life is

based on mission, on being sent,32

and something is not working if a Jesuit is not

radically available to be sent.33

After GC32, he was sending a constant message to his

fellows: Availability to the mission is at the heart of Jesuit identity, and therefore the

Society of Jesus is essentially a body on mission. This centrality of mission is not just an

inspiring motto, but it has serious structural consequences in the ideals of mobility,

availability, and the needs of unity in an apostolic body ad dispersionem.

27The Trinitarian attraction in Ignatius devotion tends to embrace the whole of humankind.

Peter H. Kolvenbach, The Road from La Storta, (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Resources, 2000), 23-24 cited

in Barry, Op.Cit.77.28John W. OMalley, Mission and the Early Jesuits, in John W. OMalley [et al.], Ignatian

spirituality and mission / The Way supplement, 1994/79 (London: The Way Publications, 1994), 3.29

The more effective and encompassing pastoral orientation was what particularly distinguishedthe Jesuit way from the way of the older orders, whether monastic or mendicant John W. OMalley, Los

Primeros Jesuitas (Bilbao: Mensajero-Sal Terrae,1993), 450. The sense of being sent on mission is not

only present in the contemplation of the incarnation, but also in other images used in the Spiritual

Exercises like the contemplation of the Kingdom, or the Two Standards. It was stated in an institutionalway in part VII of the Constitutions.

30OMalley, Mission and the Early Jesuits, 5.

31Arrupe, Cartas,13.

32Arrupe,A Challenge to Religious Life Today, 59.33Arrupe, Cartas,51.


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1.3.3 Ideal of Mobility

In his first address to the 31stGeneral Congregation, shortly after being elected

General, Arrupe had already developed a first approach to worldwide processes and the

changed landscape in which the Society of Jesus should rethink itself.34

He had no doubt

about the need for responding to global problems with universal answers,35

and the

question was how the Jesuits were adapting their structures and ministries to the new

times. In this sense Arrupe was trying to recover the initial mobility of the first

companions, convinced of the inconvenience of the excessive stability36

of most of the

Jesuit ministries of his time. Whenever he wanted to stress the essentials of Jesuit

identity, availability and mobility were the first highlighted features.37

In the midst of

this renewal enterprise, Arrupe looked back to Jernimo Nadal, the herald of Ignatian

thought,38and recalled his formulations about the image of journeying, mobility, and

the concept of the total availability of the Jesuit for mission.

The Constitutions are clear about the Jesuit vocation: to travel through the world

and live in any part of it whatsoever, for the greater service of God and help of souls.39

But this clarity was not enough for the early Society, and Ignatius sent Nadal40

to travel

everywhere explaining the document to the recently born Jesuit communities, and

interpreting the founding text to a Society of Jesus that was in that moment an order

without tradition.41

The meaning of the apostolic mobility of the Society of Jesus is

clear when he adds the journey as a type of Jesuit residence, and stressed that by

34Ibid, 77.

35Why Interprovincial and International Collaboration? in Pedro Arrupe, Other Apostolates

Today (St Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1986) 185-197.36Arrupe, Cartas, 79.37Ibid, 111. It is also interesting that in the same direction, when Kolvenbach talks about the JRS

and its Jesuit inheritance, he understands that the key qualities of our tradition are universality, mobility,and apostolic availability. Danielle Vella (Ed),Everybodys Challenge: Essential Documents of Jesuit

Refugee Service 1980-2000 (Rome: JRS International, 2000)55.38

Arrupe, Cartas, 121.39

Constitutions [304].40

In 1522 Nadal was sent by Ignatius to promulgate and explain the recently completed

Constitutions to Jesuit communities in Sicily and then in Spain and Portugal. OMalley, Mission and the

Early Jesuits, 5.41John W. OMalley. To Travel to Any Part of the World in Studies in the Spirituality of

Jesuits, 16/2, (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1984), 3.


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means of it the whole world becomes our house.42

The link among the missions, their

worldwide scope, and the ideal of mobility, is clear: journeying for the greater utility of

the ministries is the dwelling place of the Jesuits because there are missions43

that are

for the whole world.44

That is to say that the global scope of the Jesuit mission was

settled since the very beginning of their history. Nadal insists on emphasizing the idea of

whole world, everywhere, whatever place, throughout the earth, universal

mission as the extent of their ministries.45The Jesuit mission is framed on the most

ample place and reaches as far as the globe itself.46

1.3.4 Intrinsic Availability

The Jesuit commitment to ministry any place in the world for Gods greater service

has a structural expression in the fourth vow, a unique characteristic of the Society of

Jesus. This frequently misunderstood47

link with the Pontiff of Rome is not just an

expression of loyalty to the Pope, but an expression of dedication to a worldwide and

unconditioned ministry.48There is no way of talking about universal mission and the

Ignatian global vision without referring to this direct link to the bishop of the universal

Church,49

because it is this aspect of the Popes ministry, its universality and global

scope, that the Jesuits want to share through this special vow.50

Ignatius himself clarified this in Part V of the Constitutions when he said: theentire purpose of this fourth vow of obedience to the pope was and is with regard to the

42It must be noted that in the Society there are different kinds of houses or dwellings. These are:

the house of probation, the college, the professed house, and the journey and by this last the whole world

becomes our house.Epistolae et Monumenta P. Hieronmi Nadal, V, 54, cited in OMalley, To Travel, 6.43OMalley insists everywhere that for the first companions missions and journeying for ministry

and pilgrimage were synonymous. John W. OMalley, Five Missions of the Jesuit Charism, in Studies in

the Spirituality of Jesuits, Winter 2006 (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Resources, 2006), 8.44Which are for the whole world, which is our house. Wherever there is need or greater utility

for our ministries, there is our house.44

Epistolae et Monumenta P. Hieronmi Nadal, V, 469-470, cited inOMalley, To Travel, 6.

45Words extracted from Nadal quotations in OMalley, To Travel, 8.

46Epistolae et Monumenta P. Hieronymi Nadal (MonNad) V, 773-774 cited in OMalley, To

Travel, 8.47

OMalley insists that seldom has something so central to an orders identity been so badly

misunderstood. OMalley, Five Missions, 7.48

OMalley, To Travel, 9.49MonNad, V, 755 cited in OMalley, To Travel, 9.50Ibid


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missions.51

This is a vow to God, and it does not refer to the Pope but to the missions.52

It can be said that this is a missionary vow, a vow of mobility,53

to travel for the sake of

the ministry, a vow of readiness to travel anywhere in the world searching the greater

glory of God and help for souls.54

If there were any doubt, Nadal gave us the

interpretation linked with his already explained idea of the journey as the Jesuit dwelling

place, saying specifically that to this end looks our vow that is made to the supreme

pontiff, which specifically concerns mission55

Arrupe had no doubt about giving availability its importance in the whole

Ignatian system. He masterly combined the idea of the Jesuit as the available56one

with the parallel need for discernment, and the emphasis on creativity and openness to

the Spirit on the part of the local superior.57

For Don Pedro it is the radical availability,

the readiness to obey, that generates a body on mission, an apostolic tool rooted in its

availability to Christ and his Vicar.58

This is why it is important when Arrupe

emphasizes the fourth vow as a principle and foundation of the Society, and a condition

of its structure.59

When he says that this special link with the Pope conditions the

structure of the Society, he is again emphasizing the universality and global scope of our

mission, and the consequent need of a corporate union. The recently concluded 35th

General Congregation confirmed how through the fourth vow the Jesuits achieve

greater availability to the divine will and offer the Church better service.60

1.3.5 Union of Hearts

Part of the Ignatian intention regarding the fourth vow is also to keep the apostolic

51Constitutions [529].52OMalley,Los Primeros Jesuitas, 365.53Barry also is clear on the interpretation of this vow as about mission and mobility. Barry,

Op.Cit.53.54

Constitutions [605].55MonNad V, 195-196 cited in OMalley, To Travel, 7.56


For an interesting relation between availability and discernment see Arrupe, Cartas, 55.58

GC 32, D 2, 30-32.59

Arrupe, Spiritual Journey, 92.

Ignatius said beginning and principal foundation of the society. OMalley, The First Jesuits,

298-301. There is no doubt about the centrality of this specific feature of the Jesuits, our beginning and

first foundation. Declarationes circa missiones (1544-45), ConsMHSJ, I, 162 (quoted in GC 31, D 1, 4.)60GC 35, Draft of the Decree on Obedience, 30.


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group together under one head and one universal mission.61

One of the most difficult

tasks of the first Society was to maintain the unity in dispersion and build up ties to bind

together a disperse body, the natural tendency of which was to isolate and split in its

remotely spread parts. Since the beginning there was a concern about uniting the

dispersed members with their head and among themselves.62

The union was fostered

through personal relationships, meetings and visits, but the main tool to reinforce the

unity was what Ignatius called the unity of minds and hearts,63a unity based on love

for one another; a mystic dimension of the Society capable of binding together their

members through prayer, obedience, and frequent communications.

A rapidly growing Society of Jesus needed organizational tools for a remote

leadership to govern a dispersed international body, to preserve the union of hearts and to

nourish the identity of the new institute. Ignatius wrote an incredible number of letters,64

most of them addressed to Jesuits talking about ordinary issues of governance and the

life of the Society.65

The correspondence with Rome was in service to the building of the

universal body of the Society,66

and that is the value of the letters: an informational

management system to transmit ideas, foster values, communicate insights, channel

obedience, assign missions, and solve problems.67

61This union is produced in great part by the bond of obedience. Constitutions [659]. They areto that end [the goal of the Society: to procure the salvation and perfection of all human being] bound by

that fourth vow to the Supreme Pontiff. MonNad V, 773-774 cited in OMalley, To Travel, 8. It is

through this vow that the Society participates in the universal mission of the Church and that the

universality of its mission, carried out through a wide range of ministries in the service of local churches, is

guaranteed. GC 35, Draft of the Decree on Obedience, 31.62

Constitutions [655].63

The first chapter of part VIII of the Constitutions is all about how to foster this union of

hearts. Constitutions [655-676].64Compared with other collections of letters of the XVI thcentury, his letters and instructions

during the last eight years of his life are double in number the ones that Luther wrote in a period of 26

years. Dominique Bertrand,La Poltica de San Ignacio de Loyola(Santander: Mensajero-Sal Terrae,

2003), 42-45.65

From the 6,815 letters signed by Ignatius, 5,301 were addressed to Jesuits, mostly superiors.When the addressee is not a Jesuit, usually it is directed to influential people and multipliers of

relationships. Ibid,45-49.66

Ibid, 87.67

An important piece of this strategy is Juan Alfonso Polanco, who started working in the Romeoffices of the Society in 1548 and changed the artisan system of correspondence into an efficient system of

documentation. He is the one who worked on a set of strict rules (Reglas que deben de observar cuando

escriban los de la compaa dispersos fuera de Roma) that imposed a rigid methodology that kept a copy

or summary of every communication and transformed the Rome curia into a central node of an efficient

informational network. It is important to remark that this communicational system meant a competent


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Arrupes first call as a General was to plan on a more universal level, to think

about expanding the scale of apostolic projects, to look beyond merely local works and

to be open to the universality and availability proper to the Society of Jesus.68

He is

trying to avoid the isolation of the provinces as closed compartments.69

He was

determined to open up the Jesuit structure to allow concerted action at the highest level.

He was convinced that our potentiality lies in the unity of the mission, of corporate

apostolic plans coordinated at universal, provincial, and local levels.70For him, the key

step for the Society of Jesus was to proceed in an organic mode, and for this he had to

fight against the boundaries that sometimes isolate provinces and limit enterprises of

this kind.71This tension toward unity can be tracked in his emphasis on the vital link

between the 4th

and 11thdecree of the 32

ndCongregation.

72The mission is central to the

Society of Jesus but should not cause the Jesuits to deviate from their spirit. For this it

should be in balance with the union of hearts, the spiritual life, a sense of community and

obedience, and a spirit of availability.

1.4 The Jesuit Potentiality

The previous section demonstrates how some of the most important of Arrupes

insights were rooted in what I have called the Ignatian global vision, and how he was

trying to renew the internal dynamic freedom73

of the Jesuits by implementing the

consequences of the universalistic tendency of the first Society of Jesus. Arrupe insisted

again and again on the need for a renewal of the missionary identity of a Jesuit, as

delegation of responsibility and a clear decision-making protocol. The issues were solved at the minimum

required level of authority. Only the truly important problems reached the desk of Ignatius. Ibid, 51-56.

In Part VII of the Constitutions (especially on number [673]) we can read about what helps the

union of souls, and the interchange of letters is specifically indicated as a way of edifying and consoling

from one part of the Society to another. Ibid, 64. The constitutions themselves stated the need forcommunication of the body with the members, and as a mean to develop this strategy. That is why the

General should live in Rome, and the provincials in the respective parts. Constitutions [688].68


Ibid, 146.70

Ibid, 89.71

From his address after the election at the GC 31. In Arrupe, Spiritual Journey, 24-26.72

The 4th

decree is Our Mission Today, and the 11th

decree is The Union of Minds and

Hearts. Arrupe, Cartas, 92.73GC 31, D 1, n.7.


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someone who is sent, available, and ready to go wherever the apostolic criteria

indicates.74

Jesuits, for Arrupe, are individuals rooted in the love for Christ advanced in a

radical availability for the mission framed in a deep sense of belonging to an apostolic

body.75

He was trying to be coherent with this insight not only at the personal but also

the institutional level. He urged the Jesuits to do more, not quantitatively, but in the sense

of the Ignatian Magis. In his vision there was no place for immobility or fixed ministries

but for a creative, dynamic, risky, and flexible apostolic commitment.76

The challenge,

for Don Pedro, is to follow a lively and fecund fidelity to the original vocation.

I have already expressed his concerns about the lack of unity and mobility of the

Society, especially in its institutions.77

At a structural level, the Society needed to recover

its sense of a flexible, adaptable, agile, and ready apostolic body.78As Ignatius did,79he

74For reasons of space I am not developing here the interesting point about the impact of the

school ministry on the original Society. There are many authors who defend that the growth of the

organization and the establishment of big institutions pushed many Jesuits to lose this initial geographical

mobility and apostolic availability. OMalley is quite strong on this, affirming that the decision to foundthe schools was one of the key strategic decisions that most shaped the early Society. To say that the early

Society, as I am trying to defend here, is changed after 1548 with the foundation of the first school at

Messina, is a common argument against the use of the origins to emphasize Jesuit mobility and

availability. The question here is: how much did it compromise mobility and flexibility? And especially for

my research: how much is this a different stage in the Society of Jesus, a development of the Charism

supported by the founder himself, a step forward that conflicted somehow with the image of itinerantdisciples ready to advance towards the greater glory of God?

Even though with the foundation of the schools the old Society of Jesus definitely had an impact

on its initial mobility, I am with Peter Balleis saying that the JRS has regained this mobility in the Society,

that the Jesuit Institute through JRS is regaining some of the mobility which is traditionally so

characteristic of Jesuits, and that Arrupe was trying to renew this insight when he called Jesuits to becomeavailable and mobile for the refugees. Peter Balleis, The Specific Jesuit Identity of JRS, in Vella,

Everybodys Challenge,105.

About the effect of the schools on the society see:

OMalley,Los Primeros Jesuitas,295-298.

OMalley, Five Missions, 23.75When he listed his idea ofsensus societatis , the essence of being Jesuit, most of the attributes

pointed towards this direction: availability, universality, sense of body, sense of discernment, sense of

minimal society, and love for the Church. Arrupe, Cartas, 151.76There is a conflict between the universality of our constitutions and our hierarchical

government on one side, and the stability that characterizes most our ministry. Arrupe, Cartas, 77-78.

Years later Kolvenbach still remarked upon the fairly frequent lack of apostolic availability in the

Society of Jesus. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Review of the JRS to the whole Society, in Vella, EverybodysChallenge, 55.

77The lack of mobility is especially strong in the institutions. Arrupe, Cartas, 72.

78Arrupe talked not only about individual availability, but also as a universal body. This implies a

common search for the will of God in a context of discernment. Arrupe, Cartas, 55. Among his last

recommendations to a JRS team, the day before his stroke, it is the idea of communal discernment and


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was envisioning a kind of task force whose scope is the whole world, bound by a deep

union of hearts, and linked to the heart of the Church through the fourth vow. That makes

Jesuits available, universal, and truly Church wherever they are sent. All of them would

proceed, like pieces of the same puzzle, working in a universal task that requires a strong

unity.80

This sense of corpus universale societatisis not strange to Arrupe who is clear

about the international nature of the Jesuit vocation and the consequent concern for the

universal good of the Church and humankind.81He was convinced that by enhancing

interprovincial and international collaboration, the Society was recovering the

international dimension of its mission and that this will lead Jesuits to a closer solidarity

and more generous sharing of material and human resources to satisfy apostolic needs.82

This global dimension of the Societys government was necessary to meet needs

and problems that were not local in nature, but common to several provinces, nations, or

regions: Their international or universal nature should place them among our apostolic

priorities.83

Arrupe understood the Jesuit strength in this unity on mission, their

potentiality in this global synergy, the possibility of deploying just one, synchronized

mission84

in multiple places in the world, in very different fields, and with all levels of

influence. The Society still counts with a considerable number of highly qualified men

and institutions and with a worldwide organization which under some respects is unique

in the Church.85

This was truly the Jesuit potentiality, because they are better equipped

than other religious groups to meet the international challenges of todays world.86

This

is why when the global refugee crises exploded, he understood it as a challenge for the

Society, and he was ready to propose a consequent answer.

flexibility to the Spirit. Pedro Arrupe, Final Address to Jesuits Working with Refugees in Thailandia, in

Vella,Everybodys Challenge, 34.79The Society of Jesus is a companionship that is, at one and the same time, religious, apostolic,

sacerdotal, and bound to the Roman Pontiff by a special bond of love and service. GC 32, D 2, n.24.80Arrupe, Spiritual Journey, 25. Act as a single body, Act in unity. Ibid, 24.81

Arrupe, Other Apostolates Today, 188.82

Ibid.83

Ibid, 189.84

Our universalism does not consist in the fact that our members are occupied almost

everywhere in almost everything, but in the fact that we all collaborate in a more universal task, which

requires stricter unity. Arrupe, Spiritual Journey, 24.85Arrupe, Other Apostolates Today, 195.86Ibid.


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1.5 The foundational moment 87

1.5.1 A Challenge to the Society

In 1979 the crisis of Vietnamese boat people struck Arrupe in such a way that he

felt it was a challenge that the Jesuits cannot ignore.88

What I have called the Jesuit

potentiality (their transnational, networked, and interdisciplinary body) could be the

reason why the president of the World Bank and the general secretary of the International

Catholic Migration Commission visited Arrupe urging him to get the Jesuits involved in

the issue.89

Within the Society, the refugee crisis passed all the checklists of criteria of

the Constitutions to be an apostolic priority.90

The already fostered need for an

international dimension embodying the ideals of availability and universality made this

answer desirable.91Mark Raper emphasizes that the overwhelming response of the

provincials around the world to Arrupes initial appeal is what led him to the further

insight about the possibilities of the Society. The positive reaction, availability, and

number of offers, drove him to weigh the potentialities of the Jesuit international body

87To understand Arrupes mind, I prefer to use the initial letters and the documents about the first

meetings on those years around 1980 rather than the charter and the mission statement of the JRS in the

sense that they were written by Kolvenbach ten years after the foundational moment. Im with Peter

Balleis (Peter Balleis, The Specific Jesuit Identity of JRS, in Vella, Everybodys Challenge, 102) to

affirm that the foundational documents of JRS are mainly the call to all the major superiors to respond to

the human crisis of the refugees, and a letter to the whole Society (Arrupe, The Society of Jesus and theRefugee Problem in Vella,Everybodys Challenge, 28). To widen my research Im using the documents

related to the initial consultation undertaken by Arrupe to start thinking about a Jesuit answer to the

refugee problem. These documents are in the issue n.19 of Promotio Iustitiae and the article about the

meeting of Michael Campbell-Johnston, What Don Pedro Had in Mind when he Invited the Society to

Work with Refugees, in Vella,Everybodys Challenge, 40-45. For completing my research I haveinterviewed by e-mail some of the participants of that meeting and some of the former international

directors of JRS.88

If we want to remain faithful to St. Ignatius criteria for our apostolic work and the recent calls

of the 31stand 32ndGeneral Congregations. Arrupe, The Society of Jesus and the Refugee Problem. The

interconnectedness of the contemporary world makes this overall coordination of our efforts

indispensable if we are to remain faithful to our apostolic mission. Arrupe, Other Apostolates Today,

191.89

Robert McNamara, then President of the World Bank, accompanied by Dr Elisabeth Winkler,Secretary General of the International Catholic Migration Commission (Geneva), visited Father Arrupe

urging him to get the Society involved in assisting those refugees. Pedro Arrupe, Why Get Involved?,

Promotio Iustitiae19 (1980): 137.90

It was a growing urgency, continuity, difficult and complex human problem involved, lack ofother people to attend, universal good, etc And even when the ministry of the word should be preferred

to the corporal works, preference should be given to the corporal works in times of catastrophe. Quote of

Father Aldama in Arrupe, Why Get Involved? 137.91Their international or universal nature should place them among our apostolic priorities.

Arrupe, Other Apostolates, 189.


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to respond swiftly and effectively, because of our many centres where competent people

of good will can be found.92

The apostolic needs of the times fit perfectly with the specific potentiality of the

Society of Jesus. On the one side, there was a Jesuit infrastructure demanding a greater

interprovincial and international cooperation under the renewed global insights. On the

other side, there was a global problem in need of coordinated international bodies and the

involvement of agents able to develop answers not only through direct assistance but also

through information collection, academic research, and public awareness.93

This is why

Arrupe saw the suitability of the Society of Jesus and understood the JRS as a vivid

apostolic challenge. Following Ignatius vision, Don Pedro was persuaded that the

Society of Jesus was about to address an urgent and universal need of the time and, in the

process, not only help to develop a real sense of universality,94but also it will be of

much spiritual benefit.95

Learning from the refugees, the Society started a refreshing

methodology for social action96

based on an accompaniment that leads to advocacy.

This is the justice that Arrupe dreamed about, the justice that arises out of love.

Even though at the foundational moment there were references to the option for

the poor and the spiritual benefits that this kind of apostolate would bring to the whole

Society, my point here is supported by the fact that the reasons that Arrupe gave for the

creation of this new apostolic service, and the overwhelming totality of the aims and

objectives of the new work, are directly related to the potentialities of the infrastructure,

in a wide sense, of the Society of Jesus.

Michael Campbell-Johnston97

confirms this interpretation when affirming that

among the reasons that Arrupe gave in that first meeting, was that the Society is

everywhere and has information covering the whole world. We are already in contact

92Mark Raper, Concluding Remarks at Australian Jesuits Province Gathering, 14 thDecember

2007. Non Published Work.93

Im using the article in which Michael Campbell-Johnston explains the content of the firstmeeting with Arrupe talking about the possibility of a Jesuit answer to the refugee problem (15-16 sep

1980) and Arrupes letter on 14 Nov. 1980 proclaiming the foundation of the new service at the curia.

Vella,Everybodys Challenge,28-30,40-45.94

Arrupe, Why Get Involved?, 13895

Ibid, 29.96

Mark Raper, Concluding Remarks.97

Michael Campbell-Johnston was the one responsible for the JRS under the Social Secretariat

before becoming an independent institution (1980-1984). He is a first-hand witness to the initial steps of

the Refugee Service.


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with international organizations and are well situated. [] We can help with the

complexities of the problems through our many institutions.98

In that meeting Arrupe

was clear about how the Society had the means to influence structures and orientate

policies,99

and the need of work on root causes and not just to touch symptoms: we

have the structures to do this.100

This is why, as I will develop further, the JRS is not

just a work of charity or one further institution of the Jesuit social apostolate, but a

challenge to every corner of the Jesuit apostolic body. This is why the current

international director of JRS affirms that it is not just a Jesuit-run apostolic work for

refugees, but it is Jesuit by its very nature.101

I am not saying that Arrupe was simply answering from an organizational

perspective, trying to take advantage of the Jesuit structure, maximizing the outcomes

with their current resources. However, once we have a global vision, the trick is that

Ignatius criteria of urgency, the complexity of the problem, and especially the lack of

others to attend the need and the greater universal good102

transform the organizational

question into a key variable for discerning the mission. The new global context, the

complexity of the refugee problem, and the capability of the Jesuits to give services that

are not being catered for sufficiently by other organizations and groups103

put the

Society of Jesus on the spot of actualizing its charism while reading the sign of the times.

That means that the Jesuit potentiality was not a secondary argument in the foundation of

98That means that Arrupe is highlighting four different potentialities of the Society since the

beginning of his thought: Im following the previous quote from Campbell-Johnston: the Society is

everywhere (transnationality) and has information covering the whole world (informational management).

We are already in contact with international organizations and are well situated (network with international

agencies). [] We can help with the complexities of the problems through our many institutions (multi-

level set of institutions). Vella,Everybodys Challenge,41. The brackets are mine.

Exactly the same emphasis can be found among the objectives for JRS in the foundational letter:

(a) develop a network of contacts to coordinate, (b) collect information for new opportunities, (c) to act asa switchboard among the Jesuit provinces and international agencies, and (d) to encourage different

Jesuits works to research into the root of the problem to take preventive actions. Im omitting two aims

oriented toward the inside of the Society: to conscientise about the importance of this apostolate, and to

direct the Societys attention towards those groups otherwise unknown. Ibid, 29.99

Arrupe, Why Get Involved? 162.100

Arrupe, Why Get Involved? 164.101

Balleis,Op.Cit.102.102Constitutions [622-623].103Vella,Everybodys Challenge, 28.


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the JRS but a primary motivation, if not the most important one, because the main

argument was that we are particularly well fitted to meet this challenge.104

What is at stake here is the opportunity cost. Arrupe is saying that given our

infrastructure and potentialities, taking into account our vision and understanding of

mission, the Society of Jesus has real responsibility to answer to this problem: The

Society has the spirit, mobility, and structures to offer this service.105

The fidelity to our

vocation claims this: We have the men, the facilities, and the theology. We are going for

it.106

1.5.2 An Intentional New Structure

Even though the organizational dimension is not yet my focus, my last question

here is why Arrupe didnt answer this apostolic challenge in the usual way? Why did hedevelop a different infrastructure when many others initiatives with refugees were going

on within the provinces?107Why did he start a new and different international body of

the Society, parallel or alternative to the traditional provincial structures?108

Arrupe was clear in that the refugee answer should be a commitment of the

whole institute,109

the universal Society, not of any particular province.110

It appeared

that the universality of the intended answer, the variety of institutions involved, and the

worldwide nature of the problem being addressed, were asking for a new supra

provincial structure able to coordinate and develop international strategies involving

people and resources from more than one Jesuit province.

A structure like this was to be managed by the Social Secretariat in Rome, even

when there was initial opposition to this idea111since the job of the Curia was considered

104Ibid.105Arrupe, Why Get Involved? 18.106Testimony of Vicent OKeefe about Arrupe in Jim McDermott, Seizing the Imagination,

America Magazine (November 12, 2007):16.107

In the first meeting in the curia they were talking about the different refugee-related initiativesthat were already going on the worldwide Society. There were examples in East Asia, in India, in USA,

and Africa.108

Vella,Everybodys Challenge,100.109

"Our service to refugees is an apostolic commitment of the whole Society." ActRSJ 20:320 inOBrien, Op.Cit. 19.

110"What was lacking was a corporate, concerted effort to link these more particular Jesuits

Commitments." Ibid, 13.111This was changed by Kolvenbach 4 years later when he made of JRS an independent

institution from the Social Justice Secretariat. Vella,Everybody's Challenge, 45. The central government


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to be encouraging others to develop their own apostolic initiatives. The JRS idea was not

only a break with traditional organizational models but also a challenge to the idea that

the Curia shouldnt assume apostolic ventures. Campbell-Johnston112

confirms that from

the outset, Arrupe recognized the need for a new structure led from Rome, and was

convinced that problems of a universal nature were to be answered with universal

solutions. These global options were going to be the ones that determine the real stature

of the Jesuit Apostolate.113The Curia was considered to be the best place for the JRS to

operate, because many provinces were going to be directly involved.114Luis Magri,

former JRS international director, insists that the JRS has a flexibility to answer new

situations and the needs of refugees, which would not be possible in the situation of

being exclusively dependent to the provinces.115

The JRS, a mission-driven and supra-provincial institution, appeared as a

solution that could better counter the endogamy and lack of global vision of provincial

structures, embodying at the same time the Ignatian universality and mobility that Arrupe

was dreaming for in the renewal of the Society of Jesus. Because of its international

vision and commitment, the JRS proved to be the first Jesuit global apostolic body,

structurally independent from any province but, at the same time, a commitment of the

whole Society to endeavor to work mainly through men in the provinces themselves.116

1.6 Conclusion

In February 1990, Fr Kolvenbach promulgated the official documents of the JRS

and, following the same spirit of its founder, affirmed that the Societys universality,

is considered an intromission on the local level if it asks for help to global projects. Arrupe, Cartas, 78. A

few years after, Arrupe was already aware that there are still some who are rather skeptical about

collaborations at the international level. Arrupe, Other Apostolates Today, 186-187. He tried to remind

them of the international character of our vocation. Arrupe also denounces that the dangers of exaggerated

provincialism, nationalisms or regionalism are in a way greater than the risk of a universal escape from

concrete needs and responsibilities. Ibid, 191.112Michael Campbell-Jonhston,Personal Interview by e-mail, 18 December 2007.113


Michael Campbell-Johnston,Personal Interview.115

As an example, he argues that the JRS works in Namibia, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, wherethere is no official Society of Jesus. Who else could take the decision of going to work to these places?

Lluis Magri, interview by author, e-mail, 12 December 2007. In this sense Kolvenbach was convinced

that the Societys services through the JRS was one real test of our availability today. Kolvenbach,Review, 55.

116Vella,Everybodys Challenge, 30.


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our mobility, and above all our apostolic availability are the qualities rooted in our

tradition which should help us to meet the challenges offered by the refugee crisis of our

time.117

This is what I seek to demonstrate in this paper. Following the same insight, he

also stated: I have stressed the importance of this apostolate [] as a significant step

towards our renewal, personal and corporate, in availability, mobility and

universality.118

This paper shows how the Jesuit Refugee Service can be understood as an

institution trying to express the Ignatian global vision according to the signs of the times,

applying to present conditions and trends, the principles that have always been

characteristic of our apostolic life and activity.119

I do not pretend to idealize the early Society or to pigeonhole the Ignatian

charism into being normative in our days. However, if I am going to defend that the JRS

is a model for a global Jesuit apostolic answer, I need to start with its foundations: to

understand what Don Pedro had in mind when he launched the proposal of this totally

new apostolic structure. The strength of the argument lies, I think, not in the specificity

of the refugee problem, but on the intentionality of Arrupe in terms of renewal of the

dynamism and universality of the mission of the Society of Jesus.

I have tried to use both the documents and history of the first Jesuits as

foundational sources for the Jesuit charism. But even when it would be bizarre to try to

project my categories on the early Society or to replicate their structures in our days, it

would be equally blind to deny the specificity of the Jesuit charism and to attempt to

express this tradition in a way appropriate to our times. I have also used letters from

Arrupe and documents from the first meetings of the JRS to demonstrate my hypothesis.

This has been my intention. I am with Blake,120

OMalley,121

Raper, Balleis,122

and

Magri, and many others who have seen in the Jesuit Refugee Service a remarkable

intuition of Arrupe, a provocative way of rethinking the Jesuit apostolic answer in our

117Kolvenbach,Review, 55.

118Ibid, 47.

119Arrupe, Other Apostolates, 192.

120OBrien, Op.Cit. vii.

121OMalley, Five Missions, 33.

122Also Peter Balleis affirmed that the JRS is by the nature of its process of foundation and

growth very similar to the Society of Jesus in its early years Balleis, Op.Cit. 107.


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times, a new type of organizational structure different from the usual Jesuit way, and

mainly a potential model to re-imagine a future Jesuit mission that is truly global.

How it can be understood as a model, and what types of lessons we can learn

from it, are subjects for the following chapters. Here it has been enough to argue the

latent adaptation of the Ignatian global vision that relies on its foundations. This allows

me to defend its suitability as a model for modern Jesuit global apostolic presences.


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Chapter II. Globalization and Jesuit Mission

In the first chapter of this thesis I explained how the JRS initiative is rooted in the

global vision of the early Society of Jesus and how Arrupe, with the founding of this new

institution, was trying to respond to global changes in an Ignatian way. The next step is

to explain how the concept of mission is being transformed by developments after

Vatican II and the globalized context. My aim below is to demonstrate how globalization

is transforming the Societys mission and the Jesuit ways of agency towards a

transnational, faith-based activism to promote the common good and human solidarity.

The purpose of this chapter is to show that the Jesuit Refugee Service is a common

apostolic work realized by the universal Society and thus can be considered one of the

structures for promoting human solidarity, social justice, and universal charity123that the

Church develops throughout the world as part of her proposal of global solidarity.

2.0 Introduction

Arrupe was considered a visionary and a prophet, but he did not start from zero. It

is no mere coincidence that this same Arrupe lived through Vatican II and experienced

first-hand some of the deepest changes in the Catholic Church to occur in centuries. The

idea of the Jesuit Refugee Service flows from a concept of mission and justice that the

Jesuits were nourishing at that time along with the Council, and also as a way of

answering the signs of the global times. How could the Society of Jesus start a

humanitarian and spiritual project which is closer to an NGO than a classic missionary

enterprise?

The background of my research here is to show why the Church is developing

part of its public mission through networks of faith-based institutions working for global

justice and solidarity. My intention is to demonstrate that the Church, and the Society of

Jesus as part of it, has been passing through two different stages that have affected the

concept of mission and therefore its public role. The two stages are: (1) a period of

modernization after Vatican II that changed the terms of the mission into a new

engagement with the world in addition to a straight forward proposal of justice and

123Populorum Progressio (PP) 43-75.


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integral human promotion; and (2) a period of global awareness that shaped the

Churchs answer to the globalization process by emphasizing certain dynamics and

structures needed to develop a new proposal of solidarity in a global world.

As a result of these two movements, the Society of Jesus integrates the justice

principle as a cross-cutting dimension of its whole mission, and realizes the potential of

its infrastructure and the need for new structures to address the broad dimensions of this

global context. Interdisciplinary networking and partnership are the basic paths to

develop these new modes of agency. Within this framework, JRS can be understood as

an integral part of the Jesuit mission, as an embodiment of the dimension of justice that

stems from faith, and as a model for institutional incarnation of the Jesuit global

vocation.

2.1 Jesuits & Social Engagement After Vatican II

Concepts like justice, love of neighbour, welcoming of the alien, and care for the

needy are part of the Hebrew Scriptures, and witness to the social mission that the

Church has borne since its beginning. But the way of understanding the Churchs social

involvement has been changing throughout the ages. Especially important is the moment

the Church recognized the autonomy of the temporal sphere, acknowledging a new

relationship with the world, in what some scholars call voluntary disestablishment.124

To address the evolution of the concept of social mission, I need to briefly review that

moment, Vatican II. Key developments of the Second Vatican Council include: the

radically new concept of religious freedom and the depolitization of the relations

between Church and state implicit inDignitatis Humanae; and the global proposal of

social justice and legitimation of the social action we find in Gaudium et Spes. Only then

is it possible to trace the origin of the public church and the modern link between

evangelization and human promotion. Finally, it will be possible to understand the

parallel evolution of the concept of mission in the Society of Jesus.

124Jos Casanova,Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1994) 62. The same expression is used also in Jeff Haynes, Transnational religious actors and

international politics, in Third World Quarterly, vol. 22, n 2, 2001, 151.


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2.1.1 Voluntary disestablishment

Religious freedom meant new relationships between Church and state, faith and

political power, and implied separation but not necessarily privatization.125

Accepting the

inviolable right to privacy and the sanctity of freedom of conscience, the Catholic

Church started going public in a distinctively modern way.126

The Churchs mission

incorporated new concepts like inculturation and assimilation, moving closer to an

authentic encounter and collaboration with other cultures and religions rather than the

traditionally militant posture of the Church. Other consequences ofDignitatis Humanae

(DH) include new ways of understanding the revelation and the recognition of the

ineffable mystery of God at work in all religious traditions. The new focus on

ecumenical and interreligious sensibilities helped to reduce the Churchs exclusivism and

its aggressive confessional posture towards others.

Vatican II was also the moment for a key change in the perception of social

ministry. Renewed by the idea of engagement with the world, the Church approved a

more activist Catholicism. In Gaudium et Spes (GS) the Church is deeply committed to

the pursuit of justice convinced of the need to achieve the genuine good of the human

race.127

Having recovered the idea of the holiness of the world, the Church revised its

conceptions of missionary purpose and the relationship of direct proselytization to social

and political development.128

John XXIII and Vatican II broadened the universality and

stressed the transnational scope of Church social teaching by setting new directions for

Catholic social thought. Paul VI followed this direction in his emphasis on the role of the

Church in a proposal of integral development.129In 1971 the Synod of Bishops Justice

in the World clearly affirmed that work for justice and transformation of the world

125Casanova develops this idea regarding how the disestablishment does not mean privatization.

The Church accepts disestablishment from the state and also from political society, but it doesnt intend to

be isolated from publi