Pope Approves Jesuits' Mission For The Next 10 Years
February 22, 2019
Pope Francis approved and confirmed the “apostolic preferences” chosen by the Jesuits for the next ten years. They are “in harmony with the priorities of the Church,” he affirmed in a letter reported by “Vatican News” on February 19, 2019.
Father Sosa presented these four universal apostolic preferences in a letter to Jesuits worldwide, which was released today. They are:
- To show the way to God through discernment and the Spiritual Exercises; (spiritual formation)
- To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation and justice; (social justice)
- To accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future;
- To collaborate in the care of our Common Home (environmentalism)
The Venezuelan-born Father Sosa, 70, who was elected superior general of the Jesuits on Oct. 14, 2016, during the 36th General Congregation, explained the background and significance of the U.A.P.s at a briefing at the Jesuit Curia in Rome on Feb. 16.
Father Sosa reported that since October 2017 “we have engaged in a common discernment on what reconciliation means as the common thread for the work of the Society in the coming years” and “to see how to make this reconciliation concrete in our work we started this common discernment in the Society.” He said “the novelty” in the process was that “it involved all Jesuits worldwide and those working with them in apostolic works, including lay men and women, as well as men and women religious from other congregations who cooperate with us in apostolic works.”
Pausing on the second preference, Sosa explains: “We want to borrow a path to promote social justice . . . We want to promote the change of economic, political and social structures that cause injustices . . . We want to eliminate the scourge of abuses from the life of the Church and of society.”
And he emphasizes the third preference, which is attention to young people who can help to understand society’s changes. Therefore, it’s necessary to “open areas to young people, to their creativity” and it’s necessary to learn from young people, assures the Superior General.
Then in early January 2019, he said, the council of the superior general, aided by an external person, Dr. Christina King from Singapore, brought all this together in a document that he presented to Pope Francis on Jan. 17. He said the first Jesuit pope spent some time praying on the text and then handed it back to him on Feb. 9, entrusting it as a mission for the whole Society over the next decade.
“In this way,” he said, “the preferences are not just our ideas; they are a mission given by the church through the pope to the Society.”
The world’s 15,536 Jesuits are asked to implement these four preferences in their respective areas of work.
These four ‘apostolic preferences’ are already being adopted by liberals the world over, and by progressive Adventism in particular. They are:
Look for the promotion of each of these four liberal elements in certain quarters in the North American Division. It should be an interesting ten years.
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“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).