May 5, 2007 | Vol. 11, N. 9

Date published: 2007-May-07

FATHER GENERAL

On April 25 Father General returned to Rome from Zambia where he had attended the meeting of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar. The electors for General Congregation 35 joined the Major Superiors for the last two days of the meeting.

The coordinators of the Social Apostolate in the various Assistancies and some lay collaborators will meet in Rome, May 7-13. Father General will address the group on May 11 on the topic Social Research in the Globalization Era.

The great interest generated by Jesus of Nazareth, the book by Benedict XVI published on April 16, has been widely reported. More than 500,000 copies were sold in Italy within days. Apart from the German and Italian editions, some 20 others editions in different languages are in preparation. In the preface, Benedict XVI states that the book, started many years ago, should be read as the personal reflection of a theologian, open to scrutiny by other theologians, rather than a papal text. There are several Jesuits quoted in the book, including Father General, Jean Danielou, Hugo Rahner, Peter Henrici, Henri de Lubac, Carlo M. Martini…

CURIA

The annual statistics of the Society for 2006 have been compiled and will be mailed to the Provinces within a few days. As of January 1, 2007 the number of Jesuits in the world was 19,216 (364 fewer than in 2005): 13,491 are priests, 3,049 scholastic students, 1,810 Brothers, and 866 novices. During the year, 486 joined the Society, 472 died and 378 left. The average age of the Jesuits in 2007 is 57.34 (slightly higher than the previous year): 63.40 for priests, 29.89 for scholastics and 65.54 for Brothers.

There are 91 Provinces and 12 Dependent Regions: 3 in Africa, 4 in the Americas and 5 in Asia-Oceania. As in the previous year, the South Asia Assistancy, with 4.018 members who represent 20.9% of the total membership in the Society, is the most numerous, followed by the United States of America (2,952 members or 15.4%), South Europe (2,448 or 12.7%), West Europe (1,958 or 10.2%), East Asia-Oceania (1,672 or 8.7%), South Latin America (1,513 or 7.9%), Africa (1,430 or 7.4%), North Latin America (1,374 or 7.2%), East Europe (1,119 or 5.8%), and Central Europe (732 or 3.8%).

FROM THE PROVINCES

SPAIN

After seven years of preparation, the Ignatian Spirituality Group has published the two-volume Dictionary of Ignatian Spirituality. An international team of 157 experts from 25 countries has contributed 383 articles to the 1,816 pages of the Dictionary, which includes a guide for systematic reading. The official presentation will be held in Madrid on May 17. The Dictionary has been jointly published by Mensajero and Sal Terrae, two Jesuit publishing houses. The price is € 99 (25% discount for Jesuits) and can be ordered from Sal Terrae: salterrae@salterrae.es For the moment only the Spanish edition is available.

CANADA

The second volume of Bernard Lonergan’s book on the Trinity (The Triune God: Systematics) has been translated into English and just published by the University of Toronto Press. The translation of the first volume is also finished and hopefully will be published in 2008.

A novice, Gregory Kennedy, has published a reworking of his doctoral dissertation dealing with a philosophical approach to environmental studies: An Ontology of Trash: the disposable and its problematic nature.

ROME

On May 4-5, in cooperation with the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Holy See the Gregorian Foundaton held on May 3-4 an Intercultural Dialogue: A challenge to Peace. Among the speakers was Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, ex-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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