GC35 wraps up, sort of.

The 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus formally concluded last Thursday, but the work of the Congregation is not yet done. I've been putting off an official 'end of GC35' post until I had something substantial to report, but so far there doesn't seem to be much to say beyond the fact that the Congregation itself has ended. The Congregation approved the writing of decrees on Jesuit identity, obedience, the internal governance of the Society, collaboration with the laity, and contemporary challenges to the Society's mission, as well as a specific response to Pope Benedict XVI's address to the Congregation. Various issues that were considered hot topics at the Congregation - like ecology and ministry to young people - were "entrusted to the care of the ordinary governance of the Society," which effectively means that Father General Adolfo Nicolás will decide how to deal with them.

None of the decrees approved by the Congregation actually exist yet, which is why I wrote above that the Congregation has only "sort of" ended. For each of the topics on which the Congregation approved a decree, a group of Jesuits chosen from among the members of GC35 will meet over the next couple of months to write and edit a document reflecting the will of the Congregation. Once the final texts have been approved by Father General, these decrees will go out to the whole Society. So you won't think that this is a mysterious or secretive process, I should note that the Jesuits chosen to write each decree are publicly identified on the GC35 website.

I'm heading down to Washington tomorrow morning for a week at Georgetown, where I'll be catching up with old friends and hopefully doing some reading in preparation for looming term papers. Thus there probably won't be much action on this blog until around Spy Wednesday. In the meantime, please know of my continued prayers for all readers during Lent. AMDG.