In the Society, towards 2025, the assessment of Arrupe’s beatification
On December 5, at the General Curia, Fr. Arturo Sosa and the staff of the Communications Office met with about forty journalists from international media that follow current events in the Church to exchange Christmas greetings and to present the latest news about the life of the Society of Jesus. The first focal point was the ten years since the reestablishment of the Apostolate of Prayer as the Pope’s World Prayer Network and the appointment of Fr. Cristóbal Fones as its new International Director, effective January 1, 2025. Fr. Fones recalled that in 2014 the Apostleship of Prayer underwent a significant transformation, initiated in 2010 by the then Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, who encouraged reflection on and deepening of this spiritual tradition. Fr. Fones explained that the network is an ecclesial and universal mission and, referring to the recent encyclical of Pope Francis, Dilexit Nos, he highlighted that the spirituality of the heart of Jesus is important in a world that has lost its heart, to transform us to build a more just and fraternal world in the face of contemporary challenges such as wars and socio-economic inequalities. In this sense, the Pope’s World Prayer Network offers a spiritual journey called The Way of the Heart, a path of interior transformation to live the mission of compassion that the world so desperately needs. It is a journey in nine stages inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
“We accompany the Pope each month in discerning prayer intentions and more specific requests, during the Angelus or Wednesday audiences,” Fones said. The network also selects the Pope’s video, which since 2016 has reached more than 22 million people and has been officially translated into 23 languages. In 90 countries where the network is present, teams, magazines, brochures, drawings, activities are distributed to stimulate values and perspectives. This network not only distributes intentions, but it also provides some help in prayer with Click to pray, a simple tool to pray three times a day to open hearts and hands to others, to the world.
Formation journeys are available throughout the world through EYM, the Eucharistic Youth Movement.
The meeting also served to review the process of the beatification of Fr. Pedro Arrupe. Now that the diocesan phase of the process has been completed, Fr. Pascual Cebollada, Postulator General of the Society of Jesus stated, the documents will be sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to prepare the cause. The first step will be to write a documented biography based on the 10,000 pages selected from Fr. Arrupe’s unpublished writings from 1965 to 1983 and the approximately 70 oral testimonies received by the Vicariate. “It should be finished within two years. We have to offer an authentic image of Fr. Arrupe, which will explain the 11 virtues applied to the Servant of God. The 20 boxes of documents hold the key to why and for whom he lived a particular way. We are not only looking for the missionary, the man of governance, or the prophet he was, but the saint”. Fr. Federico Lombardi, also a postulator of Arrupe’s cause, recalled the Servant’s strong devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
John Dardis, who has moved from the Communications Office to begin his mission of Assistant, a work that is more in contact with the General (asof July 1, the Director of the Communications Office is Fr. Chukwuyenum Afiawari) , recalled two innovative projects that the Society has launched: in the Province of Spain, the project for the formation of facilitators for parish discernment, “a fundamental ministry in a Church that wants to move forward on the path of synodality”; and in India, a formation project for young adults leaving university, which pursues different paths, from beauty to prayer to solidarity with the poor.
In his final greeting, Fr. General recalled that “Fr. Nicolas spoke of ‘we, the General’ precisely to indicate that without those who support him, without a fraternal community, the General is nothing”. Today, Sosa said, the Jesuits are a minority, and all the work done is possible thanks to the many men and women who accompany the Society. Finally, these were his thoughts on the journey to Fr. Arrupe’s beatification: “I joined the Society after his election. It was a very cordial relationship. We call him the second founder of the Society”.
