Father Adolfo Nicolás SJ, who has been Superior General of the Jesuits (the Society of Jesus) since 2008, has announced his intention to resign. Having recently reached the age of 78, Fr Nicolás says he has received the approval of his advisers and has informed Pope Francis that he intends to convoke a General Congregation for the latter part of 2016, during which he will formally submit his resignation and his successor will be elected.
In a letter to the entire Society of Jesus dated May 20, 2014, Fr Nicolás wrote: “Reflecting on the coming years, I have reached the personal conviction that I should take the needed steps towards submitting my resignation to a General Congregation.”
The General Congregation is an assembly of senior Jesuit representatives from around the world, that is always convoked on the death or resignation of the Superior General to choose his successor and may also be called to deal with significant matters for the whole Society.
Fr Nicolás said that with his decision, the meeting of Provincials that was scheduled to take place in in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in January 2015 is cancelled.
Adolfo Nicolás was born in Villamuriel de Cerrato, Palencia, Spain, on April 29, 1936 and entered the Jesuit novitiate of Aranjuez in 1953. He studied at the University of Alcalá, where he earned his licentiate in philosophy. In 1960, he was assigned to Japan where he studied theology at Sophia University in Tokyo. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 17, 1967.
From 1968 to 1971, Fr Nicolás studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he earned a doctorate in theology. Upon his return to Japan, he was made professor of systematic theology at Sophia University, teaching there for the next 30 years.
Fr Nicolás was appointed Director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines, in 1978 – a post he held for six years. He then went on to serve as rector of the theologate in Tokyo before being appointed as the Jesuit Provincial of Japan. Following his term of office as Provincial, Fr Nicolás remained in Japan, doing pastoral work among poor immigrants in Tokyo.
In 2004, Fr Nicolás returned to the Philippines after he was appointed President of the Jesuit Conference of Provincials for Eastern Asia and Oceania. A native Spanish speaker, Fr Nicolás is also fluent in Catalan, English, Italian, French, and Japanese.
While the position of Superior General – like that of the pope – is a lifelong appointment, Fr Nicolás is not the first Jesuit to take this unusual step: his predecessor, Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, also resigned as Superior General of the Jesuits at the age of 79. Fr Kolvenbach noted upon his resignation that “the Society of Jesus has the right to be governed and animated by a Jesuit in full possession of his physical and spiritual talents and not by a companion whose energies continue to diminish because of age”. [Jesuit Curia, Jesuits in Britain]
Main photo: Fr Nicolás promises to serve the Society following his election as Superior General of the Society of Jesus at its 35th General Congregation in Rome, 2008.