What is the mission of a local superior? Superiors and potential superiors from 11 of the provinces, regions and missions in our Jesuit Conference found themselves exploring and reflecting on this question during a recent workshop held in Seoul, Korea. The 36 Jesuits were participants in a Workshop for Local Superiors organised by the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific from October 4 to 10.
Following good Ignatian tradition in seeking first to establish context, the workshop began with a presentation of the lights and shadows of Jesuit community life. Guided by Fr Daniel Huang SJ, General Counselor and Regional Assistant for Asia Pacific, and Fr Roger Champoux SJ, former director of the Asia Pacific Tertianship programme, and using some foundational documents of the Society of Jesus, the participants explored the mission of the local superior as a “mission of caring”: care of persons, care of community life and care for mission, as well as self-care of the person of the local superior. In carrying out this mission, local superiors will exert particular leadership styles, but should be guided by a shared spirituality of leadership, based on the Ignatian charism.
Although they share commonalities, Jesuit communities across the Conference are very diverse. For example, aspects that for some might constitute “lights” — such as a wide range of ages, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, geographical dispersion and numbers of members in the community — might be the source of “shadows” for others. While individualism challenges community interaction, there is a general heightened sense of commitment to improve the quality of community life. Personal life journeys are incredibly varied, and help to discover new areas of being human and new dimensions of God´s mystery and mercy. In caring for each individual Jesuit, in particular for those who experience difficulties (and create them as well!), the local superior´s role of accompaniment requires, among other things: presence, understanding, dialogue, encouragement, correction, acceptance and discernment.
In caring for the community, the local superior is called to create a climate in the community where mutual esteem, support, interest and respect thrive, and where the evangelical values Jesuits profess can flourish. It should be also a climate of integrity and safety for human life, for Jesuits and for others. In view of this, a session during the workshop was devoted to learning about protocols and professional standards.
“We were reminded that Ignatius defined a companion as ‘one on whom you can rely,’ and this is expressed in our mutual presence to one another and in our investment in one another´s lives as mediators of the presence of the Lord, who called us together to this common life,” said Fr Sacha Bermudez-Goldman SJ, Local Superior of the Campion House community in Melbourne, Australia.
“Good life in community depends on simple acts: a word of encouragement, time to listen to what another has to say, deeper sharing of selves and of our interior experiences and failures. And it assumes that we are open to reconciliation — it is for each one of us who has been forgiven to forgive, to believe that the other can improve and to see him in a new light.”
Community is mission. The reason for Jesuit life in community is Christ and his Good News, and local superiors must be witnesses of this to others. A local community is also an apostolic community for mission, whose concern must be focused on the service of others, taking into account the larger concerns and challenges of the universal Church. The duty of the local superior is to promote the mission of the Society, adapting it to each Jesuit as circumstances require. At the same time, he should also promote an integration of works and spirituality, so that mission is not just professional work, but a sharing in the mission of Christ, in the Spirit of Ignatius and of the Society.
Though the mission of the local superior might seem a “mission impossible”, as one participant said, local superiors must remember that other people in their communities have been designated to give counsel and to support them in this role. They are also there to remind the local superior of the need for self-care and to complement his particular leadership style.
For Fr Bermudez-Goldman, a key take away from the workshop was that “in carrying out our mission we will do well to remember Father Ignatius´ attitudes regarding leadership: praise, as we look for and see the good around us; collaboration, in simplicity with the action of God’s labour; develop a habit of discernment to listen to the movement of love, and confidence, trusting that everything, after all, is in God´s hands.”