The conference of the socii of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) and the Jesuit Conference of South Asia (JCSA) was held at the General Curia in Rome from 1 to 5 December. Attending provinces and regions from JCAP included Australia, Chinese Province, Japan, Korea, Cambodia Mission, Malaysia-Singapore, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and the JCAP Socius. Seven socii from JCSA and one Socius from Slovenia joined the training.
What or who is a socius? We may consider this paragraph from the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus to help us understand the role of the socius: [T]he general ought to have one person who ordinarily accompanies him and should be his memory for everything which he must write and discuss, and finally for all the affairs of his office. This person should take on the general’s own person and imagine that he carries on his own shoulders the general’s whole burden, except for his authority. [800] 8.
The purpose of the meeting in Rome was for the socii from the two conferences to meet face-to-face with those working in the General Curia. After more than two years of virtual conversations, we appreciated the high quality of the gathering. Several topics relevant to the role of the socius were discussed. These included the task of the curia as the governing body for the universal mission, discernment and apostolic planning as part of the mission of the socii, and correspondence and database management. Other units of work gave presentations too, namely the Interprovincial Houses and Works in Rome, the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit Refugee Service, FACSI – Fundus Apostolicus et Caritativus Societatis Iesu, as well as the Formation Delegate.
The session with Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ was encouraging and stimulating. Among other things, Father General brought some of the questions raised by the participants for further discernment, and clarified certain matters, such as deciding the Final Vows of an individual, the role of the socius as admonitor to the Provincial, and the areas the socius can admonish.
He conversed at length on the future of the Society of Jesus, especially with fewer members and more lay partners in our institutions. Are Jesuits ready for it? How does the Society prepare Jesuits and their partners to collaborate effectively without falling into the attitude of “clericalism”, which Pope Francis warns against, from both sides?
With some 15,000 members, the Society is a complex organism. It is complex within the Society and outside of it since we collaborate with so many diverse people in various contexts. Father General asked: Do you think the Society will automatically be better if it doubles its numbers? To emphasis his point, he raised the nature of the Society as minima compañia, the Least Society of Jesus, frequently mentioned by St Ignatius himself. Originally, it refers to the virtue of being humble. Humility is the foundation of the servant of Christ’s mission. The spirit of poverty is the first step to humility. Fr General uses the expression “the least Society in collaboration” as a fitting response to today’s situation.
Don’t consider others as collaborators, cautioned Father General, reminding us that we, Jesuits, are collaborators ourselves. The ability to collaborate is the basic test of the Society now and in the future, he said. This collaboration includes collaborating among and within Jesuits.
Fr Sosa encouraged us to renew our religious life. In the Ignatian charism, this means maintaining the spirit of the Society as a discerning body. Spiritual conversations at all levels and discernment in common should be practised in our Jesuit life.
In the concluding reflection, we shared our most consoling moments and takeaways from the five-day conference. Everyone highly appreciated the gathering. The discussions and sharing during the sessions were very rich moments, and many times they were an eye opener. In between sessions, our visits to spiritual heritage sites, such as the Rooms of St Ignatius, the Church of Gesù, La Storta Chapel, and the Basilica of St Paul, were moving and touching encounters that rounded up our experience in Rome.
