The 71^st Congregation of Procurators has ended and the delegates have returned to their home Provinces. They came to Loyola, Spain - to the birthplace of the founder of the Society of Jesus - ostensibly to discern a single question: “Should Fr. General Arturo Sosa ask the Holy Father for permission to convene the 37^th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus?” In the final session of the Congregation, after an 8-day guided retreat, hundreds of hours of sharing and reflection, and a full week of discussion and discernment, the Procurators voted “Non Cogenda”- an official recommendation to Fr. General that no General Congregation was required at this time.

Other issues

This isn’t to say that there are no vitally-important issues facing the Church and Society of Jesus. In fact, those issues formed the bulk of the agenda for the Congregation of Procurators. From concerns about vocations, to the safeguarding of minors, the vows, governance, the worldwide ministry of Jesuits and beyond - the retreat, reflections and Congregation gave the Procurators the forum to discuss an impressive slate of important issues with their brother Jesuits, as well as to learn both about what the Society is doing well, and what it COULD be doing better.

The Procurators are now tasked with taking what they’ve learned from back to their Provinces to prayerfully spark discussion in local communities. In effect, they have been missioned to bring the lessons of CP71 to their brothers, to reignite fires that may have cooled.

If you would like to have a better idea of what happened at CP71, the Curia Communications team has created a 4-minute video to give you a behind-the-scenes look of a Congregation of Procurators.

Here is a short statement of one of the European “procurators”, Thierry Anne from the French speaking Western European Province, about his experience at this Congregation.