As every Superior in the Society of Jesus, the President of the Conference has a Council (usually called Consult) to advise him. In the JCEP, other than the Socius, it is composed by the 3 Moderators, one for each one of the Assistancies within the Conference, now Marc Desmet (ELC), Jozef Šofranko (SVK) and Miran Žvanut (SVN). The fifteen Provinces and one Region are grouped in clusters more or less geographically: the Western European Assistancy (EOC) includes the Irish, British and Francophone Provinces, plus the Low Countries Region and also the Near East Province; the Southern European Assistancy (EMR) is composed by the Portuguese, Spanish, Euro-Mediterranean and Slovenian Provinces; finally the Central and Eastern European Assistancy (ECO) gathers the reminder eight Provinces (Czech, Croatian, Central European, Hungarian, North and South Polish and Slovak).

The Consult meets usually four times a year, for a couple of days. After the pandemic, about half of the meetings are online. This creates greater expectation for the in-person meetings, also because they alternate between Brussels and the home provinces of the Consultors.

For the last one, we were invited to Slovakia. After one afternoon in Bratislava, enough to know the Jesuit Houses in the centre of the old city and have a stroll through the local Advent Market, we had the meetings in Ivanka pri Dunaji, in the Jesuit Retreat House in this town, close to a residence for elderly Jesuits.

What are the topics for a Consult meeting? There is always sharing of the latest news from each one of the Assistancies and the activities of the Conference (the common works and the many conference-wide networks). The JCEP Assembly of last October was evaluated and the planning for the next one, in April 2024, started. And, of course, other matters about which the President wanted to hear the opinion of his consultors were also discussed.

Herminio Rico sj
JCEP Socius