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Fr. General Arturo Sosa SJ at the common "Provinzsymposion" of the five European Provinces GER/ASR/HEL/LIT/HUN.

Schwäbisch Gmünd –  From Monday, 17th April, until Thursday, 20th April, Jesuits from the German, Austrian, Swiss, Lithuanian-Lethonian and Hungarian Provinces came together in Schwäbisch Gmünd (Baden Wurttemberg, Germany) for the first common Province-Symposion in the Easter week. 260 Jesuits from the five provinces gathered – that is actually nearly half of the present members –, which shall merge into a single province in the coming years.

On Tuesday, Fr. General Arturo Sosa SJ and his Assistant for Central and Eastern Europe, Fr. Tomasz Kot SJ, joined the meeting as special guests: "It is a great pleasure for me, to meet personally the representatives of the five provinces, who are taking an important step in a common future", declared Father General. "I hope that the visit during the symposium helps me to get a better insight into the worries and hopes that move your hearts."

In his address Fr. General took up the impulses of GC 36. He stressed that the Society of Jesus is a collaborator of the mission of Christ given to the Church. „As Jesuits, we are collaborators of God’s action in the world. Within the Church, we try harder to make a good contribution to the missio Dei.“

Jesuits are not isolated individuals working for the Gospel but an apostolic body, gathered by the Lord around Him, organized to contribute with others in His mission. „Maybe we are arriving at a moment when we need to take seriously what we learnt in the novitiate: we enter the Society of Jesus and not the Hungarian, Austrian or German Province. We should grow in this universal dimension.“ He recalled that the Society of Jesus is not a Federation of independent provinces but a universal apostolic body organized into provinces as a way of administering its resources.

As „international and multicultural body“ in a complex, „fragmented and divided world“, Discernment, collaboration and networking help to streamline governance and make it more flexible and apostolic effective. He encouraged the provinces for the restructuring process in the coming years. „To the extent that we are free and available, we will find ways to understand this new context and respond apostolically to it.”

The decision on merging the five provinces into one had been announced in February last year. While there are already good experiences of the cooperation in the Formation, the timetable and governance structure have to be established in the future.

Picture slider: Fr. General Arturo Sosa (3rd fr. l.) with the five Provincials Fr. Elemér Vízi (Hungary), Fr. Stefan Kiechle (Germany), Fr. Bernhard Bürgler (Austria), Fr. Christian Rutishauser (Switzerland) und Fr. Vidmantas Šimkūnas (Lithuania-Lettonia)

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