A few years after pronouncing their vows on Montmartre, the first Jesuits drew the conclusion, "By experience we have learned that the path has many and great difficulties connected with it." They included this sentence in the first Formula of the Society approved in 1540. "In their own communal apostolic discernment, which led to the founding of the Society, Ignatius and his companions saw this as their unique call, their charism: to choose to be with Christ as servants of his mission, to be with people where they dwell and work and struggle, to bring the Gospel into their lives and labours" (GC34 d. 1, n.7 citing the Deliberatio of 1539).

Experiences in the Jesuit social apostolate also include "many and great difficulties" to be faced with discernment. Discernment is a gift the Society of Jesus received from Ignatius as he learned to discern at Loyola and especially at Manresa, shared this grace with the first companions at Paris and Venice, and wrote the Constitutions in Rome.

What is discernment?

Discernment in the ordinary sense of the word means "the power or faculty of discriminating; acute judgement. "It comes from the Latin cernere, "to sift, to perceive," and it means exercising good taste, showing an educated sensitivity, detecting trends in culture — sometimes called "the signs of the times."

Ignatian discernment of spirits means a combined spiritual attention to the outer situation and the inner motions of consolation and desolation, in order to find what the Lord is asking. (Consolation refers to that deep and abiding peace and joy which is qualitatively different from pleasure and pain. "It is also consolation when one sheds tears which move to love of the Lord, either out of sorrow for sins, or for the Passion of Christ our Lord." If the reader does not understand these expressions, it may be better to talk the topic over with someone experienced in Ignatian spirituality rather than read this chapter.)

Discernment is a pattern one can trace throughout the Society of Jesus: our mission, our lives, our formation, our obedience. We learn it, it becomes a habitual exercise, and occasionally we exercise it deliberately — and in all this it also becomes an overall attitude. There is much expertise and a vast literature on Ignatian discernment in the Society of Jesus. The purpose of this chapter is to suggest the relevance of Ignatian discernment in the Society's social apostolate as presented in these Characteristics.

In the social apostolate The word "discernment" is widely used in the social apostolate. It sometimes means

· to read contemporary or future trends
· to calculate, weigh, estimate
· to make a well-educated guess, a politically astute judgement, a cunning choice

The language of discernment is commonly used when employing some group dynamic or group process

Pg - 86 - How do we proceed? — Style

· getting in touch with our hopes and fears, optimism or depression, personal or interpersonal tensions
· identifying a problem, participating in a decision, reaching a consensus
· agreeing on reasonable improvements, greater efficiency, better techniques
· determining what to do, whom to hire, what to build or to buy

Meanings, situations and usages like these can enter into Ignatian discernment, as we shall see below, but the essential meaning of discernment according to St. Ignatius and in the Jesuit tradition cannot be separated from

· faith in the Providence of our Father and the action of the Holy Spirit
· experienced contemplative prayer
· perception of spiritual consolation and desolation
· detachment ("indifference") with respect to all that is not God, so that we can love God with our whole heart and our neighbour as ourselves
· ability to articulate such interior experiences
· faith-filled respect for Church authority

These are not differences of degree or shading between an "original" and an "applied" meaning, or a "strict" and a "loose" interpretation. For not discerning at every meeting, one should not feel badly; the far graver problem is using the language of discernment loosely and baptising every choice and decision with the name "discernment" as if it were a vague quality which automatically accrues to anything remotely "Jesuit."

Obviously, how the language of discernment is used depends on each social apostolate group, and especially the Jesuits involved in it. In what follows, discernment is intended in the Ignatian, faith-full and prayerful sense.

Doing discernment

As Christians experienced in Ignatian spirituality and as Jesuits, we seek to live contemplatively, continually in the presence of the Lord in our lives and work. This habit of contemplation readies us for discernment. When it occurs daily, it is called the examen.

Since the examen is usually done on a personal basis, in the following description "we" is to be read as "each of us":

The examen is a habitual prayer of reflection on God's active presence in everything. It is a moment to give thanks as the basis for our relationship with all reality including our life. In God's presence and with thanksgiving, we examine (consider, review) our actions and encounters over the past day or so and ask forgiveness for the sins committed "in what I have done and in what I have failed to do" and for the evils we met up with, the sufferings caused by others. Accepting God's compassion and depending utterly on His grace, we seek what the Lord calls us to from now on and undertake anew to fulfil it with the same gratuity we have just experienced.
 

Discernment - pg - 87 -

Sometimes our examen deals with blatant evil with obvious egoism or selfishness, with compulsions to dominate, succeed, or be perfect. Often the forms it deals with, though, are subtle: attachment to our point of view or the bias of our group, narrowness of horizon, temptations to complacency or despair. Evil comes as an apparent or disguised good — self-deception, selfserving rationalisation, defensive narrow-mindedness or narrowness in committed action, blindness to the unintended harm caused by a certain action, the disproportionate cost of some limited good — which can only be detected or discerned with God's help. When social action is directed towards satisfying our own need to be needed or important or successful, God nudges us to acknowledge the mixture of motivations, the fear, ideology, lack of hope, ambition and intolerance that bias our analysis and action.

It is also God who prompts us to give thanks for the gift of any insight and success, to accept our weakness in greater honesty, to learn from the poor and from colleagues, to make the first move towards healing a rift, to apologise and to forgive, to trust even when our work meets with misunderstanding, criticism or apparent failure. And it is God finally who calls us to metanoia, continuous conversion of heart and of mind.
 

Some social apostolate communities or working groups set aside a regular period of time to do an examen together, and this usually takes the form of sharing according to the above points, noting the resulting spiritual motions of consolation or desolation in the group, and seeking the invitation of God to the group. On a larger scale, the social sector in a Province or even an Assistancy may do an examen together on a basic question like the Initiative's "How do we bring the justice of the Gospel to our society and culture?" as specified in the Characteristics with questions such as these: · Are we attentive to the daily conflict suffered by the people? · What is the evangelising action of our social institutes and projects?  · Do we transmit and give witness to the same solidarity as Jesus showed?

The gathering and interpretation of factual data, though essential, is not yet discernment. Discernment properly so-called is the prayerful reflection on a human reality (which we have tried to perceive as clearly and objectively as possible) in the light of faith and with this object in view, to shape our lives and guide our actions concerning that reality only and solely as the Spirit shall direct. And this brings us to the notion of conversion. (Father Pedro Arrupe)

A local community may also do a shared examen. It reflects prayerfully on its common project or the ministry of its members, its lifestyle or that of its members: questions like insertion among the poor or contacts with the marginalised, personal relations, prayer and liturgy, the mode of subsistence. The community way of life allows such an examen to take place: each one's personal prayer nourishes the communal prayer, the common discernment significantly orients the community's life, and the shared prayer supports the communal and working relationships and the service offered to God's people.
Þ How do we live and work? (2.)

Furthermore, from the daily examen there is a continuity to the discernment of a serious personal option, and from the shared examen there is a continuity to the communal discernment of a significant issue and decision.

Pg - 88 - How do we proceed? — Style
 

Our commitment to social dimensions of the Kingdom is continually submitted to a listening to these internal motions in which the Spirit of God is revealed to us. Fidelity to such attentive listening is what will give us the capacity to navigate the difficult waters of social conflict so marked with ideological obstacles.  (Latin America)

Both the classical "election" prepared for and detailed in the Spiritual Exercises and the Deliberatio of the first companions give the indications of how to undertake a communal discernment. Thus, the pattern of a personal election is followed in communal discernment and in apostolic decision-making: · in preparing for the choice or decision by clarifying the matter to be discerned, as the issue is rarely cut-and-dried · in evaluating pros and cons in the light of spiritual motions  · in prayerful confirmation of the choice or decision made.  At stake in discernment is not good rather than evil, but rather "What does the Lord ask of us?": the greater good or the magis in these concrete circumstances. The apparent good usually shuns examination, avoids what will give us the capacity to evaluation, rejects change. Þ On-going Tensions (4.2)

A community or group discernment is a serious proposition and is undertaken with care and respect for the needed spiritual wisdom, and it begins by determining what exactly is to be discerned. For the Jesuit social apostolate does not invent its own mission but receives it from the Society of Jesus, and similarly a community or group receives its apostolic orientation from the Province. Therefore a formal discernment centres on the Lord's will regarding a major decision which falls within the scope of the group or community.

The examen as a regular prayer of discernment is a pattern of the Characteristics. With the personal experience of the presence of God (section 1.), we give thanks for everything we are, live and do (2.), we re-read or examine the situation of the poor (3a.), our action or labour (3b.), our stewardship (3c.), discern in the interior experience of consolation and desolation where God is leading us (4.) and entrust our renewed efforts to His grace (5.).

Both the 32nd and 34th General Congregations show that discernment is central to the Jesuit way of proceeding. "It is the Ignatian method of prayerful discernment, which can be described as "a constant interplay between experience, reflection, decision and action, in line with the Jesuit ideal of being 'contemplative in action"' (GC32, d.4, n.73). "Through individual and communal apostolic discernment, lived in obedience, Jesuits take responsibility for their apostolic decisions in today's world. Such discernment reaches out, at the same time, to embrace the larger community of all those with whom we labour in mission" (GC34, d.26, n.8).

Freedom

No matter how good our original choice of apostolic orientation we will not be true to that orientation unless we live attentive to the prompting of the Spirit along the way. Discernment is the attuning and exercising of this essential attentiveness of the heart.

Once errors are made in social action, inner freedom and honesty are needed to admit the mistakes and seek forgiveness, pull back from them and start out again in simplicity. The examen lets God help us learn from our mistakes and rectify what is harming others and ourselves, rather

Discernment - pg - 89 -

than leave them concealed beneath a false light. Evaluation is like listening to conscience when assessing if we did things right or not in the past. Þ Planning and Evaluation (3.8)

Ignatian indifference is a high spiritual ideal with an enormous relevance to the work of social justice. True indifference between power and powerlessness, riches and poverty, success and failure helps us to avoid the trap of blindness or even corruption by the apparent good. Discernment is not an added extra, but central to fulfilling the broader public political role of our apostolate.

The Spiritual Exercises turn around the great theme of freedom, though not in the form of human rights or political liberty, as the Bible treats great themes of divine and human justice without applying the categories of modern society and culture. Discernment is seeking freedom in daily living and working and in major decisions — to free us in the social apostolate to love God more, to show deeper compassion with those who suffer, to serve better the most vulnerable among our neighbours.

1. Starting a new community, considering a change of location, or planning an expansion involves choices regarding the neighbourhood and the building. Is there an example of a communal discernment made on such issues? What can be learned from the experience?

2. The location and architecture of buildings that house our social centres and projects also involve significant choices. How do these benefit from discernment?

3. Evaluation is like listening to conscience while going back over "what I have done and what I have failed to do." What are important affinities and links between the examen and evaluation (see chapter 3.8)? What are basic differences between the two brought out in the present chapter?
 
 

4.2 On-going Tensions - pg - 91 -

Having learned from experience that "the path has many and great difficulties connected with it," the first Jesuits learned the art of spiritual discernment in order to make their way.

Some of "the many and great difficulties" faced by the Jesuit social apostolate over the years are not to be overcome or resolved once and for all, but are rather to be subjected to continuous dialogue and discernment. These are on-going tensions and they are found at different levels in our life and work.

Tensions involve two or more good things which are difficult to keep together, which cannot be resolved by reasoning (logic) or overcome by blending into something new (dialectic), which require discernment, dialogue and continuous re-adjustment, and which tend, if lived prayerfully, towards the greater good asked of us by the poor and by God.

Practically every tension applies to "me" and to "us": the tension in "me" engages my preferences and inclinations and keeps nudging me to grow in integrity; the tension in "us," given the kind of work and community we are in, has us continually checking the emphases we both make and neglect.

We can hardly help favouring one side and neglecting the other. In fact, at the risk of talking psychology: where one feels resistance, may be where one is to find what one needs. This would be true of a community or working group too. What follows are some tensions that are typical of our Jesuit social apostolate, briefly sketched to help an individual, community or working group identify which tension they are called to live better.
 

Visibility and hiddenness Giving witness of our faith in the social apostolate is both valid and necessary. We may, like "light of the world," explicitly use religious words or symbols or, like "salt of the earth," we might not. But such adaptations according to "persons, times and places, with their contingencies" is not the same as systematically keeping our faith, our religious consecration or our priesthood private (Father General at Naples). Nor does giving witness mean using social action, which has its own human and evangelical value, to meet a hidden agenda of proselytism.  Þ Religious Reading (3.5) There is the "light" model of giving witness, and the model of "salt" or "yeast." The tension consists not so much in deciding which one to use as in noticing when a change in circumstances ("persons, times and places, with their contingencies") requires a change of emphasis.

This indeed is a challenge of the Initiative taken up by the social apostolate, it is a challenge of this Congress. It would be a mistake to wish to suppress these tensions. We must receive them and contemplate them: how are they going to be a source of energy for us? How can they help the body to move ahead?  (Naples Congress)

A social apostolate community, inserted in a poor area or neighbourhood, may be pulled between a visible "light" and a hidden "salt or leaven" style of presence. The Christian nature and Church connections of some social justice projects may be essential to their work for example, of advocacy or public education — while others need to witness in a very discreet manner.

Pg - 92 - How do we proceed? — Style

"Head" and "feet"

"Feet" stands for the dimension of direct contact with lived reality, insertion, closeness, in tension with "head" as the intellectual, reflective and theoretical dimension. The promotion of justice here and now, concretely, politically, may be in similar tension with the socio-cultural analysis of the causes of injustice. For example, "We were a group of very active Jesuits and we plunged into a social action, but without the support of factual analysis and critical reflection in common."
Þ Cooperation and Networking (3.7)

No matter the type of social ministry, each staff tends more to "head" or "feet," and the tension is to grow in the other. Everyone is called to active thought ("Don't just watch — do something!") and to thoughtful action ("Watch what you're doing!"). In community but especially in the project or centre, the tension is an obvious challenge to teamwork.

While each work has its proper emphasis, the team can ask where growth is needed towards a greater breadth and integration and more effective service. Similarly, within the social sector of a Province, there are usually works of different types; each type should be represented in dialogue and make a real effort to complement the others.

Charisma and institution

People want to put their competence, strengths and creativity to best use. The tension is between doing so on one's own terms, individually, and putting them at the disposition of others according to the disciplines of teamwork. For an administrator, this takes the form of a tension between work which achieves its own goals and work which makes it possible for others to work. Many Jesuits, when young, vow to work as a team but, once formed, do not and even cannot. So: it's a tension!

From the work or project viewpoint, the tension takes the form of charisma versus institution. A project consolidates, for example, and becomes an NGO so that it can better serve the people, but the institutional process absorbs time and energies which were used earlier in direct contact with the people. Thus, an institutional approach is in tension with one of accompaniment, and both are pursued for the sake of effective service.

The tension seems connected with different phases in the development or evolution of the project and perhaps with earlier and later moments in the life of the founder.

The charisma, creativity, initiative and responsiveness often associated with a pioneer are in tension with the stable institutional values, clarification of roles and professional management which make teamwork possible.
Þ Administration (3.9)

Tension in where we're located

Insertion among the poor and direct contact with their daily life and suffering are very important for our life, work, spirituality and vision.

On-going Tensions - pg - 93 -
 

Our community in a simple house in a poor area, a lifestyle marked by hospitality, the time we spend with our neighbours, may be in tension with a quiet house conducive for rest and prayer, in a stable neighbourhood close to the work. Whichever the choice, the tension consists in seeking the important values of the other. Similarly the place of work, if inserted among the poor, facilitates a privileged reading of socio-cultural reality, a base for organising action, a credential or warrant for speaking out in public on issues of justice. A centrally located set-up is usually more accessible to the staff, provides a good working environment, allows wider contacts.
 

Tension in what we do Another tension in the social apostolate is between the other treated as a "you" interpersonally, and others treated as "everyone" structurally.  The work itself may be one of "being there and apparently doing little" or giving assistance: direct services, pastoral activity, accompaniment of refugees, care for the marginalised (moving from the "you" towards the "everyone"). The work may be analytical, organisational, developmental, structural; advocacy for change or alternatives in structures or institutions at various levels. All these efforts are made so that others are treated as "everyone" is or should be: equally, fairly, respectfully.

If the poor are not under our eyes, they gradually grow distant from our hearts as well. How can we keep alive nearness to the poor and solidarity with them in our daily reality? Why is it so difficult to grapple with the themes of poverty, justice, culture and dialogue in our works and in our communities?  (Naples Congress)

The expressions charity and justice used to be in a polemical opposition of "treating symptoms" versus "changing causes or structures." The Good Samaritan did not treat symptoms but the suffering man with his wounds and bruises. To love your neighbour is both to stop and help the man who was mugged going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and to do something about the brigands operating along the road.

Charity and justice are not the same thing, but they both come into the Jesuit social apostolate, and the tension consists in attending to the values which cluster around each.

Do they come down to a basic tension?

To live deeply inserted among the poor, to work connected with grass roots, to apply all our intellectual and organisational resources: the tension consists in keeping different levels together, along with counter-cultural values of simplicity and solidarity.

"Apostolic efficiency and apostolic poverty are two values to be held in an on-going tension," said GC32 in 1975 (d. 12, n.9). At the Naples Congress, Father General elaborated on the tension between working competently and effectively for justice and working with poor means in an attitude of simplicity:

1. What are good examples of change or transformation of structures today? Is a structural focus always appropriate in our work?

2. What are the most important and widespread tensions which we live? Which ones, true of the social apostolate, can be extended to other Jesuit ministries? Which ones are specific to the social apostolate alone?

3. If "individualism" means an isolated and self-centred manner, contrary to both community and team, it is always pejorative. Are many gifted, well-trained and hard-working people in fact — inevitably — individualistic? Is this a cultural question, too?

4. What happens when a tension is neglected and only one value is favoured? Have one-sided emphases in the past given rise to frictions, conflicts and divisions in the social apostolate, in the Society?

5. Is there anything one can do to favour growth rather than polarization in the face of tensions? Under what conditions do tensions usually prove fruitful?
 
 

5. Why do we hope? - Vision - pg - 97 -

Ignatius of Loyola, inspired by Jesus Christ and the saints in their poverty, exchanged his nobleman's cloak for the tunic of a beggar. Putting all his trust in God, he set out on a lifelong pilgrimage in which interiorly he became ever poorer and always remained close to the poor until in Rome, his travels over, he worked with the prostitutes and the homeless while serving as General.
 

The same inspiration could have motivated the pilgrim Inigo to imitate Christ and the saints in their itinerant poverty and remain a holy mendicant. But he wanted even more to serve Christ his Master and, as he liked saying, "to help souls." The initial inspiration gave rise to decisions, and the ensuing changes and events transformed the original desires and became the story of the pilgrim Ignatius and the early history of the Society of Jesus.  Inspired by Jesus Christ, St. Ignatius and others, we plunge into situations of poverty, suffering and injustice which become intensely our own situation too. In a thousand different ways both direct and reflective, we carry on a social apostolate of struggle to alleviate suffering, overcome injustices and reconcile conflicts. The odds are daunting, the failures frequent, the triumphs occasional and rarely definitive. Why bother? Why carry on?

We are particularly influenced by the vision of the African Synod (1994): an integral evangelisation that demands justice and peace and dialogue with cultures and builds a Church after the model of 'family of God.' (Africa)

 "Give an account of the hope that is in you!"

Immersed in human suffering and social injustice, we are always running into sin, which in its multiple disguises always corrupts, excludes and destroys. "We see that oppressive poverty breeds a systemic violence against the dignity of men, women, children and the unborn which cannot be tolerated in the Kingdom willed by God" (GC34, d.2, n.9).
 

When Jesuits do articulate their visions of social ministry, the language typically refers to "building the kingdom of God." It resonates with Igantius' meditation on the Incarnation and reflects the "Catholic love affair with the world." It serves the collaborative nature of our work since it resonates meaningfully with all Christians working to build the reign of God  here on earth.  (United States).

The sins of the powerful and the comfortable, the sins of the poor against their own and, hardest to recognise, our own sins and complicity "reach in our time a pitch of intensity through social structures which exclude the poor — the majority of the world's population — from participation in the blessings of God's creation" (GC32, d.2, n.9). Calling sin by its name is a sound basis for hope and a step towards the conversion of heart which is at the root of real cultural and social change. To be bluntly critical regarding sinful reality is not pessimism but means joining in Christ's struggle against sin with complete generosity of heart. "We are called to go all the way in our openness to the world, our 'yes' to man.... If our social commitment is authentically Jesuit, that of a companion of Jesus, then it will share with Christ all his faith in man and his world, all his loving Divine regard for humanity in this world" (Father General at Naples). We

Pg - 98 - Why do we hope?

regularly witness instances of people's goodness, endurance, generosity and comprehension whose value endures beyond the moment.
 

Faith in Christ is the beginning of the social apostolate; compassionate love is what we try to give along with competence for social change; and a resulting gift not of our own making is the, real hope we feel for human beings and their grassroots or alternative movements world.  "Now present in all who suffer, all who are oppressed, all whose lives are broken by sin" (GC34, d.2, n.4), the crucified and risen Lord Jesus is actively at work where the human family is most damaged. The signs are perceptible, tangible, convincing. A group recovers its dignity, a conflict is reconciled, a loss is mourned without despair, a triumph is celebrated without vindictiveness, generosity sets an injustice right. We know a different life is possible because, especially among the poor, we have experienced it.

The Society of Jesus is called upon to rebuild hope by initiating end collaborating with popular movements of the marginalised and the like. Whatever the right approach to these challenges, the present social malaise is clearly a result of man-made unjust social structures and relationships. In order to empower the powerless, the Jesuits need to be motivated by a people-oriented spirituality, rooted in the culture and indigenous technology of the people with whom they live and work. (South Asia)

Christ performs the signs he always did: the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. We too try to be present in compassion and effective solidarity. The concrete things we do and live each day convey in effect and in the local idiom and culture the proclamation of Jesus: God is our loving Father, and the Kingdom prepared for us, in which we can really be brothers and sisters to one another, is very near at hand.
 

We are moved to find ways and solutions according to the style of Jesus, out of close accompaniment, shared poverty and inculturation, out of research which opens new trails to hope, out of action which, like that of Jesus, sows signs of the kingdom among us. (Latin America)

The daily tasks in our project or centre, as well as communal and spiritual life, are elements of an apostolate bringing the justice of the Kingdom to society and culture. They require a dialogue of life and action in collaboration with others. They include our witness to the beatitudes as religious in consecrated life, our ministry of deacon serving the poor and promoting justice, our priestly ministry of preaching, consecrating, reconciling and building community.  The goal of our social apostolate is "to build, by means of every endeavour, a fuller expression of justice and charity into the structures of human life in common." This charity and justice of the Kingdom are not yet here, but at the same time, do already come about thanks to God's grace and many human efforts including ours. "The men and women of our time need a hope which is eschatological, but they also need to have some signs that its realization has already begun" (GC32, d.4, n. 16). The Kingdom is not only within reach and ready to be tried; it is already here and being lived.

Vision - pg - 99 -
 

To give witness, by itself, may not be credible; to work hard, even with occasional good results, does not necessarily go beyond the project itself. We work for what we hope for, but we hope for far more than work alone can accomplish. What seems convincing he effort to keep combining the two, to keep making the ideal concrete, to keep making hope possible. Competent analysis, rigorous thinking, careful planning, sensitive communication, long-term projects and far-reaching alliances: these somehow continually "work over" our faith and inspiration and, all together, keep generating a hope that is possible.  This possible hope finds expression in "community" and "solidarity." Community is a structure to live, pray, think and work in together — as in the biblical images of wedding feast and holy city. Solidarity means assuming another's situation, making it our own and following through — as Jesus took on our human condition of poverty, suffering and death. The 34th General Congregation was inspired to combine the two in the fruitful image of communities of solidarity. Community and solidarity are both "already" and "not yet." Community of solidarity points to a reality for which we work and pray — "a world order of genuine solidarity, where all can have a rightful place at the banquet of the Kingdom" (d.3, n.7) — and it denotes experiences which we already have. It is a living parable of the Kingdom.

Just as our faith sends us out to is work for justice, so too our solidarity and sear for justice send us 'back' to preach the Gospel message of faith within our cultures. The Gospel prompts us to challenge the value priorities and behaviour of those who have responsibility within unjust structures. We believe that it is only the Gospel message that goes deep enough to bring about the conversion of culture needed to create and sustain justice. (Europe)

Community of solidarity is a way of living and a means of working. As a way of life it sustains its members involved in the social apostolate and welcomes others, especially the poor, the wounded, the weak and the weary. As a means for working it suggests building up inclusive community in which people care for one another, seek the truth, welcome the poor without excluding anyone, work together for justice marked by charity.
 

We need a commitment so great that it includes the willingness to surrender one's own privileges. This was the commitment that Jesus had, and it led him to the loss of everything on the Cross. We need a 'martyrdom of spirit' together with, of course, the hope that inspires all martyrs.  (East Asia)

Our possible hope stretches out into networks of cooperation with many other groups pursuing similar objectives. "Full human liberation, for the poor and for us all, lies in the development of communities of solidarity at the grass-roots and non-governmental as well as the political level, where we can all work together towards total human development" (d.3, n. 10). Our possible hope runs as deep as our very faith. "Being 'friends of the Lord,' then, means being 'friends of the poor,' and we cannot turn aside when our friends are in need. We are a community in solidarity with them because of Christ's preferential love for them" (d.2, n.9).

Pg - 100 - Why do we hope?
 

Basically my call as a priest is to be a man of peace and hope amidst conflicts and struggles. (Written by A.T. Thomas before his ordination in 1981)

Being friends every day means translating the good news daily into working ideals, real promises, possible hopes. It sometimes means — as it has recently for some forty Jesuit martyrs from Rutilio Grande (1977) to paying the price of the cross, a silent yet most eloquent characteristic of the social apostolate of the Society of Jesus.

1. How does the account given here help the social sector in a Province, the staff of a project, or a community to "give an account of the hope that is in you"?

2. Is "possible hope" a good expression for what our apostolate does offer, or would like to? Are we in fact more hopeful, or do we convey more hope, than at times we feel? What are some differences between an impossible dream or utopia and possible hope?

Appendices

A. Putting the handbook to use - v -

The Characteristics reflect the experiences and concerns of the Society's social apostolate, state its purpose as a basis for dialogue and collaboration, and mean to foster its renewal and development. The Characteristics are not primarily descriptive, doctrinal, speculative or legal, but an instrument for examining and discussing and developing our social ministries.

Others are most welcome to make use of these pages, but the text assumes that the reader is involved in the social apostolate or well acquainted with the Society of Jesus and its mission. Those less familiar will benefit greatly if an experienced person could introduce them to St. Ignatius, the Constitutions and the Spiritual Exercises, the social teaching and praxis of the Church and the Society's recent General Congregations (abbreviated GC).

Like the book of the Exercises, the Characteristics are a series of exercises meant to be applied and used especially in team and community meetings, study days and days of recollection, workshops, training sessions or courses of formation as well as for personal reflection.

The structure and flow of the Characteristics are explained in the "Preface." The chapters are short to facilitate thoughtful consideration and especially group discussion. An arrow Þ refers to the fuller development of a point in another chapter. [In these HTML documents, an image of a red ball has been inserted to provide a convenient link to the appropriate section in the document. Simply click on the image.]

Each chapter includes a few boxed texts, usually taken from the materials prepared in the Assistancies of the Society for the Naples Congress. These quotations illustrate the point being made and give a sense of concerns as they are felt in different areas of the social apostolate.

The Characteristics are exercises for paying attention to what we are doing, how we do it, why we do it. They help us test the concrete, practical implementation of our mission, fidelity to our calling in work and community, the motivation which energises and orients the social apostolate and the comprehension of what with God's help it seeks and strives for.

At the end of each chapter, several questions are suggested. The questions need to be improved and adapted to the particular group, community or team to stimulate a helpful reflection. One or two questions per meeting or session will usually suffice. After each participant has read the chapter or shorter passage selected, a small-group exchange (with as few as two or three in each group) allows opinions to clarify before everyone enters into general discussion.

When reading or presenting a chapter, it is very important to keep in mind a particular work or community, or the social sector in one 5 Province, and constantly refer the points made to it. Real conditions differ considerably from place to place, and so the words used may need to be adjusted to fit local circumstances. With the same generous spirit which St. Ignatius recommends at the beginning of the Exercises, please be eager to put a good interpretation on each statement.

vi - Appendices

B. The Social Apostolate Initiative

The Characteristics handbook forms part of a process of reflection and renewal called the Social Apostolate Initiative 1995-2005. Reasons for undertaking such a process include the following:

· More than twenty years ago, GC32 defined the mission of the Society of Jesus as the service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement. How have we done this? What have we learned? We are ready to take stock, and we also need to.

· Everywhere in the world, society itself is changing — radically and rapidly and relentlessly. How do we Jesuits and colleagues comprehend what's happening in the vast area called "society" which is the proper locus of the multi-faceted social apostolate?

· In 1995, GC34 not only reaffirmed the service of faith and the promotion of justice, but added dialogue with cultures and religions as integral dimensions. How do these fine ideas fit together, in practice, in reality, in social ministry and other ministries, in community life and in spiritual life?

· Decree 4 struck many, both Jesuits and others, as very prophetic and maybe too radical. But the notions of social change and social justice are less current now, less fashionable, than they were in 1975! By contrast, the rather soft-spoken Decrees 2-5 of GC34 are actually very counter-cultural, very radical. Very sound as they seem, they are more suggestive than programmatic.

Granted that the social apostolate needs serious review and re-thinking, an apparently simple question was posed to initiate the reflection, as if by a person of good will but without our background:

How do you Jesuits in social ministry bring the Good News to society? Please describe your vision, the work you do, the life you lead.

This got us started in the work of self-evaluation and reflection on our manner of dealing with problems that are at once economic, political, cultural and religious. In some thirty meetings and workshops in the various Assistancies from July 1995 until April 1997, the initial question was faced in more articulate forms such as:

What do you think is happening in society? How do you respond? What's evangelical Jesuit, priestly about your response? Why do you do such work? What do you hope to achieve? How do you evaluate your efforts and institutions: what counts for success, for failure?

The debate led to discoveries and initial answers began emerging. These were sent to Rome and given to a small preparatory commission or coetus (March 1997) which identified the major themes and decided on the dynamics of the Social Apostolate Congress in Naples.

The Congress in June 1997 brought together 160 Jesuits from nearly all Provinces for a week of joyful encounter and spirited exchange. The purpose was to contribute to the renewal of the social apostolate as a vital sector of the Society's mission. The key concerns which converged at Naples are expressed in this handbook, and in the video, Social Apostolate: why? Both are instruments for use in the Social Apostolate Initiative in the new decade.

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C. Feedback

The present text of the Characteristics (1998) is neither finished nor final but a draft version distributed among Jesuits and colleagues to be used and tested in personal reflection and group discussion.

Taking any characteristic statement made in the handbook and applying it to a particular work or Province social sector, one might ask,

Any reading or discussion of the Characteristics will probably move people's spirits and generate comments of both appreciation and criticism. Such comments, communicated to the Social Apostolate Secretariat, would be of great use in revising the Characteristics and making them a more accurate and useful instrument.

Three other kinds of input are also warmly requested:

· Any successful approach or technique employed in a meeting or workshop, which would contribute to a pedagogy of the Characteristics.

· An incident or experience or slice of life which illustrates a point made in the Characteristics.

· A topic of Ignatian spirituality (for example, a meditation of the Spiritual Exercises applied to the socio-cultural realm, or an innovative use of the examen) which enhances or illuminates something in the Characteristics.

Feedback received by June 1999 will be useful in revising and improving the present draft text.

Early in the new decade, Father General hopes to promulgate a definitive edition of the Characteristics of the Social Apostolate of the Society of Jesus.

Please send any comment or input to the Social Justice Secretariat by mail, fax or e-mail (address below).
 
 

D. Resources

The present working draft of the Characteristics of the Social Apostolate of the Society of Jesus is published in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (other language versions may become available) by Promotio Iustitiae (PJ), the bulletin of the Social Apostolate Secretariat at the General Curia in Rome.

· Several articles which explain the background of the Characteristics have appeared in PJ in English, French and Spanish. The Social Apostolate Initiative is first described in PJ 64 (June

viii - Appendices

1996) and further explained in PJ 67 (May 1997). A history of the Jesuit social apostolate, "From Rerum Novarum to Decree 4," is traced in PJ 66 (February 1997), especially the 1949 "Instruction" of Father General Janssens; this issue is also available in Italian. There is a description of the Naples Congress and some of its conclusions, along with the three Congress addresses (by Cardinal Michele Giordano, Archbishop of Naples; Vittorio Liberti, S.J., Provincial of Italy; and Father General Kolvenbach) in PJ 68 (September 1997).

· For a detailed Province-by-Province overview of the Jesuit social apostolate, please see the Catalogue of the Social Apostolate, published in four fascicles in 1997: America, Africa and Asia, Europa and Social Centres. The Catalogue presents, in a simple systematic format, a great deal of information about the social sector and social dimension within each Province. The Catalogue may be borrowed from the Provincial Curia or the Jesuit who attended the Naples Congress as a delegate, or requested from the Social Apostolate Secretary.

· The video Social Apostolate: why?, partly filmed at the 1997 Naples Congress, introduces viewers to Jesuits facing some of the basic questions of the social sector today. The video, accompanied by its User Guide, is available in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish, and in the required VHS system: NSTC, PAL or SECAM.

· For information about the "sjsocial" discussion group by electronic-mail, please contact:
 

The resources listed here are available on request. A donation to help defray expenses, while not necessary, is always cheerfully accepted. Please contact: