So, in summary, the Society is an apostolic body of a presbyteral type. It participates in the mission of the Church, giving to it ‘instructed priests’ who officially proclaim the Gospel in ways which always need to be reinvented. The kind of presbyteral ministry which it has chosen right from the start corresponds exactly to the intuitions of Vatican II. (Translated by Damian Howard SJ)
Bernard Sesbouee SJ is a dogmatic theologian, author of many books and emeritus professor in the Theology Faculty of the Jesuit Centre Sevres in Paris.
[1] Autobiography 50. St Ignatius of Loyola. Personal Writings [SILPW]. Translated with an introduction by Joseph A. Munitiz and Philip Endean. Penguin Books, 1996, p36. Emphasis added.
[2] Autobiography 93, SILPW p59. ‘They’ were Bobadilla, Lainez, Xavier, Codure, Simon Rodriguez and Ignatius; Salmeron was ordained deacon but, given his tender years, had to wait for the priesthood.
[3] Mémorial 14.
[4] Mémorial 14.
[5] Le récit du pèlerin. Autobiographie de saint Ignace de Loyola. Translated by A Thiry, Bruges : 1956, p122.
[6] Autobiography 95, SILPW p.60.
[7] Allocution to the Congregation of Provincials, Loyola, 1990, No. 8.
Source: Priesthood and the Society of Jesus
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