Jesuit Terms

Dutch-born superior general of the Society of Jesus* since 1983, when the Jesuits* were allowed to return to their own governance after a time of papal “intervention.” He entered the Jesuits in 1948, went to Lebanon in the mid-1950’s, earned a doctorate from the famous St. Joseph’s University in Beirut, and spent much of his life there, first as a professor of linguistics and then as superior of the Jesuit* vice-province of the Middle East. By his own admission, he was relatively “ignorant of matters pertaining to justice and injustice,” when he went from Beirut to Rome for General Congregation 32 and witnessed the faith-justice emphasis emerge from the Congregation under the leadership of Pedro Arrupe* [see “The Service Faith and the Promotion of Justice”]. Still, as superior general, he has worked tirelessly in collaboration with his advisors to implement and extend the direction in which his predecessor was leading the Society [see “Men and Women for Others”/”Whole Persons of Solidarity for the Real World”].