General Congregation 35

TABLET Magazine
26 January 2008
In the steps of Ignatius - and Arrupe
Robert Mickens

Humility coupled with linguistic flair, knowledge of East and West, and academic prowess may have made Adolfo Nicolás an obvious choice as the Jesuits' new leader. But did the fact that his life mirrored that of a previous General also influence their decision?

The Society of Jesus may have fired a subtle shot across the Vatican's bow this week by electing Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ as its new Superior General.

The Spanish-born priest, who will soon be 72, has spent more than 40 years in Japan where he is highly esteemed as a champion of inculturation, interreligious dialogue and a "servant model" of the Church. His views in favour of more de-centralisation and de-clericalisation are also well known. And his belief that "real theology" comes from "life experience" of the laity stands somewhat in contrast to the conservative clerical breezes currently blowing through the Eternal City.

One might read the new Father General's election as an attempt to give greater prominence and autonomy to the Church in the Far East at a time when many people think the Vatican has become overly absorbed with shoring up the ecclesiological hegemony of the West. Was it an attempt to balance the Vatican "yin" with the Jesuit "yang"?

The 217 Jesuit delegates who elected Fr Nicolás on 19 January - and the general himself - would probably deny this. But given that Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Religious, chided the Jesuits over the issue of their loyalty to Rome during Mass at the opening of their thirty-fifth General Congregation in Rome, electors within the Church's largest order may have felt compelled - if subconsciously - to send such a message.

They all knew that the Vatican had opposed Fr Nicolás' candidacy as rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1998 after he was theological adviser to Japanese bishops at the Synod for Asia - the bishops who were most critical of the Vatican. But what is most apparent is the uncanny resemblance between Fr Nicolás' life and thought and that of another former head of the Society, Fr Pedro Arrupe, who - as the new general himself has said - went through "rough sailing" during "years of misunderstanding and distrust with the Holy See". And after the success of the newly retired general, Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ, in normalising Vatican-Jesuit relations, perhaps the electors believed it was time to revisit the spirit of Fr Arrupe, the one they call the "second founder" of their order.

"Like Ignatius, Arrupe's vision and intuition went ahead of his theology," said Fr Nicolás in an interview last year. And he punctuated that with, "Thank God." That assessment reveals some of the notable characteristics of the new general - a deep spirituality and trust in the goodness of others; a sincere humility and sense of service; fine administrative skills and a practical sense; and a good sense of humour.
Adolfo Nicolás was born the third of four children on 29 April 1936 in the small town of Villamuriel in the province of Palencia some 150 miles north of Madrid. It was a significant year in Spanish history. The country was on the brink of civil war and the Jesuits had already been suppressed there some four years earlier. One of the Spanish Jesuit "exiles", Pedro Arrupe, would be ordained a priest in Belgium in the summer of that year.

After the restoration of the Society of Jesus, Nicolás attended Jesuit colleges in both Barcelona and Madrid, and by the age of 17 he knew with certainty that he wanted to join the order founded by St Ignatius of Loyola.

It was during his final year at the Jesuit high school in Madrid that Adolfo Nicolás first encountered Fr Pedro Arrupe. "It was late 1952 or early 1953," Fr Nicolás recalled in a 2007 article. "He gave a lecture on his experiences at Hiroshima after the atomic bomb." At that time, Arrupe was not yet the Jesuit general - that would not come until 1965 - but already Adolfo recognised him as "the great missionary, a national hero, and a man on fire". It was an admiration that would only grow with time.

A few months after Arrupe's visit, Adolfo entered the Jesuit novitiate in the Toledo Province. He completed eight years of formation in Spain before being sent to Japan in 1961 where Fr Arrupe had since become provincial superior. The young Jesuit scholastic, now juridically one of Arrupe's men, spent his first three years there learning Japanese language and culture before studying theology at Sophia University in Tokyo.

In October 1964, during the second session of the Second Vatican Council, Fr John-Baptiste Janssens, the Jesuit Superior General died, to be succeeded the following May by Fr Arrupe. Meanwhile, Adolfo Nicolás continued his studies and was ordained to the priesthood in 1967. A year later he was sent to Rome to pursue a doctorate at the Gregorian University.

Fr Nicolás chose as his thesis director Fr Juan Alfaro SJ (1914-93), a theological adviser at the Council in the so-called "progressive school" alongside Karl Rahner SJ, Yves Congar OP and Edward Schillebeeckx OP.

Fr Nicolás explored the "new" theological currents that had emerged after the Second World War - many of which had been considered "dangerous" and were not fully embraced by the hierarchy until Vatican II. Among them were the theology of work and history, theological anthropology, political theology and the theology of human progress.

Fresh with a Roman pedigree and now 35, Fr Nicolás returned to Tokyo in 1971 to teach systematic theology at Sophia University. He gained a solid reputation among Catholic leaders throughout Asia for his theological prowess and warm personality, and in 1979 he was appointed director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute in Manila. It had been formally established by Fr Arrupe in 1965 as a way to help the Church in Asia implement the vision of the Second Vatican Council.

Fr Nicolás returned to Japan in 1984 and resumed teaching at Sophia University, five years later also becoming rector of the Jesuit Scholasticate in Tokyo - the house of formation for Jesuits preparing for the priesthood. But it was a short appointment because in 1993 he was elected provincial of Japan, taking up the same post that Fr Arrupe had held from 1958 to 1965.

As provincial, Fr Nicolás attended the Jesuits' thirty-fourth General Congregation (GC 34 for short) in 1995. He quickly made a strong impression on his confrères and was elected general secretary of the meeting. He recently recalled "humorous and challenging moments" of that three-month-long meeting but then said: "We were not realistic." In his mind there were too many documents, too many norms and the meeting was too long.

At the end of GC 34 Fr Nicolás, then nearly 59 years old, returned to Japan and completed his term as provincial. Fr Shogo Sumita SJ, current provincial of Japan, recalled how four years later Fr Nicolás moved from the provincial residence to one of the poorest neighbourhoods. "He has a deep grace of Ignatian spirituality and a creative imagination. After serving as provincial, he decided to live and work with the poor," said Fr Sumita.

Fr Nicolás had found a way to start learning theology again. "When we see what people go through on a day-to-day basis, we begin to experience what holiness really is. Theology is the depth of faith in the depth of life," he said at a 1985 conference in Hong Kong. But this life with the poor did not last for long. In 2004 his governance and organisational skills were once again called into service, and he returned to Manila as president of the Jesuit Conference of East Asia and Oceania. It was as head of this office, which helps coordinate mission and information among the different Jesuit provinces in the region, that he came to Rome this year for GC 35.

His experience of East and West, and his academic background, are among the attributes that the Jesuits found particularly appealing. His history as a scholar and theology professor, educated in both Tokyo and Rome, and his multiple language skills of East and West were also important to this international body of educators, said Fr Fred Kammer SJ, provincial of New Orleans and one of the electors.
During the Mass of Thanksgiving last Sunday near the tomb of St Ignatius in the Church of Gesù in Rome, Fr Nicolás told his brother Jesuits: "We are all called to be servants ... [this] will be the characteristic sign and the trademark of our mission." And over the next few weeks he wants the delegates of GC 35 to ask where "at this moment in history" the Society of Jesus needs "to focus our attention, our service and our energy".

"In other words," said Fr Nicolás, "What is the colour, tone and shape of salvation today for all those many human nations - not geographic ones - that are still longing for salvation? To open ourselves to this reality is perhaps the challenge and call of this moment."