Men and Women for Others—Men and Women with Others
Exploring the Shape and Substance of Jesuit-Lay Collaboration within GC35 and Jesuit-Affiliated Institutions
By Theresa Ladrigan-Whelpley
I am a Catholic lay woman and I serve as the director of resident ministry at Santa Clara University. As one of the “others” working with and alongside Jesuits in mission at a Jesuit institution of higher education, I took special notice of the most recent General Congregation of the Society of Jesus (GC 35).
Specifically, I was interested in the ways in which the published decrees of GC35 called upon its Jesuit members to renew their commitment to collaboration and to examine the shape and substance of this collaboration.1 “We wish especially to reflect upon the way in which collaboration in mission calls us to a new and often challenging renewal of our ministries…From the earliest stages of Jesuit formation and throughout our lives as Jesuits, training in collaboration must be experiential…molding our identity as men for others who are also men with others.”2 What does it mean for Jesuits to be “also men with others”?
And what does it mean to be one of the “others”? In this essay I will reflect upon my own experiences of Jesuit-lay collaboration within a Jesuit institution of higher education and explore how the decrees of GC35 might invite a renewed understanding of this collaboration.
Union of Members and Shared Mission
The second decree of GC35, “A Fire that Kindles Other Fires: Rediscovering our Charism,” begins with an examination of the many ways in which the Ignatian charism has been kept alive through the union of its members. “Despite our differences in culture and context…we have again and again been privileged to know ourselves as one in the Lord: one united, apostolic body seeking what is best for the service of God in the Church and for the world.”3 In this most recent General Congregation, the Society of Jesus reaffirms that participation in the Ignatian charism means, first and foremost, joining oneself to the love of Christ and making real the indwelling of God in all things and in all people. As a lay partner in a Jesuit institution of higher education, this articulation is an exciting one for me, because it is something that I can seek to live out alongside my Jesuit and lay colleagues. The notion of a union of members seems to be characterized more by a common mission than a common membership; it requires a shared faith commitment rather than a shared state of life.4
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, written by Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century, put it this way: “The chief bond to cement the union of the members…is…the love of God our Lord. For when the superior and the subjects are closely united to his Divine and Supreme Goodness, they will very easily be united among themselves, through that same love which will descend from the Divine Goodness and spread to all other human beings, and particularly into the body of the Society.”5 As I reflect upon Ignatius’ charge today, I find myself desiring a deeper union with the Divine and Supreme Goodness of God and charged to make this union manifest in the world. Insofar as Jesuit and lay colleagues seek out and respond to this invitation of relationship, we will “find our identity not alone but in companionship: in companionship with the Lord, who calls, and in companionship with others who share this call.”6 The second decree of the General Congregation not only highlights the significance of a union of members within the Ignatian charism, but it also emphasizes the ways in which any realization of the Ignatian charism must bear witness to God’s presence in the world and God’s responsiveness to the needs of the world. “In what we do in the world there must always be…a strong sense of the sacred inseparably joined to involvement in the world. Our deep love of God and our passion for his world should set us on fire—a fire that starts other fires!”7 Over the past 450 years, Jesuits have established multiple retreat centers, parishes, colleges and universities, high schools, and service and solidarity organizations in response to the Ignatian imperative to “go forth and set the world on fire.” However, as the numbers of lay persons working with and alongside Jesuits in these Jesuit-founded institutions continues to grow, a greater openness to the shared worldly mission of lay colleagues and Jesuits must be fostered.
Former Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., in his October 2007 address in Malta, charged: “We Jesuits need to be not only friends and companions of the Lord and each other, we must be friends and companions of our partners in mission…Moving beyond simply inviting lay persons to join Jesuits in Jesuit sponsored works…Jesuits must think of ‘our’ parish, our retreat center, our school in a new way. It is ‘ours’ now, referring to a larger group, because it is a mission for which all of us—Jesuit and lay— are co-responsible.”8 In order for there to be a full union of members, Jesuits and lay colleagues alike must be free to claim shared ownership over the common mission of their institutions, and free to realize their own particular vocations within the mission of these institutions.
One of my first and most memorable experiences of this partnership in mission within my own work at Santa Clara University came three and a half weeks into my position when I learned that the resident ministry fall formation retreat had been scheduled for the following week and that I was responsible for planning it. I knew almost no one on campus; I had not even met one of my two Jesuit supervisors who was slated to begin his own new position the following month. As I set out to prepare the details of this retreat with more questions than resources, my first thought was to plan a concluding liturgy, a kind of sending forth into the year that would affirm the pastoral role of resident ministers in their work with students and charge them (in the Ignatian spirit) to live as men and women for others within our undergraduate residence hall communities. But I thought, who could mission the resident ministers into the year in this way? Who did I know at the university who might have the capacity to embody this sense of the union of members and be available to drive up to the retreat house to join us next weekend? The only person that I could even name as a possibility was the president of the university, Paul Locatelli, S.J., and of course I was guessing that his schedule would almost certainly be booked for the following weekend. Nevertheless, I emailed him that afternoon, e-introducing myself and inviting him to join the retreat to bless the resident ministers for their work in the new year. Ten minutes later my office phone rang. “Hi Theresa, this is Paul, Paul Locatelli. Thank you for coming to work at Santa Clara. I am so glad you are here. I got your email and I think I can make this work. What time were you thinking for the retreat liturgy?” We proceeded to have a conversation about the Scripture readings scheduled for that Sunday and how they were (and were not!) related to the Ignatian charism and the work of resident ministry. As our conversation progressed it was clear that Fr. Locatelli’s vision for the liturgy was not one of top-down scripting; rather, he hoped to involve as many members of the resident ministry team as possible and asked if I might call the resident ministers forth by name for the closing blessing. I knew them best, he insisted, and I would serve as their minister as the year unfolded. Paul Locatelli’s way of proceeding, his collaborative generosity and sense of shared mission empowered me to be a full partner in ministry. As I invited him to be a person for others that day, he invited me to be a person with others, extending the support and spirit of the union of members, and charging me to live into the freedom and authority of my own lay vocation within this Jesuit institution.
Ignatian versus Jesuit Works and Subsidiarity
Though my experience in planning the resident ministry opening liturgy suggests otherwise, one significant challenge I have faced in my work is the difficulty of developing religious-lay partnerships that honor the particularity of both the vowed and the lay vocations while inviting shared ownership within the institutional mission. In his 2001 address to the International Meeting of Jesuit Higher Education in Rome, former Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. noted, “Lay people are not called to be mini-Jesuits, but rather to live their own lay vocation. Respecting the way in which the Lord leads each person is fundamental to Ignatian spirituality. This having been said, a collaborator of an institution of higher education in the Society should identify in some manner with the institutional mission.”9 How is it possible for lay collaborators in Jesuit-founded institutions to claim the Ignatian charism of the institution as their own? What might a distinctively lay form of this shared Ignatian charism look like?
The sixth decree of the recent General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, “Collaboration at the Heart of Mission,” offers a few concrete ways of proceeding. For the freedom of Jesuit-lay collaboration to be realized, GC35 suggests that we must distinguish between Jesuit works and Ignatian works. That is, not everything that manifests the Ignatian charism need be a Jesuit work, but all Jesuit works ought to manifest the Ignatian charism. To distinguish the Ignatian charism from a Jesuit work allows lay persons in particular to have a degree of freedom in how they understand the realization of their own vocation within the Ignatian charism. “Any work may be said to be Ignatian when it manifests the Ignatian charism…Such a work does not rely necessarily on the Society of Jesus for its Ignatian identity, though it may affiliate with the Society in partnership through networks and other structures.”10 Christian Life Communities and Jesuit volunteer organizations are two examples of what would be considered Ignatian works under this GC35 taxonomy, as they are two “autonomous associations with whom [Jesuits] share a spiritual bond” but they do not rely on the Society of Jesus directly for their particular Ignatian identity.11 Such autonomous lay associations are free to seek out the support and cooperation of the Society of Jesus as they make manifest their Ignatian charism, but their realization of the Ignatian charism does not require this support and cooperation.
On the other hand, “An Ignatian work can be said to be Jesuit when it has a clear and definitive relationship with the Society of Jesus and when its mission accords with that of the Society.”12 In many Jesuit-founded institutions, such as my own Jesuit-affiliated institution of Santa Clara University, some lay persons might be specifically collaborating in a Jesuit work (rather than an Ignatian work more broadly) within their university position. However, even in these instances, GC35 suggests that a certain amount of freedom and autonomy ought to be ensured. A lay person collaborating in a Jesuit work might consult regularly with a major Jesuit superior; however, “subsidiarity serves to promote discernment, accountability, and a clearer sense of collaboration for mission.”13 The principle of subsidiarity suggests that decision making and responsibility ought to rest at the most localized grass-roots level, with those in positions of higher-order authority intervening only when necessary to support the common good. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace considers the principle of subsidiarity to be a cornerstone principle within Catholic Social Teaching, as it helps to ensure “intermediate social entities can properly perform the functions that fall to them without being required to hand them over unjustly to other social entities of a higher level, by which they would end up being absorbed and substituted, in the end seeing themselves denied their dignity and essential place.”14 Thus in Jesuit-lay collaboration within a Jesuit work the principle of subsidiarity helps to promote and preserve the full vocational freedom of all persons involved, particularly that of lay persons who are serving under the supervision of a Jesuit superior.
In my own work as director of resident ministry at Santa Clara University, I offer formational support and supervision for the sixteen resident ministers living on campus in our undergraduate residence halls. These sixteen resident ministers are graduate students and staff members at the University, both Jesuits and lay persons, who are charged with promoting vocational reflection in their communities (via small group offerings), serving as a resource and mentor for students (through specific hospitality hours as well as after-hours), and modeling Jesuit and Ignatian values. Historically, all resident ministers were Jesuits at Santa Clara University, as was and is the case for many Jesuit intuitions of higher education. However, as the number of lay persons in this position is now often significantly greater than the number of Jesuits (with fourteen lay persons and two Jesuits on our staff this year), it has been important in my work to empower both lay persons and Jesuits with the understanding that we are “coworkers in the vineyard.”15 That is, we all have both the capacity and the freedom to incarnate the Ignatian charism in our ministry, according to our own particular gifts and abilities, as well as the responsibility to discern and value the ways in which we are participating in a Jesuitfounded work. Furthermore, because resident ministers and the Jesuit community at Santa Clara University now share the common goal of making visible Jesuit and Ignatian values on our campus, I have found it helpful to create concrete opportunities for sharing and exchange between our lay resident ministers and members of the larger Jesuit community. For example, with the support of many collaborators, we recently organized a joint liturgy, dinner, and discussion for the resident ministers and the larger Jesuit community at the Jesuit residence. While resident ministers and Jesuit community members may claim different states of life as well as diverse theological perspectives and denominations, this gathering served to support our union of members and honored the shared Ignatian mission present in our individual Jesuit and lay vocations. Finally, in keeping with the nature of resident ministry as a dual Ignatian and Jesuit work, it has been essential for me to meet regularly with my own Jesuit supervisors around any issues of concern, and I am grateful for the ways in which open dialogue, trust, and subsidiarity have informed this collaboration. I have been able to exercise the freedom of decision-making (most often) at the local departmental level and have found much institutional support for holding all resident ministers accountable to the expectations of the position, regardless of their lay or religious status.
Men and Women for Others … Men and Women with Others
As I was setting up for one of the information sessions that we held last year for staff and graduate students who might be interested in applying to become a resident minister, I had a young woman ask me: “Is this the Ignatian department? I was interested in applying to become one of the Ignatians on campus.” In the spirit of GC35, may we each work to foster an environment where lay persons can uniquely name themselves as “Ignatians” alongside their Jesuit colleagues so that a true union of members within the Ignatian charism may be made possible for all those collaborating in the shared mission of our Jesuit-founded institutions.
Endnotes
1 I speak of a renewed commitment to collaboration because the Society of Jesus has prophetically voiced its commitment to fostering greater lay collaboration even prior to this most recent General Congregation, most especially following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in General Congregation 31, Decree 33 [herinafter GC31, 33] (1965-66), as well as in GC34, 13 (1995).
2 GC35, 6:8,16.
3 GC35, 2:2.
4 The shared mission of Jesuits and lay collaborators who are not Christian is also explicitly supported in GC35, 6:18, where the recommendation is made for specific formation programs that invite “each person—whether employee or volunteer, newly arrived or veteran, Christian believer or member of another faith community, or person without a religious affiliation—into a deeper awareness of his or her place in the Ignatian and Jesuit mission.”
5 Ignatius of Loyola, “Selections from the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus,” in Ignatius of Loyola: The Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works, ed. George E. Ganss (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), 310.
6 GC35, 2:3.
7 GC35, 2:10.
8 Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., “Jesuit-Lay Partnership,” Address to the Jesuits in Malta (October 8, 2007), 16-17.
9 Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., “The Jesuit University in the Light of the Ignatian Charism,” Address to the International Meeting of Jesuit Higher Education in Rome (May 27, 2001), 44.
10 GC35, 6:9.
11 GC35, 6:28.
12 GC35, 6:10.
13 GC35, 6:12.
14 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, (October 25, 2004), 186.
15 Referencing the Scriptural allusion used by the Committee on the Laity of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: A Resource for Guiding the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry (December, 2005).