Vatican City, Feb 21, 2008 / 09:39 am
Pope Benedict XVI addressed the participants of the Society of Jesus’ general congregation and encouraged them to continue in fidelity to their original charism and to “find the fullest sense of your ‘fourth vow,’” which is a professed obedience to the Holy Father in matters of where they are sent on mission and in the ‘spirit of the Church.’
The Pope continued saying, "The Society of Jesus, faithful to its best tradition, should continue forming its members with great attention to the sciences and to virtue, without conforming to mediocrity, because the task of confrontation and dialogue in very diverse social and cultural situations with the different mentalities of today's world is one of the most difficult and costly there is."
"In the attempt to build bridges of understanding and dialogue with those who do not belong to the Church or who have difficulty in accepting its positions and messages, you must loyally take charge of the Church's fundamental right to remain faithful to its mandate and adhere completely to the Word of God as well as to the Magisterium's charge of conserving the truth and unity of Catholic doctrine in its entirety."
Pope Benedict said that this fidelity to the Church's doctrine is "a particularly sensitive point" for many Jesuits, especially theologians and those involved in inter-religious dialogue. "Precisely for this reason I have invited you [here] and I invite you to reflect on how to find the fullest sense of your 'fourth vow' of obedience to the successor of Peter that is so characteristic of you, it implies not only the readiness to be sent in mission to far away lands, but also– in the most genuine Ignatian spirit of 'sensing with the Church and in the Church' – to ‘love and serve’ the Vicar of Christ on earth with that ‘affective and effective’ devotion which must make of you valuable and irreplaceable cooperators in his service to the Universal Church."