The General Curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome has announced the theme of the 2025 edition of the CIS Conference: Constitutions of the Life of the Society of Jesus. The event will take place in the Eternal City from 23-25 June 2025, and will be followed by a workshop on Discernment ‘in common’ from 25-27 June, open to a limited number of participants.
Following the success of the 2023 event on the Formula of the Institute, the Secretariat for the Service of the Faith has announced that next year’s conference will focus on another foundational document of the Society of Jesus and their meaning and expression in the life and work of the contemporary Jesuits.
Father James Hanvey S.J., the Secretary, argues that
“the Constitutions are more than a series of instructions for Jesuit life and apostolic works – they embed and work from within the horizon of the Exercises, and although they can address in detail organisational structures, they always do so with an orientation to God and God’s action in lives and history“.
In organising the conference, he would like to encourage the Jesuits to reflect on whether these documents continue to speak to and inspire the Society of Jesus. The event is also intended to be an opportunity to explore the Constitutions as valuable resource for the renewal of the Society. All the more so, the organisers stress that “the Conference will be of particular interest to those involved in Jesuit formation and anyone involved in the mission of the Society.”
For this reason it is hoped that collaborators and partners-in-mission and those studying the charism of the Society will feel encouraged to attend.
The Conference will be followed by a workshop on Communal discernment – a practice that has increasingly entered into the Church’s life through the development of synodality under the leadership of Pope Francis. This workshop will explore the theology, theory and practice of discernment in common, and will be given by Fr. Franck Janin, S.J., and Fr. José de Pablo S.J.
Both events will be available for English and Spanish speakers.
A detailed list of the Conference’s and the Workshop’s topics and reflection areas, as well as all logistical details and the possibility to register, can be found at www.jesuit.events/cis2025.
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