Modern communications technology means that Jesuits meeting for their thirty-sixth General Congregation are better prepared than ever in discerning the promptings of the Holy Spirit on the  important matters facing them

St Ignatius Loyola did not like meetings. More accurately, living in an age of slow and dangerous travel, he felt that frequent international meetings risked disrupting the work that Jesuits would be doing more locally. So he stipulated that the Society of Jesus would only summon a General Congregation when a General Superior had died and it was necessary to elect his successor, or “when it is necessary to deal with long-lasting and important matters”, writes Paul Nicholson.

So what are the “long-lasting and important matters” that will concern the delegates this time, and how have they been decided upon? The first will be the election of a new General, dealt with by Michael Holman (see above). Once that is done, it is impossible to be sure what will be discussed. Ignatius set up the Society as a hierarchy, and at the top of the pyramid is not the person of the Jesuit General, but the General Congregation itself. It alone, once gathered, can determine what matters it should take up, how it should deal with them, and how long its deliberations should last.