European Association of Jesuit Alumni/ae

"En Todo Amar Y Servir"

A message for a new Millennium

"…that I may in all things love and serve the divine majesty"
(Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, n.233)

Introduction

Who are we? What do we, alumni, have in common?
Our European Confederation dealt with these issues in a critical and systematic way which led to an authentic group reflection. Looking for common characteristics we encountered substantial differences. Some of them, matters of language and culture, were soon recognized and were easily bridged. At the same time we discovered how the same words sometimes carried different interpretations. Differences in approach were the most difficult to recognize and to deal with.

In order to get over those difficulties and to reach a consensus, we needed a greater readiness to listen to each other and to push back own insights. As this intense and laborious journey progressed, we discovered gradually what and how much is holding us together. We want this "Ignatian spirituality" to be the guiding principle of our activities and initiatives In the text that follows, the European Confederation tried to render as honestly as possible the result of the reflection of the group. We are fully aware of the limitations of the text, arising from the particularity of the group and the moment. We bring you this document as a dynamic process and a stimulus to personal reflection.

I hope that the reader will find in it also some inspiration to continued generosity in service.
This document will be part of our work during our next European Congress in Malta in November 2001. I hope we'll meet there.

In the name of the all group.
Louis Cooreman, President of the European Confederation of Jesuit Alumni
tel +32(0)52 45 09 04 - E-mail: louis.cooreman@cobonet.be

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En Todo Amar Y Servir

1. The Confederation
2. Our motto: En Todo Amar y Servir - To love and to serve in all things
3. Past, Present and Future
4. Our Constitution
     

1. The Conferation

1.1 At the most recent European Congress of Jesuit alumni, held in Oxford in 1996, it was agreed that in preparation for the next Congress it would be useful for the committee of the European Confederation to address some fundamental questions: what is our present situation, what direction do we want to take, do we collectively have any call or challenge to put before our European members? 

1.2 This document is the fruit of our reflection, offered with due modesty to the Confederation’s member associations and as an invitation also to our members as individuals. 

1.3 It is addressed, therefore, to all former students of the schools and colleges of the Society of Jesus, along with their parents, teachers and other friends who want to maintain or develop a link with colleagues from those institutions and from the Society. Young and old, all are welcome. 

1.4 The Overall Purpose of the Alumni Organisations includes the following: 

• to deepen awareness of our responsibility as alumni to build a more just and humane society;
• to offer each other concrete friendship and support, both locally and across national boundaries;
• to serve others in common humanitarian projects; 
• and to further the Ignatian tradition. 

1.5 The Concrete Objectives are:

• Friendship in social gatherings and support in the practical ways that come through a network of professional, academic and personal contacts.
• Projects: either directly in the service of the local community, or by joining in international projects, often through the work of the Society of Jesus - e.g. the Jesuit Refugee Service.
• Support for the schools from which we come and for other schools which may seek support.
• Links with the associations of former students worldwide.
• The provision of opportunities for personal growth and ongoing formation.

1.6 The Objectives are achieved:

• By meeting in local groups, either linked to one school or drawing from many; national federations; regional confederations; the World Union.
• By providing a forum for discussion and reflection on the worlds of work and of individual and family life.
• By supporting initiatives of groups or individuals, either by direct participation or by fund-raising and financial backing.
• By maintaining our character of a lay organization with its own mission, while at the same time drawing on the experience and traditions of the Society of Jesus, and often working alongside the Society. The organisation should be marked by a spirit of freedom that encourages each person to discover his or her particular call but also to enjoy the possibilities of growth in the company of others who, sprung from the same roots, are now on the same journey of life.
  

2. Our Motto: En Todo Amar y Servir

 2.1 Following our reflections during these past three years, we have chosen as a motto the words of Ignatius of Loyola: En todo amar y servir – in all things, to love and to serve. Our ambition is to put these words into practice, and for that we need your ideas and your support.

2.2 We are from diverse countries and backgrounds. Even within the confederation, in our meetings and exchanges, we find very different points of view. In the mixture of conviction and confusion, success and anxiety, that characterises much of European society, some of us start directly from a search for fulfilment within our own lives as Christians, others from a less well-defined desire to find coherence in their lives and in the world. Or we may start from such global challenges as the search for harmony between the different cultures of the world.

2.3 Whatever the starting point, we are linked by our knowledge and experience, for better or worse, of the Society of Jesus. This is an accidental bond, but if we so choose we may make it fruitful, building on what is of added value from the Society's experience and traditions.

2.4 Lay people hold positions of responsibility in many works of the Society in Europe today, in the schools especially. We are looking, however, not to take over the role of the Society, but to take initiatives in our own lives, as lay people who draw on the spiritual tradition that has come from Ignatius of Loyola.

2.5 Our European network is more than a paper membership, and we would propose that the alumni groups should support one another in finding ways to fulfil our responsibilities in a secular world. Believers and unbelievers, Christians practising and non-practising, we all can recognise fundamental values in the gospel. The Ignatian tradition can help us to live those values more closely, and the Society has publicly and categorically chosen to be at our service, helping us to share in the riches of its spirituality, such as the respect for liberty, discernment, commitment, the effort always to go further (the magis, that which is of greater value or which is better done). In that spirituality there is always a care for the pain and the joy of others, there is action on behalf of others and with them, there is great confidence in humankind, a healthy realism, a taste for work well done, and a sense of celebration and of life as gift.

2.6 We often lack the vocabulary, the method and form, to articulate the tradition in a lay environment, but our organisation has a broad experience of action. Across Europe we find members or centres of activity who look primarily to personal formation, others who look to humanitarian action. Both are necessary, but the balance is for each to choose according to the local or personal situation, often very different but enriching for each other. What we have in common is that we want to reflect the image of a gospel that arises out of an absolute belief in human dignity and which is prepared to make sacrifices for that belief.

2.7 A question may arise: Can one who is not a Christian believer share in this vision? Clearly, yes. In Europe, it is true, most of us will be men and women of the Church, though at times our commitment may waver; but there will be a welcome also for all people of good will who are open to the spirit of the gospel and willing to accept the organisation's adherence to the Church.

Thus we share in the mission to proclaim that
"The Kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17.21)
 

3. Past, Present and Future

3.1 The most recent impetus for action among the alumni and their associations derives from the present Fr General of the Society of Jesus, Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, and his predecessor, Fr Pedro Arrupe. Their initiatives were endorsed by the whole Society at its plenary meeting in Rome in 1994.

3.2 The European confederation regularly meets as a committee drawn from Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. This number may grow as alumni come from the re-established schools in Hungary, Lithuania and Poland. The Confederation, in turn, is represented on the World Union.

3.3 In November 2001 there will be a general European Congress in Malta, open to all alumni and all members of the local associations. A World Congress will be held in Calcutta in 2003.

3.4 Examples of action from different countries include the following: 

• Personal development, e.g.: 
     * Reflections on family life 
     * Retreats and spiritual guidance
    

• Professional support, e.g.: 
     * Dissemination of documents on business ethics, bio-ethics &c 
     * Careers advice for younger members 
     * Membership of the Boards of governors of SJ schools
     * Representation on European agencies
    

• Service Projects, e.g.:
     * Equipment and professional training for schools in Lithuania
     * Refugee aid in Albania & Croatia
     * One-year placements for young alumni at home and overseas 
     * The 'Arrupe dollar' campaign set up by the World Union; and twinning with developing countries.

3.5 Finally, the European Confederation rejoices in the activity of all those, members of an Association or not, who work in the Church, in society at large, and in their own countries with the desire of heart and mind to be ever more truly men and women of conscience, compassion, and competence. To all who share this ideal the Confederation expresses its own desire to be of service as they seek to realise their human vocation – a vocation which for those who are convinced and committed Christians is also their call as sons and daughters of God in the service of Jesus Christ.
  

4. A Note on our Constitution 

4.1 Membership
According to its statutes, the European Confederation is composed of

• Ordinary Members, all former students of the schools and colleges of the Society of Jesus (and all who are entitled to be members of local associations of former students)
• Executive Members (‘membres effectifs’), namely the Presidents and Counsellors of the national federations of alumni associations.

4.2 Meetings

• The General Assembly of the Confederation is open to all members. The formal meeting of the General Assembly takes place at the Congress.
• The Executive Committee (‘Comité Exécutif’) is composed of the executive members; if a country or region has no national federation, representatives of equivalent standing have been admitted to the Executive Committee. It has been the Committee’s practice to meet twice a year, for a weekend, in one or other member country. The Committee has always welcomed attendance by other national officers (accompanying or representing their President) or by interested members of local associations.

4.3 Centres of Activity
Recognising that there are many different structures for the alumni groups across Europe, we have adopted the phrase 'Centres of Activity' ('Centres d'Action') to refer to initiatives whether undertaken personally, or by local or national associations, or by any of the other groupings of alumni that may exist.

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