50th Anniversary

In 1973, Superior General of the Society of Jesus delivered his seminal address to a group of Jesuit high school alumni who were predominantly male. Read Original Address from Superior General Pedro Arrupe on the Igantian Solidarity website. Consider integrating the address into your staff formation, student reflection spaces, and other gatherings.

Access a variety of reflection tools, gatherings and resources on this seminal address from Educate Magis.

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Pedro Arrupe was born in Bilbao, Spain, on 14 November 1907. After receiving his bachelor’s degree with the Piarists, he began his medical career.

He studied medicine in Madrid for four years, with excellent results, while, at the same time, visiting the poor quarters of the city and getting to know firsthand situations of great need and misery.

His religious formation and temperament led him to ask many questions, such as, for example, questions about sickness and the physical and spiritual healing of persons. After a profound spiritual experience in Lourdes, France, he came to understand that the best way for him to respond to these realities was to abandon his earlier plans and to enter the Society of Jesus, which he did in 1927.

After World War II, from 1954, as Superior of the Jesuits in Japan, he traveled all over the world inviting Jesuits from about thirty countries to join this mission.

He became well-known because of his attractive and sympathetic personality, and his direct concern for each person, his humility and his dynamism.

In 1965 the Jesuits elected him Superior General of the order. They saw in him a man of God who was able to understand and face the difficult situation that the Church and civil society were passing through.