General Congregations 35

On February 2, 2006, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach wrote to the members of the Society of Jesus in his position as their father general. He explained that a new general congregation should be convoked in order that his resignation could be accepted and his successor elected. When the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus accepted his resignation when it met in January 2008, Kolvenbach became just the second (but the second consecutive) father general to resign in Jesuit history.

The 224 delegates appointed to the congregation elected Aldofo Nicolás, a Spanish native, as his replacement as superior general. Like Kolvenbach, Nicolás had most recently served in Asia–most recently serving as president of the Conference of Major Superiors of East Asia and Oceania and as provincial of Japan. The delegates also approved six decrees. The wordcloud below represents the most used words in the decrees, with a larger size denoting greater frequency.