Jesuit delegates vote to accept superior general's resignation

Published: 2008-01-14

ROME (CNS) -- Delegates to the General Congregation of the Society of Jesus voted Jan. 14 to accept the resignation of Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach as superior general. When the result of the vote was announced, Father Kolvenbach received a standing ovation and thanked the delegates "for so graciously firing me." Before the vote, Father Kolvenbach told the more than 200 delegates that he was offering his resignation because "the Society of Jesus has the right to be governed and animated by a Jesuit in full possession of his physical and spiritual talents and not by a companion whose energies continue to diminish because of age." After the delegates accepted his resignation, Father Kolvenbach offered his thanks to God, to Pope Benedict XVI and to the Jesuits. He told them, "With gratitude toward the Lord we recognize that, despite a baffling diversity of persons and cultures, aspirations and works, there was never a lack of unity of spirits and hearts" among the Jesuits.

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