Jean-Baptiste Janssens

Jean-Baptiste Janssens, S.J. (December 22, 1889—October 5, 1964) was the twenty-seventh Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He was born in Mechelen, Belgium.

Early Life - Schooling

Janssens' first schooling was in the Diocesan Secondary School in Hasselt, and his university years, where he excelled in philosophy and classical philology, were spent at St. Aloysius University Faculty in Brussels. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Drongen on September 23, 1907, and took his first vows in September 1909.

After the usual two years of philosophy spent at the Jesuit Collegium Maximum in Leuven he earned his doctorate in civil law at the Catholic University of Louvain. From 1921 to 1923 he attended the Gregorian University in Rome where he added a doctorate in Canon law to the one he had earned at Louvain.

He taught canon law at the Collegium Maximum in Leuven from 1923 until 1929 and became its rector on August 17, 1929. On August 15, 1935 he was appointed Tertian Master and in 1938 became Provincial of the Northern Belgian Province of the Jesuits.

In 1939, Father Janssens made an official visit to the Jesuit missions in Zaire, at the time a protectorate of Belgium and known as the Belgian Congo. With the exception of this visitation and his two years studying in Rome, he had spent most of his life in his own province—in Leuven, Drongen, Antwerp, and Brussels. In 1945 he kept in hiding a large group of Jewish children in the very Provincial's residence of Brussels, which earned him the title of Righteous among the nations.

Ascension To Father General

When Father General Ledochowski died in 1942, the war was in full fury in Europe and Father Janssens was the Jesuit Provincial trying to keep his province intact. The Vicar General, Norbert de Boynes, was unable to call a General Congregation because of the war. Thus, in effect, de Boynes was in charge of the governance of the Society for three years.

The war ended in August 1945 and de Boynes was finally able to convene a General Congregation—the 29th—between September 6 and October 23, 1946. Janssens, as Provincial of his province, went to Rome as a delegate. The Congregation was held under Spartan conditions and many of the necessaries were provided by the delegates from countries less affected by the war than the countries of Europe. On September 15, the 57-year-old Belgian Jean-Baptiste Janssens was elected Father General of the Society Of Jesus, becoming the first general of the nuclear age.

Generalate

Because of his delicate health and the oppressiveness of the Roman air, a sizeable piece of property in the Alban Hills—southeast of Rome—was purchased as a retreat for the general and his curia. This property, well known in the area as Villa Cavalletti, became a place of retreat not only for the general and the curia but also for the other Jesuits of Rome. It was also used by professors and students of the Gregorian University who could manage to get away for a few days of peace.

In his famous "Instruction on the Social Apostolate" (1949), considered a milestone in the Society's road to commitment to the so-called "social question," Father General Janssens challenged the colleges. In bold language for those days, the general speaks of completely uprooting the spirit of "caste" among Jesuits and their students. They should not appear "to be allied with the rich and the capitalists". Those especially who labor in the ministry of the colleges should manifest "an interest and concern for the proletaries that is equal to, or even greater than, that shown to the rich". One can imagine the impact of these words on the schools. Nevertheless, disaffection toward the colleges remained strong, especially among young Jesuits.

In 1957, after eleven years in office, he summoned the 30th General Congregation to provide him with a vicar general. During the September 6 to November 11 session, the delegates appointed Canadian Father John Swain to the position.

In 1960, in a letter to those engaged in education, the general had to confront those who doubted whether the colleges were a ministry proper to the Society or who asserted that they were not in conformity with the spirit of St. Ignatius.

Father Janssens took important steps for the restructuring of the educational apostolate. Both on the provincial and national levels he set up offices of general Prefects of Studies. In this way there was more coordination among the colleges, both province and nation-wide, as well as closer international collaboration. He appointed visitors of the colleges in various countries and regions, for example, Spain and Latin America. National and regional educational associations were encouraged within the Society. Statutes were elaborated to guide the work of the Prefects of Studies. In 1960, the first international meeting of experts in the college apostolate was held in Rome for the purpose of formulating common criteria of inspiration and action. The work of education in the Society was taking on a corporate character.

Pope John XXIII had convened the Second Vatican Council to begin in 1962 to deal with many of the same problems that plagued Janssens during his generalate, and with which he found it difficult to cope.

Final Years

In his final years Janssens had to confront a dissension which was arising among theologians inside and outside the Society. He tried to moderate the problem, but to no avail, since the difficulty was not only within the Society, but also throughout the whole Church. Some observers said it was the massive re-emergence of the systematics of modernism or neo-modernism, others say it was the problem of general liberalism in society and opposition to hierarchy in all institutions.

He was the last to see the numbers in the Society top out at 36,000 members. After which high point there was a steady drop for the next thirty years. The turmoil in the Society and in the Church would not go away.

After 18 years and one month as Superior General, Father Janssens died at the age of 75 on October 5, 1964. His body was taken to the Jesuit mausoleum at Campo Verano and interred with his immediate predecessors in Rome.