50 years of F. Arrupe “Men and Women for Others”

«Form men and women for others». It is one of the phrases that marked a turning point in the history of the Society of Jesus and served to update Ignatian spirituality. These words were pronounced in a speech titled “Education for Justice” at the Schools of San Jose in Valencia, in the summer of 1973 by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, 28th General of the Jesuits, in the context of the X Congress of the European Confederation of Alumni of the Society of Jesus.

Half a century later, the echoes of a historic statement that pointed the way for the Jesuits in educating for justice still resound.

Our educational goal and objective is to form men who do not live for themselves, but for God and for his Christ, for the One who died and rose for us; men for others, that is to say, people who cannot conceive of love for God without love for man… (Speech at the X Congress of the European Confederation of Jesuit Alumni/ae. Arrupe, August 1, 1973).

The Spanish Federation joint with European Confederation and World Union of Jesuit Alumni will commemorate in the San Jose Valencia Schools. the 50th anniversary of this speech into a meeting in which the consequences of that speech will be analyzed. the challenges posed, its development and what remains to be done.

This address is commonly referred as Men for Others and it has become a classic text to understand contemporary Jesuit Education and especially the central role of the promotion of justice that we assigned to Jesuit Education today.

On the afternoon of August 1, 1973, the tenth European Congress of Jesuit Alumni was coming to an end ,the closing session was solemnly convened. Conclusions
were approved, new officers were elected, some statements were formulated, and
some discourses were delivered. Then Fr. Arrupe, with his usual energy and
enthusiasm and perhaps even more, gave the following conference.