Adolfo Nicolás

Reverend Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón, SJ (born April 29, 1936) is a Spanish priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the thirtieth and current Superior General of the Society of Jesus, the largest religious order of the Church.

Biography

Adolfo Nicolás was born in Villamuriel de Cerrato, Palencia, and entered the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the Jesuits, in the novitiate of Aranjuez in 1953. He studied at the University of Alcalá, there earning his licentiate in philosophy, until 1960, whence he traveled to Japan to familiarize himself with Japanese language and culture. Nicolás entered Sophia University in Tokyo, where he studied theology, in 1964, and was later ordained to the priesthood on March 17 1967.

From 1968 to 1971, he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he obtained his Master's degree in theology. Upon his return to Japan, Nicolás was made professor of systematic theology at his alma mater of Sophia University, teaching there for the next thirty years.

He was Director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University, in Quezon City, Philippines, from 1978 to 1984, and later served as rector of the theologate in Tokyo from 1991 to 1993, when he was appointed Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Japan. Nicolás remained in this post until 1999, and then spent three years doing pastoral work among poor immigrants in Toyko. In 1998 he clashed with the Vatican when he and several Asian bishops requested for more local authority for Church decisions.

In 2004 he returned to the Philippines after he was named Moderator of the Jesuit Conference for Eastern Asia and Oceania. As Moderator, he was responsible for the Jesuits of several countries, including Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Micronesia, Myanmar, and East Timor.

On the second ballot of the thirty-fifth General Congregation (GC XXXV) of the Society of Jesus, Nicolás was elected as the Order’s thirtieth Superior General on January 19 2008, succeeding the Dutch Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach. His election was immediately relayed to Pope Benedict XVI, who confirmed him in the post. Many have marked the similarities between Nicolás and former Superior General Fr. Pedro Arrupe, who was also a Spanish missionary in Japan; Nicolás has described Arrupe, of whom he was once the personal barber, as a "great missionary, a national hero, a man on fire". He leads a congregation which currently numbers 19,126 members.

In addition to his native Spanish, Nicolás can speak English, Italian, French, and Japanese.

Beliefs and values

He once stated, "Asia has a lot yet to offer the Church, to the whole Church, but we haven't done it yet. Maybe we have not been courageous enough, or we haven't taken the risks we should". In an article on Fr. Nicolas, Michael McVeigh said that Nicolás has also expressed his wariness of missionaries who are more concerned with teaching and imposing orthodoxy than in having a cultural experience with the local people, saying, "Those who enter into the lives of the people, they begin to question their own positions very radically."

A month before the General Congregation that would eventually elect him, Fr. Nicolas described the General Congregation as "an event of the heart." It is "a time of intensive search and of exhilarating exchange, where questions and answers do not come lineally, but dance within us and around us, at the rhythm of fraternal and humble mutual openness." According to him, "My hope is that this happens to the whole Society of Jesus." He then emphasized that "Prayer, reflection and exchange are the gift and the contribution."

After asking why "we elicit so much admiration and so little following," he stated that one of his hopes is for the Jesuits to "begin a process of dynamic and open reflection on our religious life that might begin a process of re-creation of the Society for our times, not only in the quality of our services, but also and mostly in the quality of our personal and community witness to the Church and the World."

According to Father Paolo Molinari, the Postulator General of the Society of Jesus, Nicolas was the "optimal choice" for Superior General. Molinari views him as someone with "excellent theological formation and a great missionary spirit." "In regard to his kind of formation and the service he has done, he seems precisely to respond to the indications of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI. Certainly he will help us to rediscover and reinforce the Christian roots of Europe and to witness to Christ in the whole world," stated Molinari.

Extermal links

• Spaniard becomes new Black Pope - New York Times
• Habemus Papam: Jesuits Go Ad Orientem - Whispers in the Loggia
• Spaniard Adolfo Nicolás elected new Superior General of the Jesuits - Catholic News Agency
• What should GC35 do? Adolfo Nicolas:Six hopes for the General Congregation

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