As part of our ongoing celebration of the half-century anniversary of the Secretariat for Social Justice and Ecology at the Curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome, we have invited the former secretaries to record their thoughts on being part of 50 years of services by SJES.

On the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat at the Curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome, we invite the former secretaries to share their views and reflections. They tell us about what caught their team’s attention when they were leading the apostolic secretariat of the Society and the challenges they perceived for the social and ecological ministry then and now.

In the 1960s a great number of families moved to Barcelona from other parts of Spain in order to look for jobs in the factories of the industrial belt of the city. Many of them dwelt in shantytowns which later developed into working class neighbourhoods.

It’s tempting to view the Secretariat for Social Justice (SJES) as simply another office of the Society of Jesus in Rome. It operates in the same halls as the other offices, abides by the same rules as the other offices, and is under the same General Superior as the other offices...

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat in the Curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome, we have given the floor to the former secretaries.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the social apostolate, throughout this year the Conferences of Provinces of Latin America will be celebrating events to look back at the history of the social apostolate in the region,