In the Jesuit Province of French-speaking Western Europe (EOF), relationships and situations of collaboration are frequent and extremely diverse: the Province has more than 100 institutions, including universities and schools, spiritual centres, magazines, churches and chapels, centres for reflection and social action, JRS... Many lay people, whether volunteers or salaried employees, are involved in these institutions and, together with Jesuits, carry out the mission of the Society of Jesus, each in his or her own particular responsibility and vocation.

The fact that collaborators are associated with the mission of the Society of Jesus is an essential feature of the apostolic drive of the EOF Province. This is not just because Jesuits need lay people, but because, in the spirit of the Council and De Statu Societatis Iesu (DSS), it’s about carrying Christ’s Mission together. “To deepen understanding and experience of the collaboration that we are already living and to identify ourselves, Jesuits, as collaborators is the conversion to which we are called at this time. It is a path that leads us to find our role within the synodal Church on mission”, stresses the DSS.

Many of the institutions of the EOF Province (84 out of 108 works) are now run by lay men and women. Jesuits are thus collaborators, and many times, are not in a position of primary responsibility, illustrating what De Statu Societatis Iesu forcefully emphasized: “We are collaborators, we do not “have” collaborators”. It’s a chance to discover other ways of serving God, as Jesuits and lay people involved in a work are all linked to a wider action.

To illustrate the importance of collaboration, in December 2022, lay men and women collaborating in the mission were invited to the annual Province Assembly: 160 Jesuits, nuns, friends, paid and volunteer collaborators, men and women gathered for three days to reflect on collaboration. Fr François Boëdec, Provincial from 2017 to 2022, concluded the meeting by recalling the complementarity and richness of this shared mission:

“If Jesuits often enable collaborators to work together, associating and gathering them around a common project, the reverse is also true: often, they help us Jesuits to collaborate with each other. They encourage us when we get tired, because they believe in the good that this little music of the Society of Jesus can bring, modestly but resolutely, to our Church and society, regardless of our limits, even our faults. Sometimes, they help us to clarify situations. The advice of friends and collaborators of the Society, frank and demanding, is a precious help. Sometimes, they help us to dare.”

Numerous projects have been made possible thanks to the commitment of motivated and mobilized laypeople, such as the Matteo Ricci College, opened in Brussels in 2019, and the upcoming Loyola College, due to open in Marseille, in the south of France, in September 2025.This collaboration is a happy one, since the challenge is for everyone – Jesuits and lay people – to give their best to the mission entrusted to them.

More so, the appointment of a new lay rector, Mr Louis Lourme, to the Facultés Loyola Paris (ex Centre Sèvres) in July 2024, is a good illustration of this: this appointment is an important milestone in the history of the faculties, which are celebrating their 50^th anniversary this year, since it is the first time that a lay person will hold such responsibility.

“I am doubly delighted by the appointment of Louis Lourme as the new Rector. I sense the energy and creativity he will bring toLoyola Paris through his academic qualities and management experience. Moreover, having a lay person at the head of a Jesuit institution is in line with a strong orientation of the Society of Jesus, whose mission is carried out together by Jesuits and many lay people”, emphasized Fr Thierry Dobbelstein, Provincial of the EOF Province, on the occasion.

Sharing the Ignatian charism

For this collaboration to be fruitful, it is necessary to ensure formation in the Ignatian charism and to have apostolic teams, linked humanly and spiritually to the Society of Jesus, thus forming a living network. One example of this is a trip to Loyola Javier, offered every year to collaborators in the mission, to enable them to go to the sources of the Society, and share the Ignatian charism.

Being involved in the same mission also raises the question of discernment, of listening to the Spirit together. Without the Society of Jesus abdicating its primary and ultimate responsibility for apostolic choices and orientations, there is the need to involve our partners and friends in our reflections and discernments.

For more on the theme of Collaboration in the service of mission, here are some testimonies from Jesuits and lay people in videos (in French).