Advocacy done the Ignatian Way

This is an edited version of the speech given by the Spanish Provincial, Father Elías Royón SJ, at the start of the Ignatian Advocacy Workshop in El Escorial, Spain (10-16 November 2008). The original (in Spanish) can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/dzrtwa [Editor's Note]

As provincial of Spain, it is for me an honour to offer greetings to this Workshop on Ignatian Advocacy being held in Madrid. I cordially welcome all of you who are participating; you represent the universality of the corps of the Society and its collaborators in the work of promoting a justice that springs forth from faith.

Advocacy is not a new line of work for us; many of the Society's social institutions have long been working in this direction. Nevertheless, the context and the way in which it is carried out have undergone change in recent years because of the accelerated process of globalization, which in turn has increased the importance of the international sphere.

Moreover, during the last few years, diverse initiatives have been undertaken in an effort to energize and strengthen the Society's capacity for advocacy. In developing appropriate ways of practising advocacy, these initiatives have sought to take advantage of the "extraordinary potential we possess as an international and multicultural body" (GC 35, D 3, no. 43).

Out of the convergence of these initiatives arose the idea of organizing a workshop as the start of a process that would promote advocacy based on elements of Ignatian spirituality. Accordingly, its main objective - to establish solid bases for promoting international advocacy in the Society's works - sought two specific results. The first was a common theoretical framework elaborated on the basis of Ignatian spirituality, using a shared language about the nature and methods of advocacy; the second, concurrent with the first, was a workshop to help identify the principal elements of a possible plan of action to advance international advocacy.

The workshop was not to be exclusively technical; it would include much discernment and attentive listening to what the Spirit was inspiring through all the participants. Ignatius has taught us to rely on the lights sent by the Lord to guide us and lead us in our common search as we travel along new roads, not racing ahead of his inspirations, but rather, receiving them with humility and gratitude.

It would not be easy to find the term "advocacy" in the Dictionary of Ignatian Spirituality, but I believe you are correct in seeking the inspiration of Ignatian spirituality in order to elaborate a common theoretical framework and a shared language about what international "advocacy" is and how it should be done.

The Spiritual Exercises will always be the source from which flow the constitutive elements of an incarnated spirituality that seeks the conversion of the human heart, and, following from that, the transformation of the social and cultural structures which condition people and prevent them from living and acting in accordance with their calling as children of God. We are therefore called to be collaborators with Christ in his salvific mission of integral salvation, one that seeks that justice which is born of faith, a justice extending to the realms that create the injustices of our world: the human heart and the "structures of sin."

It may be said that the preferential option of Ignatian spirituality is the person, the whole person, "created and loved by God." Advocacy inspired by this spirituality must then be necessarily carried out from the perspective of the human person. Such advocacy urges us to accompany and serve those who suffer and are victims of selfishness and unjust structures, and at the same time, to be present where decisions are made so as to exercise a transformative influence on the complex causes of those injustices. This spirituality, then, invites us to build bridges between rich and poor, to overcome the borders that separate and marginalize people, to establish bonds of collaboration between those who hold decision-making power and those who can hardly make their voice heard. (GC 35, D 3, no. 28)

I believe that Ignatian spirituality can also enrich advocacy through the practices and the attitudes required by discernment, the aim of which is to discover where lie the greatest need and the hope of a more universal good, for both of these, need and universality, are important Ignatian criteria when it comes to choosing where to be present and active. This discernment, prayerful and apostolic at the same time, leads to taking decisions and therefore to concrete action, requiring us to pay particular attention to personal, social and historical circumstances, since it is through them that God manifests his will. It will also take into consideration another of the important elements of Ignatian spirituality: quality as an expression of the magis. What is expected is high-quality work, free of all partiality, performed with intellectual competence, and above all, with comprehensive knowledge of the situations for which advocacy is being undertaken.

I believe that it is not too bold to say that this workshop is the fruit of the recent GC 35. It responds to many of the insights and suggestions scattered through the various decrees, especially the decree on Mission. Certainly the workshop has been inspired by some of the basic themes of this decree, such as universality, reconciliation, and the need to transform structures that create injustices.

The workshop aims at strengthening the Society's networking efforts, especially in the area of advocacy. GC 34, some fifteen years ago, was already insisting in two of its decrees on the need to create and strengthen collaborative networking. It encouraged Jesuits to collaborate with lay people in the creation of "Ignatian apostolic networks" (D 13, no. 21), and it urged the Society's government to establish global networks that would be "capable of addressing global concerns through support, sharing of information, planning, and evaluation." The Congregation also made explicit allusion to "cooperation in and through international agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other emerging associations of women and men of good will" (D 21, no. 14). Now GC 35 has stressed universality as the identifying note of the body of the Society. I believe we are dealing here with more than the currently fashionable trend of collaborative networking; we are talking about a modern, contextualized way of expressing the basic meaning of the universal body of the Society in this globalized world.

In this global context it is important to point out the great potential of being a universal and inter-cultural body. Acting in accordance with this international character will not only improve our apostolic effectiveness, but will also be, in a fragmented and divided world, a testimony of reconciliation in solidarity with all God's children (GC 35, D 3, no. 43).

Practising international advocacy is a privileged way to advance the inter-provincial and inter-sectoral collaboration that GC 35 called for when it stated, "Today cooperation among Provinces and Regions to realize the apostolic mission of the Society is an undeniable necessity" (D 5, no. 17). This is so because we are conscious that "today many problems are global in nature and therefore require global solutions" (ibid. cf. NC 395,1). Advocacy also requires the active participation of other apostolic sectors, especially the whole intellectual apostolate and university education. For that reason, inter-sectoral collaboration is fundamental.

Clearly, advocacy can be the perfect and necessary complement to the task of being present among the poor and accompanying them. There is no reason why accompanying those who suffer and being advocates for them should be mutually exclusive. The two areas may sometimes require differing methodologies, types of knowledge and forms of action, but a unified mission between the two is vital. We need to recognize that there exists a real communion of objectives that goes beyond the differences that characterize each of the tasks.

Speaking of advocacy leads naturally to the issue of collaborating and relating with others. "Collaboration at the heart of mission" is the title of Decree 6 of GC 35. We speak especially of advocacy done the Ignatian way, which means maximum effectiveness and complete knowledge of the complexity of the problem to be tackled. Such advocacy should help to stimulate collaboration, especially with other works of the Church and other representative actors in the globalized world, such as social movements, non-governmental organizations, corporations, and international institutions.

You have before you an exciting task. You are motivated by the feeling you have of being called by the Lord to find in Ignatian spirituality ways to help transform the factors that cause suffering for so many people on our planet. Your objective is tremendous, and you seek to achieve it with your efforts and your creativity in the field of advocacy. You feel inspired to walk together as a universal body at the service of the poorest, most excluded people, while you contemplate, with the love-filled, compassionate eyes of the Trinity, "the whole expanse of the earth."

I end by recalling the words of GC 35: "In a world torn by violence, strife, and division, we are called with others to be instruments of God, who 'in Christ reconciled the world to himself, not counting their trespasses' (2 Cor 5,19). This reconciliation calls us to build a new world of right relationships, a new Jubilee reaching across all divisions, so that God might restore his justice for all." (D 3, no. 16)

Many thanks.