Creation
The World Union of Jesuit Alumni (ae) _ sometimes known in short as ASIA : “Antiqui Societatis Jesu Alumni” _ was established on 31 July 1956 in Bilbao (Spain) during a congress held on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the death of Saint Ignatius. This congress adopted a statement, known as the “Magna Carta of Loyola”, setting out a number of general objectives, insisting above all that the Alumni actions should be strictly linked with those of the Society of Jesus.
At that time, the Union was known as “the international movement of Alumni”. It had no statutes and no formal organisation. It rested on the personal commitment of three strong personalities : Enzo SALA (its first General Secretary) and Pietro ADDONINO both from Italy, and Théo LOMBARD from France.
The Rome congress (August 1967)
Chaired by Pietro Addonino, then president of the European Confederation, it adopted formal statutes, although these were not legally registered. It elected president Antonio URIBE PORTOCARRERO (Colombia) and confirmed E. Sala as General Secretary .
Later on, the general secretariat was placed at Milan, under the supervision of Fr Roberto ZÜLLIG then of Franz ZELLINGER, both Italian.
Then came a long period of stagnation during which little happened, with the exception of a gathering in Drongen (Belgium) in 1979 that adopted a declaration on the spirit and the aims of the World Union which was considered an updating of the Magna Carta of 1956.
The Versailles congress (July 1986)
The Versailles congress was prepared whilst the WU had no real organisation (the president Portocarrero had resigned and had not been replaced; there was no effective general secretariat). In fact, almost everything rested on the initiative and the work of Pierre BALAZUC, president of the European Confederation, and of the leading team of the French Federation. The theme of the congress was labelled : “To make commitment – yes – to which values?”. It gathered 750 participants, 200 of which took part in a four days walking pilgrimage to Chartres. A great achievement was the meeting of the WU representatives, gathered at the initiative of Théo Lombard. It revised the statutes, mainly in order to provide a solution in case of disability of the president. It elected José GAMAZO MANGLANO (Spain) President and Ciro CACCHIONE (Italy) General Secretary, T. Lombard being made honorary President.
A very innovative move was to decide on the creation of a charitable organization, the Arrupe association, designed to help the Society humanitarian actions (in education, health and urgency aid,) throughout the world; the working out of its statutes was the last work of P.Balazuc.
The Congress of Bilbao – Loyola (July 1991)
Under the guidance of Fr DUMINUCO (Jesuit counsellor to the Union), it decided to revise the statutes in order, mainly, to separate the task of president and that of organising the congress and to set up a fixed rotation among continents for the hosting of the congress. John BOWIE (Australia) was elected President, C.Cacchione being reelected General Secretary.
The Congress of Sydney (July 1997)
It adopted the statutory modifications decided in principle in Bilbao. Fabio TOBON (Colombia) was elected president and François–Xavier CAMENEN (Luxembourg) Secretary.
The council elected by the congress met in Rome in January 2001, for the first time ever outside a congress. It decided (28 January) to revitalize the World Union by adopting completely revised statutes and registering them legally. This registration, making the WU for the first time a legal entity, was achieved on 2 March 2001 under Luxembourg law. On April 2002, the Council adopted a “regulation” for implementing the new statutes.
The Congress of Calcutta (Kolkata) (January 2003)
Bernard THOMPSON (United Kingdom) was elected President, F–X Camenen being reelected Secretary.
The newly elected Council met in July 2005 in Lisbon on the occasion of the European congress, in November 2006 in Miami, Florida and again in September 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya. Its next meeting is planned to coincide with the Latin America congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November 2007.
Appendix: list of Jesuit counsellors to the World Union :