To pay tribute to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, the twenty-eight Superior General of the Society of Jesus and one of the most influential Jesuits in the twentieth century, the Arrupe Office of Social Formation will celebrate a special mass today at five o’clock in the afternoon at the new college chapel. Twenty-two years ago, in 1991, Fr. Arrupe died in Rome after a lingering illness, following a stroke.

Fr. Arrupe was elected Superior General of the Jesuits during its thirty-first General Congregation in 1965. He was largely credited for shepherding the Jesuits in one of the most challenging contemporary eras in the church wherein the work for social justice and preferential option for the poor, among others, were crystallized as the Jesuits’ major apostolic focus.

The Arrupe Office will celebrate this special mass today as a way of giving honour to Fr. Arrupe, whose very name the Social Involvement Coordinating Office (the former name of the Arrupe Office), took on during the kickoff of its thirtieth year anniversary.   (By M. Isabel S. Actub, Arrupe Communications & Advocacy)