Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-30
THE SOCIETY Of JESUS
Notable Convention to Meet in
Rome Tomorrow
TO ELECT A GENERAL
Important Post Has Been Vacant
Since Last May.
FATHER MEYER A CANDIDATE
He Was a Former Student in the
Georgetown University and is
Well Known in America.
FATHER MEYER A CANDIDATE

ROME, August 30.-The delegates to the
congregation of the Society Of Jesus are
arriving here to go into convention to elect
a general of the society. The election will
be held about September /. This important
post has been vacant since May, when the
last general, Father Martin, died.
According to the constitution Of the Or
der, each general before his death leaves a
species Of will in which he indicates who
among his assistants five in number, shall
act as his temporary successor. under the
name of vicar and direct affairs until the
congregation can be called.
In his will the late head of the Jesuits
appointed as vicar Father Rugguere Freddi,
who was his assistant for the Italian prov
inces The other assistants were Father
Rudolph Meyer of st. Louis, Mo-, for the
Angio-Saxon provinces; Father Maurice
Meschler, for the. German; Father John
Joseph Delaterre, for the Spanish, and
Father Fine for the French.
Father Meyer is well known in America,
having served as provincial of the order in
st. Louis, and having been president of the
Jesuit colleges in Cincinnati, Chicago, De-
troit, and while in his youth he was a
student at Woodstock Nd, and at George
town University, where afterward he
taught philosophy. He was chosen to go to
Loyola, in Spain, as representative Of the
cation met In 1893 for the election of their
general, the late Father Martin. Father
Meyer was then appointed substitute as
sistant Of the general for the English
speakig provinces but six weeks later the
English assistant, Father James Jones Of
London, died, and he took the place and
has since resided in Rome in the same
house as the general. He is the youngest
of the five assistants, being only little
over fifty, and is full of life and activity.
The possibility of his being chosen has
created considerable interest also for the
reason that since the institution Of the
company among the generals there have
been Spaniards Italians, Germans, Poles
and Belgians, but never Anglo-Saxons or
Frenchmen.
Similar to Pope's Election.
The congregation Of the Jesuits to elect
their general has some resemblance to the
conclave for the election of the pope, there
being the same secrecy and the same Sc
clusion.
There are six grades of membership In
| the company-frst novices; second, formed
| temporal coadjutors; third, approved sCho-
lastics; fourth, formed spiritual coadju-
| tors; fifth, professed of the three vows,
and, sixth, professed of the four vows.
Besides, the fifty oldest professed Jesuits
| of each province also elect three srbsti-
tutes for each elector in case of need.
The United States comprises two prov
inces-that Cf Maryland, the Catholic col
| ony there having been founded by the
| Jesuits, who assisted Sir George Calvert
| in 1888, and that of Missouri. the origin
| of Catholicism there dating from the time
| of Father Marquette, who, in 1878, making
| his way southwest from Lake Michigan,
| discovered the Mississippi.
l In the United States there are also the
Jesuit missions Of New Orleans, with o.0
| Jesuits, and that of California, with 40;
| besides 800 more, forming the missions OF
| the Rocky mountains and Buffalo, N. T..
/ so that the total number Of Jesuits hi the
! United States reaches 2,150
| Altogether the Jesuits through the world
| according to the statistics brought by the
| provincials to the congregation, number
| about Is, 500