hiroshima 12

On 7 August 1981... 

after a long and tiring trip throughout the Far East... 

Pedro Arrupe suffered a stroke, just after his plane landed at Rome's Fiumicino Airport. 

He was paralysed on his right side, and was able to speak only a few words. This ability gradually deteriorated, until he was completely mute. 

From that time on he lived in the infirmary at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome. 

He was the first Jesuit Superior-General to resign instead of remaining in office until his death. 

Pope John Paul II appointed Paolo Dezza as his personal delegate and interim Father General of the Society, passing over Arrupe's own choice (his vicar general). 

Many Jesuits saw this as an unwarranted papal interference in Jesuit affairs. For his part, Arrupe never expressed any disagreement or resentment. Jesuit disobedience to the pope that was expected by some at the Vatican Curia never came about. 

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With new respect for the Jesuits... 

Pope John Paul allowed Dezza to call the thirty-third General Congregation and elect a successor to Arrupe, whose resignation was accepted on 3 September 1983 during the Congregation. It proceeded to Peter Hans Kolvenbach as Father General. 

During the opening Session of the Congregation, Arrupe was wheeled into the hall, and a prayer which he had written was read aloud:

'More than ever I find myself in the hands of God. This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. But now, there is a difference: the initiative is entirely with God. It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself so totally in God's hands.'

During his ten years in the infirmary... 

praying for and with the Society, Arrupe received many and frequent well-wishers... 

including Pope John Paul II. 

Arrupe had earlier expressed what some regard as the key to his life: 

'Nowadays the world does not need words but lives that cannot be explained

except through faith and love for Christ's poor.'

[wiki]