Why Jesuit Elections Are Different

With the 36th General Congregation, begun this week, we Jesuits have just started a process to elect a new superior general, and that process does have a lesser-known feature that helps explain much of the effectiveness of Jesuit governance: four days of private one-on-one conversations called the murmuratio. With a name like that, it’s begging to be associated with rumors and intrigue. The first time I read about it, I imagined smoke filled rooms and people in black cassocks slinking through the catacombs under the Vatican City. But the murmuratio is actually designed to help Jesuit governance avoid the conspiracy and power-brokering that so often affect elections and transitions in leadership.