Jean-Baptiste Janssens

Jean-Baptiste Janssens (22 December 1889 – 5 October 1964) was a Belgian Catholic priest who was the 27th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He was born in Mechelen, Belgium.

Early life and schooling Janssens' first schooling was in the Diocesan Secondary School in Hasselt, and his university years, where he excelled in philosophy and classical philology, were spent at St. Aloysius University Faculty in Brussels. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Drongen on 23 September 1907, and took his first vows in September 1909.

After the usual two years of philosophy spent at the Jesuit theological college in Leuven he earned his doctorate in civil law at the Catholic University of Louvain. From 1921 to 1923 he attended the Gregorian University in Rome where he added a doctorate in Canon law to the one he had earned at Louvain.

He taught canon law at the Jesuit theologate in Leuven from 1923 until 1929 and became its rector on 17 August 1929. On 15 August 1935 he was appointed Tertian Master and in 1938 became Provincial of the Northern Belgian Province of the Jesuits.

In 1939, Janssens made an official visit to the Jesuit missions in the Belgian Congo. With the exception of this visitation and his two years studying in Rome, he had spent most of his life in his own province: in Leuven, Drongen (Ghent), Antwerp, and Brussels. In 1945 he kept in hiding a large group of Jewish children in the Provincial's residence of Brussels, which earned him the title of Righteous among the nations.

Elected Superior General When Jesuit Superior General Wlodimir Ledóchowski died in 1942, World War II was in full fury in Europe and Janssens was the Jesuit Provincial trying to keep his province intact. The Vicar General, Norbert de Boynes, was unable to call a General Congregation because of the war. Thus, in effect, de Boynes was in charge of the governance of the Society for three years.

The war ended in August 1945 and de Boynes was finally able to convene a General Congregation – the 29th – between 6 September and 23 October 1946. Janssens, as Provincial of his province, went to Rome as a delegate. The Congregation was held under Spartan conditions and many of the necessities were provided by the delegates from countries less affected by the war than the countries of Europe. On 15 September, the 57-year-old Belgian Jean-Baptiste Janssens was elected Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

Final years After 18 years and one month as Superior General, Janssens died at the age of 74 on 5 October 1964. His body was taken to the Jesuit vault at Campo Verano where most of the Jesuits who die in Rome are interred.