Issue No. 1
Get to know the new General Leadership Team
Welcome to the Mary Ward Family
Since 4 November 2025, the two branches of Mary Ward’s Institute are officially and legally One.
IBVM and CJ will shape their future together as Congregatio Jesu.
Learn more about our merger.
The 4 November 2025 was very special for the members of the now united Congregatio Jesu and all parts of the Mary Ward Family. We look back with an interview with General Superior Sr. Veronica Fuhrmann CJ and a series of photos from the merger celebration in Loyola.
Freedom
Justice
Sincerity
Felicity
Freedom
Justice
Sincerity
Felicity
Freedom
Justice
Sincerity
Felicity
Freedom
Justice
Sincerity
Felicity
The Leadership Team issues a regular newsletter. You can read the first issued here:
1625 was a special year for Mary Ward and her Institute.The Painted Life of Mary Ward tells us, how Mary went to pray in different churches of Rome in autumn and winter of 1625.
400 years later, Sr Monika Glockann from Germany takes us to these churches and helps us reflect on the deep spiritual experiences, Mary Ward was given.
We wanted to publish one video each day of the week before Christmas. Unfortunatly, a technical hick-up caused a change in this plan. So here is the complete series.
Discover the first video here on our website and the whole series of videos in our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIApTFPLEKk&list=PLB4mos1d9zXO0ZxhpQvgLWAJ-TvPPhAVP
For those who prefer to read the texts of the reflections, we have prepared a PDF. You can download it here.
House of prayer
Merger of Congregatio Jesu and IBVM:
History in the making
Members of the united congregation celebrated this special moment in the history of Mary Ward’s Institute on 4 November 2025 in Loyola, Spain, the birthplace of Saint Ignatius.. From now on, the around 1,800 sisters living and working in over 40 countries worldwide will follow Jesus in the footsteps of their common foundress, the Venerable Mary Ward, as one congregation of religious women – closely connected to many lay friends and companions.
Remember the festive celebration by watching the recording of the livestreams
You can also find photos and texts of the solemn Mass and the Mary Ward symposium as well as other material, enabling a deep dive in the history and present of our congregation.
Photos from Provinces and Regions all over the world
Most of our sisters watched the livestream or the recording together. Many organised celebrations in their congregations, some even plantred trees symbolising the new beginnings and the growing unity between the CJ members worldwide.
To celebrate the merger between IBVM and CJ, we have assembled photos of the sisters from all our Provinces and Regions, as well as portraits of the General Superiors throughout the centuries, into a large mosaic. Together, they form the familiar portrait of the Venerable Mary Ward. A powerful sign of sisterhood and solidarity.
To visually express our new, united path, we have given our cross a new colour. Green represents nature but stands also for hope, growth and harmony. It is associated with freshness, fertility and new beginnings. Green is the colour of the liturgy during normal times – when the mission is done.
In 1609, Mary Ward, an Englishwoman who received a revelation from God to be a trailblazer for women religious, founded a new and innovative religious congregation. In the “Institutum”, as she called it in the first draft of the new congregation’s rules, women religious were to live according to the same rules and spirituality as the Jesuits founded by Ignatius of Loyola in the previous century.
How we live and what we do
We see mission as a participation in the sending of Christ into the world: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21) As Ignatian women, mission is at the very heart of the life of our congregation. We understand our call to the consecrated life as part of the universal mission of the Church.
Current information about our congregation
Here you will find the latest news, insights, and stories from our international congregation. We share what inspires us, what moves us, and how we live Mary Ward’s charism in today’s world.
