"Today the Church needs you" because the "distant ones" are not "so geographically distant, but culturally distant", and the Gospel is challenged by "the frontiers that, because of a wrong or shallow view of God and man, come between faith and the human knowledge, faith and modern science, faith and commitment to justice". This is the appeal made by the Pope today to the participants in General Chapter of the Society of Jesus, exhorted "not to settle for mediocrity", but aim at "pursuing quality and solidity". "The Church explained Benedict XVI urgently needs people of strong and deep faith, of serious culture and genuine human and social sensitivity, of religious people and priests who devote their lives to staying on these frontiers, to testify and help people understand that there is instead a deep harmony between faith and reason". Educating its members "to science and virtue" is therefore for the Pope the preferential task of the Jesuits, called to "build bridges of dialogue with those who do not belong to the Church or have problems accepting its positions and messages" and at the same time to "loyally take over the fundamental duty of the Church, i.e. to remain faithful to God’s Word, and the task of the Magisterium of preserving the truth and the unity of the Catholic doctrine in its entirety". ” ” ” ” ” “
