Jesuits: Difference between revisions
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==Jesuits today== |
==Jesuits today== |
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The Society of Jesus is very active in [[missionary]] work and in education, operating over 50 high schools and colleges in the [[United States]] alone. |
The Society of Jesus is very active in [[missionary]] work and in education, operating in various countries spread across the world. Among them are Philippines, [[India]] and the United States (over 50 high schools and colleges in the [[United States]] alone). |
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Some Jesuits in Latin America and the United States have taken leftist views of Catholicism, being involved in [[liberation theology]], which the Vatican has been reluctant to embrace. Whether taking such political positions is acceptable for Jesuits has been the theme of many debates within the Catholic Church. |
Some Jesuits in Latin America and the United States have taken leftist views of Catholicism, being involved in [[liberation theology]], which the Vatican has been reluctant to embrace. Whether taking such political positions is acceptable for Jesuits has been the theme of many debates within the Catholic Church. |
Revision as of 07:16, 21 April 2005
The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order numbering over 20,000 men. It was founded in 1534 by a group of University of Paris graduate students led by Iñigo López de Loyola (Ignatius of Loyola). Based in Rome, it continues today to minister to both Catholics and non-Catholics in more than 100 nations.
Foundation
On August 15, 1534, Ignatius and six other students (Francis Xavier, Alfonso Salmeron, James Lainez, and Nicholas Bobadilla, Spaniards, Peter Faber from France and Simon Rodrigues, a Portuguese) met in Montmartre outside Paris, probably near the modern Chapel of St Denys, Rue Antoinette, and binding themselves by a vow of poverty and chastity, founded the Society of Jesus – to "enter upon hospital and missionary work in Jerusalem, or to go without questioning wherever the pope might direct".
In 1537 they travelled to Italy to seek papal approval for their order. Pope Paul III gave them a commendation, and permitted them to be ordained priests. They were ordained at Venice by the bishop of Arbe (June 24). They devoted themselves to preaching and charitable work in Italy, as the renewed war between the emperor, Venice, the pope and the Ottoman Empire rendered any journey to Jerusalem inadvisable.
With Faber and Lainez, Ignatius made his way to Rome in October 1538, to have the pope approve the constitution of the new order. A congregation of cardinals reported favorably upon the constitution presented, and Paul III confirmed the order through the bull Regimini militantis (September 27, 1540), but limited the number of its members to sixty. This limitation was removed through the bull Injunctum nobis (March 14, 1543). Ignatius was chosen as the first superior-general. He sent his companions as missionaries around Europe to create schools, colleges, and seminaries.
Ignatius wrote the Jesuit Constitutions, adopted in 1554, which created a monarchical organization and stressed absolute self-abnegation and obedience to Pope and superiors (perinde ac cadaver, "[well-disciplined] like a corpse" as Ignatius put it). His main principle became the unofficial Jesuit motto: Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam ("for the greater glory of God"). This phrase is designed to reflect the idea that any work that is not evil can be meritorious for heaven if it is performed with this intention, even things considered normally indifferent.
Early works
The Jesuits were founded just before the Counter-Reformation, a movement whose purpose was to reform the Roman Church from within and to counter the Protestant Reformers, whose teachings were spreading throughout Catholic Europe. As part of their service to the Roman Church, the Jesuits encouraged people to continue their obedience both to scripture and also Roman doctrine, Ignatius himself taking an extreme position when he wrote:
- "I will believe that the white that I see is black if the hierarchical Church so defines it."
Ignatius and the early Jesuits did recognize, though, that the hierarchical Church was in dire need of reform, and some of their greatest struggles were against the corruption, venality, and spiritual lassitude within the Roman Church. As a result, though the Jesuits were loyal sons of the pope, Ignatius and his successors often tangled with him and the Roman Curia. Throughout their history, the Jesuits have had the reputation for serving as papal "elite troops". One should regard such statements with caution, however. History demonstrates that the Jesuits have been at loggerheads with the pope as often as they have been in his good graces. Indeed, the pope even once ordered their total suppression, as will be described below.
St. Ignatius and the Jesuits who followed him believed that the reform of the Church had to begin with the conversion of an individual’s heart. One of the main tools the Jesuits have used to bring about this conversion has been the Ignatian retreat, called the Spiritual Exercises. During a four-week period of silence, individuals undergo a series of directed meditations on the life of Christ. During this period, they meet regularly with a spiritual director, who helps them understand whatever call or message God has offered in their meditations. The retreat follows a Purgative-Illuminative-Unitive pattern in the tradition of the mysticism of John Cassian and the Desert Fathers. Ignatius' innovation was to make this style of contemplative mysticism available to people in active life, and to use it as a means of rebuilding the spiritual life of the Church.
The Jesuits also founded many schools, which, because of their advanced teaching methods and high moral tone, attracted the sons of the élite. The Jesuits were among the first to incorporate the Classical teachings of Renaissance humanism into the Scholastic structure of Catholic thought. In addition to teaching the faith, Jesuit schools were distinguished in their teaching of Latin, Greek, Classical Literature, Poetry, and Philosophy. Furthermore, Jesuit schools encouraged the study of vernacular literature and rhetoric, and thereby became important centers for the training of lawyers and other public officials. The Jesuit schools thus played an important part in winning back to Catholicism a number of European countries which had for a time been predominately Protestant, notably Poland. Even today, Jesuit schools in over one hundred nations continue to provide a high-quality education.
Following the Roman Catholic tradition that God can be encountered through created things and especially art, they encouraged the use of ceremony and decoration in Catholic ritual and devotion (which the Lutherans so despised). Perhaps as a result of this appreciation for art, coupled with their spiritual practice of "finding God in all things", many early Jesuits distinguished themselves in the visual and performing arts as well as in music.
The Jesuits were able to obtain significant influence in the Early Modern Period because Jesuit priests often acted as confessors to the Kings of the time. They were an important force in the Counter-Reformation and in the Catholic missions, in part because their relatively loose structure (without the requirements of living in community, saying the divine office together, etc.) allowed them to be flexible to meet the needs of the people at the time.
Expansion
Early missions in Japan resulted in the government granting the Jesuits the feudal fiefdom of Nagasaki in 1580. This was removed in 1587 however, due to fears over their growing influence.
Francis Xavier arrived in Goa, in Western India in 1541 to consider evangelical service in the Indies. He passed away after a decade of evangelism in Southern India. Under Portugese royal patronage, the order thrived in Goa and until 1759 successfully expanded its activities to education and healthcare. On 17 December 1760, Marquis of Pombal, Secretary of State in Portugal expelled the Jesuits from India.
Two Jesuit missionaries, Gruber and D'Orville, reached Lhasa in Tibet in 1661.
Jesuit missions in Latin America were very controversial in Europe, especially in Spain and Portugal, where they were seen as interfering with the proper colonial enterprises of the royal governments. The Jesuits were often the only force standing between the Indians and slavery. Together throughout South America but especially in present-day Brazil and Paraguay they formed Christian-Indian city-states, called reductions (Spanish Reducciones). These were societies set up according to an idealized theocratic model. It is partly because the Jesuits protected the Indians whom certain Spanish and Portuguese colonizers wanted to enslave that the Society of Jesus was suppressed.
Jesuit priests, such as Manoel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta founded several towns in Brazil in the 16th century, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and were very influential in the pacification, religious conversion and education of Indian nations
Jesuit mission in China brought about the Chinese Rites controversy in the early 18th century.
Jesuit scholars working in these foreign missions to the "heathens" were very important in understanding their unknown languages and strived for producing Latinicized grammars and dictionaries, the first organized efforts at linguistics. This was done, for instance, for Japanese and Tupi-Guarani (a language group of South American aborigenes).
Period of troubles
See article Suppression of the Jesuits
The suppression of the Jesuits in Portugal, France, the Two Sicilies, Parma and the Spanish Empire by 1767 was troubling to the Society's defender, Pope Clement XIII. Following a decree signed by Pope Clement XIV in July 1773, the Jesuits were suppressed in all countries (other than Russia, where the Russian Orthodox government refused to recognize papal authority). Because millions of Catholics (including many Jesuits) lived in the Polish western provinces of the Russian Empire, the Society was able to maintain its legal existence and carry on its work all through the period of suppression.
After the Society was revived by Rome in the early 19th century, its members were generally supportive of Papal authority within the Church, and were intimately associated with the Ultramontanist movement and the declaration of Papal Infallibility in 1870.
Jesuits today
The Society of Jesus is very active in missionary work and in education, operating in various countries spread across the world. Among them are Philippines, India and the United States (over 50 high schools and colleges in the United States alone).
Some Jesuits in Latin America and the United States have taken leftist views of Catholicism, being involved in liberation theology, which the Vatican has been reluctant to embrace. Whether taking such political positions is acceptable for Jesuits has been the theme of many debates within the Catholic Church.
Controversies
The Jesuits have frequently been described by Catholic and Protestant enemies as engaged in various conspiracies. They have also been accused of using casuistry to obtain justifications for the unjustifiable. In several languages, "Jesuit" or "Jesuitical" therefore acquired a secondary meaning of devious around an objective truth. The Jesuits have also been targeted by many anti-Catholics like Jack Chick, Avro Manhattan, and Alberto Rivera. Among other things they point to the text of an extreme oath allegedly taken by advanced members of the order, which essentially justifies any action including infiltration of other faiths as justified in the name of the "greater good". They have been accused of murdering Popes, presidents, causing wars, and toppling governments. There is also a claim among many anti-Catholics that the Jesuit Superior General rules the Vatican behind the scenes. The order itself, Catholics, and most non-Catholics generally regard these claims as untrue.
Famous Jesuits
Among many distinguished early Jesuits was St. Francis Xavier, a missionary to Asia who converted more people to Catholicism than anyone in Catholic history before him.
Other famous Jesuits include:
- Francois d'Aguillon
- St. Francis Xavier, Spanish Jesuit, missionary in India
- Giulio Alenio
- Jean Joseph Marie Amiot
- José de Anchieta, founder of Sao Paolo, Brazil
- Juan Andres
- Pedro Arrupe, Former General of the Order
- Xabier Arzalluz, left the order
- Jakob Balde
- Abbé Augustin Barruél
- St. Robert Bellarmine
- St. John Berchmans
- Daniel Berrigan
- St. Andrew Bobola
- St. Charles Borromeo
- Ruđer Josip Bošković
- St. Edmund Campion, English martyr
- Petrus Canisius
- John Carroll, first bishop of the United States
- Giuseppe Castiglione
- Michel de Certeau
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French paleontologist
- St. Peter Claver, Saint to the Slave Ships in South America
- Frederick Copleston, English writer of History of Western Philosophy (vol 1-12)
- Jacques Courtois
- John Dear
- Horacio De La Costa Philippine historian.
- Jeremiah Delgado
- Alfred Delp, German Jesuit who was hanged for his opposition to Hitler
- Robert Drinan
- Avery Dulles, American theologian and cardinal
- Jacques Dupuis, Belgian theologian and expert on Inter-Religious Diologue
- Ignacio Ellacuría, Rector of University of Central America, El Salvador - shot dead in 1989
- Peter Faber, Companion of Ignatius
- Father Leonard Feeney
- Luis Frois
- St. Henry Garnett, First English Provincial, executed after being falsely blamed for the 'Gunpowder Plot'
- St. Aloysius Gonzaga
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet
- Eusebio Francisco Kino
- Athanasius Kircher
- Georges Lemaître, proposed the big bang from Einstein's theory of gravity
- Louis Maimbourg
- Jacques Marquette
- Anthony de Mello, Indian Spiritual Writer
- Roberto de Nobili, missionary to India
- Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit, founder of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
- Oswald von Nell-Breuning
- Karl Rahner
- St. José María Rubio, Spanish Jesuit, canonised by the late Pope John Paul II in 2003
- Alexandre de Rhodes
- Matteo Ricci, missionary to China
- Johann Adam Schall von Bell
- Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian mathematician and Astronomer
- José María Vélaz, founder of Fe y Alegria.
- Ferdinand Verbiest, Belgian missionary to China
- Edmund A. Walsh
- P.J. Zoetmulder
- Ignacio Ellacuría
- Ignacio Martín-Baró
- Joaquín López y López
- Segundo Montes
- Amando López
- Juan Ramón Moreno
See also: the Canadian Martyrs.
Jesuit institutions
Jesuits have founded and/or managed a number of institutions, notably universities, which have produced many well-known alumni.
The most prominent of these universities are in the United States where they are organized as the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. In Latin America they are organized in the Asociación de Universidades Confiadas a la Compañía de Jesús en América Latina (Association of Universities Entrusted to the Jesuits in Latin America). Jesuit colleges and universities include (in alphabetical order):
- Ateneo de Davao University, Davao City, Philippines
- Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
- Ateneo de Naga University, Naga City, Philippines
- Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Zamboanga City Philippines
- Bellarmine College Preparatory, San José, California, USA
- Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
- Canisius College, Buffalo, New York, USA
- Campion Hall, Oxford University, Oxford, UK,Web Site
- College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
- Comillas University, Madrid, Spain, Web Site
- Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, Web Site
- Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA, Web Site
- Fordham University, The Bronx, New York, USA, Web Site
- Georgetown University, Georgetown, Washington, DC, USA, Web Site
- Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, USA
- Heythrop College, Kensington, London, United Kingdom,Web Site
- Instituto Filosófico Pedro Francisco Bonó, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Instituto Latinoamericano de Doctrina y Estudios Sociales, Santiago, Chile
- Instituto Superior de Estudios Humanísticos y Filosóficos, Asunción, Paraguay
- Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
- John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio, USA
- Kolleg St. Blasien, St. Blasien, Germany – Catholic boarding school
- Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York, USA
- Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, USA
- Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
- Loyola College, Chennai, India
- Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
- Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
- Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia, Web Site
- Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy
- Regis University, Denver, Colorado, USA
- Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- Saint Aloysius' College, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia – Jesuit High School
- Saint Bonaventure's College, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
- Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia – Jesuit High School
- Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Saint Xavier's College, Bombay, India
- Saint Xavier's College, Calcutta, India
- Saint Xavier's College, Patna, India
- Xavier's Boys Academy, Bombay, India
- Saint Xavier's High School, Bombay, India
- Saint Peter's College, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
- Sanata Dharma University,Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California, USA – grew out of a Jesuit college in Mission Santa Clara de Asis
- Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama, USA
- Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan
- Sogang University, Seoul, Korea
- Stonyhurst College, Blackburn, Lancashire, UK
- Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela
- Universidad Católica del Táchira, San Cristóbal, Venezuela
- Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay
- Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Universidad Centroamericana, San Salvador, El Salvador
- Universidad Centroamericana, Managua, Nicaragua
- Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
- Universidad del Pacífico, Lima, Peru
- Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México, Mexico – several campuses around the country
- Universidad Rafael Landívar, Guatemala City, Guatemala
- Université de Saint-Joseph, Beirut, Lebanon
- University of Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt, Germany – closed in 1800
- University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Michigan, USA
- University of San Diego, San Diego, California, USA
- University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
- Wah Yan College, Hong Kong
- Wah Yan College, Kowloon
- Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
- Xavier College, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
- Xavier University (Cagayan de Oro),Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines (formerly Ateneo de Cagayan)
The Jesuits have also founded and maintain a number of high schools or secondary schools, many of which formed by splitting off of or in association with Jesuit colleges or universities. In the United States, these are organized into the Jesuit Secondary Education Association [1]. These schools include (in alphabetical order):
- Belen Jesuit Prepatory School, Miami, FL [2]
- Bellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose, CA [3]
- Boston College High School, Boston, MA
- Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, Indianapolis, IN
- Brophy College Preparatory, Phoenix, AZ
- Canisius High School, Buffalo, New York
- Cheverus High School, Portland,Maine
- Creighton Preparatory School, Omaha, Nebraska
- Georgetown Preparatory School, North Bethesda, Maryland
- Gonzaga College High School, Washington, DC
- Gonzaga College, Dublin, Ireland
- Jesuit High School, New Orleans, Louisiana – one of many Jesuit High Schools
- Jesuit High School of Tampa, Florida [4]
- Loyola Academy Jesuit College Preparatory High School, Wilmette, Illinois
- Loyola Blakefield, Towson, Maryland
- Loyola High School of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
- Marquette University High School, Milwaukee, WI
- McQuaid Jesuit High School, Rochester, New York
- Regis High School, New York, NY
- Regis Jesuit High School, Aurora, CO
- Rockhurst High School, Kansas City, Missouri
- Saint Bonaventure's College, St. John's, Newfoundland [5]
- Saint Ignatius College Prepatory, San Francisco, California [6]
- Saint Ignatius High School, Cleveland, Ohio [7]
- Saint John's Jesuit High School, Toledo, Ohio [8]
- Saint Joseph's Preparatory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Saint Louis University High School, St. Louis, Missouri
- Saint Paul's High School, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- Saint Peter's Preparatory High School, Jersey City, NJ [9]
- Saint Xavier High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, UK, Web Site
- Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, Houston, Texas
- Jesuit College Preparatory School, Dallas, Texas
- University of Detroit Jesuit High School, Detroit, Michigan
- Wah Yan College, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Wah Yan College, Kowloon, Hong Kong Web Site
- Wimbledon College, London, UK,Web Site
- Xavier High School, New York City, New York
- Loyola School, Trivandrum, India
Jesuit buildings
Many buildings and ruins give witness to the order's construction activity world-wide. Among these are:
- Ruins of Saint Paul's Cathedral in Macau
- Ruins of San Ignacio Church in the Philippines
- Church of the Gesu in Rome, Italy
- Church of the Gesu in the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila Univ.)
- La Santisima Trinidad de Parana in Paraguay
See also
- Bollandist
- Acta Sanctorum
- Catholicism in China
- Catholicism in Japan
- Jesuit pre-modern China missions
- Laying on of hands
- Madonna Della Strada
- Misiones Province, Argentina
External links
- J.H. Pollen, "The Jesuits (Society of Jesus)" in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
- Jesuit University system in the Philippines
- Jesuits in Canada
- Jesuits in the Philippines
- United States Jesuit Conference
- Jesuit Volunteers of America
- Jesuit Refugee Service
- Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
- Jesuits in the United Kingdom
- Jesuits in Indonesia
- Jesuits in Australia
- Jesuits in South Africa
- The Mission(Movie): The Mission is a 1986 film which tells the story of a Spanish Jesuit priest who goes into the South American jungle to convert the Native Americans, who must defend his charges against the cruelty of Portuguese colonials.