May 24, 2024Catholic News AgencyThe Dispatch25Print
ACI Prensa Staff, May 24, 2024 / 10:31 am (CNA).
Father Julio Fernández Techera, a Jesuit priest and rector of the Catholic University of Uruguay, has written a widely circulated, critical essay about the Society of Jesus warning that the order, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534, is in “deep decline.”
The essay by the 57-year-old priest is titled “Ad Usum Nostrorum III” (“For Our Use III”) addressed to his Jesuit brothers. The document, which originally circulated within the Society of Jesus, was recently published by the Spanish journalist Francisco José Fernández de la Cigoña on his blog on Infovaticana.
This is the third document in a series that Fernández began in 2022 when he wrote his initial essay (“Ad Usum Nostrorum”), noting that for a long time he has felt dissatisfied with the situation in the Society of Jesus while making it clear that he is not going through a vocational crisis nor is he thinking about leaving.
He published the second essay a year later, in April 2023. In that text he expressed his appreciation for the many responses he received, also from young Jesuits, and even from some who didn’t agree with him but thanked him for the opportunity to debate and propose a revision of the order.
The third essay by Fernández is dated April 22. The new text has the subtitle “Some Considerations about the ‘De Statu Societatis 2023’ (‘On the State of the Society 2023’),” in reference to the general report produced by the superior general of the Society of Jesus, in this case the Venezuelan priest Arturo Sosa, in collaboration with the procurators (who assess the state of the order), who met in May of last year in Loyola, Spain.
Recent sex abuse scandals
“The society is experiencing very worrying situations that seem not to have been addressed in the Congregation of Procurators and that do not appear clearly and are not taken up in the ‘De Statu’ report. To give some examples, in December of 2022 we learned about what an Italian Jesuit called the ‘Rupnik Tsunami,’” Fernández noted in his essay.
Marko Rupnik is a priest who was expelled from the Society of Jesus in 2023 — accused since 2018 of having committed serious sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse against at least 20 women in the Loyola Community that he co-founded in Slovenia — and who continues to appear as a Jesuit and Vatican consultant in the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook.
Fernández then referred to the “scandal” of sexual abuse against minors “committed by some Jesuits in Bolivia, and the alleged cover-up by several provincials who were accused by the prosecutor’s office of that country. We have had to find out about everything through the press and we have not received a single statement or letter from the General Curia explaining what happened or to ask for prayers for the province of Bolivia.”
The main Jesuit accused in this case is the late Alfonso Pedrajas, known as “Padre Pica,” who kept a diary about the sexual abuse he committed against more than 80 minors in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.
A shrinking society
Fernández pointed out in his most recent essay that “other urgent issues that were not dealt with clearly and forcefully are: the drop in the number of admissions to the society, which in the West worsens year by year, as well as the high number of members leaving the order.”
“Recently a friend told me that 72 novices entered his province in the last 10 years. In the same period, the number of Jesuits who left the society in his province were 71,” he said, adding that “in 2023, 314 novices entered the entire society, and 319 died.”
The priest also noted that there are currently 13,995 Jesuits and lamented that “in a few years the society will have disappeared from several European countries and will become insignificant in others in Europe, America, and Oceania.” The only growth is in Africa. In 2013, there were more than 17,200 Jesuits, which means that in just over 10 years, the Society of Jesus has decreased by more than 3,000 members.
For the Uruguayan priest, “the problem is not only that many die and few enter, but also that we do not know how to retain many of those who enter.”
“The reason why we do not have vocations is not because of thesecularized society, the changing times, and a thousand other excuses. The reason is that these conditions of our time have cowed us, they overwhelm us, and we do not know how to respond to today’s challenges with the drive and creativity of yesterday,” he pointed out.
Jesuits currently more akin to a ‘progressive NGO’
According to Fernández, the vision of the general report on the Society of Jesus “could perfectly be the view of the world of a secular think tank, with ties to a left-wing political party or a progressive NGO [nongovernmental organization].”
“One does not find in that [evaluation] any of the supernatural or transcendent outlook that would be expected from a religious, apostolic, and priestly order,” he lamented.
“There are many signs in the current life of Jesuit ministries, in the documents that are published and the guidelines that are given, that give the impression that we are in an NGO and not in a religious order,” Fernandez pointed out.
In ‘deep decline’
As Fernández sees it, the Society of Jesus “is in deep decline. It doesn’t know it, or it doesn’t want to know it, which is the same thing. It wants to believe that this is the situation of all the other realities of the Church that surround it and that therefore it is what it should be.”
In his opinion, the society’s leadership “fears that if it speaks clearly to the entire order, its members will suffer and become discouraged. The leaders“prefer to maintain the fiction that things are going well rather than risk recognizing the religious and apostolic decline of the society.”
Regarding the Jesuits’ 2023 general report, Fernándezpointed out that “in this entire long document of more than 24,000 words, the word ‘priest’ never appears and only twice ‘priesthood,’ although only to make a reference distinguishing between priesthood in the society and the diocesan priesthood.”
“I think our attitude is suicidal: We want vocations for the priesthood in the society, but we don’t want to talk about being priests,” he pointed out.
Toward the end of the essay, Fernández recalls that the Jesuits “have a wonderful and necessary charism for the Church, a religious, apostolic, and priestly charism. We have to recover it and live it with passion, boldness, and generosity.”
“To achieve this it is necessary to speak more freely, express clearly what we experience and think and stop being politically correct.”
In conclusion, Fernández expresses his prayer that God “would grant us in this time a living hope to believe that if we put ourselves in his hands and are faithful, we can still rise again and once again be a great service to his Church.”
ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, contacted the General Curia of the Jesuits in Rome to request its impressions of Fernandez’s essay. As of publication of this article, no response has been received.
History of apostolic visits
In a piece published in March 2022, the late Cardinal George Pell, under the pseudonym Demos, suggested conducting an apostolic visit or investigation into the Society of Jesus.
The early 1980s was the last time the Jesuits were investigated. At that time, Pope John Paul II personally intervened in the governance of the society, removing Father Pedro Arrupe from his position as superior general.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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25 Comments
We read from Fr. Techera: “I think our attitude is suicidal [!]: We want vocations for the priesthood in the society, but we don’t want to talk about being priests.” And yet, from a much more prominent Jesuit, we’re instructed that being so-called “conservative” is what’s “suicidal”…
We can agree that a reconstituted Jesuit Order might yet contribute much in our post-modern and post-Vatican II situation.
Historically, the Order (formed in A.D. 1540) now simply has to do better at replacing its original mission—which was to reclaim at least parts of Reformation Europe for Eucharistic Christianity (served by the priesthood!). This through education and influencing at least a few heads of the rising and centralizing political dynasties. Mostly, the Jesuits were distrusted as an obstacle to state power; the 18th-century papal suppression of the Jesuit Order stemmed partly from their resistance to national slavery practices in the New World.
In the recent several decades of societal secularization, the ambiguity of so-called and hybrid (?) Jesuit Spirituality has lost its salt. And, the added and internal institutional question is how to be loyal to a papacy that, some would say, is only ambiguously loyal to itself?
So, what is the Jesuit role in a more global and also more polyglot society (think post-modern Secularism plus pre-modern Islam, both), in keeping with both the papacy and (!) the successors of the apostles: the “hierarchical communion” of the perennial Catholic Church (Lumen Gentium)?
With a possibly new Jesuit Order, could the Church do better than drift further into a hybrid/“polyhedral” Church where faith and concrete practice risk self-contradiction depending on geography?
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‘”I think our attitude is suicidal” . . . ., he pointed out.’
More musing on what constitutes a suicidal outlook.Reply
The Jesuiticals and other left-leaning orders are suffering from the same rather predictable predicament.
Somehow, young people who love our Lord totally, completely, desperately, aren’t interested in joining orders that focus on leftist politics rather than on our Savior.
They don’t need the Jesuiticals if they want to become activists dedicated to implementing the Democratic Party’s vision for the world. They can just join the DNC.
As long as the order focuses on leftist politics instead of the Person of Jesus Christ, they will continue to flounder and fail.
And, frankly, good riddance.
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Written for a balance, out of a dislike of generalizations.
During my travels I was very fortunate to receive spiritual direction from a high-positioned Jesuit in the UK. That was a huge and timely aid.
I also read St Ignatius of Loyola and was impressed.This is why I wish that Jesuits return to their roots, so to speak. The same can be wished to the whole Church.
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Amen
Thank you Father Julio Fernández Techera, spoken like a True Apostle, who suffered and died for The Truth.
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Not “ good riddance “ but thanks for what you have contributed to the Church over several centuries. Let’s pray they can reform, regroup and continue on.
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Well said, brineyman! You nailed it!
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Considering the fact that the notoriously progressive Jesuit order is progressing nowhere and seems on the verge of extinction, perhaps they could use a few backwardists to move forward. RIP, Fr. Paul Mankowski.
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What can you say about the Jesuits when they mandated all their members to get the covid “vaccine” – even it violated the individual member’s prudential judgment. Autonomy of will was routinely violated. I know a Jesuit priest who refused the vaccine and who was ostracized by his community, his work as as a college professor ended and told he was not welcome to live with other Jesuits. Now, THAT’S a religious order many young men are clamoring to join, right? There needs to be an entirely new order of followers of Ignatius of Loyola called the Reformed Jesuits.
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A Jesuit and a Franciscan were having a conversation when a man runs up and asks “Fathers, how many novenas do I need to say to get a Mercedes?” The Franciscan asks, “What is a Mercedes?” The Jesuit asks, “What is a novena?”
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Malachi Martin in “Jesuits” detailed 150 years of Jesuit heresies. Why didn’t JPII
suppress the order for their outright defiance of the Papacy? Now we have a Jesuit Bishop of Rome using the power of the papacy to destroy the papacy. And the Teilhard evolutionary progressive and anti-Christian fantasies continue to promote mankind as its own godliness.Reply
The Jesuits have a beautiful charism and an amazing history – so many saints! But they have bitten the Hand that has fed them. The decline left room for frauds like the Legionnaires to fill the gap. The Jesuits will die away or be reformed. Regardless, perhaps like the Church Herself, the Jesuits will shrink to a remnant who truly love the Lord. Unlike the Church, there is no guarantee they will survive.
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This Jesuit pontificate is like the twitching of the muscles close to death for the baby boomer generation. It is desperately seeking approval, seeking youthful relevance. Yet the young who accept the grace of God are seeking fidelity to Sacred Scripture and Tradition!
Witness Governor Newsom bringing US Presidential politics to the heart of the Vatican: “I’m very proud of living in a state that is pushing back against that agenda to roll back progress – frankly, to roll back a lot of the progress of the last century across a spectrum of issues, not just environmental stewardship, and to assert ourselves and stand tall. Again, in the principle of partnership.” Who can doubt that Newsom meant partnership with the Vatican and its climate buddies to roll back abortion restrictions? With friends like that…
Newsom, et al., were given a microphone while Cardinals Burke, Sarah, Müller, et al., have been silenced! Why would any faithful young man give his life to follow the Pope to the Jesuits? St, Ignatius, pray for God to send the Jesuits true reformers.Reply
Jesuit founder Ignatius stressed in the 1553 Jesuit Constitutions, “acceptance of any mission to which the pope might call them.” The Jesuits today have done a great job of following Francis, the big Jesuit topping the tent. An exemplary example of Jesuit submission to the pope is author Fernandez’ repeating Francis’ “suicidal attitude.”
Off to all parts of the world, to the greater glory of all its gods.
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Sadly the same is true for most religious orders. Some are no longer admitting postulants and novices or haven’t had any in years. My own order, once vigorous, is in its death throes. And, if they do ask why is no one joining, they will not or cannot look inside themselves but rather blame the secular and individualistic culture.
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13 new priests ordained today (Saturday)in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/ Minneapolis.
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I am sorry to hear of the state of your religious order, whatever it is (you didn’t mention the name). But saying that most religious orders are declining in membership seems like an overly easy answer for the situation with the Jesuits. The drop that John Grondelski cited in his post represents a loss of more than 2/3rds of membership in just over 40 years, from approximately 50,000 in 1981 to 13,995 at the end of 2023. That is a massive attrition rate and the current leadership should be seriously alarmed. If they are rationalizing it away by saying “Oh well, many other religious orders are losing me,bership too.” they are no longer fit for leadership and should all resign immediately.
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I arrived at Fordham in the fall of 1981 as a graduate student in theology, thanks to a scholarship from the Jesuits. I remember within my first month stopping by campus ministry and reading a brochure that said there were 50,000 Jesuits worldwide, the largest male religious order in the Church.
Now there are not even 14,000?
I respected the Jesuits, but I could not endorse what I saw. When I defended my doctoral dissertation, on sexual ethics in the prepapal writings of John Paul II, my committee was three Jesuits, a diocesan priest, and a Mormon. Most of the Jesuits had pointed questions, the diocesan priest, too. Only the Mormon began the discussion with “John Paul has some important things to say.”
The Jesuits should be playing a vital role in the Church. My suggestions how to deal with this:
a) Any organization whose leadership manages in 40 years to shrink from 50,000 to 13,995 fires its leaders, throws the current management blueprint in the garbage, and starts over. The SOciety of Jesus should do that, including with its most recent “General Congregations” looking at the ‘peripheries” to “find find through justice.” When I was at Fordham, most of the Theology and Philosophy Departments were staffed by Jesuits. THe men who should have followed after them were too busy doing “faith and justice” in soup kitchens. Now, I have nothing against soup kitchens, but the Church needs her intellectuals, too. That’s why the Fordham Theology Department now has about 3-4 Jesuits.
2) Other religious orders “reformed” by splitting: when the Franciscans debated what their rule meant, there came to be various observances, strict to less strict, e.g., Capuchins, Conventuals, etc. The military structure of the Society of Jesus always managed to suppress those reform impulses to keep ONE Jesuit order — one that is dying. An orthodox Jesuit order would be an immense asset to the Church today.Reply
The Jesuits may be in a steep decline, but they have never such a grip on the Church as they do today. How much more damage will they inflict on the wider church before they disappear?
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We read that Father Fernández cites the reality of the “deep decline” of the Society of Jesus while the Jesuit Pope is raising eyebrows saying Conservative Catholics have a suicidal attitude. Could it be more ironic?
Anyone alive during the mid-century council and its immediate tragic aftermath is painfully aware of the role the Society of Jesus played in promoting an agenda that has proved to be the evisceration of Roman Catholicism. It has continued to this day – and the Jesuits are now reluctantly coming to realize that it hit the fan for them as well?
It is not conscientious Catholics, or conservative Catholics, who have a suicidal attitude. It is those engaged for over sixty years in theological abuse in the service of odium fidei who shoulder the ambition of self-extinction.
Forty years back it was my hope that Pope John Paul would suppress the Society of Jesus. He failed to do so. He even failed in his ambition to get them back on course. Near twenty-five years of Father Kolvenbach achieved nothing.
We now shoulder a Jesuit Pope, a one-time provincial in the Society, who is immune from reading – yet again the irony – the “signs of the times” – for the Society or for the Church he is so grossly inadequate to lead.
Christ Himself has assured us His Church will endure. There is no such hope for the Society of Jesus – unless it once again takes up its mission Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. It exhibition of unbridled hubris in the service of secular materialism for the last sixty years continues to be a gross obscenity at the Vatican and globally.Reply
Reference to Windswept House frequently appeared on Catholic websites although I was unaware of the author or the book’s content. What is of interest is Malachi Martin’s prophetic language regarding the moral collapse of the Jesuits beginning in the Sixties, which sadly corresponds with the collapse of Catholic practice throughout the Church. Malachi predicted that the Church would soon have a Roman pontiff who embraced modernism, and would find a means to disseminate a doctrine that neutralizes the commandments. How then might a reformation back to its roots affect both the Jesuits and the Church? I agree with Grondelski’s ideas.
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Prior to “Windswept House” (1996), Malachi Martin wrote “The Jesuits” (1987)…
In the earlier book a short section explains that the young Jesuit PEDRO ARRUPE was in Japan and within view of the incomprehensible atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945. Martin held that Arrupe was so shaken—the magnitude of convoluted evils now facing mankind are so overwhelming—that to set things right might first require us to SUSPEND morality temporarily—just get some things done.
Elected as Jesuit General in 1965, was Arrupe the early virus that then mutated into problematic Jesuit Spirituality? The separation of retained doctrine and moral theology from concrete practice. Is this why fluid AMBIGUITY now finds itself in the hands of layered signaling, experts, study groups, and a synod-style Church, while so so-called “conservatives” are, what, encircled, or whatever?
As partly an aside, why does today’s theological “time is greater than space” seem to echo the historical loss of post-war China to Chairman Mao—whose forces engaged in mobile and unconventional warfare in rural areas (the force of “time”) while the Nationalists were surrounded and stationary in their urban garrisons (their “place”)? A style of sorts. In the later Great Leap “forward,” some 75 million were expendable and perished—just to get some things done.
TODAY, from whence cometh the discounting of those irreducible moral absolutes affirmed by the Magisterium, the Catechism, and Veritatis Splendor—the perennial Catholic Church’s guardianship of St. Paul’s Deposit of Faith (or “space”)?
OR, finally, does “Dignitas Infinita” demonstrate regained memory and maturity above and beyond any adolescent “paradigm shift” in ecclesiology or moral theology?
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Let’s hope the Jesuits go the way of the Model T Ford and fade into history. With the likes of James Martin, SCH and Francis in their ranks, it’s not likely that repentance and renewal will be happening any time soon.
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The essay writer says: “…these conditions of our time have cowed us, they overwhelm us, and we do not know how to respond to today’s challenges.”
Exactly. An ordained Jesuit doesn’t understand or know the solution to conditions which cow him and his order! What greater evidence do we need to convict him, as he is, adrift on the sea of ignorance and secularity? Does he not have an inkling of where to turn for salvation, hope, joy, and solution to his order’s problems? Are he and his order so lost that they see no usefulness of knees? Have they never learned to go down on knees to prostrate themselves, not with an adolescent boy-girl in hand, but in humility and obeisant begging of their Creator?
With this Jesuit writer’s impending cliff, with his confession of being simply and unabashedly adrift, does he not know Whom to ask for help?????? Are we astonished at such ignorant blindness, at such unwillingness to see, at his not knowing The Physician Who May Heal?
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The essay writer says: “…these conditions of our time have cowed us, they overwhelm us, and we do not know how to respond to today’s challenges.”
Exactly. An ordained Jesuit doesn’t understand or know the solution to conditions which cow him and his order! What greater evidence do we need to convict him, as he is, adrift on the sea of ignorance and secularity? Does he not have an inkling of where to turn for salvation, hope, joy, and solution to his order’s problems? Are he and his order so lost that they see no usefulness of knees? Have they never learned to go down on knees to prostrate themselves, not with an adolescent boy-girl in hand, but in humility and obeisant begging of their Creator?
With this Jesuit writer’s impending cliff, with his confession of being simply and unabashedly adrift, does he not know Whom to ask for help?????? Are we astonished at such ignorant blindness, at such unwillingness to see, that he does not know The Physician Who May Heal?
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