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One of the first versions of the seal of the Society of Jesus (Church of Gesù, Rome). The "IHS" trigram, understood by the first three Greek lyrics of "He Whoopened" (Jesus)

The Society of Jesus (S.I.; Latin: Societas Iesu) (the form S.J. is also used), whose members are commonly known as Jesuits, is a religious order of regular clergy of the Catholic Church founded in 1534 by the Spanish Ignacio de Loyola, together with Francisco Javier, Pedro Fabro, Diego Laínez, Alfonso Salmerón, Nicolás de Bobadilla, Simão Rodrigues, Juan Coduri, Pascasio Broët and Claudio Jayo in the city of Rome. It was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540.

With 15,306 members in 2020 (of whom 11,049 were ordained priests), it is the largest Catholic religious order today. Its activity extends to the educational, social, intellectual, missionary and Catholic media fields, in addition to serving 1,250 parishes around the world (as of 2020).

Command description

The Society of Jesus is a religious order of an apostolic and priestly nature, although it is also made up of "lay brothers" or curates, that is, non-ordained religious. She is linked to the pope by a "special bond of love and service." Its purpose, according to the Formula of the Institute, founding document of the Order (1540), is "the salvation and perfection of neighbours". In terms of Canon Law, the Society of Jesus is an association of men approved by the authority of the Church, in which its members, according to their own right, issue public religious vows and tend in their lives towards "evangelical perfection".

Formation in the Society of Jesus begins with a novitiate that lasts two years. He continues with a process of intellectual formation that includes studies in the humanities, philosophy and theology. In addition, Jesuits in formation carry out two or three years of teaching or "apostolic practices" ("teaching" period) in schools or in other areas (parish work, social work, the media, etc.). The in-depth study of languages, sacred and profane disciplines, before or after their priestly ordination, has made the members of the Society of Jesus, for almost five centuries, the intellectual leaders of Catholicism. Training in the Company ends with the Third Probation, which is also known as the “School of the Heart (or affections)”.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder, wanted his members to be always prepared to be sent as quickly as possible wherever they were required by the mission of the Church. For this reason, the Jesuits profess the three normative vows of religious life (obedience, poverty and chastity) and, in addition, a fourth vow of obedience to the Pope, "circa missions". The Formula of the Institute (confirmed by Julius III in 1550) says: «Military for God under the banner of the cross and serve only the Lord and the Church, his Spouse, under the Roman Pontiff, Vicar of Christ on earth».

The General Congregation (GC) is the supreme governing body. Unlike other orders, it is not summoned periodically but in the event of the death of the superior general (also called superior or simply general) or to deal with matters of special importance. Although the position of superior is for life and no general resigned from the Company prior to the suppression of 1773, the Complementary Norms in force since 1995 contemplate the possibility of resigning. The first to do so —for serious health reasons— was Pedro Arrupe, in 1983 and with the authorization of CG 33. His successor, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, did the same in 2008, as did Adolfo Nicolás Pachón in 2016.

The Society of Jesus has been an organization that has lived between praise and criticism, always in controversy. Their unconditional loyalty to the Pope has placed them in more than one conflict: with Elizabethan England, against the absolutism of Louis XIV of France (known as the "Sun King"), Spanish regalism, with Bismarck's Germany, where they came from expelled (during the Kulturkampf), and with the liberal governments of various countries in America and Europe. Likewise, the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and China severely limited their activity after 1945.

Loyola Basilica.

The Society of Jesus developed an important activity during the Catholic Reformation, especially in the years immediately after the Council of Trent. His presence in Western education and in missions in Asia, Africa and America has been very active. It has counted among its ranks a long series of saints, theologians, scientists, philosophers, artists and educators: San Francisco de Javier, San Luis Gonzaga, Matteo Ricci, Francisco Suárez, Luis de Molina, San José de Anchieta, Juan de Mariana, Saint Roberto Bellarmine, Saint Pedro Canisio, José de Acosta, Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Atanasio Kircher, Saint Peter Claver, Eusebio Kino, Francisco Javier Clavijero, Saint Alberto Hurtado, etc.

Notable chapters in its history have been the origin and development of its colleges and universities in Europe, missionary activity in India, China and Japan, the reductions of Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina, the exploration and evangelization of Canada, the Mississippi and Marañón, the theological conflicts with the Protestants and the Jansenists, their confrontation with the Enlightenment, their suppression (1773) and their restoration (1814).

In 1965 they reached their maximum numerical expansion: 36,000 Jesuits in more than a hundred administrative units (provinces and missions). Today, Jesuits and lay people who share his spirituality work in the most diverse fields, trying to collaborate with the Church by responding to the new needs of society and the challenges that these pose. Thus, the Company works in social action, education, the intellectual sphere, service to parishes and Christian communities, and in the media.

Between 1965 and 2016, his superiors general were Pedro Arrupe (Spanish, 1965-1983), Peter Hans Kolvenbach (Dutch, 1983-2008) and Adolfo Nicolás (Spanish, 2008-2016, the year in which he resigned for reasons of age). On October 2, 2016 he began his 36th General Congregation, to elect a new superior (superior general) and to legislate on aspects of the mission and charism of the Order. On October 14, the Venezuelan Arturo Sosa, belonging to the Northern Latin American Assistance, was elected as the thirty-first general.

Paul VI described the Jesuits in the following way (1975): «Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult or front-line fields, there have been or are confrontations: at the intersections of ideologies and in the social trenches, between the demands of man and the Christian message, there have been and are the Jesuits».

History

Origin of the Company

Central Church of the Society of Jesus in Rome.

Church of the Society of Jesus in Bogotá, Colombia.

Regimini militantis Ecclesiae, picture of Johann Christoph Handke of the centuryXVIII.

In September 1529, Ignacio de Loyola, a Basque who fought in the wars against the king of trans-Pyrenean Navarre, defending the cause of Carlos I, had chosen to dedicate himself to "serving souls". Determined to study to better fulfill his purpose, he joined the Colegio de Santa Bárbara —dependent on the University of Paris— and shared a room with Pedro Fabro from Savoyard and Francisco de Javier from Navarre. The three became friends. Ignacio carried out a discreet spiritual activity among his classmates, above all giving Spiritual Exercises , an ascetic method developed by himself.

In 1533, Diego Laínez, Alfonso Salmerón, Nicolás de Bobadilla and Simão Rodrigues arrived in Paris, joining Ignacio's group. On August 15, 1534, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, the seven went to the crypt of the Martyrium chapel, located in what is now Rue Yvonne Le Tac, on the Montmartre hill, where they pronounced three vows.: poverty, chastity and pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After the vows at Montmartre, three young Frenchmen "recruited" by Fabro joined the initial nucleus: Claudio Jayo, Juan Coduri and Pascasio Broët. The ten met in Venice and went on missions to northern Italy waiting to embark for Jerusalem. Unable to travel to Palestine due to the war between Venice and the Ottoman Empire, the group headed for Rome. There, after a long spiritual deliberation, they decided to found the Society of Jesus, which was approved on September 27, 1540 by Paul III, who recognized them as a new religious order and signed the bull of confirmation, Regimini militantis ecclesiae (For the government of the militant church).

From the papal approval began a process of numerical expansion, internal organization and response to the entrusted missions: foundation of colleges at the request of interested cities, reform of monasteries, participation in the Council of Trent, dialogue with the Protestants, diplomatic missions, etc. The first companions dispersed: Rodríguez went to Portugal, Javier to the Orient, Fabro toured Europe preaching and giving the Spiritual Exercises. Between 1540 and 1550 notable characters joined the Order for its further development: Jerónimo Nadal, Francisco de Borja (Duke of Gandía and Viceroy of Catalonia), Pedro Canisio, notable theologian (doctor of the Church), and Juan Alfonso de Polanco, Ignatius' secretary.

In 1556, when the founder died, there were 1,000 companions. The second general was Diego Laínez.

Role during the Catholic Reformation

San Ignacio de Loyola (1775-1780), oil on canvas by Francisco de Goya. Private collection, Spain.

The Hungarian Archbishop Pedro Pázmány (1570-1637)

Two of Ignacio's companions, Salmerón and Laínez, participated as theologians in the Council of Trent; they were accompanied by the first Germanic Jesuit, Peter Canisius, called the "second apostle of Germany" for his decisive role during the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation. Indeed, Canisio was named Provincial of Germany and encouraged the foundation of colleges and universities that spread the Tridentine doctrine, reconquering Protestant regions for Catholicism such as Bavaria in southern Germany and the current states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Sarre; Poland, Hungary, Austria, and the South of the Netherlands.

Diego Laínez, as a general, participated in the theological colloquium of Poissy, called by the Queen of France to debate with the Protestants. The Sorbonne Faculty of Theology and the Parliament of Paris opposed the legal establishment of the Society in France in this period.

Laínez's successor was Saint Francisco de Borja, the holy Duke of Gandía, who collaborated with Saint Ignatius since Borja became a widow and was even secretly ordained a priest in order to help Saint Ignatius and the Company without compromising it. Elected III General by CG II, he governed from 1565 to 1572, time in which the Jesuit colleges prospered: they went from 50 in 1556 to 163 in 1574. He began the remodeling of the Mother Church of the Company, the Gesù. Borja closely followed the evolution of the Counter-Reformation in Germany. Many Jesuit foundations attended to bolster the Catholic cause.

Borja and his successors Everardo Mercuriano (1573-1580), Claudio Acquaviva (1580-1615) and Muzio Vitelleschi (1615-1645) gave great impetus to the missions. Specifically, during the "Santo Duque" government, the Company entered Peru and Mexico. By the middle of the 17th century the Company had already established a cordon of mission stations running mainly from Portugal to Goa via the African coast, and in the New World throughout the Spanish Empire.

Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit, managed to enter China in 1583. At the beginning of the XVII century he was already installed in Beijing, where he will promote the spread of Christianity among the intellectual caste of the Celestial Empire.

On the other hand, after the Ottoman Empire defeated the Hungarian armies in the battle of Mohács in 1526, after the death of King Ludwig II of Hungary, the kingdom soon divided into three parts: a western one under the control of Ferdinand I of Habsburg, brother of Carlos I of Spain, a central one under the control of the Turkish sultan and an eastern one that became a semi-independent state known as the principality of Transylvania ruled by the Hungarian nobility. They soon adopted Lutheranism and Calvinism so as not to recognize the authority of the Habsburgs, who had inherited the Hungarian throne. In this way, the Transylvanian princes maintained a solid Protestant confession, flourishing in this way in the east of the kingdom. Initially, in 1579, one of the first princes of Transylvania, Count Stephen Báthory (later also King of Poland), turned out to be a great defender of Catholicism, as he led the Jesuits to the Hungarian city of Kolozsvár, where he granted all kinds of privileges. for them and had Ferenc Dávid, a Unitarian reformer, imprisoned. In 1581 he founded a residence for Jesuit students in this city, and this Counter-Reformation movement in Hungary quickly gained momentum.

In addition, to counter Protestantism, the Habsburgs, known for their deep commitment to Rome, launched a vigorous re-Catholicization policy at the turn of the century XVI, whose main figure was the Jesuit Pedro Pázmány, Archbishop of Esztergom (1616-1637), who had studied in Kolozsvár at the institute founded by Prince Stephen Báthory. The literary works of Pedro Pázmány, as well as his speeches and preaching characterized by elaborate theological arguments, served as a tool to solidify the Catholic foundations in the Hungarian kingdom.

Pázmány managed to make many Hungarian aristocratic families abandon Protestantism, as did Count Nicolás Forgách, Sigismund Forgách, Cristóbal Thurzó and Nicolás Eszterházy. After its active publication between 1603 and 1613, more Hungarian families returned to Catholicism, among them the Pálffy, Draskovich, Erdődy, Haller, as well as Georg Zrínyi, Catherine of Brandenburg, widow of Gabriel Bethlen the Protestant prince of Transylvania.

In 1629 Pázmány founded a university in the Hungarian city of Nagyszombat, which had a theology faculty and a humanities faculty.

The Jesuits in America

The Jesuits arrived in Brazil already in the Generalate of Saint Ignatius. The first Jesuits that Ignacio sent to America were the Spanish José de Anchieta and the Portuguese Manuel da Nóbrega. In the government of San Francisco de Borja they entered Florida, Peru and Mexico. And in that of Claudio Acquaviva to Canada, to New Granada, to the Presidency of Quito and other areas. According to their nationalities, the Jesuit missionaries were distributed in the different possessions of the European powers.

Statue that honors the Jesuit priest and missionary John of Brébeuf. Martyr sanctuary, Midland, Ontario, Canada.

Canada: was evangelized by French Jesuits. The vastness of the territory, the climate, and the hostility of the Hurons and Iroquois made the Canadian one of the Company's most difficult missions. Juan de Brébeuf (1649), Gabriel Lalemant (1649), Noël Chabanel (1649), Antonio Daniel (1648), Carlos Garnier (1649), René Goupil (1642), Isaac Jogues (1646) and Juan de Lalande (1646) were martyred.). This mission included territories that today belong to the state of New York and managed to convert thousands of Hurons, but not the Iroquois, who were always hostile towards Europeans.

Mississippi: was explored and evangelized by French Jesuits. Prominent among them was Father Jacques Marquette (1637-75) who, with the explorer Louis Jolliet, was the first European to travel and map the Mississippi River from the northern territory of New France (1673). He founded some towns in New France (present state of Michigan).

Mexico: The Jesuits arrived in Mexico through San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz, on September 9, 1572, and on the 28th of the same month to Mexico City, where Alonso de Villaseca granted them some lots two blocks behind the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. There they founded the Royal and Oldest College of San Ildefonso, a building considered one of the masterpieces of the Mexican Baroque. They carried out important missionary work in the north of the viceroyalty, in Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Durango, Coahuila, Baja California and Zacatecas. Jesuit work lasted until June 25, 1767, when they were expelled and their properties seized militarily, until May 19, 1816 when Fernando VII restored the Company.

Peru: On March 28, 1568, the Jesuit order landed for the first time in the port of Callao to take charge of the evangelizing missions in the Viceroyalty of Peru. They arrived in these new lands when Francisco de Borja was Superior General in Rome. Since then, the Jesuits of Peru have been linked to the political and social reality of the Viceroyalty of Peru, in addition to being concerned with education and missionary works. Thanks to this effort, they founded important schools such as the Máximo de San Pablo and the Real de San Martín de Porres in Lima; the famous San Francisco de Borja, dedicated to the formation of the children of caciques, and the Colegio de San Bernardo for the children of Spaniards as well as the University of San Ignacio, in Cusco, among others. In 1767, as in the other Spanish colonies, the Jesuits of Peru were expelled by order of King Carlos III. This mandate was fulfilled by Viceroy Manuel de Amat y Junyent. The Company is authorized to return to Peru in 1871.

Río de la Plata: In 1603, the twenty-seventh governor of Nueva Andalucía del Río de la Plata Hernandarias modified the legislation on the work of the aborigines, promoting the suppression of mitas and encomiendas, by which the Spaniards enjoyed the fruits of the work of the natives in exchange for their evangelization, in practice non-existent. He obtained the approval of this reform by King Felipe III of Spain, and in 1608 the creation of the Jesuit and Franciscan reductions in the Guayrá region (current state of Paraná, Brazil) was arranged. The Guaraní Jesuit Missions came to be located in the regions of Guayrá, Itatín, Tapé (all three in present-day Brazil), Uruguay (present-day Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay), Paraná (present-day Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil) and the Guaycurú areas in the Chaco (contemporary Argentina and Paraguay), were established in the XVII century within territories belonging to the Spanish empire in the Gobernación del Río de la Plata and Paraguay and their successor governments after their division in 1617: the Government of Paraguay and the Government of Río de la Plata, all dependent on the immense Viceroyalty of Peru.

Church of the Society of Jesus in Quito (Ecuador).

Church of the Society of Jesus in Cordoba, Argentina.

Jesuit agricultural complexes in South America: The Jesuits were innovators in the exploitation of their haciendas and properties in Hispanic America. During the 17th and 18th centuries" They knew how to manage true agro-industrial emporiums with management methods that were ahead of those used today. Among them, one of the most important was the exploitation of the lead, silver and zinc mines in Paramillos de Uspallata (Argentina). In addition, they added the patrimonial participation of what was collected in the haciendas to be later redistributed among indigenous people, slaves and employees, with which it can be concluded that they were the first to grant a kind of "property titles" to their subordinates.

The purpose of these properties was to support their schools, which, due to a rigorous conception of the vow of poverty, were free. However, the wealth of these complexes and haciendas attracted the ambition of crowns and individuals and, in the long run, was a factor in the suppression of the Order.

Expulsions and suppression

Main articles: Expulsion of the Jesuits, Expulsion of the Jesuits of the Spanish Empire of 1767 and Supression of the Society of Jesus.

The enlightened governments of Europe in the 18th century set out to do away with the Society of Jesus for its unconditional defense of the papacy, his intellectual activity, his financial power and his political influence. Certainly, they had made powerful enemies: the supporters of absolutism, the Jansenists and the French philosophers (Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot). The intrigues of certain groups in Rome itself were not lacking either. The European political context was characterized in these years by the advent of the so-called enlightened despotism and by a noticeable decline in the political prestige of the papacy and the political will of the Bourbons and the Portuguese crown to strengthen themselves to the detriment of the Church.

Napoleon himself, in his memoirs, would write:

The Jesuits are a military organization, not a religious order. His boss is the general of an army, not the mere abbot of a monastery. And the objective of this organization is Power, Power in its most despotic exercise, absolute, universal power, Power to control the world under the will of one man [The Superior General of the Jesuits]. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms and, at the same time, it is the greatest and greatest of abuses.

John Adams, the second president of the US, would later say:

I don't like the reopening of the Jesuits. If there has been a human corporation that deserves condemnation on earth and in hell is this society of Loyola. However, our system of religious tolerance forces us to offer them asylum.

The father general since 1758 was the Florentine Lorenzo Ricci. The first country to expel the Society of Jesus was Portugal. Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal, was his main adversary; he imprisoned 180 Jesuits in Lisbon and expelled the rest in 1759. With this harsh measure he intended to strengthen royal authority and give a clear signal to the pope that he would not tolerate pontifical meddling in state affairs. More than a thousand Jesuits from Portugal and its colonies were deported to the Papal States. Clement XIII protested the measure.

In 1763, Louis XV of France accused them of embezzlement due to the bankruptcy of Antoine Lavalette in Martinique. The Parliament of Paris, which since the founding of the Order had challenged the legal presence of the Order in France, condemned the Constitutions and the king decreed the dissolution of the order in his domains, and the embargo of his assets.

Later, the Jesuits were expelled from the territories of the Spanish crown through the Pragmatic Sanction of 1767 issued by Carlos III on April 2, 1767 and whose opinion was the work of Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes (future Count of Campomanes), royalist and at that time prosecutor of the Council of Castilla. At the same time, the seizure of the assets that the Company had in these kingdoms (haciendas, buildings, libraries) was decreed, although the supposed "treasure" in cash was not found. Was expected. The sons of San Ignacio had to leave the work they did in their educational works (which was a severe blow to the formation of youth in Hispanic America) and their missions among indigenous people, such as the famous Guaraní reductions and the less famous ones, but no less strenuous missions in northwestern Mexico (Baja California, Sonora and Sierra Tarahumara) and along the Amazon (Marañón missions). In the same year of the expulsion in Spain, the Jesuits were from the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily governed by Fernando I and in 1768 from the Duchy of Parma, Plasencia and Guastalla in the hands of Fernando I. Son and nephew of the Spanish king.

The suppression of the Jesuits occurred on July 21, 1773. For political reasons, the kings of France, Spain, Portugal and Naples demanded the disappearance of the Company. Pope Clement XIV yielded to strong pressure and through the brief Dominus ac Redemptor suppressed the Society of Jesus. Jesuit priests could convert to the secular clergy; the schoolboys and curate brothers were freed from their vows. In Rome, the execution of the brief was carried out by prelates accompanied by soldiers and bailiffs, and Lorenzo Ricci listened to the sentence without saying a word. Both he and his council of assistants were arrested and locked up in the Castel Sant'Angelo (Rome) without any judgement. Ricci died in prison on November 24, 1775, asserting the innocence of the Society of Jesus.

However, in Russia —specifically in Belarus— and Prussia the edict of suppression was not promulgated by the monarchs. Jesuits from all over Europe accepted the offer of refuge made by Tsarina Catherine the Great, who hoped to continue in this way, with the intellectual support of the Company, the work of modernization begun by Peter the Great.

In 1789—the same year the United States Constitution came into force and the French Revolution began—Bishop John Carroll, a former Jesuit, founded the oldest Catholic university in the United States, the University of Georgetown, in Washington D.C.; in the 19th century, it would be integrated into the restored Company.

Restoration

Forty years later, in the midst of the effects caused by the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the wars of independence in Hispanic America, Pius VII decided to restore the Society on August 7, 1814. In fact, the Jesuits they had survived in Russia—a few hundred—protected by Catherine II. The universal restoration was seen as a response to the challenge represented by those who were seen at that time as the enemies of the Church: Freemasonry and liberals, mainly.

From 1814 until the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the Society of Jesus is associated with conservative and elitist currents. The Order is identified with unconditional support for the authority of the pope. Shortly after the restoration, the tsar expels the Jesuits from Russia in 1820. The generals (Fortis, Roothaan, and Beckx) return to Rome after a forty-year hiatus. During the 19th century the Company suffers the consequences of liberal political revolutions and has to face numerous attacks. She ends up being expelled again from Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, etc.

The Italian resurgence, that is, the unification of the peninsula under the aegis of the House of Savoy, caused complications for the papacy and the Company. Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and Prime Minister of King Victor Emmanuel II, was frankly liberal and therefore anti-clerical. In 1870 the "Roman question" arises when the Piedmontese armies occupy Rome and the pope declares himself a "prisoner in the Vatican." The subsequent political situation in Italy forced Father General Luis Martín to leave Rome and govern from Fiesole.

Despite these expulsions and conflicts, the number of Jesuits is slowly rising. When the German Jesuits were expelled by Otto von Bismarck in July 1872, hundreds of them moved to North America and helped evangelize the interior of the United States.

20th century

At the beginning of the XX century, the Father General was the German Franz Xaver Wernz and the Jesuits numbered around 15,000. During the First World War, the Polish Wlodimir Ledóchowski assumed the generalship and, considered an excellent leader and administrator, vigorously developed the Order on its traditional fronts: education and missions. There was no shortage of Jesuits who stood out as chaplains and stretcher-bearers in the trenches; among them are the French paleontologist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the German blessed Rupert Mayer, nicknamed the "apostle of Munich". Army chaplain and war hero, his sermons against Nazism led to his being sent to a concentration camp.

By the end of the 1930s, Jesuits in the United States surpassed the Spanish in number and became the largest regional group with more than 8,000 Jesuits.

In Spain, by decree of January 23, 1932, the Second Republic dissolved the Society of Jesus under the pretext that it obeyed a foreign power (the pope) and seized all its assets. During the civil war, on May 3, 1938, this decree was repealed by the insurgent Government of Burgos: the Company once again acquired full legal personality and freely carried out all the purposes of its Institute, remaining, in terms of assets, in the situation in which it was previously (B.O.E., May 7, 1938, p.7162s).

After World War II

The Spanish missionary San José de Anchieta was, together with Manuel da Nóbrega, the first Jesuit that Ignacio de Loyola sent to America.

General Wlodimir Ledochowski dies during the conflict and the vicar general Norbert de Boynes cannot convoke a General Congregation (XXIX) until September 1946, when the Belgian canonist Jean-Baptiste Janssens is elected as the twenty-seventh superior general. During his government, a school of thought led by Jesuit theologians (Jean Daniélou, Henry de Lubac) and Dominicans (Yves Congar) developed in France, the so-called “New Theology”, which in the opinion of Pius XII and the Roman Curia, put jeopardize Catholic orthodoxy and unity. The pope published the encyclical Humani generis (1950), severely condemning the positions of these theologians.

The most prominent Jesuits before and during the Second Vatican Council were:

the French and mystical paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (author of The human phenomenon and The Divine Environment, tried to reconcile faith with the theory of evolution),
the Canadian Bernard Lonergan (filopho, author of notable works in epistemology),
theologian John Courtney Murray, who works for the recognition of religious freedom,
Hans Urs von Balthasar (years later he would leave the Order through the secular clergy) and
Karl Rahner (German, one of the most prolific and influential theologians of the centuryXX.).

Towards the end of the 1950s, Teilhard and Murray are questioned by Rome. Teilhard's evolutionism is seen as dangerous; meanwhile, Murray's favorable position towards ecumenism and religious freedom makes the Holy See also censure him. The Superior General is forced to silence Teilhard, who retires in voluntary exile to New York, where he dies in 1955.

On September 17, 1961, 26 Jesuits were expelled from Cuba; the Curia and the Belén College, the same one where Fidel Castro had studied, were waiting in Miami, while 48 Jesuits remained on the island. The expulsion occurred by force, the Jesuits, along with almost 130 other religious, were sent to Spain on the ship Covadonga.

During the Janssens government, a new Jesuit apostolate developed strongly: social work. They wanted to see José María Rubio (Spanish) and Alberto Hurtado (Chilean) as pioneers of this new manifestation of the Ignatian charism. This generalate ended almost at the same time as the Council and meant the apotheosis of the Company: the Order reached its maximum numerical expansion (36,000 Jesuits) and a new chapter began in its relationship with Rome. The promulgation of the decree of the council on religious freedom vindicates Father Murray. The figure of the Jesuit Karl Rahner takes on special relevance in the theological world, thanks to his work on grace, pastoral theology, the sacraments, spirituality, his concept of "anonymous Christians", etc.

At the end of Janssens' term there was an internal crisis, a phenomenon shared by a large part of the Catholic Church in the 1960s. In 1965 (31st General Congregation), the vice-provincial of Japan, the Basque Pedro Arrupe, assumed generalate there is a turn in the line of government of the Company. He places great emphasis on the issues of promoting social justice and inculturation of the Gospel. But the changes in the world and in the Church are accelerating and the number of admissions to the European novitiates begins to decrease. Thousands of Catholic priests leave the ministry in the post-conciliar period; the Company did not escape this trend, since around 8,000 Jesuits leave the Order. Arrupe is accused by traditional sectors of being too permissive; others see him as a prophet of the new evangelization. The following General Congregation, held ten years later, supported Arrupe and proclaimed the new way of understanding the mission of the Society of Jesus: "Faith and justice."

Despite the appreciation that Paul VI feels for the Order, he receives frequent complaints from the bishops due to the challenges of many Jesuits to the Magisterium. The same pope received criticism from Jesuit theologians for his encyclical Humanae Vitae. During the GC of 1975, Paul VI explicitly forbade making changes regarding the fourth vow, impasse collected by the media. Innovation within the Order endangered the very nature of the Company as founded by Saint Ignatius, expressed in one of its fundamental characteristics: the vow of obedience to the Pope. In 1981, when Arrupe was paralyzed by a stroke, John Paul II appointed a pontifical delegate and a deputy for the government of the Order, Fathers Paolo Dezza and Giuseppe Pittau, respectively, figures who are not present in Jesuit legislation. The Society's response to this extraordinary measure was exemplary, except for some critical voices (letter from Karl Rahner and other theologians to the Pope). But all serious observers recognized that the transition was made in an atmosphere of peace. In 1983, when the 33rd General Congregation finally met, the Dutch linguist Peter Hans Kolvenbach was elected as the 29th general.

During Kolvenbach's long generalate (1983-2008) the relations of the Society of Jesus with the Holy See were normalized. The general modified certain government structures, renewed the educational apostolate and supported the creation of new social centers and works dedicated to working with refugees and migrants. These guidelines were ratified by a new General Congregation, the 34th, which met in 1995. The number of Jesuits continued to decline slowly during the 1980s and 1990s, reaching 20,000 at the turn of the century XXI. The main numerical decline is registered in Europe, to a lesser extent in the United States and Latin America. On the other hand, the Society of Jesus grows in Africa (1,427 Jesuits in 2009) and, above all, in India (4,004, according to the SJ Information Service of April 2009).

21st century

The Society of Jesus has changed over the centuries. His outward-facing posts claim that the change has been external, in certain ways. Some detractors (the former Jesuit Malachi Martin, the Spanish historian and politician Ricardo de la Cierva) speak of a relaxation in his spirit, even of having adopted modernist criteria. At the beginning of the XXI century, the Society included different ecclesial identities, from the conservative to the most progressive. An example of these latter positions is the liberation theology developed by some Jesuits, among other priests and religious, in Latin America during the 1960s and 1970s.^{[citation required]}

Taking sides has sometimes been dangerous for Jesuits. In 1983, the priest James F. Carney ("Father Guadalupe"), was assassinated in Honduras by the military because of his revolutionary ideology. Six years later, in 1989, in the early days of the "Hasta el Tope Offensive", in the context of the Salvadoran civil war, the Jesuit Ignacio Ellacuría and five other religious of the Company died at the hands of the Armed Forces of El Salvador, assassinated due to a long and intense activity in defense of human rights in that country. Several have died in civil wars in Africa, India and Southeast Asia, carrying out social aid actions.^{[citation needed]}

Other factors have proved lethal to the Jesuits: for example, on Monday, June 20, 2022, two priests of the order, Joaquín Mora, SJ, alias "El Morita", and Javier Campos Morales, SJ, (a) "El Gallo", were assassinated inside the temple of Cerocahui, Chihuahua, Mexico, while trying to save a tour guide, Pedro Palma, who lost his life at the hands of the person who persecuted him to that place, José Noriel Portillo Gil alias "El Chueco", leader of a cell of Gente Nueva, the armed wing of the Sinaloa cartel in that area.

The Society of Jesus has strong internal debates, a sign seen as strength or weakness depending on the criteria. Along these lines, on May 6, 2005, the retirement of Thomas Reese as editor of America, the prestigious Jesuit magazine in the United States, was announced. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked the Company to remove it, arguing that its editorial line questioned the teaching of the Church. And, in March 2007, the same institute condemned the work of the Salvadoran theologian, of Spanish origin, Jon Sobrino, one of the fathers of liberation theology, because "his propositions are not in accordance with the doctrine of Church". "The measure cannot be interpreted as a sanction or condemnation" of the theologian, said the spokesman for the Holy See, the priest Federico Lombardi, a Jesuit like Sobrino. Among other famous Jesuits questioned or censored at the time by the Catholic Church itself, are Jacques Dupuis, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, John Courtney Murray and (in a totally different direction from the previous ones) the Argentine writer Leonardo Castellani, who was expelled from the Order by the Jesuits themselves.^{[citation required]}

In a context of rapid and profound changes in society (and therefore in the Church), and 12 years after GC 34 (1995), the Jesuits considered it necessary to gather their maximum legislative body to respond with «creative fidelity » to new challenges. After almost 25 years in government, Kolvenbach announced in 2005 his desire to resign and convened the 35th General Congregation, which began on January 7, 2008.^{[citation required]}

Kolvenbach, after obtaining the consent of Benedict XVI and listening to his advisers, decided to resign, citing his advanced age (almost 80 years) and the long duration of his government (almost 25). Kolvenbach was succeeded by Spaniard Adolfo Nicolás (71 years old), elected in the second ballot.

Similarly, Nicolás, after obtaining the consent of Pope Francis and listening to his advisors, also decided to resign. Being the third general to resign, he was succeeded by the Venezuelan Arturo Sosa Abascal (67 years old).^{[citation required]}

Currently commissioned works

Works of the Society of Jesus or entrusted to it are: Vatican Radio, Vatican Astronomical Observatory, the Apostleship of Prayer, the Fe y Alegría Popular Education Movement (an inter-congregational work founded in Venezuela, directed by the Company and with 2,600 centers in Latin America), Hogar de Cristo (social work present in Chile, Peru and Ecuador), Jesuit Refugee Service, founded by Pedro Arrupe (general between 1965 and 1983), hundreds of missions, parishes and social centers. Another front of the Ignatian work are the centers of spirituality and houses of spiritual exercises. The educational apostolate of the Order, already a priority since the government of Saint Ignatius, is discussed below.

In addition, they are advisors to a secular institution of pontifical right: the Christian Life Community (CVX), with whom they share the same spirituality.

Name

The name «Jesuits» began to be used in Germany, as Pedro Canisio pointed out to Pedro Fabro in a letter from 1545: «we continue carrying out the works of our institute, despite the envy and insults of some that they even call us 'Jesuits'”. The name spread to the rest of Europe. During his convalescence in 1521, Ignatius of Loyola had read pious books, including the Life of Christ by the Carthusian Ludolf of Saxony (died in 1378), which had been translated from Latin into Spanish by Fray Ambrosio Montesino (Alcalá, 1502). A chapter of that work says:

Jesus, Jesus, how much a name says! This name of Christ is the name of grace; but this name of Jesus is the name of glory. By the grace of baptism is taken the name of Christian and, in the same way, in heavenly glory will be called the Jesuit saints, which means saved by the virtue of the Saviour.

However, the term «Jesuit», which in its pejorative variant dates from 1544-1552, was never used by Íñigo de Loyola. The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus (1554) speak of "those of the Society", and the Holy See, until the 1970s, always referred to "the religious of the Society of Jesus". In short, the name "Jesuit" was initially applied to the members of the Society in a derogatory way, but with the passage of time it acquired a neutral or positive tone.

According to an article published by the Spanish newspaper ABC:

The word "Jeshua" was not invented, much less used, by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Neither did the Company, which did not use the term in any of its constitutions or official documents since the adoption of the order in 1540 until 1975. According to Father Araoz, during the first years of the Society the "followers of Saint Ignatius" were called in very different ways: "iñiguistas", "papistas", "reformed priests", "teatinos" or "aposstoles". In fact, the term "Jessuitas" emerged as a derogatory way of appointing the members of the congregation recently approved by Paulo III, especially in Austria and Germany, countries where the Reformation had triumphed (...). The semantic evolution of this term was derived into three possible meanings: the attribution to the religious of this order of fechories of all kinds; as synonymous with "astute" and "hypocrite"; or simply as a colloquial way of designating them. (Diary ABC5 January 2008)

This last meaning ended up being imposed in the Catholic world. In General Congregation 32 (1975) the term “Jesuit” was used for the first time in an official document.

Symbols

Seal of the Society of Jesus.

The Jesuit motto is Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, also known by its abbreviation AMDG. In Latin it means "To the greater glory of God".

The acronym IHS, the traditional monogram of the word Jesus, was adopted in his seal by Saint Ignatius, thus becoming a symbol of the Society. Within the Jesuit order it is customary to refer to them with the expression "Initials of the Holy Name" because they are the first three letters of the name "Jesus" in greek. It has been mistakenly interpreted as "Jesus Savior of the human race [or of men]" (Iesus Hominum Salvator). The initials are surmounted by a Cross and accompanied by the Three Nails, both elements symbolizing the Passion and Death of Jesus of Nazareth; and, furthermore, they are framed in an imposing Sun with thirty-two rays, alternating one straight and the other wavy. This last symbol refers to the Resurrection of the Lord and his subsequent Ascension to Heaven. Likewise, the circular shape that corresponds to the solar disk also makes a more than evident allusion to the sacred dogma of the Blessed Sacrament, of special relevance both within the Catholic liturgy, in general, and in the Jesuit congregation in particular.

As a curiosity, it should be noted that the seal used by the Society of Jesus in its day had a notorious influence on the formation of Argentine national symbols, especially through the so-called Sun of May, which has also always had thirty-two rays, alternating one straight and one wavy, although substituting all its other elements for the relevant facial features. This has always been the case since the minting of the so-called "first homeland currency of the Río de la Plata Provinces", in 1813. In addition, the notable presence of the Society of Jesus throughout the territory of the former Viceroyalty del Río de la Plata also appears today witnessed in the current flag of the Argentine province of Córdoba, adopted at the end of 2010.

Charisma

One of the key ideas to explain the Ignatian ideology is its spirituality, understood as a concrete way of expressing its following of Christ. This characteristic was developed by Saint Ignatius in the book of Spiritual Exercises and is also reflected throughout the Constitutions of the Company, the letters of the Founder and other documents of the first Jesuits (Jerónimo Nadal, Luis González de Cámara, Saints Pedro Fabro and Francisco Xavier...). It is characterized by the desire expressed by Saint Ignatius to "seek and find God in all things". This means that it is a spirituality linked to life, which invites those who follow it to look up at the whole, but landing on the concrete and close.

It implies great dynamism, since it forces us to always be attentive to new challenges and try to respond to them. This has led the Jesuits to carry out their work, on many occasions, at the so-called "frontiers", be they geographical or cultural. This spirituality has permeated not only the style of the Jesuits, but also of other Religious Congregations and numerous groups of lay people.

The promotion and diffusion of this spirituality has its central axis in what we call the Spiritual Exercises, which are a process of experiencing God to seek, discover and follow his will.

Some central concepts of his spirituality are:

The IncarnationGod is not a distant or passive being, but is acting in the heart of reality, in the world, here and now; that is what represents the Incarnation of God in a human being, Jesus of Nazareth. Ignatius' spirituality is active; it is a continual discernment, a knowledge of the Spirit of God acting in the world, in the form of love and service.
The «so much»: Man can use all the things in the world so much. help him to his end, and in the same way depart from them as soon as they prevent him.
"indifference": The need to be indifferent to the things of the world, in the sense of not conditioning to material circumstances the mission that man has in his life. It is a way of focusing efforts on what is considered important and transcendental, distinguishing it from that which is not.
The "magis": Just wish and choose what leads us to the end for which we have been created. This 'more'magis in Latin) it is to perform the mission in the best possible way, demanding always.passionately.

Educational work

Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México

Scientific work

Main article: Annex: Scientific Jesuits

Internal structure

The Society of Jesus is governed by the father or superior general, who enjoys great powers according to his Institute (he appoints the provincials and the superiors of some very important houses and works); His tenure is for life. However, he can renounce this if a serious cause definitively disables him for his government tasks. In other cases, such as illness or advanced age, the general may appoint a coadjutor vicar. But, above him, the General Congregation is the supreme governing body of the Society.

The Superior General is directly assisted in his task by four general assistants (Assistants ad Providentiam, elected by the GC), whose objective is to attend to the health and government of the General and monitor his capacity management. In addition, there are regional assistants, provincials, regional superiors and local superiors. There are government bodies that meet periodically, such as the Provincial Congregations and the Congregation of Attorneys.

The set of norms and principles that guide the life of Jesuits is contained in the Constitutions, written by Ignatius of Loyola. To facilitate government, the Order is divided into geographical or linguistic sectors called asistencias (there are currently nine) and, within each of them, into provinces that add up to a total of of 64.

Membership

At the death of Saint Ignatius, the company numbered about 1,000 members, including priests and lay brothers.

In 1965 the Society reached its maximum expansion, with more than 36,000 Jesuits, of whom 20,301 had been ordained priests; in addition to directing 2195 parishes. Since then, there has been a marked decrease in the number of Jesuits, due to the shortage of vocations and numerous secularizations, which has led to the unification of some provinces and the closure of works or the transfer of management of some to lay people. Some people consider that the precedents for the current situation of the Society date back to the mid-1950s, when vocations began to decline in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2018 Annuario Pontificio, which reflects the figures for 2017, the Jesuits were listed as 16,378 members, of whom 11,785 were ordained priests, being the largest Catholic male religious order today, followed by the Salesians and the Franciscans. Its activity extends to the educational, social, intellectual, missionary and Catholic media fields, in addition to serving 1,541 parishes around the world.

Evolution of the Society of Jesus in number of members

Source: Pontifical Yearbook.

Dad

Francisco, Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is the first pope belonging to the Society of Jesus. They also come from this 82 bishops currently alive.

Even though the members of the Society of Jesus are considered influential advisers of the Roman Curia since the XVI and XVII until the pontificate of John Paul II, none had subsequently achieved papal dignity. In reference to ecclesiastical dignities, and to prevent ambition from creeping into the spirit of the members of the Company, Ignatius of Loyola added to the constitutions written by him the obligation of a vote reserved for the Holy See: according to the spirit of the founder, only on rare occasions and for very serious and extraordinary reasons would some of the members of the Company be exempted from voting and the acceptance of ecclesiastical dignities would be forced with the precept of obedience to the pope. This implies that in those cases in which a member is called by the Holy See to a service as part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, he should first be exempted from the vote that prevents him from such exercise.

On March 13, 2013, during the fifth vote of the conclave derived from the resignation of Benedict XVI, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was a member of the Society of Jesus and was elected as the new pope. who took the name of Francisco. In addition to Cardinal Bergoglio, another cardinal elector belonged to the order: the Indonesian Julius Darmaatmadja, who excused himself from attending that conclave due to health problems.

In film and literature

Mission, 1986 film directed by Roland Joffé, winner of the Festival de Cannes. Furnished in the centuryXVIII in the Jesuit reductions in Paraguay and northeast Argentina, recreates the events that led to the destruction of these missions and the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The famous soundtrack of the film was composed by Ennio Morricone.
Black soda (Black Robe), Canadian film of 1991 about a French Jesuit of the centuryXVII who is a missionary among the Algonquins of Canada.
The Viscount of Bragelonne, novel by Alexander Dumas, in which Aramis, one of the three Musketeers, has become Jesuit and plays an important role in the plot.
Portrait of the teenage artist, book by James Joyce (exalumn of the Company) in which the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, is a student of two Irish Jesuit centers: Clongowes Wood College and Belvedere.
"A case of conscience"A Case of Conscience), is a science fiction novel by American writer James Blish, first published in 1958 by Ballantine Books. It narrates the story of a Jesuit who investigates an alien race that has no religion but possesses a perfect sense of innate morality, which contradicts the Catholic teachings. The novel received in 1959 the Hugo Award for the best science fiction novel or fantasy.
The sparrow (The Sparrow), work by Mary Doria Russell, published in Spanish as Rakhat: the last mission of the Company, is an award-winning science fiction novel of 1996 about a Jesuit mission sent to an alien civilization. His sequel, written two years later, is called The Children of God.
The exorcistWilliam Peter Blatty's book, taken to the cinema with the same name by William Friedkin. The film, starred by Max von Sydow and led by the author of the novel, was shot at the American Jesuit universities in Georgetown (where Blatty graduated) and Fordham. Two priests of the Society intervene in a case of diabolical possession in Washington.
The man in the iron mask1998 film directed by Randall Wallace and based on the novel by Dumas The Viscount of Bragelonnein which Jeremy Irons interprets Aramis, "General hidden" of the Jesuits, according to the plot.
Father Pro, 2007 film based on the life of martyr Miguel Agustín Pro, directed Miguel Rico Tavera. This Mexican Jesuit, executed during the anticlerical conflicts of the 1920s known as Cristera War, was beatified by John Paul II.
The last Jesuit, historical novel by Pedro Miguel Lamet, himself a priest of the Society, about the suppression of the Order in the centuryXVIII by Pope Clement XIV after the political pressures and conjures of King Charles III.
Hyperion is a saga of science fiction written by Dan Simmons and published in 1989; one of his stories has two Jesuit priests as protagonists.
The black spider, novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez where the intriguing world of the Society of Jesus and its relation to power is discovered.
The vocation suspended (the suspended vocation) is a semi-autobiographical novel by Pierre Klossowski published in 1950 that narrates the vials of a seminarian in crisis and in which an intriguing Catalan Jesuit appears that passes through a dissipated avant-garde painter who examines and testes the vocation of young seekers to the priesthood.
Silence (Silence), Martin Scorsese's film based on the Japanese writer's novel Shūsaku Endō. The film recreates the journey of two Portuguese Jesuits to find the one who was his teacher, Father Cristóvão Ferreira, and the subsequent persecution they face.
The Pope's Welsh, historical novel (2017) by Agustín Muñoz Sanz. It deals with the episode of attempted secession of the Spanish faction of the Society, faced with the central Rome when it was general preposal Claudio Acquaviva (Fifty General Congregation).
The Jesuits appear in The cemetery in PragueThe novel by Umberto Eco.

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