The other day, we celebrated the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, patron of all missionary activity in the Catholic Church. Reflecting on his heroic life in bringing the message of salvation to India and other parts of Asia got me thinking about this extraordinary group of men, the Jesuits. The Society of Jesus, founded in the 16th century by a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius of Loyola, the Society would become one of the largest and strongest religious communities within the Church. I have always been fascinated by the Society and have tremendous respect for them because they have done so much wonderful work.
When you think about Jesuits the first thing you think about is education. They have always been solidly committed to extraordinary high standards of education for their priests and for those that they taught in their many schools around the world. We tend to think about the Jesuits as university professors. Thousands of them are and in this country alone, they own 27 colleges and universities. Can you imagine that? A group of individuals developing 27 universities! But back to the trenches.
They are also heroic and effective missionaries in the most remote and difficult parts of the world. Whether it be the swamps of Bangladesh or the jungles of Brazil, the Jesuits are there. When the Jesuits are there, the Church is planted firmly and when that gets done, Jesus of Nazareth is there.
I think that part of the genius of the Jesuit missionary experience is that when they go into a country or into a culture they really insert themselves into that culture totally and completely. They become one with that culture, absorb and live the history of the area, and they learn to think the way that the people there think. A great example of this, of course, was the wonderful Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). He was the first Jesuit to go to China. If his example would have been followed, the Church would be much more stronger there today. Ricci learned Chinese, celebrated their liturgy in Chinese, became a master of Chinese culture and philosophy and reached the Chinese people in a way that they could really understand. Tragically, he was a little ahead of schedule and his approach received a negative evaluation by the Vatican and the use of the language of the people would not reappear until the 1960’s. His work did not continue but he is a marvelous example to missionaries all over the world.

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December 3rd was the feast of St. Francis Xavier and I failed to mention it on my blog. I will correct that now. How could I forget Francis Xavier (1506-52)? He is one of the first seven Jesuits and is patron saint of all missionary work. This magnificent missionary brought the faith to India and worked very hard in Goa which is the place in India where even today there is the heaviest concentration of Christians.
Francis was a great missionary and his work is still producing good results, but the important thing to remember is that his work is unfinished. The Holy Spirit needs to call forth thousands and tens of thousands of missionaries if the Church is to regain its momentum and its missionary nature.
Thinking about this great Jesuit missionary got me to thinking more about the Society of Jesus. It is an extraordinary organization that has been a powerful force for good within the Catholic Church for 400 years. I will touch upon that again tomorrow.

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It has been many years since I heard his name or thought about his life but in the Easter edition of America magazine an article reignited my interest and admiration of this extraordinary man.

I am talking about Father Walter J. Ciszek, S.J., an American Jesuit, born in Pennsylvania in 1904 and died in 1984. I share the Jesuits enthusiasm and happiness that the Vatican has now given formal permission for the canonization process to begin for this wonderful American priest.

Father Ciszek as a young man volunteered to go to serve as a missionary in Poland. When the German army rolled over Poland in 1939 Ciszek became a refugee moving into Russia. Following the war, the Russians falsely accused him of being a spy. After five years of brutal interrogation in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Amazingly, he survived both of these experiences. In 1963, President Kennedy secured his release from Russia and he returned to the United States where he would later write two extraordinarily powerful and popular books, With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me.

This man’s life was truly amazing. His heroism, patience and, yes, let me mention here, forgiveness, for he carried no bitterness against those who caused his terrible experience, is really an example of a follower of Jesus. May God bless the Jesuits and may God bless Father Ciszek.

I think that canonization of men and women of this caliber will do much to bring the various factions of the Church in the United States closer together, and maybe once again we can be Catholics and not liberal Catholics or conservative Catholics.
Coming – A New American Saint!

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Many people are confused about various aspects of the Catholic Church. This is certainly true of persons who are not of the Catholic faith, but it is true of many Catholics as well. The Church is so big, so old and seems to be so complicated that many of us almost never get everything straight in our minds.

One aspect of the Church that leaves some wondering and somewhat confused is that there are so many different kinds of Catholic priests. We know that the priesthood is a central organizational component of the Catholic faith but soon people begin to find out that there are priests and then there are priests. Let me try to make this simple in the few paragraphs that are allocated to me for my daily blog. This is oversimplification but give me a little slack.

First of all, the Church has divided the entire planet into dioceses. These are particular parts of the planet that are divided along geographic lines presided over by a bishop. These dioceses are served by priests that traditionally come out of that diocese, study there and are ordained for it and, unless something unusual comes along, they will serve that diocese all their lives until God calls them. They are called diocesan priests.

The second large group of priests (and this can be divided and subdivided) are what we call religious priests. This is a constant source of confusion because does that mean that the diocesan priests are not religious? Not at all. These priests are called religious because they are bound by solemn vows and the word “religious” in this sense comes from the Latin word “religare” which means to bind or, in other words, to be bound by these vows. These priests, the religious, or more simply stated, members of religious orders, are usually committed to specialized work that the order itself assumes responsibility for and they have no geographic boundaries as such. The Dominicans are preachers, the Jesuits run colleges and universities, the Franciscans have special ministry to the poor, the Maryknollers are foreign missionaries, etc., etc., etc.

When all is said and done, none of that is absolute. Diocesan priests are missionaries. Many religious run parishes. The easy distinction with which I began breaks down into the day-to-day life of the Church. None of this matters. What does matter is that the Church has enough priests who are holy, well educated, faithful, generous and give their lives to building up the Church by walking faithfully in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

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The Society of Jesus, most popularly known as the Jesuits, is one of the strongest and most important religious communities in the Catholic Church. Founded by Ignatius Loyola, it grew rapidly and actively involved itself in every activity of Church life. Today, when we think of the Jesuits, many of us tend to think of the Jesuits as academicians teaching in the many colleges and universities that they have established across the world. They have 27 separate universities just in the United States. What an accomplishment!

However, the Jesuits are also among the greatest missionaries in the life of the Church over the last four centuries. This week, we are reminded of that fact because today we celebrate the memory of St. John de Brebeauf and St. Isaac Jogues, two extraordinary missionaries who courageously worked among the Huron Indians in Canada and the Iroquois in New York. After years of exhausting missionary activity, these two brave men would ultimately be killed by the people among whom they were working.

Some of us wake up on Sunday morning and if there is a hard rain, we decide that we will cut Mass this week and “catch up” next Sunday. When we are faced with a temptation like that, we ought to think about the extraordinary generosity of those who helped to build the faith in North America. The Jesuits were among the best!

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Tomorrow we will celebrate the memory of one of the most important persons in the Church in the last 600 years or so. Tomorrow is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. In this Spanish soldier/priest, launched one of the most important organizations in the history of the Church. He is right there with Benedict,  Francis, and Dominic. Ignatius founded the

Society of Jesus, and over the last 400-plus years, they have been seen by many as the greatest source of strength in the church in almost every area of ministry in Church life.

Ignatius was born in Spain in 1491. As a young man, he found himself in military service and at war. In that process he was badly wounded. His injury provided him with time for reflection and evaluation of his own life. In so doing, he chose to give up a military career and offer his services to his Savior, Jesus of Nazareth.

Beginning with only a small band of half dozen, his work has moved through the centuries till today, when there are over

19,ooo members of the Society working on every continent, in virtually every aspect of Catholic activity.

We call them the Jesuits.

In the United States, they are best known for their work in higher education. There are 27 colleges and universities run by the Jesuits. Can you imagine a private organization building 27 universites in one country?

God bless them, and we should thank God for them!

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Whenever retail businessmen get together you will almost always hear an expression about the three principles of successful business:  location, location, location.

Education is key to a successful democracy and economy.  Education is extraordinarily important to the United States of America.

That having been said, why is there so much concern about so many different aspects of our educational system?  There are tremendous inequalities between wealthy school districts and low-income school districts.  There are many arguments about what is the best way to educate our students at any particular level.  We find that in older school districts parents whose children are long gone from the nest are not wildly enthusiastic about voting for the necessary taxes for the schools.  The problems go on and on.  Given these realities, one needs to look for sources of encouragement and confidence.  When one looks, they are to be found!

I am impressed with a new charter school in Harlem.  I saw a report on it on national TV and did not get the name, but they are taking the poorest kids in the neighborhood and motivating them to a first-rate high school education and almost 100% of their students are going to college.  This is a tremendous breakthrough.

On the Roman Catholic side, I am thrilled by the recent development over the last ten years of a little network called the Cristo Rey schools, sponsored by the Society of Jesus.  They are doing the same thing – taking students from the very poorest neighborhoods, giving them a tremendous education and sending them on into college with the tools to succeed wonderfully.  There are now 25 schools around the country.  Let’s hope that there will soon be hundreds.

We can bemoan our problems but we also have to be thankful that new models are coming along that are showing us the way out of the darkness.

God bless the Jesuits.

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