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JESUIT-JUBILEE Apr-19-2006 (610 words) With photos. xxxi
Jesuits marking death of St. Ignatius, birth of his companions
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Jesuits, who make up the Catholic Church's largest religious order of men, are in the midst of a jubilee year called to remember three of the original members of the Society of Jesus.
The 2006 celebrations mark the 450th anniversary of the death of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and the 500th anniversary of the births of two of his closest companions, St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber.
In St. Peter's Basilica and in chapels, churches and cathedrals around the world April 22, Jesuits and their friends will gather to remember the three and to reflect on continuing their mission today.
The celebration date is the feast of Mary, Mother of the Society, marking the day in 1541 when the three saints and the other original members of the Jesuits took their solemn vows in Rome.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, will preside over the Mass in St. Peter's. Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Jesuit superior general, and Pope Benedict XVI will address the congregation after the Mass.
Writing to Jesuit superiors before the jubilee year began, Father Kolvenbach said the anniversaries "invite us to examine and intensify our fidelity to the call of the Lord," whom the three saints "followed in such a creative fashion that it continues to challenge us, their companions of the third millennium."
In addition to their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, Jesuits take a fourth vow, that of obedience to the pope in mission, pledging to go where he sends them.
The fourth vow not only has led popes to send Jesuits on missions to the farthest reaches of the earth, but also has included longtime special missions in Rome. They run the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute; they direct a massive staff and multilingual programming at Vatican Radio; and they write and publish the influential biweekly journal, La Civilta Cattolica.
Pope Benedict's obvious appreciation for the way the Jesuits handle those missions already was demonstrated in his Feb. 17 meeting with the Jesuits from La Civilta Cattolica, his March 3 visit to Vatican Radio, and his decision to make the former rector of the biblical institute, Jesuit Father Albert Vanhoye, a cardinal during the March 24 consistory.
He also sent a representative to the April 7 celebrations in Navarre, Spain, for the 500th anniversary of St. Francis Xavier's birth.
U.S. Jesuit Father Keith Pecklers, a professor of liturgy at Gregorian University and coordinator of the April 22 Mass in St. Peter's, said the fourth vow is an affirmation that "the Jesuits find their mission only in terms of serving the church, and we cannot speak of service to the church without putting ourselves at the beck and call of the pope."
"St. Ignatius was insistent from the beginning that he and his companions would be ready and willing to go where the pope sent them," he said.
According to the Jesuit general secretariat in Rome, as of Jan. 1, the society had 19,564 members, a decrease of 286 from the previous year.
Like the Salesians, the Capuchins and the Franciscan Friars Minor -- the next largest religious orders of men -- the Jesuits have seen a steep decline in membership over the past 40 years. The Vatican yearbook reported 36,038 Jesuits in 1966.
Despite the decline in manpower, the Jesuits still run more than 500 elementary and secondary schools, more than 120 colleges and universities, some 40 technical schools, about 55 seminaries and hundreds of social justice and social service projects, including the Jesuit Refugee Service.
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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