CV NEWS FEED // In an internal document leaked to the press in Spanish and English, a prominent Uruguayan Jesuit described in detail the many reasons why the Jesuits are in crisis and decline around the world and called for significant reform of the religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola.
The 50-page document, whose existence was first reported in English by the Catholic News Agency, was written by Fr. Julio Fernández Techera, S.J. CatholicVote had access to the original document and has also confirmed the authenticity of the author, who completed the document in April 2022.
Fr. Fernández presents his assessment of the current situation of the Jesuits as an essay about “how I see the Society of Jesus at the beginning of the third millennium,” and explains that it is written “Ad Usum Nostrorum” (for internal use only).
The document is written in an academic and dispassionate style, and includes a preface and eight chapters in which Fernández discusses issues like “The trivialization of discernment,” “Obedience and government,” “Poverty, Confusion and ideology,” “Chastity and cura personalis,” “Religious Life,” and “Liturgy.”
“My intention is, with the grace of God our Lord, to put in writing in this paper: first, the manner of government that this Congregation of ours has. Secondly, the many and serious errors that are involved in it. Thirdly, the inconveniences that result from them. Fourth, the means that could be taken to repair them and to stop them,” Fernández writes.
At the root of the Jesuit crisis: “the Society is without direction”
“For years,” he writes, “I have seen that the Society is without direction, without a project, and without the ability to rebuild itself and look to the coming decades with enthusiasm, purpose, and desire to serve God and our brothers and sisters in the Church.”
“As an institution of the Church, we have been experiencing a profound decline for the last fifty-odd years,” he adds, “and there are no signs or indications that this will change unless it is recognized as such and the means to do so are put in place.”
Before addressing the many issues he sees as contributing to the sharp decline of the Jesuits, the Uruguayan priest explains that “my personal balance of thirty-six years as a Jesuit is one of gratitude, consolation, and deep happiness.”
“I owe who I am, after my parents, to the Jesuits,” he writes.
But he observes that “we all, or many of us, see that we have lost our way and that we lack hope, zeal, drive, decision, courage, but we continue to pretend that this is not so.” Jesuits who feel this way “do not want to be seen as inadequate within the Society; we do not want to be considered pessimistic, nostalgic or conservative, and so we deny reality.”
To make his point, the Jesuit provides sobering numbers:
The Society reached its greatest expansion in membership nearly 60 years ago, in 1965: 36,038 fathers, brothers, and scholastics. By 2022 that number was reduced to just 14,818 Jesuits.
Every year about 300 members are lost.
The number of elderly Jesuits over the age of 65 is overwhelming in most Western countries. In 2021, only the African Assistancy grew – by twelve members. All others have only decreased.
In some countries, the Society will practically disappear in 10-15 years.
A crisis in governance
Fernández also states that the latest General Congregation of the Jesuits in 2016 when Venezuelan Jesuit Arturo Sosa became the new General, was for many a frustrating experience.
Fernández recounts that the Jesuit delegates
said that they did not know where to go or what to do; that elaborating the decree was a lot of work and it came out because something had to be done; that they waited for the Pope’s visit to have some orientation and that they did not receive it, because there was no formal speech.
“In the end, a nine-page document came out, which is a jumble of commonplaces and platitudes,” he writes, “with nothing concrete to guide the Society in the coming years, and that, seven years after its promulgation, few Jesuits have read it again or it has meant anything to them in their religious and apostolic life.”
“To elect the General (after twelve days) and to write the nine pages of Decree 1 and the eight pages of Decree 2, 215 Jesuits met in Rome for forty-two days.” Fernández laments.
“What I want to highlight is the inability to call a spade a spade, to recognize the failure of the work of a general congregation or how poorly organized it was,” he continues:
The problem is not that it was a rather useless, irrelevant, or frustrating experience; the bigger problem is that we are not able to say so and review why it happened and what can be done so that this situation does not happen again.
Even more critically, regarding the decision of the Jesuits to officially prioritize “the promotion of justice” as their main mission during the 70’s, Fernández states that it
has occupied a disproportionate space in the discourse of the Society over the last forty-seven years and does not correspond to the objective of our religious, apostolic, and priestly vocation, nor to the real experience of the vast majority of the Jesuits I have known throughout my life, although few of us will find the courage to express it publicly.
Deep, serious problems
In the following chapters of his essay, the Uruguayan Jesuit proceeds to list, with historical and anecdotal arguments, what he believes are the main reasons for the decline and crisis of his congregation.
Among them:
Turning Jesuit “discernment” into a justification for disunion, dissent, and a lack of religious obedience.
Paying lip service to religious obedience but acting in such a “democratic” manner that governance has turned into “managing decline” rather than overseeing expansion.
Abandoning de facto religious poverty and replacing it with “the desire for personal fulfillment, the questioning of traditional asceticism, liberal progressivism, and leftism.”
Disregarding accountability for chastity and abandoning the fostering of a deep spiritual life in the midst of “the crumbling moral edifice of our time, gender ideology and hedonism.”
Replacing the discipline and fraternity of religious life with “houses (that) are more like apostolic bachelors’ apartments than authentic communities.”
Giving little to no attention to the centrality of the Eucharist in personal life and a culture of constant liturgical abuse with “gestures that are more meant to entertain than to worship God.”
Fernández’s vision for Jesuit renewal and reform
In his epilogue “Quo vadis Societate Iesu?” (Where are you going, Society of Jesus?) Fernández admits that it is “very difficult for me to think of a change of direction and a reactivation of our charisma,” perhaps “because we have not yet hit bottom and we will have to wait until we shrink even more to see what happens.”
The Jesuit suggests a deep, worldwide survey about the spiritual life of the Jesuits like one that took place “at the end of the 1960s,” but unlike the previous one, he proposes that the final results be made available to all Jesuits.
He also proposes an independent “study-report” made by expert religious from other congregations or a bishop that
would give an account of the situation of the Order in the various aspects: spiritual life; community life and discipline; level of formation and problems it presents; selection of apostolates and their vitality; organization of government; life of poverty and administration of goods.
He also suggests reverting to the rules established by St. Ignatius of Loyola – properly adapted to the times – aimed at “a return to the Ignatian and Jesuit roots of our vocation, which involves more than the Exercises, the Autobiography (of St. Ignatius) and the Constitutions.”
“I believe deeply in the honesty and depth of the vocation of the vast majority of my current Jesuit companions,” Fernández writes. “They are spending their lives in the service of God and their brothers.”
“However, this is bearing less and less fruit, because there are conditions in the order that do not help to make their work fruitful,” he argues. “May the Lord grant us light to be able to see our errors, deviations, and sins.”
“The Church needs us to be active, prepared, and solid,” he concludes:
The people long for a more religious, apostolic, and priestly service of the Jesuits, which will help them to know the Lord more intimately, to love and follow him more; our young companions deserve a Society full of apostolic zeal and evangelical depth, in which they can grow, live, and serve in community.
Readers can download and read the full document in English HERE.
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