WORLD 25/08/25 Jesuits yesterday and today

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There is a fundamental difference between the Jesuit Order in reality and what its critics believe it to be

IHS monogram, Church of the Gesù, Rome. (Photo: Wikipedia)

By Giandomenico Mucci SJ

Published: August 25, 2025 10:49 AM GMT

Updated: August 25, 2025 10:50 AM GMT

Giuliano Ferrara described himself as “a devout atheist who is not a devotee, but respects devotion and admires the great feat of dogmatic faith over the centuries, while despising the dogmatic culture of the false secularists and liberals,” “one who stands outside the walls of the Church,” but is a “secularist in love with the faith of others.”

It is natural that an observer of the external life of the Church and its historical events, even though its inner life probably escapes him, should look with renewed cultural interest at the life and ministry of the popes, who are the supreme teachers and leaders of the Church. It is also natural for the scholar and journalist to feel critically challenged by the widespread enthusiasm and acclaim that greeted Pope Francis, inside and outside the Church. And, as is customary in dealing with any public figure, especially when he crosses the threshold of ordinary reputation, one goes in search of his personal history for the roots of his culture, his public orientation, his ethical convictions, in order to grasp and explain the value and limits of his activity and its social significance.

This was the case when Pope Francis was elected. In the account of his life, great emphasis was given to his membership in the Society of Jesus, in which he was ordained a priest on December 13, 1969. Commentators and columnists spoke and wrote about the “first Jesuit Pope.” Even Ferrara, in an article published only two days after Francis’ election as pope, wrote of him that he is “a spiritual son” of the “fatal army of the pope” created by St. Ignatius of Loyola and, as such, predestined for the “secretive combat with the secular world as per his Ignatian spirituality.”

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