67 Facts About Jesuits

1.

Jesuits give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social ministries, and promote ecumenical dialogue.

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2.

Jesuits composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

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3.

Jesuits ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550.

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4.

The zeal of the Jesuits overcame the movement toward Protestantism in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and southern Germany.

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5.

Jesuits were founded just before the Council of Trent and ensuing Counter-Reformation that would introduce reforms within the Catholic Church, and so counter the Protestant Reformation throughout Catholic Europe.

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6.

Ignatius and the early Jesuits did recognize, though, that the hierarchical church was in dire need of reform.

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7.

Ignatius and the Jesuits who followed him believed that the reform of the church had to begin with the conversion of an individual's heart.

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8.

One of the main tools the Jesuits have used to bring about this conversion is the Ignatian retreat, called the Spiritual Exercises.

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9.

Under Portuguese royal patronage, Jesuits thrived in Goa and until 1759 successfully expanded their activities to education and healthcare.

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10.

The Jesuits were often the only force standing between the Native Americans and slavery.

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11.

Whereas Jesuits were active in the 16th century, due to the prosecution of Catholics in the Elizabethan times, an 'English' province was only established in 1623.

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12.

Jesuits first entered China through the Portuguese settlement on Macau, where they settled on Green Island and founded St Paul's College.

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13.

The scientific revolution brought by the Jesuits coincided with a time when scientific innovation had declined in China:.

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14.

Jesuits became involved in the Huron mission in 1626 and lived among the Huron peoples.

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15.

Outside conflict forced the Jesuits to leave New France in 1629 when Quebec was surrendered to the English.

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16.

However, as the Jesuits began to expand westward they encountered more Iroquois natives, rivals of the Hurons.

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17.

In 1658, the Jesuits were having very little success and were under constant threat of being tortured or killed, but continued their effort until 1687 when they abandoned their permanent posts in the Iroquois homeland.

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18.

Jesuits were zealous in evangelization of the indigenous, particularly on the northern frontiers.

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19.

The donation of a hacienda to the Jesuits was the spark igniting a conflict between 17th-century bishop of Puebla Don Juan de Palafox and the Jesuit colegio in that city.

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20.

Since the Jesuits resisted paying the tithe on their estates, this donation effectively took revenue out of the church hierarchy's pockets by removing it from the tithe rolls.

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21.

Jesuits operated their properties as an integrated unit with the larger Jesuit order; thus revenues from haciendas funded their.

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22.

Jesuits did significantly expand missions to the indigenous in the northern frontier area and a number were martyred, but the crown supported those missions.

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23.

Jesuits engaged in conflict with the episcopal hierarchy over the question of payment of tithes, the ten percent tax on agriculture levied on landed estates for support of the church hierarchy from bishops and cathedral chapters to parish priests.

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24.

Jesuits "aimed to show that Mexican emperors were a legitimate dynasty in the 17th-century in the European sense".

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25.

Jesuits were allowed to return to Mexico in 1840 when General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was once more president of Mexico.

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26.

Jesuits arrived in the Viceroyalty of Peru by 1571; it was a key area of the Spanish empire, with not only dense indigenous populations but huge deposits of silver at Potosi.

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27.

The first Jesuits arrived in Asuncion in 1588 and founded their first mission of San Ignacio Guazu in 1609.

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28.

The objectives of the Jesuits were to make Christians of the Guarani, impose European values and customs, and isolate and protect the Guarani from European colonists and slavers.

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29.

The Jesuits were officially supported by the King, who instructed Tome de Sousa to give them all the support needed to Christianize the indigenous peoples.

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30.

The Jesuits took part in the foundation of the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1565.

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31.

Success of the Jesuits in converting the indigenous peoples is linked to their efforts to understand the native cultures, especially their languages.

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32.

The Jesuits often gathered the aborigines in communities where the natives worked for the community and were evangelised.

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33.

Jesuits had frequent disputes with other colonists who wanted to enslave the natives.

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34.

The action of the Jesuits saved many natives from being enslaved by Europeans, but disturbed their ancestral way of life and inadvertently helped spread infectious diseases against which the aborigines had no natural defenses.

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35.

Slave labor and trade were essential for the economy of Brazil and other American colonies, and the Jesuits usually did not object to the enslavement of African peoples, but rather critiqued the conditions of slavery.

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36.

Jesuits was followed by Gabriel Lenkiewicz, Franciszek Kareu and Gabriel Gruber until 1805, all elected locally as Temporary Vicars General.

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37.

In Switzerland, the constitution was modified and Jesuits were banished in 1848, following the defeat of the Sonderbund Catholic defence alliance.

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38.

In Latin America, the Jesuits had significant influence in the development of liberation theology, a movement that was controversial in the Catholic community after the negative assessment of it by Pope John Paul II in 1984.

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39.

Jesuits was, at his passing, one of ten Jesuit cardinals in the Catholic Church.

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40.

Jesuits was a man of profound prayer, which found its center and its culmination in the daily Eucharistic Celebration.

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41.

In May 2006, Benedict XVI wrote a letter to Superior General Peter Hans Kolvenbach on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius XII's encyclical, on devotion to the Sacred Heart, because the Jesuits have always been "extremely active in the promotion of this essential devotion".

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42.

Jesuits was criticised for colluding with the Argentine junta, while biographers characterised him as working to save the lives of other Jesuits.

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43.

General Congregation of Jesuits who elected Arturo Sosa in 2016 asked him to bring to completion the process of discerning Jesuit priorities for the time ahead.

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44.

Spirituality practiced by the Jesuits, called Ignatian spirituality, ultimately based on the Catholic faith and the gospels, is drawn from the Constitutions, The Letters, and Autobiography, and most specially from Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises, whose purpose is "to conquer oneself and to regulate one's life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment".

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45.

Formation of Jesuits seeks to prepare men spiritually, academically, and practically for the ministries they will be called to offer the church and world.

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46.

Ignatius was strongly influenced by the Renaissance, and he wanted Jesuits to be able to offer whatever ministries were most needed at any given moment and, especially, to be ready to respond to missions from the pope.

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47.

Jesuits is elected by the General Congregation for life or until he resigns; he is confirmed by the pope and has absolute authority in running the Society.

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48.

The current Superior General of the Jesuits is the Venezuelan Arturo Sosa who was elected on 14 October 2016.

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49.

Jesuits has authority over all Jesuits and ministries in his area, and is assisted by a socius who acts as a sort of secretary and chief of staff.

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50.

The Jesuits have experienced a decline in numbers in recent decades.

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51.

The degree to which the Jesuits are involved in the administration of each institution varies.

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52.

Jesuits were temporarily banished from France in 1594 after a man named Jean Chatel tried to assassinate the king of France, Henri IV.

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53.

The Jesuits were banned from France, although this ban was quickly lifted.

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54.

In England, Henry Garnet, one of the leading English Jesuits, was hanged for misprision of treason because of his knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot .

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55.

Jesuits were a target for Gestapo persecution, and many Jesuit priests were deported to death camps.

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56.

Jesuits made up the largest contingent of clergy imprisoned in the Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp.

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57.

Several other Jesuits are known to have rescued or given refuge to Jews during that period.

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58.

Jesuits, nevertheless, have made numerous significant contributions to the development of science.

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59.

The Jesuits have dedicated significant study to fields from cosmology to seismology, the latter of which has been described as "the Jesuit science".

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60.

The Jesuits have been described as "the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century".

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61.

One modern historian writes that in late Ming courts, the Jesuits were "regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, hydraulics, and geography".

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62.

Notable Jesuits include missionaries, educators, scientists, artists, philosophers, and a pope.

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63.

Jesuits founded numerous missions and served as the peace-bringer between the tribes and the government of New Spain.

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64.

Besides serving on the faculty of Catholic and secular schools, the Jesuits are the Catholic religious order with the second highest number of schools which they run: 168 tertiary institutions in 40 countries and 324 secondary schools in 55 countries.

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65.

Jesuits have become increasingly involved in works directed primarily toward social and economic development for the poor and marginalized.

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66.

The Jesuits run over 500 notable or stand-alone social or economic development centres in 56 countries around the world.

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67.

La Civilta Cattolica, a periodical produced in Rome by the Jesuits, has often been used as a semi-official platform for popes and Vatican officials to float ideas for discussion or hint at future statements or positions.

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