[REFLECTION] Are the Jesuits Catholic?

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This reflection was originally published in the December 2024 edition of The Windhover: The Philippine Jesuit Magazine. Rappler is republishing this in time for the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola on July 31.

I once heard a story about a Jesuit who did special studies in America. When he was introduced to the community, he was introduced this way: “Here is Father X. He is a Jesuit and a Catholic.” The people laughed at the joke.

Kidding aside, we know that jokes are half-meant. Whatever one means by this, one should pay attention to the long list of Jesuit jokes available out there! Sometimes these jokes are revelatory of prevailing stereotypes about Jesuits in general. (Don’t get me wrong. I also enjoy listening to such Jesuit jokes!) One of these stereotypes is Jesuits are anti-hierarchy/anti-Church and, to use a harsher term, “heretics.”

Before I entered the Society of Jesus, my dominant perception of the Jesuits is that they are “liberal intellectuals” who think outside of the box and who are willing to push and implement Church reforms stubbornly. There is another joke that if you asked four Jesuits the same question, you would get five different answers. I was fascinated reading the creative theological ideas of a number of Jesuit theologians. Later on, I found out that some of them were investigated and even silenced – forbidden to teach by the Vatican doctrinal office!

After entering the Society of Jesus and getting to know more about who Jesuits are, I realized that Jesuits “resist easy categorization,” borrowing from Father John O’Malley, SJ. Truth to be told, not all Jesuits are “liberals” or “progressives.” Jesuits come from across the political, ideological, and religious spectrum. I remember a Jesuit priest telling me that there is room for everybody in the Society. In the midst of diversity and complexity, Jesuits are men of the Church and, yes, they belong to the Catholic Church.

“In our service of the Lord and his spouse, the Church, the People of God, we are especially united to the Roman Pontiff in order to be sent on the missions he may entrust to us. As men of the Church, we cannot but think with the Church, guided by the Spirit of the Risen Lord,” according to the decree 26 of General Congregation 34 on the “Characteristics of Our Way of Proceeding.” To think and feel with the Church is an essential element of the way of life of Jesuits.

‘Sentire cum ecclesia’

The Formula of the Institute, the basic rule of the Society of Jesus which lays down the religious order’s fundamental structure and describes its way of life, begins with this important statement: “Whoever wishes to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the name of Jesus, and to serve the Lord alone and his vicar on earth…”

After the first companions failed to fulfill their desire to do mission in the Holy Land, they decided to offer themselves to the Pope, so that he could send them wherever there is the greater need. Clearly, the Society of Jesus was founded “to serve the Lord alone and his vicar on earth.”

In the Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius of Loyola included the section “Rules for Thinking, Judging, and Feeling with the Church” (sentire cum ecclesia) toward the end of the spiritual manual. Inspite of the Rules’ location in the Spiritual Exercises and its historical limitations, it provides a solid ecclesial spirituality still relevant, but must be interpreted carefully.

The common translation of ecclesia cum sentire as “thinking with the Church” doesn’t fully capture the meaning of sentire. Gill Goulding, CJ explains that “the very term sentire is not an easy one to translate literally. It is more than just being favorably disposed towards the Church. It is to be engaged at a deeper level, to think and feel with the whole of one’s being, head and heart, with the Church. It is to be willing to grow in communion with the Church.”

The ecclesial spirituality of Ignatius engages the whole person. Mere intellectual assent to the Church is not enough; interior knowledge of the Church is also needed. “With all judgment of our own put aside, we ought to keep our minds disposed and ready to be obedient in everything to the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, which is our holy Mother the hierarchical Church,” states the first rule. 

Sentire cum ecclesia doesn’t entail blind obedience. Often, the ecclesial spirituality of Jesuits is depicted as simply following rules coming from above especially from the superior general of the Society of Jesus similar to how soldiers obey higher authorities. The image of Ignatius and his followers as soldiers of God reinforces this caricature. In addition, rule 13 which states that “to keep ourselves right in all things, we ought to hold fast to this principle: What seems to me to be white, I will believe to be black if the hierarchical Church thus determines it” is dangerously misconstrued as passive submission to the Church.

General Congregation 34’s decree 11 titled “On Having a Proper Attitude of Service in the Church” provides a helpful and up-to-date reading of the said Rules. “Ignatian obedience is one of concrete fidelity to the real, visible, hierarchical Church, not to some abstract ideal,” affirms the decree.

While this bond is real and transcends time, the decree allows room for loving and constructive criticism within the ecclesial relationship. “If our love of Christ, inseparable from our love for his spouse the Church, impels us to seek the will of God in each situation, it can also oblige us to engage in constructive criticism based on a prayerful discernment,” states the decree. “But it cannot justify a lack of solidarity with the Church, from which we are never in any way distinct or apart,” continues the decree.

The great Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner, who in his Jesuit life and vocation as a theologian strove to be faithful to the Church amid his theologizing, agrees that “one can also express one’s criticisms in the Church.” He sees criticism as “legitimate and necessary” for, citing Pope Pius XII, “without it the Church would suffer!” This critical attitude has “the obligation to retain certain forms of respect toward the pope and the bishops.” Jesuits throughout the ages have done their best to live in this tension: demonstrating loyalty to the Church and obeying his God-given conscience through discernment.

On June 19, Roger Haight, SJ, a creative and brilliant theologian passed away. In his attempt to construct a Christology faithful to tradition and at the same time attuned to the postmodern world, he was silenced thereby forbidding him to teach and write Catholic theology. In the face of painful sanctions, he was remembered for his obedient and resilient spirit by his close colleagues and friends. James Martin, SJ, recalled, “I think Roger only spoke once or twice about the Vatican’s critique of his book, but not in a bitter or complaining way.” Francis Clooney, SJ, praised his attitude towards Rome’s decision: “In the years of investigation and disciplinary actions, Roger’s equanimity under pressure was admirable, even astonishing. He was a master of Ignatian indifference, even a kind of yogi: fearless, at peace no matter what successes or failures arrived next. He edified us all: no loud media platform, no angry denunciations, but simply a quiet adamantine refusal to give in to pressure. He had done the best he could to think, understand and write, and he could not back down. He could be criticized, even condemned, but he would not back down.”

‘The Church is also our home‘

Jesuits as men of the Church are called to love and to serve God in the Church. A balanced ecclesial spirituality requires deep prayer, oneness with the Society’s body, genuine love for the Church, the people of God, and a critical stance tempered by respect. The Jesuits do not only have the world as their home for they also find home in the Church. Living out the Jesuit vocation to be immersed in the realities of the world as he reads and responds to the signs of the times, while at the same time being bound to the Church, will surely elicit tensions and difficulties. Nonetheless, creative tensions allow Jesuits to grow and to become better servants of God’s Reign.

Perhaps, Pope Francis’ interpretation of sentire cum ecclesia can serve as an excellent guide not only for Jesuits, but for all Catholics who walk with and in the Church: “The people themselves are the subject. And the Church is the people of God on the journey through history, with joys and sorrows. Sentire cum ecclesia [to think and to feel with the Church], therefore, is my way of being a part of this people… We should not even think, therefore, that ‘thinking with the Church’ means only thinking with the hierarchical part of the Church.” – Rappler.com

Kevin Stephon Centeno is a Jesuit scholastic. Born in Oriental Mindoro, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and spent five years of seminary formation at Saint Augustine Seminary in Calapan City. His views do not represent the position of the entire Society of Jesus.