You are quite correct Cat, and my apologies for not having mentioned the prestigious Colorado based Regis University ! My only excuse is that, to all effects, the Jesuits do have around 2 dozens of high education institutions in the US. All of them prestigious.
Because their trademark is Knowledge with Excellence.
That is,
Education.
Done by teachers, and performed by students, schooling without excellence is but mere Teaching and Learning which will only produce parrots, fed by equal birds.
Jesuits are everything but parrots. In fact, they are, indeed, Educators. For each one of them is a highly cultured and knowledgeable man. Stern, yes, demanding, absolutely, unforgiving of slackness and indifference, too true as I know by first “hand” experience !
But Men. And Men of the Faith, meaning, on a Sacred Mission. Which is undissociated from Compassion, Understanding and Love.
- A Soldier of Christ.jpg (20.45 KiB) Viewed 1873 times
It is not a path that can be trod by a anyone. But only by the Best. For it is full of hardships, sacrifices and incomprehension.
That is why they are the “Soldiers of Christ”. Unafraid, Uncompromising and Unflinching.
But also, Compassionate and Loving.
In a society nowadays abandoned to praise and easy rewards of mediocre performances, the Jesuits are a staunch island of blessed an unrepentant Excellence, if I may say so without sounding too holier than thou.
They
Teach to Educate, and not simply to provide Learning.
Am really quite surprised (gladly so !) at yours and Rose’s reaction to my post for I was rather afraid my dwelling onto this subject could be misinterpreted ! Too many “Preachers” and “Bible Belt” fans out there.
A “stray sister”, though, got the best of me. And I felt “
the Pull”.
Mortágua, that Rock of a man and surrogate Father, called all his students “
my angeli” and some of us his “
angeli lapsus”, his “fallen angels”. These he looked at with “special interest” and personal involvement because he felt they had been “placed” in his Path to test his “commitment and truth”, or so he told me many years after I had stopped being a “angelus” of his.
I was privileged to have had him “placed in my path”. And am thankful for it to this day.
You would have liked to know him, Cat. And he would have taken a “special interest” in you. Am sure.
Rose,
The “Church” has many Orders. It would be excessive and tiresome so dwell on that, so let's suffice to say that these are sub classified in Canons, Monastic, Mendicant and Clerics.
Within this last one, fall the
Jesuits.
They never had anything to do with “The Inquisition”.
That was the domain of the Mendicant Order of the
Dominicans.
In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX
assigned them the duty of carrying out inquisitions of
“heretics and other offenders of canon law”. They are known as the “Black Friars", from the black mantle worn over their white habit.
- A Dominican friar
They are also commonly, and fearly, known by a play upon their name. For “Dominican” can be broken into two Latin words : Domini and Cani.
Meaning, the “
Dogs of the Lord”.
Terrible stuff. And the Church’s darkest chapter.
On the other hand, Jesuits, or the “Society of Jesus",
are one of its brightest.
They arrived in China only after having first reached Japan. If you think their history in China is fascinating, what then to say of its imprint in Japan.
Only 3 (three !) years after their recognition by the Pope and the founding of their Order, Portuguese Navigators brought them to the land of the Rising Sun, in
1543.
They were the first Europeans to arrive there. The Portuguese, I mean. And so, naturally, were the Jesuits.
Who immediately set “to work”.
So enterprising and successful were they, that less than 40 years afterwards they had
converted to Christianity a powerful daimyo, a Japanese warlord by the name of
Ōmura Sumitada. Following his baptism, he was known as “Dom Bartolomeu”.
- Omura Sumitada.jpg (16 KiB) Viewed 1873 times
The unrelenting interest shown by those “priests” in knowing and learning the habits, language and ways of Japanese culture would give turn to dramatic violence and suspicion from the Shogun, Japan’s ruler.
In
1640, less than a hundred years after their arrival, he would expel the Jesuits.
Not before
publicly beheading a few dozen of them.
In the meantime, Portuguese laymen were welcome. Most. For they had introduced
firearms in Japan, along with the Jesuits and Christianity. Also, they were very able seamen who indulged in piracy. Against Chinese trade and ships.
And that’s how the Jesuits arrived in China.
By sailing with pirates.
Fascinating Men. Since ever…
My regards to Mr. Rose.
You should ask him about things.
