Selamat Jalan Pater Wisnu......

Foto: Facebook/Litbang Kodok-diy

untuk foto pemberkatan jenazah dan tutup peti bisa dilihat di sini

Siang itu, hampir duapuluh tahun yang lalu, adalah hari pembukaan pendaftaran siswa baru. Saya dan teman-teman sedang duduk-duduk di depan aula seminari sambil mengamati suasana Kolese Gonzaga yang sangat ramai. Kita sungguh menikmati suasana siang itu karena rupanya banyak dari kami yang “menunggu” calon siswa baru untuk mendaftar dan datang. Tiba-tiba dari arah pintu gerbang ada kegaduhan…..semua yang tadinya duduk mulai bangkit dan berdiri mencari tahu ada hiruk pikuk apa di kejauhan. Pelan-pelan terlihat sebuah mobil yang berjalan tersendat akibat dikerumuni siswa Gonzaga…ada yang memukul-mukul badan mobil, ada yang berteriak-teriak sambil tertawa, ada yang menghalang-halangi laju mobil dengan merebahkan diri di atas kap mobil….makin lama makin banyak siswa yang ikut serta. Ternyata di dalam mobil ada seorang calon siswa perempuan beserta ibunya yang hendak mendaftar. Buat mereka berdua, bisa jadi peristiwa ini “mengerikan” dan mengagetkan….mobil mereka dikerubuti anak-anak berambut gondrong dengan tampang yang tidak begitu “bersahabat”…..maklum, Gonzaga waktu itu baru menerima murid perempuan untuk tahun yang ketiga….kita semua yang melihat peristiwa itu terbahak-bahak melihat kekonyolan teman-teman….. Tapi tiba-tiba tawa kami langsung terdiam….Pater Wisnu sudah ada di belakang kami….dan dia terlihat sungguh berang…..Tanpa sepatah kata beliau mengamati yang terjadi…menatap dengan tatapan yang tajam seperti elang yang sedang mencari mangsa…..dan beberapa detik kemudian, seperti seorang petarung yang hendak maju ke gelanggang beliau berjalan dengan langkah kaki yang tegas dan mantap sambil menunjukkan jarinya kepada kerumunan siswa tadi…….Ajaib!..siswa yang melihat Pater Wisnu berjalan ke arah mereka langsung lari tunggang langgang membubarkan dan melarikan diri. Seolah tak mau kehilangan mangsa, Pater Wisnu terus berjalan dan makin kencang…nampaknya beliau sudah tahu siapa yang dituju…..beliau terus mengejar…..plak-plak-plak-plak…beberapa orang terkena tamparan beliau.

Beliau memang keras dan tegas selama menjadi kepala sekolah…gayanya yang seperti tentara atau tukang pukul membuat beliau seringkali ditakuti dan menjadi obyek kebencian para siswa..tak heran kalau banyak siswa Gonzaga waktu itu begitu membencinya, dan bahkan karena kebencian itu, tak jarang kami mendengar isu-isu panas yang dilempar kalangan siswa berkaitan dengan Pater Wisnu. Tapi itu mungkin hanyalah satu sisi Pater Wisnu sebagai pendidik…..hampir duapuluh tahun yang lalu....

Saya masih ingat dulu ketika beliau masih di Katedral Jakarta, setiap kali selesai misa minggu siang, beliau selalu menyapa saya bila bertemu di pintu samping gereja dengan tak lupa mengulurkan tangan. “AWP”…begitu biasa beliau memanggil saya, dan biasanya dilanjutkan dengan sapaan lain menanyakan kabar saya, kabar keluarga, kabar bapak ibu. Beliau memang pribadi yang ramah, yang tidak ragu untuk menyapa orang lebih dulu. Selama saya di dalam Serikat, kesan mendalam akan keramahan Pater Wisnu tidak pernah hilang. Setiap pertemuan Yesuit di Jakarta, ataupun bertemu beliau dimana saja, sapaan hangat itu selalu ada.

Sabtu siang kemarin saya begitu terkejut dan sedih mendengar kabar kepergiannya yang begitu tiba-tiba. Ketika mendapat kepastian dari Pater Riyo bahwa kabar itu benar, dan juga berita selanjutnya bahwa beliau meninggal karena kecelakaan motor, saya berkata dalam hati “Pater, kenapa harus naik motor? Pater sudah tidak muda lagi…..Jogya-Magelang akan lebih nyaman dan aman bila Pater naik mobil saja…57 tahun bukan usia yang muda lagi untuk naik motor…..”

Hari ini Pater akan beristirahat di Getsemani Girisonta….pasti akan saya kunjungi makam Pater di situ bila saya lewat Girisonta nanti suatu waktu. Saya yakin sekarang Pater sudah direngkuh oleh kasih Bapa di surga. Selamat jalan Pater…..Sakit dan lukamu tertabrak truk pasti sudah Dia sembuhkan…tak ada lagi memar, benjolan dan luka-luka di wajahmu.…Selamat bertemu Bapa di surga yang engkau imani...Bunda Maria yang menjadi teladan berimanmu…Santo Ignatius Loyola yang selalu engkau teladani....selamat bertemu Para Kudus dalam Serikat Yesus yang engkau kagumi, bertemu ayahanda yang engkau cintai dan juga selamat bertemu dengan Pater Wibowo, sahabatmu……

Saya hantar Pater dengan doa-doa …semoga beristirahat dalam damai di surga…

Eternal rest, grant unto him, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon him.

May he rest in peace. Amen

==========================

Motor Senggol Truk, Satu Meninggal

http://suaramerdeka.com/v1/index.php/read/news/2011/02/20/78404/Motor-Senggol-Truk-Satu-Meninggal

Mungkid, CyberNews. Kecelakaan terjadi antara sepeda motor Kawasaki Skywave dengan truk pengangkut bumbu dapur di ruas jalan raya Magelang-Yogyakarta km 11. Akibat kejadian ini, seorang pengendara sepeda motor tewas seketika.

Korban tewas merupakan Romo Wisnu Murti, 59, seorang pastor kepala Gereja Katolik Santo Antonius Kotabaru, Yogyakarta. Saat itu, korban sedang dalam perjalanan menuju Kota Magelang dengan mengendarai sepeda motor Kawasaki Skywave.

Menurut keterangan yang dikumpulkan di lokasi kejadian, kecelakaan bermula ketika Romo Wisnu Murti hendak mendahului sebuah truk lewat sebelah kiri. Karena jalan yang tersisa sempit, motor yang dikendarai Romo Wisnu menyenggol badan truk.

"Motor tersebut oleng namun terus melaju. Sampai di depan truk sepeda motor itu tidak lagi terkendali hingga ambruk ke samping kiri. Pengendaranya justru ambruk ke sisi kanan sehingga kepalanya terlindas ban truk," kata saksi mata Endro (50).

Menurut Endro sejumlah warga yang melihat kejadian itu langsung memberikan pertolongan. Namun korban sudah tidak bergerak. "Saya kemudian mengambil koran di rumah untuk menutupi tubuh korban sambil menunggu polisi datang,” tutur Endro.

Jenazah Romo Wisnu sendiri kemudian diangkut menggunakan ambulance yang ada di Gedung Muhammadiyah menuju RSUD Muntilan Kabupaten Magelang untuk menjalani otopsi.

Sopir truk dengan nomor polisi W 8262 XA itu kemudian diamankan di pos lalu lantas Palbapang Mungkid. Ia dimintai keterangan oleh polisi tentang kejadian tersebut. Truk berwarna putih yang mengangkut bumbu dapur juga masih ditahan sebagai barang bukti.

Sementara itu, sejumlah anggota Polres Magelang melakukan kegiatan olah TKP. Kegiatan itu memakan waktu sekitar 30 menit hingga menyebabkan kemacetan lalu lintas sekitar satu km di kedua jalur. Hal ini karena separuh ruas jalan tidak bisa dilewati.

Menurut Endro ruas jalan tersebut cukup berbahaya karena sedang dilakukan pelebaran jalan. Kendaraan hanya bisa melalui bagian jalan aspal, karena jalan tanah di sebelahnya masih dikeraskan dengan pecahan batu (krokos).

CHALLENGES AND ISSUES IN JESUIT EDUCATION

Excerpt from The Keynote Address of ARPN Adolfo Nicolas, SJ, Superior General, Society of Jesus on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of Jesuit Education in the Philippines

THE BASIC QUESTION

(9) I think the key to understanding the word “Frontiers” is to return to what the Holy Father said when he addressed us Jesuits during the recent 35th General Congregation. Many of you are very familiar with this wonderful speech, when Pope Benedict XVI said to us, and by extension, to all of you: “The Church needs you, counts on you, and continues to turn to you with confidence, particularly to reach the geographical and spiritual places where others do not reach or find it difficult to reach.” (Allocution, No. 2) “The geographical and spiritual places where others do not reach or find it difficult to reach”: these places are our “frontiers.”

(10) As you know well, we in Jesuit education do not have small goals, but an enormous dream: to assist our students to achieve what Fr. Kolvenbach described as “the full growth of the person that leads to action-action, suffused by the spirit and the presence of Jesus Christ, the Man-for-Others.” What are the frontiers we need to “go” to in order to achieve this goal?

(11) As I have said, I do not have all the answers to these questions; and I think the whole point of this congress is for us to search together for these answers. But let me share a few of my own reflections that might stimulate your own reflection. Basically,

I would like to propose two frontiers. They are two of my most important concerns for the Society of Jesus today, which I feel also are concerns for our mission in education.

THE FRONTIER OF DEPTH

(12) The first frontier I would like to propose is the frontier of depth. Depth, for me, is perhaps a better translation of Ignatian Magis. The trouble with translating Magis simply as “More” is that it can too easily be understood as the “More” of a competitive, consumerist culture. If we have more awards, higher rankings, more computers and sports facilities, more faculty members with advanced degrees, then we can too easily fool ourselves into thinking that we are living the Magis. I am not saying that these are not important; they are vital for a good school. But to be a good Jesuit school, they are not enough.

(13) Ignatius was always concerned with depth. You have heard many times, I am sure, his principle of Non multa sed multum, literally, “Not many, but much,” originally one of the annotations in the Spiritual Exercises, but applied often to Ignatian pedagogy as well. One could paraphrase this as “not quantity, but depth”: “what satisfies the soul,” Ignatius says–in other words, what really matters in the business of becoming human and Christian–is not many superficial bits of knowledge and information, but a deep understanding and appreciation of what is most important.

(14) When one looks at the Gospels, we see that Jesus always responded in depth. Look at any healing story: the way Jesus heals the paralyzed man brought in by his friends through the roof; the leper; the woman with the issue of blood. Jesus first responds to a concrete, immediate need: the healing of a sickness. But then he goes on to respond to a deeper need: the burden of guilt or the sense of hopelessness or rejection and isolation. Finally, he goes deeper still and offers what they long for most, often without knowing it: the gift of the Kingdom of God, of friendship with a God of unconditional love, in a way that transforms them at the core of their persons.

(15) What is the depth of the education we provide, and how might we be called to go deeper? Let me offer a few questions that might help explain what I mean.

(16) How deeply do we respond to our students’ needs? If our instruction is good and up-to-date, then we respond to their need for forming and developing their talents. But beyond that are deeper needs. Even the brightest and most talented of our students are struggling. Beyond the normal struggles of youth, many of them struggle with families that are broken, wrestle with problems of isolation and misunderstanding and insecurity deeper than their minds. And how do we respond to their deepest hungers for meaning and purpose, for strength and hope that is the Kingdom of God experienced in their lives?

(17) These days, in the liturgy, we have been reading from the story of Jacob and his struggle with God. His first vision is consoling, promising, full of light: he sees angels ascending and descending on a ladder to heaven. But his last vision is much darker and more mysterious because it is deeper. He wrestles with a stranger, who turns out to be God, and Jacob wins the struggle, but comes out limping, walking a little like Ignatius did. Perhaps this should be the image of what our students turn out to be: not just walking out of our schools straight, tall, completely confident and sure of themselves, but rather, limping, even a little, because they have struggled deeply.

(18) How deeply do we help them see? When you live in Rome, you enter many beautiful churches adorned with glorious images, frescoes, statues, paintings, stained glass windows, and you realize that in an earlier age, these were the images that filled people’s imaginations. They were images that taught people to aspire to a certain model of humanity. But our young people are growing up in a world where the media floods them with other glittering images, on billboards, on websites, on magazine covers and MTV’s. They are images that are filled with promises. They sell dreams that tell them that they become more human when they have the right gadgets and wear the right clothes. What these images do is hide the face of the poor and the suffering, and make them invisible. How can we help them see more deeply, to truly

see the real beyond the virtual, to see beyond these images that make false promises so that they can see the face of the hidden humanity of the poor in a way that moves them to want to serve in compassion?

(19) How deeply do we invite them to think? Our students today, as you know, are flooded with an incredible amount of information that keeps entering our houses, our computers, our lives. The sheer amount of information and the ease with which one can “surf” from one page to another can promote superficiality. How deeply do we help them screen, digest, connect, decide about this flood of data and the accompanying (albeit camouflaged) values that accompany them? There is evidence that the capacity of people for sober understanding and a critical sense have weakened. When I look around and see so much fundamentalism and fanaticism around the world, and the suffering that these escapes from sober thinking have produced, I wonder whether we have to think more creatively of how we can ensure that our students learn how to think deeply?

(20) How deeply do we form their inner persons, their commitments and convictions, their faith and their strength? You are aware of how quickly even a religious culture like that of the Philippines is becoming secularized and pluralistic. All around, our young people are being given more and more choices-not just choices of websites on the Internet, or choices of TV stations on cable TV, or choices of stores in malls, but choices of values and beliefs. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that one cannot expect that external structures and traditions alone will support them in the Christian faith, beliefs or values. I have worked with Filipino migrant workers, and I have seen how easily, in a different environment, they have gone over to other groups. As the external supports become weaker, then the inside must become stronger. Depth of knowledge and, even more important, depth of experience, must mature into a depth of conviction that is able to remain peaceful and steadfast even in a confusing and hostile world.

(21) In the end, the test of whether our education is one of depth, is whether we are able to produce people who can “decide from inside”-which is another way of saying, the test of our education as Jesuit education is if we are able to produce people of discernment. More and more, people are making choices, not from the inner realm of faith, conscience, values, truth, but from the seductive voices coming from the outside, of gain, profit, public opinion, convenience and fashion. People are becoming weaker in the habit of finding in the depths of the heart the answers to difficult emerging questions. On the other hand, if one looks at the alumni we are proudest of as products of the Jesuit educational system, I think we will find in them a certain of depth of perception, thinking, commitment, and character, and the habit of deciding from inside.

THE FRONTIER OF UNIVERSALITY

(22) The second frontier I would like to propose is the frontier of universality. You may be aware of a letter I wrote recently on the subject of the universality of our Jesuit vocation, inspired by the spirit of GC 35. Today, I think a challenging frontier for Jesuit education is to be a more universal education in the Ignatian sense of breadth of belonging and wideness of concern and responsibility.

(23) Again, universality translates Magis but in a way that challenges the competitive way we sometimes translate Magis simply as “Excellence.” Of course, we strive for excellence, but sometimes we fall into the trap of measuring excellence only if we see ourselves as better than some other schools run by other religious

groups, or even worse, better than other Jesuit schools!

(24) When I travel around the world, I see the violence and suffering caused by a terrible narrowing of the sense of belonging and competitiveness. It is a paradox of globalization that as technologies allow us to grow in knowledge of those very distant

from us, at the same time, there is greater fear of the Other, the one who is different, who does not belong to my tribe or my race or my caste. Because of their fears, people end up with very small, suffocating worlds, and regard those who do not belong to those tiny kingdoms as insignificant sub-humans, at best, or as threats to be eliminated, at worst. And, I am afraid that if we are not careful, the prestige that attaches to our schools, the fame of the “Jesuit brand” of education may tempt us to make our schools a new but still narrow base for belonging, which we use to distinguish and separate ourselves from others.

(25) But there is nothing of this narrowness of belonging in Ignatius’ vision of life. He was always a man of large vistas: he loved to look at the stars, at the vastness of the sky that reflected the universal, all-embracing love of God. Ignatius’ concern was always the more “universal good”: he always wanted Jesuits to be ready to serve anywhere where there is hope for God’s glory. And he gathered around himself such a diverse group of men, of different languages, cultures, nationalities and personalities, to form a single group of friends in the Lord, who transcended their little differences, in their common dedication to the same universal mission.

(26) GC 35 further heightened this Ignatian universality by pointing out how urgently a more universal perspective, which allows us to see beyond our narrow concerns and to work with others, is needed in our world. The great challenges of the world cannot be responded to by one province, one region alone, or by Jesuits alone. The enormous challenges of the Philippines and Asia, to come nearer to home, cannot be responded to by one school or by one university alone. They require the breadth of vision and spirit that overcomes little sectarianisms so we can work with each other, Jesuits and other co-workers and companions all together in mission.

FRONTIERS OF DEPTH AND UNIVERSALITY FACING UNIVERSITIES

(32) I would now like to address a special word to those involved in higher education who have come to join us this morning. I hope that what I have said earlier about the frontiers of depth and universality is relevant to you too. But I would like to elaborate a bit more on what the frontiers of depth and universality might mean for Jesuit universities.

(33) When he visited the United States, the Holy Father used a very striking image to describe the Church. He said the Church is like a cathedral decorated with stained glass windows. When you are inside the Church, with the light shining through them, the stained glass windows are glorious and beautiful. But if you see them from the outside, they seem dark and unattractive. And the Holy Father said that in today’s world, unfortunately, too many people stay outside and see only the grim and unappealing exterior.

(34) Recently, my Council and I have been reflecting on this present reality of the apparent unattractiveness of the Church in today’s world. It is a very serious problem. I have heard that a recent survey in Britain showed that the majority of the people surveyed felt religion did more harm than good in the world. This is obviously not the same everywhere, but this kind of attitudeis more and more prevalent, in many parts of the world, not just in the West, and it weakens the ability of the Church to gain a listening for the message of life and hope of the Gospel. We have been seeking to understand the causes of this apparent weakening of the credibility of the Church, hoping to see how the Society of Jesus, as servant of the Church, can help.

(35) The causes are complex, and this is not the place to discuss them. But, one thing that emerged very clearly when we discussed this problem from the perspective of various continents is that there are two groups who especially feel this alienation: intellectuals and the youth.

(36) Obviously, these groups are present in our universities. And thus, it seems clear to me that our Universities can play a special role in responding to this present challenge to the Church. And the universities can respond precisely by going more boldly and creatively into the frontiers of depth and universality precisely as universities.

(37) Perhaps I can best explain by referring to some concrete ideas taken from the recent and very rich new encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate.

(38) First, the Holy Father, reflecting on Pope Paul VI’s teaching in Populorum Progressio in the light of our present globalized world of inter-connection, makes this striking statement: “As the society grows ever more globalized, it makes us neighbors but it does not make us brothers.” (CiV, 19). Reason, he says, can grasp “the essential of equality” of people, our disciplines and technologies can help us control our “civic coexistence,” but the felt sense and conviction that others are really my family, my brothers and sisters, for whom I am responsible, can only come with an experience in the heart of God’s fatherly love for all. How deeply do we reach the young people entrusted to us, so that as we give them rigorous intellectual and professional training, we go further and touch them “at the level of the heart,” to use the Holy Father’s words? (CiV, 20)

(39) Second, Pope Benedict quotes Paul VI, who said very truly: “the world is in trouble because of the lack of thinking.” (CiV53). This is one of the convictions of the Holy Father throughout his encyclical: the present world economic crisis and the continued suffering of millions reveals to us that many of our old solutions do not work, and require new solutions based on deeper, more adequate, more creative ways of understanding the many complex realities of human life and the world: business, finance, culture, the role of the State and politics, the environment, the family, migration, international relations and cooperation, human rights and duties, the very meaning of what it means to be human. Here is a clear call to depth: How can our universities, with all the gifted and highly trained intellectuals, teachers and researchers in them, promote still deeper reflection and research into these crucial areas on which the creation of a better future for the world depends?

(40) Finally, in this encyclical in which the Holy Father memorably describes globalization as the explosion of worldwide interdependence,” (CiV 33), it is not surprising that he calls for a similar kind of inter-dependence and cooperation in the search for truth in love. “In view of the complexity of the issues,” he writes, “it is obvious that the various disciplines have to work together through an orderly interdisciplinary exchange. . . in a collaborative effort to serve humanity.” (CiV 30, 31) How can our Jesuit universities-the word “university” itself shares the same root as “universal”-heed this practical call to universality, breaking out of parochial enclaves of disciplines, departments, universities, and even countries to engage in the kind of collaborative work that is a service of the future of our people and our world?

(41) If our universities can deepen formation and intellectual work, and make more truly collaborative and universal our work together, our universities will truly serve the Church’s mission of integral human development, and at the same time, give a convincing witness in today’s secularized world of the presence of the life-giving love and truth at work in the Church.

CONCLUSION: MOVING FORWARD IN HOPE

(42) You have many more talks ahead of you, and I am sure they will present you with many more challenging things to reflect on. In the spirit of non multa sed multum therefore, I shall leave you with these two frontiers which, as I said, are for me, two of the most important frontiers for the whole Society of Jesus in all its life and mission today: depth and universality. I trust that later, you will have time to reflect more deeply on what I have said, to confirm, to correct, to concretize.

(43) Before I end, however, I would like to share with you a little anecdote from the life of Fr. Arrupe. One of his valued possessions, I heard, was a picture given him by the first man who walked in the moon, the astronaut Neil Armstrong. It was a

picture of the earth taken from the moon, and Fr. Arrupe kept it on his desk. It proved a very helpful reminder for him. When he was confronted with a very heavy or demanding problem, he would look at the picture and ask himself: “Where is Italy in that picture? Can I see Rome? Can I see Borgo Santo Spirito 4 (which is the address of the General Curia)?” Of course, he could not see Rome or Borgo Santo Spirito. And he would say to himself: “Well, if I cannot see Borgo Santo Spirito, maybe the problem I’m concerned about here in Borgo Santo Spirito isn’t that big, after all!” And he would be at peace!

(44) It’s a good story, I think, for many of you teachers and administrators when you face what seem like very heavy problems in your work! I hope you remember it, and find comfort in it! The point of the story, however, is not to trivialize problems or pretend they are not real. It is about seeing things from a wider perspective.

(45) More precisely, I think this picture helped Fr. Arrupe see things-our work, our service, the problems and challenges we face-from the truer perspective of God’s infinitely larger point of view. What we do, how we plan and choose, matter a great deal; but something larger-God’s universal plan of bringing life, hope and joy to the world-gives those specific plans and choices their true depth, value and meaning.

(46) In a sense, that is what I have tried to do in my small way with this opening talk. I have not spoken technically as an educator. By reminding you, however, of an education that promotes depth and universality, I have been speaking to you not of general educational goals, but of specific goals of Jesuit education that make it not just a noble humanitarian work, but a service of the Gospel. If we dream of an educational system that teaches people to decide from inside, from the depths of their hearts, and to serve generously not just a tribe, but as broad a slice of humanity as it can, it is because these were the goals of Jesus, and the only reason Jesuit schools exist is to serve humanity according to the vision and the spirit of the Gospel.

(47) Let me put it another way. Recently, during an intensive meeting of the General Council, one of the Councilors pointed out that we were using, over and over again, the same verbs: pianificare, coordinare, organizare: to plan, to coordinate, to organize. These are organizational verbs, very important, necessary for moving ahead. But, that evening, when we celebrated the Eucharist, the Gospel of the day showed Jesus sending out his disciples and the verbs he used were very different: preach the gospel to the poor, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, expel demons, raise the dead. All these were verbs of life, verbs of giving life, which show that the mission of God in Jesus, the business he is about, is making life flow more abundantly for humanity wherever it is lacking or blocked. And the real secret of mission is not to get rid of the organizational verbs or the Gospel verbs, but to somehow make the organizational actions that we have to perform expressions of the life-giving actions of the Gospel. Yes, we plan, coordinate, organize-but only so that we can preach the good news to the poor, heal the sick, liberate the enslaved, raise the dead!

(48) I think it is the same with Jesuit education. We use many verbs in the course of our lives as schools: we prepare lesson plans, practice classroom management, attend department meetings, write papers, evaluate and grade our students. But in reflecting on depth and universality, we are reminding ourselves that all these actions we only do so that we can somehow be instruments of sharing, increasing, enriching life according to God’s plans.

The Changing Jesuit Geography

It is Jesuit Heritage Week here at Georgetown. Below are results of some of the most up-to-date research on global changes within the the Society of Jesus. This research was conducted by CARA Executive Director Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, Ph.D. and presented at the annual conference of the Religious Research Association, October 30, 2010, in Baltimore, MD.

The Jesuits are the single largest Religious Congregation of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church and they work in almost every country of the world. The primary ministry of Jesuits is education, on both the secondary and university levels. Well established and well respected Jesuit schools have existed in Europe and the Americas for centuries. During the latter half of the 20th Century an extensive network of “popular education” schools were initiated by Jesuits particularly in Latin America and South Asia. The choice of ministries and the manner in which they are carried out has a great influence in the Catholic Church throughout the world.

During the past 100 years membership in the Society of Jesus has steadily grown and steadily dropped. In 1910 there were 16,295 Jesuits worldwide and in 2010 there are 18,266. The number of Jesuits steadily increased year by year from 1910 until it peaked in 1965 at 36,038 Jesuits. Since 1965 there is a steady decline each year resulting in about half the number of Jesuits as there was 45 years ago.

Yet the figure above masks some of the dramatic changes in membership by geography and age that have occurred in the past 30 or more years.

For administrative purposes the provinces of the Society of Jesus are organized under six geographic regions:

• Africa – all of Africa and Madagascar except North Africa,
• Latin America – all of South America, Central America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean,
• South Asia – India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka,
• East Asia – Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Myanmar,
• Europe – Europe, Russia, the Middle East, North Africa, Canada
• United States – USA, Jamaica, Belize, and Micronesia.

When the total number of Jesuits by geographic region is examined it is clear that the steep decline in the number of Jesuits in Europe and the USA dwarfs the steady growth of the Jesuits in South Asia and Africa. The Jesuits of East Asia and Latin America have declined but to a much lesser extent.

In 1982, Africa and South Asia had 16.4% of the Jesuit membership and Europe and the USA had 62.9%, yet by 2010 Africa and South Asia had grown to 30% and Europe and the USA had declined to 46.2%.

Over the course of the past 28 years the smallest annual decline in Jesuits worldwide was 167 in 1986 and the largest decline of 401 was in 2007. This is in sharp contrast to the declines of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s that saw declines between 811 to 1,037 each year (unfortunately geographic distribution data are unavailable for those years).

Another way to examine membership in the Society of Jesus is to look at it in terms of the historically large regions of Europe and the USA in comparison to the smaller and newer regions of Africa, Latin America, South Asia and East Asia. In this view one sees a dramatic change in the membership of the Jesuits since 1982. Beginning in 2005 the majority of Jesuits is now in the developing world and will increasingly be from outside of Europe and the USA.

These changes in the membership of the Jesuits are driven by three factors: the number of men entering, the number of men departing, and the number of men dying each year. And these three factors are not consistent across geography, at least for the past 30 years.

Entering Jesuits
In 1982, there were 583 men entering Jesuit novitiates around the world and 28 years later in 2010 there were 470 men entering the novitiates. Over this period of time the largest number entered in 1985 (660 men) and the fewest in 2009 (453 men).

The changes in the number of men entering the novitiate differed greatly by geography as shown in the table below. A drop of more than 50% is seen in Europe and the USA versus the relative stability or growth in South Asia, East Asia and Africa.

When these changes in the number and distribution of entering Jesuits is graphed according to those from the “developed world” (Europe and USA) versus those from the “developing world” (Africa, Latin America, South Asia and East Asia) the ever widening gap is clearly evident as the “developing world” entering Jesuits grows from just over one-half to nearly three-quarters of all new Jesuits.

Dismissed Jesuits
The number of men leaving the Jesuits over the past three decades also varies by year and geography yet it fairly closely follows the pattern of proportional changes as Entering Jesuits. In the second figure below we also see that the proportion of Jesuits leaving the Society from the “developing world” goes from about 45% to nearly 75%.

Jesuit Deaths
The number of Jesuits that died in 1982 (423 deaths) and in 2010 (428 deaths) are almost the same yet there are about a third fewer Jesuits worldwide (26,298 versus 18,266). The figure below shows the number of Jesuit deaths peaking in the early and mid 1990’s and beginning to decline over the past seven years.

The geographic distribution of deaths has not shifted as much as the proportion of entering Jesuits over the last three decades. The “developed world” Jesuit deaths have gone from about 70% to 64% of the total. This can be explained by the large number of older Jesuits (70+ years of age) in Europe and the USA as compared to the “developing world.”

Cumulative Effects
The figures below show the proportional changes over time in entrance, dismissal and death for the “developed world” and “developing world.” This results in four observations:

1. The proportion of men entering the Jesuits has steadily increased in the developing world while the proportion from the developed world has steadily decreased.
2. The two lines representing the proportion of men entering and departing the Jesuits are narrowing and beginning to run together as time has passed in both the developed world and developing world. The proportion of men persevering in the Jesuits has become more and more similar across the world over the past three decades.
3. The proportionate number of deaths has changed very little over the years geographically.
4. Whereas the proportion of total Jesuits in each area of the world has steadily increased in the developing regions and decreased in the developed regions.

The proportion of men entering the Jesuits between the developed and developing regions of the world “appears” to be leveling out with about 75% from the developing countries and 25% from the developed countries. Once this occurs it will be the proportion of deaths that will continue to change over the next two decades as the age distribution, skewed by the large number of men entering in the developed countries post World War II, passes on.

The figure below shows the average age for Scholastics (those Jesuits in formation preparing for ordination), Priests, and for all members in 2010. The current “youthfulness” of the developing regions of the world is evident as Africa and South Asia have an average age of less than 50 in contrast to the average age of 65 for Europe and the USA.

Over the course of 30 years the Society of Jesus worldwide will have “flipped” in its geographic composition from two-third / one-third division of developed to developing world, to the reverse. Added to this is the great change in age distribution across the Society which is resulting in a rapid shift from a more European/USA Vatican II perspective to a more Indian/African post-Vatican II perspective. The change is both in generation and in geography which may be more creative and/or disruptive than might be assumed.