Volume 49, Number 5 · March 28, 2002
Jesuits in Disarray
By Garry Wills
Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits
by Peter McDonough and Eugene C. Bianchi
University of California Press, 380 pp., $29.95
In 1951, I entered a novitiate of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Our large group of novices set a new record—over sixty of us in just one province (of eight at the time) in America. Buildings were hastily being built to house this influx during the height of post–World War II religiosity. Jesuits were considered the most intellectual order of priests, famous for their long (thirteen-year) lead-up to ordination, followed by an extra year of study after that. I left well before I reached the halfway mark in this course. Those who did get halfway through were given a detour of three years to teach in one of the many (forty-five, nationwide) Jesuit high schools, and their work at this stage was a principal source of 'vocations' from those schools. Young idealists still on their way to the priesthood offered stirring models for their students, who wanted to join them in their high calling.
Review, 2686 words
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