Reforming The Jesuit Order

Reforming the Jesuit Order: The Society of Saint Anthony A Tract Book Essay By Anthony J. Fejfar, B.A., J.D., Esq., Coif © Copyright 2007 by Anthony J. Fejfar The Jesuit Order, the Society of Jesus, needs to be either reformed or abolished. It is an antiquated institution which cannot deal with either the Vatican II reforms, nor with postmodern neothomist cosmology. The new order that I am proposing has two patron saints, Jesuit Martyr, Saint Anthony Daniel, and Fransciscan Saint, Saint Anthony of Padua. The order will support the Jesuit intellectual tradition, and the Franciscan ideal of helping the poor, as well as the Franciscan idea of having lay associates. The Society of Saint Anthony will function primarily by starting volunteer religious communities in poor catholic neighborhoods, employing both lay “Tonyists” as well as religious with vows of simple living, celibacy, obedience to the transcendental precepts, and the vow to fight for justice and social justice to the death and beyond!

One community will be for those 14 years

and older, and another community will be for families with children, including group homes for unwanted children. The Jeusuit ideal of poverty is antiquated. Instead, we should focus on having those interested in religious life or being volunteers, to take vows of simple living. This is consistent with the idea that a community should produce a moderate profit using

moderate means. The current Jesuit ideal of poverty on the one hand, and the idea that all ministries should be self-sufficient and produce a profit, on the other hand, is absurd. The Jesuit ideal of obedience is also antiquated. If Jesus asked us to be friends and not servants, how is it that in religious life one is asked to take a blind vow of obedience to a religious superior? Instead of obedience to a superior, which is fascist, one should take an obedience vow to follow one’s conscience and the transcendental precepts:

Be Attentive! Be Intelligent! Be Reasonable! Be Responisble! Be Loving! Be Compassionate!

Finally, the Jesuit Constitutions provide that Jesuits cannot be either lawyers or medical doctors. Once again this is absurd. Social Justice demands that some religious be lawyers and medical doctors. The Jesuit Order has been abolished once already in its history, if the Jesuits can’t reform then the Jesuit Order should be abolished again, and replaced by the Society of Saint Anthony.