Reviews and Commentary about the "American Jesuits"

[Schroth] here offers a readable overview of the society, beginning in 1566 with the arrival of Portuguese Jesuits off the coast of Florida and covering both the heroic positives and frank negatives of its presence and influences in mission, education, and social justice. . . . This book fills a gap in general works on the subject.
—Library Journal

Blending history and analysis, Schroth chronicles the societys weaknesses and failures, too, including its foot-dragging on racial issues. . . . Schroth also discusses the communitys decline in numbers, but ends on a hopeful note. . . . This is an absorbing read for those with an interest in the Jesuits.
—Publishers Weekly

An engaging read, and an elegant synthesis of four centuries of Jesuit heroics, controversies, flops, and hard work in the United States. Should be assigned reading for students of American Catholicism.
—Mark S. Massa, S.J., The Karl Rahner Professor of Theology and Co-Director, The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, Fordham University

Anyone who has encountered the Jesuits — in a college, a high school, a parish, or one of their many social ministries — will appreciate this well-written and comprehensive survey of the Jesuit experience in America.
—James M. OToole, Boston College

With infectious energy and a genuine gift for storytelling, Raymond A. Schroth recounts the history of Jesuits in the United States. The American Jesuits isnt simply a book for Catholics; its for anyone who loves a well-told historical tale. For more than 450 years, Jesuit priests have traveled the globe out of a religious commitment to serve others. Their order, the Society of Jesus, is the largest religious order of men in the Catholic Church, with more than 20,000 members around the world and almost 3,000 in the United States. It is one of the more liberal orders in the Church, taking very public stands in the U.S. on behalf of social justice causes such as the promotion of immigrants rights and humanitarian aid, including assistance to Africas poor, and against American involvement in unjust wars. Jesuits have played an important part in Americanizing the Catholic Church and in preparing Catholic immigrants for inclusion into American society.

Starting off with the first Jesuit to reach the New World — he was promptly murdered on the Florida coast — Schroth focuses on the key periods of the Jesuit experience in the Americas, beginning with the era of European explorers, many of whom were accompanied by Jesuits and some of whom were Jesuits themselves. Suppressed around the time of the American Revolution, the Society experienced resurgence in the nineteenth century, arriving in the U.S. along with waves of Catholic immigrants and establishing a network of high schools and universities. In the mid-twentieth century, the Society transformed itself to serve an urbanizing nation.

Schroth is not blind to the Societys shortcomings and not all of his story reflects well on the Jesuits. However, as he reminds readers, Jesuits are not gods and they dont dwell in mountaintop monasteries. Rather, they are imperfect men who work in a messy world to find God in all things — and to help their fellow men and women do the same.

A quintessential American tale of men willing to take risks — for Indians, blacks, immigrants, and the poor, and to promote a loving picture of God — The American Jesuits offers a broad and compelling look at the impact of this 400-year-old international order on American culture and the cultures impact on the Jesuits.

Fascinating Company

By Jonathan Wright | NOVEMBER 26, 2007

The American Jesuits
A History
By Raymond A. Schroth, S.J.
New York Univ. Press. 368p $29.95

I n 1851, the author of Americans Warned of Jesuitism sought to expose the “Jesuits, who fill the Roman Catholic churches, invade your colleges and educate your children, who are scattered everywhere in the richest cities of the United States.” They were in Oregon and California (“wherever money was made,” apparently) and they were incorrigibly sly and subtle: their megalomaniacal plans were always cloaked beneath modest dress and studied smiles. The American branch of the 19th-century Society of Jesus would suffer many such calumnies, reiterations of familiar tropes in the anti-Jesuit arsenal. The same prejudices would inspire the locals of Ellsworth, Me., to strip, tar and feather the Jesuit John Bapst in October 1854, lead Charles Chiniquy to accuse the Jesuits of assassinating Lincoln and allow Samuel Morse to dream up papal armies poised to invade America. And yet, as the Society had learned from long, hard experience, its enemies had always tended to be most vocal when notable Jesuit achievements were being secured.

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Bill Rothschild's Strategic Assessment of the Jesuits and their future, based on Ray's book...

This is a note I wrote to Ray Schroth after by first reading of his new book The American Jesuits- a history...published by New York University Press and available on Amazon. The book is well written and insightful. Ray uses his journalistic talents to report about the Jesuits. A must read for all our class and anyone every educated by the Jesuits.

I have completed a quick read of your book: American Jesuits… and would like to put it the context of my latest book: "The Secret to GE's Success". I conclude that GE's success can be summarized in one word: TALENT..which stands for Leadership, Adaptability, Talent, Influence and Networks. So I used this framework to evaluate the Jesuits and this is what I have concluded:

LEADERSHIP… it is my conclusion that the AMERICAN JESUITS really never had a strong, continuous leadership. It was a confederation of Provinces..EACH out to create their own Universities… The most recent Leaders where more consistent with the early Jesuits…living and helping the underprivileged and not those that the Jesuit Universities were established to help…the more affluent.

ADAPTABILITY… Jesuits have not be pro-active, but slowly reactive… dealing with Blacks…and even the anti-war movements were late in their reaction… I really don’t think the “Company” had a US game plan and strategy… however they were very proliferate in initiating high schools that became colleges and partial Universities.

TALENT… mixed… there was a THREE tiered system… the bright… the normal and the workers.. On a personal note: I asked to apply and was denied since I was viewed as not in the first group… My personal experience at FORDHAM is that 90% of the Jesuits were in category one… and this has given me a false impression of the total population

INFLUENCE… the Jesuits were late in trying to influence what they believed was WRONG… Dan Berrigan was too late and took the wrong approach to make his point about the war… His assignment to BROOKLYN PREP…my alma mater may have been a strong indication that the Jesuits were not supportive of the BP and preferred the more elite schools… like REGIS and XAVIER…I think that they closed the wrong school and should have done what St. John’s did, move to LI… if they did, they would have had a strong presence on ISLAND and maybe even had a loyal group of Jesuits, since they were not the ACADEMICs that the other schools had.

NETWORKS… there was NO INTEGRATION AMONG THE PROVINCES…I AM NOT SURE WHAT A JESUIT UNIVERSITY really means today… since there was never a clear understanding in the past. You description of the initiation of and the limited resources of all other Universities, show that the “leadership?” thought that they could open Universities and they were highly dependent on CHEAP LABOR and never funded or endowed them.

RAY… I have written five books on strategic thinking, decision making and leadership AND I have concluded that based on my QUICK READ of you GREAT book… I think the AMERICAN JESUITS have not been strategic and have not had a strong execution plan… in fact, I would classified that the CURRENT STRATEGY IS HARVEST DIVEST… which means that the society will not exist in ten year… (Ray disagreed with this point and said they would be around for a long time...I disagree..)

I enjoyed the book, will read it again and learned a lot…but it is very disturbing to me, that the SOCIETY.. that taught me and is responsible for my growth and development, will not be around for my grandchildren…

Bill Rothschild

By the way... this is a letter from the Jesuit Father General that appears in the November 28th newsletter... it confirms that they are finally recognizing there is a vocation criss... it also confirms my point about a lack of leadership...this could be "too little...too late".

The Vocation Emergency. This is a letter from the Father General about vocations:

The first thing to note is that, even in the current situation of “vocation emergency” in the Society, only one postulate was received on vocation promotion. The postulate requests that each Province establish an ongoing program for vocation promotion for finding, welcoming and accompanying qualified candidates to the Society of Jesus in each culture, region and province
The main question is: Why are there few vocations in some parts of the Society, and what can we do about it? Although it is true that vocation promoters are doing their best through various activities and initiatives, there is a need to do a more thorough research on the causes of the diminishing number of vocations and to carry out an exchange on best practices in vocation promotion.
Our search for recruits should keep in the forefront of our mind that “because … the missions on which the Holy Father and our superiors are likely to send (us) demand trained minds and dedicated spirits,” (GC 32.D.2, 25) our candidates should be those who can truly profit from the “spiritual and intellectual formation more than ordinarily exacting” (ibid.) the Society offers to the best of its ability. Hence, there needs to be clear insistence on the quality of the candidates we accept. The coetus praevius recommends that vocation promotion be a topic for discussion at GC 35, with the hope that it may produce some recommendations for Fr. General and the ordinary government of the Society.
Documents GC 34, decree 10.
Complementary Norms, 412

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