(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis’ recent comments suggesting faith in Christ is just one of many paths to God have underscored his heterodoxy and opened him up once again to charges of heresy.
Such accusations have been piling up since the first Jesuit pontiff seized the helm of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013. But what does the Society of Jesus teach and believe at the ground level?
A sampling of the websites of the 66 Jesuit parishes in the United States reveals distinctive priorities, visible in both large metropolises and smaller cities with Jesuit colleges. Unsurprisingly, the social justice fruit hangs low in San Francisco.
“A welcoming, inclusive and diverse Catholic community in the middle of the historic Haight-Ashbury district,” St. Agnes Catholic Church has had a gay and lesbian ministry since the early 1990s. The church website links to Outreach, the LGBTQ advocacy group founded by Fr. James Martin, S.J., that enjoys robust Vatican support.
St. Agnes became the first Jesuit parish in the U.S. to declare itself a sanctuary in 2017, working “to address immigration issues and support immigrants and refugees through accompaniment, advocacy, and shelter.”
October events at the parish’s Ignatian Spiritual Life Center include “Becoming Pilgrims of Hope: A Journey towards Synodality.” The mini-retreat “offers an opportunity to bring our voices to Rome,” as a center coordinator will “carry our reflections with her as an observer of the Synod.” There was Catholic Speed Dating in September, and “Jesus and the Earth” is on tap for November.
The Anti Racism Committee at St. Ignatius Parish in San Francisco, formed after the death of George Floyd in 2020, “is grappling intentionally with the realities of systemic racism and racial unrest in our country, church, and parish.” The committee meets monthly “to plan programs for the parish to grow in its commitment to be antiracist, and track progress on the Anti Racism Strategic Plan.”
During the church’s Fall Spiritual Exercises on Race and Migration, “spirituality will meet social justice … to help our parish dismantle racism and xenophobia–from within and without.” The goal is to move “closer to our vision of becoming an antiracist multicultural sanctuary.”
A recent article by Fr. John Whitney, S.J., on the St. Ignatius website commemorated St. Phoebe, described by St. Paul as a deacon in his Letter to the Romans. “In movements like Discerning Deacons, which advocates for the return of women to their properly historic role in the ministry of the Church,” he wrote, “the figure of St. Phoebe the Deacon is an irreducible fact that should not be overlooked by the Church.”
Up the coast in Seattle, St. Joseph Parish features a Land Acknowledgment confessing that its church and school occupy the ancestral land of the Coast Salish and Duwamish People.
“We acknowledge that these peoples, and many others, were forcefully removed from their land, some abducted & sent to boarding schools, and some murdered, often with the implicit and explicit support of the Catholic Church and the Jesuit Order,” the website states. “We acknowledge these sins and … work to repair the injustices of colonization.”
The mission of St. Joseph’s Anti-Racism Committee is “confronting white supremacy and dismantling institutional racism in our Parish and our community.” There’s also an Immigration Advocacy and Asylum Team, and a Faith Justice Commission that develops “collaborative avenues of advocacy to transform structures of poverty and displacement.” Climate Justice and Gender Justice are priority areas.
Moving on to New York City, members of the LGBT Catholics and Friends ministry at St. Ignatius Loyola are “agents of change, combating personal and structural homophobia” while working to create “a home … where LGBT persons are fully affirmed and celebrated.”
The website also asserts that St. Ignatius Loyola “will become a Laudato Si’ parish,” referring to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical urging ecological conversion. Church operations are being aligned “with responses to the cry of the earth; the cry of the poor; ecological economics; adapting sustainable lifestyles; ecological education; ecological spirituality; and community engagement.”
The Church of St. Francis Xavier, New York City’s other Jesuit parish, has a Zen Meditation Ministry as well as one for Xavier Yoga. Gay Catholics and Catholic Lesbians are separate groups.
The lesbian assembly, more than 300 members strong, was formed in 1995 by females “who desired that their needs be addressed by women, for women, with women.” It presents itself as a “beacon to those who discover that there is no dichotomy, no conflict, in being Catholic and queer. … We challenge the use of male-centric language and images of God. We advocate for female diaconates and priests. We yearn to one day be allowed to openly marry our beloved in our church. We speak truth to power.”
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Located beside Boston College, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Chestnut Hill archives video recordings from the parish’s 2021 LGBTQ+ Lenten Program Series. Viewers can access a Transgender Catholics Panel Discussion and a session called Cast Out: The Intersection of Racism & Homophobia. There’s an Examen for LGBTQ+ Catholics and Allies (not to be confused with the Examen for White Allies available from the Ignatian Solidarity Network).
Baltimore’s St. Ignatius has a Justice & Peace Ministry to “advocate for societal changes that improve the lives of those who face systemic oppression.” There are the standard committees for Economic Justice, Environmental Justice and Racial Justice.
A relative rarity for Jesuit parish websites, there’s also a Respect For Life Ministry “to promote by word and deed Church teaching on the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.”
The St. Ignatius flock in Baltimore keeps up with current events through the weekly online newsletter called Parish: “The Thought.” (Get it?) The September 9 edition featured a video plea for gun control by the church pastor, filmed shortly after a 14-year-old killed four people at a Georgia high school using an AR-15-style rifle.
“We are still uncertain whether he used a bump stock,” said Fr. Brian Frain, S.J. “Last year, Georgia repealed the law requiring firearms registration. Do they believe that was a good idea? What is this sickness about guns?”
Saint Thomas More Catholic Community serves Minneapolis-Saint Paul, ground zero for the George Floyd hinge moment in contemporary American race relations.
The Becoming Anti-Racist chart on the Racial Equity Committee’s webpage depicts the progression from the Fear Zone (“I deny race is a problem”) through the Learning Zone (“I understand my own privilege in ignoring racism”) to the Growth Zone (“I yield positions of power to those otherwise marginalized”).
The parish’s Care For Creation ministry links to an Eco Home Assessment Guide from the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform, the Ecojesuit website and an Ecological Examen.
Bellarmine Chapel at Xavier University in Cincinnati pushes the Synod on Synodality, the global but Jesuit-heavy enterprise now resuming in Rome. Parishioners highlighted pressing issues such as inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons in church life; equal leadership roles for women including ordination to the priesthood; ending clericalism and holding the patriarchy more accountable; and involving the laity in the Church’s decision-making processes.
Affiliated with Saint Louis University, St. Francis Xavier (College) Church is ahead of the synodal curve in elevating the role of Catholic laity. Two years ago, the parish shifted sharply to a leadership model that replaced its traditional priest-pastor with a Parish Life Coordinator.
“Fr. Dan will transition out of his role as pastor and Katie Jansen, who serves currently as our parish administrator, will be our PLC,” the College Church website explained at the time.
“Jesuit leadership is committed to missioning a priest to work full-time at the parish. He will have a critical role in leading the parish in prayer, preaching, celebrating sacraments, and … serve as a member of Katie’s staff. The transition we are making is not just a change in leadership. It is a change in the way we are community.”
Pope Francis, S.J., is not an American, but an examination of what American Jesuits profess today shows us that, however uneasy their Argentinian confrere may feel about the title Vicar of Christ, he would certainly feel at home in their parishes.
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Robert Jenkins is a pseudonym for a Catholic writer living in Sacramento, California.