Are Jesuits the smartest Catholic religious order?

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Are Jesuit Priests the elite of all Catholic religious orders due to their long and extensive education and training? Or are all Catholic religious orders treated equally with their respective purpose and mission?
 
Nobody is the elite of religious. All the charisms of the different religious Order are different and just that. Every Order has a different role to play within the Catholic world. The role and makeup is/was determined by their founders and their Rule.

A Dominican tends to be called more to preach. A Franciscan to serve the poor, etc. You will find people of all scholarship levels within all the religious orders. You also find that just because a religious brother may not be ordained, that doesn’t mean he may be “less” scholastically then one that is ordained.

The key is to determine what you are called to do and what is the best fit. Not to view Orders using human sinful thoughts like pride and vanity.
 
ProdigalSon1211 said:
Are Jesuit Priests the elite of all Catholic religious orders due to their long and extensive education and training? Or are all Catholic religious orders treated equally with their respective purpose and mission?
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Education and training does not make you “smart”. Whatever “smart” means. Contrary to what many people think, intelligence is not a quantifiable matter.

Incidentally, some of the people I would consider “smartest” that I’ve come across have been busboys. 🤷

But, we westerners have our Cult of University and our Cult of Medicine, so many would probably disagree with me.
 
A Franciscan Priest, a Dominican Priest and a Jesuit Priest are waiting outside the gates of heaven, and they are discussing about their lives, excited to meet with St Peter and eventually Jesus. During their discussion, a debate arises in which they wonder which order Jesus loves and is proud of the most. The Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit rally for their own.

To settle the debate, they agree to ask Jesus himself. As they are in line waiting to enter the gates, they write the question on a piece of paper and they hand it to St Peter. He assures them he will get the note to Jesus, with a response.

In a few minutes, St Peter returns with the note, and it reads:

“My Dear children,
To the question of which order I love the most and I proud of the most, there is only but one answer: I love you all equally,
With Love,
Jesus Christ, SJ”
 
bigdipper said:
A Franciscan Priest, a Dominican Priest and a Jesuit Priest are waiting outside the gates of heaven, and they are discussing about their lives, excited to meet with St Peter and eventually Jesus. During their discussion, a debate arises in which they wonder which order Jesus loves and is proud of the most. The Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit rally for their own.

To settle the debate, they agree to ask Jesus himself. As they are in line waiting to enter the gates, they write the question on a piece of paper and they hand it to St Peter. He assures them he will get the note to Jesus, with a response.

In a few minutes, St Peter returns with the note, and it reads:

“My Dear children,
To the question of which order I love the most and I proud of the most, there is only but one answer: I love you all equally,
With Love,
Jesus Christ, SJ”
Click to expand...
:D:thumbsup:😃
 
bigdipper said:
A Franciscan Priest, a Dominican Priest and a Jesuit Priest are waiting outside the gates of heaven, and they are discussing about their lives, excited to meet with St Peter and eventually Jesus. During their discussion, a debate arises in which they wonder which order Jesus loves and is proud of the most. The Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit rally for their own.

To settle the debate, they agree to ask Jesus himself. As they are in line waiting to enter the gates, they write the question on a piece of paper and they hand it to St Peter. He assures them he will get the note to Jesus, with a response.

In a few minutes, St Peter returns with the note, and it reads:

“My Dear children,
To the question of which order I love the most and I proud of the most, there is only but one answer: I love you all equally,
With Love,
Jesus Christ, SJ”
Click to expand...
Bosh. 😉

He loves most the Order which he has endowed with the most good, and is proudest of the same Order for the same reason. Of course I would not dare to guess which out of those three is the greatest, but I’m sure in the mind of God there is a definite first, second, and third place.

It’s sort of like when Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked which is the greatest. Jesus did not tell them that none of them was the greatest, but corrected their concept of greatness itself. Similarly when James and John’s mother asked Jesus to promise that her sons sit next to him in heaven, one on his right and one on his left, he did not say that everyone will be equal in heaven but that the places at his right and left were reserved for those they are reserved for.
 
bigdipper said:
A Franciscan Priest, a Dominican Priest and a Jesuit Priest are waiting outside the gates of heaven, and they are discussing about their lives, excited to meet with St Peter and eventually Jesus. During their discussion, a debate arises in which they wonder which order Jesus loves and is proud of the most. The Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit rally for their own.

To settle the debate, they agree to ask Jesus himself. As they are in line waiting to enter the gates, they write the question on a piece of paper and they hand it to St Peter. He assures them he will get the note to Jesus, with a response.

In a few minutes, St Peter returns with the note, and it reads:

“My Dear children,
To the question of which order I love the most and I proud of the most, there is only but one answer: I love you all equally,
With Love,
Jesus Christ, SJ”
Click to expand...
I think you made a typo at the last line, im sure you ment to type O.P. 😉
 
“SJ” and “O.P.” are interesting ways to abbreviate Ordo Fratrum Minorum…
 
nice
whats great about the joke is that when you retell it, you can add in whatever order you want, depending who you are talking to.

Have you heard the one about the novena and the jesuit?
 
bigdipper said:
A Franciscan Priest, a Dominican Priest and a Jesuit Priest are waiting outside the gates of heaven, and they are discussing about their lives, excited to meet with St Peter and eventually Jesus. During their discussion, a debate arises in which they wonder which order Jesus loves and is proud of the most. The Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit rally for their own.

To settle the debate, they agree to ask Jesus himself. As they are in line waiting to enter the gates, they write the question on a piece of paper and they hand it to St Peter. He assures them he will get the note to Jesus, with a response.

In a few minutes, St Peter returns with the note, and it reads:

“My Dear children,
To the question of which order I love the most and I proud of the most, there is only but one answer: I love you all equally,
With Love,
Jesus Christ, OSB”
Click to expand...
Fixed it for you 😉

(if you are wondering SJ is now OSB)
 
bigdipper said:
A Franciscan Priest, a Dominican Priest and a Jesuit Priest are waiting outside the gates of heaven, and they are discussing about their lives, excited to meet with St Peter and eventually Jesus. During their discussion, a debate arises in which they wonder which order Jesus loves and is proud of the most. The Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit rally for their own.

To settle the debate, they agree to ask Jesus himself. As they are in line waiting to enter the gates, they write the question on a piece of paper and they hand it to St Peter. He assures them he will get the note to Jesus, with a response.

In a few minutes, St Peter returns with the note, and it reads:

“My Dear children,
To the question of which order I love the most and I proud of the most, there is only but one answer: I love you all equally,
With Love,
Jesus Christ, SJ”
Click to expand...
:D:rotfl::rotfl:: I have a cousin on my mother’s side that was a Jesuit.🙂
 
Jesuits have the longest formation right? So doesn’t that qualify them to be the elite and most intellectual out of all Catholic religious orders?
 
ProdigalSon1211 said:
Jesuits have the longest formation right? So doesn’t that qualify them to be the elite and most intellectual out of all Catholic religious orders?
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I think you are missing the point. None of the religious order are the intellectual elite. All the religious Orders have different callings/charisms. You join an Order because you are interesting in that calling/charism. Not because they may have/might not have more “intellectuals”. Orders are founded around the ideals of the founder and the Rule. You will find people of all intellectual levels in all Orders. Just because the Benedictines are called to preach, doesn’t mean they don’t serve the poor. Just because the Franciscans are called to serve the poor doesn’t mean they don’t preach. Even though Franciscanism doesn’t stress its members getting high level degrees, they are responsible for the creation of most of the Universities in Europe. The Franciscan order has had many great theologians within its ranks. Stop thinking on human terms that can cause sins like pride and vanity. Think on the spiritual level, think how can this Order help me on my spiritual journey.
 
A large part of the modern Jesuit charism is liberalism and dissent, too, it seems, on the most part, with a few notable exceptions such as Fr Mitch Pacwa, SJ (who, nevertheless, was extremely liberal and desired to be a follower of the apostate Matthew Fox in his earlier years as a Jesuit, as he himself attests in Catholics and the New Age).
 
That wasn’t the joke I was expecting! The way I heard it, a Dominican and a Jesuit were in Judgement’s waiting room debating the relative merits of each order. They agreed to ask St. Peter which was the greater order. St. Peter asked the Jesuit what prompted the founding of his order. The Jesuit replied “To serve God and the church through evangelizing the world and fidelity to Holy Mother Church in response to the challenge of the protestant hersies.”

St. Peter nodded and turned to the Dominican and asked the same question. The answer “To preach the gospel faithfully and guard the depost of faith against the challenge of the Albigensian heresy!”

St. Peter nodded and asked the Jesuit “You guys have a reputation for being pretty smart too, no?” The Jesuit humbly admitted it was true.

St. Peter then said “Well, I haven’t seen an Albigensian come through here in centuries. If you’re so smart, how come you have to ask ME which order is greater??”

Ouch! 😃

All in fun, of course!
 
While certain religious orders/congregations, etc. place a high emphasis on intellectual formation and education, the simple truth is that all of the major religious orders have had their intellectual giants. I don’t think being a Franciscan stopped St. Bonaventure from being brilliant, nor did being a Dominican cause St. Thomas Aquinas to become brilliant. Both men used the gifts given to them by God to further his glory.

We can take a look throughout the history of the Church and find those who have made their mark, from the relatively uneducated such as St. Catherine of Sienna to those who were well educated such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The Papal theologian is traditionally a Dominican friar, but our current Holy Father himself is a Benedictine Oblate. St. John Cassian is pretty amazing, and as a contemporary of St. John Chrysostom, Origen, etc. he would probably say he was just a simple monk. If you believe that, read his works some time. They are quite challenging and theologically rich.

The simple truth is that men and women are probably more closely tied to the spirituality, charism, and theological approach of a given religious community more so than they are the reputation for intellectual prowess. Using my example of above, if Bonaventure had been a son of St. Dominic and Aquinas had been a son of Francis, they both would still have been brilliant theologians. They simply would have had a different spirituality guiding them. If you combine those issues with the different charisms of a given order, which might lead to more writings from men belong to the Society of Jesus or the Order of Preachers as compared to the Order of Saint Benedict or the Order of Friars Minor, you can probably explain away any perceived differences in intellectual achievement pretty easily.

Its fun of course to joke around with these things, and I enjoy it also.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
Bosh. 😉

He loves most the Order which he has endowed with the most good, and is proudest of the same Order for the same reason. Of course I would not dare to guess which out of those three is the greatest, but I’m sure in the mind of God there is a definite first, second, and third place.

It’s sort of like when Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked which is the greatest. Jesus did not tell them that none of them was the greatest, but corrected their concept of greatness itself. Similarly when James and John’s mother asked Jesus to promise that her sons sit next to him in heaven, one on his right and one on his left, he did not say that everyone will be equal in heaven but that the places at his right and left were reserved for those they are reserved for.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I missed the “SJ” after Jesus’ name and so did not get the joke and responded with serious theology. Joke’s on me I guess. :o
 
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