@ Lost Wanderer
You mentioned what the different Franciscan obediences had that helped them hold out longer. I believe that there are server differences between Franciscans and Jesuits that affect the way that we run our institutions. Most lay people do not know this. Most probably do not care, even if they did know. I don’t mean to sound bitter, but the truth in our country is that many lay Catholics are only interested in religious communities when someone messes up. When we do things well, which is more often than when we mess up, no one really pays attention.
One of the things that the Francisans do differently from the Jesuits is to place a distance between them and the laity. By tradition, Franciscans have a very strong bond among ourselves as a community of brothers frist and ministers to others second. We do not engage in any ministry that interferes with our relationship with each other as brothers and as a family. If a ministry begins to interfere with that, we drop it like a hot potato. Our vocation is to live according to the mind of St. Francis, not to run parishes, schools, hospitals and other institutions. But to live the Gospel in brotherhood, then everything flows from there.
Therefore, we have never been caught up in very large universities, as have the Jesuits. Because those universities do not allow for much of a brotherhood. Everyone is running on a different schedule, etc. The Jesuits are not organized around the idea of brotherhood. They are a military order. They are organized around the mission at hand. If that means to run a school and make it the best in the world, that’s what they do. That’s the will and vision of St. Ignatius. Common life and common prayer is secondary in the mind of Ignatius. Prayer can be individual and common life is like military life, you support your brothers to accomplish a mission. Franciscans live to love their brothers, when there is and where there is not a mission.
By keeping colleges and universities small, in order to preserve the community life, the different Franciscan communities have managed to avoid the many expenses that the larger Jesuit schools have. For example, in the entire world, you can count on one hand the number of medical and law schools at Franciscan univesities. You can count on the other hand the amount of research that goes on at Franciscan univesities. Most Franciscan universities operate on a very French model. The focus is on the humanities.
In addition, Franciscans of the different obediences, all have this single-minded fidelity to St. Francis. The purpose of opening schools, colleges, parishes and other ministries is to teach the Gospel in the manner of St. Francis. This is a very focussed approach. You will not find other spiritualities and other theologies in Franciscan schools, colleges, parishes and ministries. The Jesuits are much more global. They were founded to be so. Ignatius did not found them around his vision of the Gospel, as Francis founded his order. Ignatius founded the Jesuits around a more universal vision of the Gospel. Both approaches are good and legitimate. But the Jesuit approach is more expensive.
You will find that many universities take the Jesuit approach, even if they are not Jesuit. For example, Notre Dame is Holy Cross Brothers. But their model is very Jesuit: scholarly, global and expansive.
The more you expand into the different areas of academia, the more it costs and the more points of view that will enter your university. It all goes hand in hand.
Originally, the idea of handing over the universities to Boards of Trustees sounded good. The original boards were made up of very good Catholics, most of whom supported the vision and mission of the religious orders that founded these schools. But as time passed, these boards were replaced by others who do not understand the vision and mission of St. Ignatius and his sons or who do not support it. Once you have signed the paperwork, the law binds you to work with these boards.
The religious cannot abandon these schools either. Why not? Let’s take the Jesuits. They are a religious order in solemn vows. Religious orders who profess solemn vows, which are not many, but those that do are not allowed to own property. Every piece of property that they own really belongs to the Holy See, even though the dead says Society of Jesus, Franciscans, Dominicans, or Benedictines. You cannot give away what you do not own. You cannot sell it either.
These orders cannot give the property on which the school sits to the Board or sell it to the Board. Canonically, it does not belong to the religious nor to the diocese. It belongs to the Holy See. Legally, you write the deed according to the civil laws of the country in which you buy the property. This like you buying a car for your child who is in college. Legally you own it. But the truth is that it’s your child’s car. Legally, the Jesuits own the property, but the truth is that they own it for the Holy See.
Now you have a school on Church property. When that school dissents, you have a problem. You cannot close it, because only the Board of Trustees can close it. You cannot abandon it, because you cannot abandon property for which you have assumed stewardship. Now you’re stuck. You have to do the best you can.
That’s the picture around the world. The solution right now is to try to get Boards that are supportive of Catholic teaching and who will demand that professors are faithful to Catholic teaching. It’s quite a challenge. Many of the men and women who serve on these boards are not going to give up control to the Church so readily. I don’t think it’s a matter of money. I don’t think that there is any gain involved for the Board. I think it’s a matter of pride and power.
Pride and power are strong forces in human nature.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
