Why are the Jesuits in near terminal decline?

The Jesuits were once the strongest order in the Church.  They struck fear in the hearts of the Church’s enemies through their rigorous theological training and total willingness to serve Christ through His Church.  Now, they are collapsing – they’ve lost half their numbers in the last 45 years, with vocations continuing to plummet.  I’m sure many of my readers could posit some reasons as to why this is the case: repeated instances of apostasy being tolerated, even celebrated, within the ranks, the rigorous training in the theological disciplines being replaced with modernist, indifferentist “interdisciplinary studies,” a much greater focus on temporal affairs than things spiritual, and just a thoroughgoing embrace of this fallen world and it’s “values” – the essence of modernism.

That’s what some might say (like me).  But what do the Jesuits think?  Why are their vocations plummeting?  Their recently held general congregation might shed some clues:

Why the decline? The 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesuits proposes mass culture is to blame. Decree 6 of the congregation says, “Exaggerated individualism and consumerism have encouraged resistance to the powerful call of community service found in our mission.”

Carter agreed mass culture is partly to blame. “Totalitarian states submerged the individual to the needs of the state,” Carter said. [then why do so many Jesuits embrace left wing ideology?]

According to Carter, the United States responded to the totalitarian cultures it was fighting against by putting “great stress on the individual.” This mentality of individualism is alive and strong today. [No, the “great stress” on the individual began with the reformation, then the rationalists, the “enlightenment,” followed by the modernists, and then the death of faith]

Decline in interest in joining religious orders is also due to overall societal changes.

“Young people have far more options in today’s world than what we grew up with,” Carter said. And when times are good there are not as many people interested in joining religious orders as when times are bad. Tellingly, vocations in developing countries, specifically in Africa and South Asia, are actually rising right now, though modestly. This might be because of where they are in their cultural and economic development, Carter said.

The Rev. Ted Dziak, S.J., vice president of Mission and Ministry, said today’s young people are less interested in life-long commitments, evidenced in the average age of marriage, number of children people have and radical changes in careers.

Yeah, yeah, it’s all the fault of the culture.  Certainly, Grace can’t transcend the culture, Heaven forbid, because we all know the Faith is just a construct of the yearning consciences of millions of souls, and not Divinely instituted and Divinely inspired !   Then why are certain orders booming?  Oh……

Sort of shoots a giant hole in the entire argument right off the bat, doesn’t it?  Numerous orders, either reformed versions of older orders or ones totally new, are growing by leaps and bounds.  Yes, their total numbers are small in relative terms, but they won’t be for long.   But for the Jesuits, these orders, filled with young people eager to serve Christ in His Church, don’t exist.  They don’t fit the narrative.  The narrative is one of endless, terminal decline, with lay people taking over more and more roles from religious and clergy, eventually winding up with a virtually congregationalist church.  A “new” church, “in the catholyc tradition!”  If you read the rest of the linked article, I think you’ll see what I mean.

At least from this particular article, it seems the Jesuits are resigned to seeing their order continue to shrink.  They can’t seem to countenance embracing the traditional practices of religious life that have made other orders very successful.

The “new springtime,” indeed.