The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-02
Catholic Thought And Opinion
By REV. JOSEPH F. DoNNELLY

and the character or the society or Jesus. Then there came two years with the classics in Latin, Greek and English. A rigorous course of philosophy and science occupies the next three years. Seven years have gone and the Jesuit student IS hard ly half way to his goal.
 During the next three years he is allowed to put much of what he has learned to practice, usually in teaching. Four gr1lling years of theological training follow and are climaxed with the day of ordination to the priesthood. But though or dained he must again return to his training, now not for secular study but for ten months of prayer and the humble work of the novitiate. Then after a final retreat of thirty days the Jesuit enters upon his hfe's work equipped with training un- equalled either in secular or relig- ious life.
 AS sCHOOLMEN
 Perhaps the majority of Jesuits are engaged in the work of educat- ing Catholic youth. At one time they conducted 75O colleges and univer- sites in various parts of the world and numbered among them some of the most famous of Europe. Today in the United States and Canada they have B.
 Jesuit education is organized on the basis of what is called the Ratio Studiorum, a set of rules cov- ering all the phases of the educa- tional institution from the manage ment of the college to the selection of the studies, and having but one purpose: the education of Chris tian gentleman, trained to think and to give an intelligent appraise- ment of the worlds problems.
 In "The Jesuits in History" Mar tin Harney writes: "The high schools stand as the foundation of American Jesuit education. With their four years course of the classics, mathematics, elementary sciences, history and modern lang uages, they are the nearest ap- proach in America to the Lycee and the Gymnasium of Europe" And as characteristic of Jesuit education in America he adds: "The American Jesuits fought 8 persistent battle for the retention of the Greek and Latin classics in cultural education, not only in the high school curricu- lum but also in that of the col- leges."
 But while circumstances forced them to give ground the Jesuit edu- cators kept faith with the Ratio. Their aim is always a complete edu- cation for the living of a full life and the civilizations of the past live in the Greek which is still taught in many of their schools and in the Latin which is a required subject in all of them.
 The once popular method of un- restrained electivism in American education was always resolutely op- posed by the Jesuit educators who, while allowing some electives, inc sisted on a basic required course that would give rounded educa- tion. And today modern education is going back to the practice which the Jesuits consistently protected THESE ARE
 THE JESUITS
 When St. 1gnatius walked the streets of the city of Rome in his worn cloak he was known to the little children as "the lame man who always looked at the stars" But his look did not stop with the stars. It moved on and beyond to Him who ruled the stars, seeking from Him the signs of His Will that he and his followers might obey.
 Today a great organization fol- lows that Will. A jealous, dynamic body of men, group of the most finely trained minds in the world, an organization which during the past four centuries has given heroic service to God and His Church - these are the Jesuits. They wear no special religious habit; they seek no places of honor and distinction; they carry after their names no academic degrees-only the S.J. of the Society of Jesus, an insignia marking the bearer of that name as one who follows the ideal of Igna- tius, and one who like him has brushed aside every obstacle that his life might serve the one and only purpose, the greater glory of God.