The Jesuits: A Secret History

Boston College is a Jesuit university. But who exactly are the Jesuits. How did they come by their reputation as intellectual leaders in the Catholic Church? Admired and reviled in equal measure they were abolished in 1773 only to be restored in 1814. Although Jesuits take a special oath of loyalty to the pope, many popes distrusted them. They built a great missionary empire in the East and in the West, which engendered political opposition to the order. Regarded as hyper-reactionary for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, they now have a reputation for liberalism. How did this come about? These and other questions touching on the nature and constitution of the order will be examined in the course of the semester.

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