Jesuits uproot themselves from Oaxaca; they abandon the state after hundreds of years

After hundreds of years of pastoral work, priests of the Society of Jesus of the Archdiocese of Antequera-Oaxaca are leaving the entity, because there are fewer and fewer Jesuits “to cover the works with which we want to serve the Church in Mexico and respond to the new challenges that the country poses to us.

“It is, without a doubt, a painful and sad decision,” said the superior of that religious order, Rafael Aguayo Villanueva.

He explained to the press that the Mexican Province of the Jesuit order had been analyzing this decision for years in light of its current reality, “because there are fewer and fewer members to cover the works where they serve the Church in Mexico,” and because they must respond to the new challenges posed in the country.

He stressed that the departure of the congregation is due to these reasons and not to other motives, such as alleged differences with Archbishop Pedro Vázquez Villalobos, “without a doubt ill-intentioned comments from people who are not informed.

“The archbishop told us many times ‘I don’t want them to leave’, they are spiritual leaders in Oaxaca, we will miss them,” he said.

“I am satisfied that after a little more than 40 years, catechism was again taught to children in the metropolitan area. We have also had a program of listening therapy and support for the Casa del Migrante,” he said.

“They tell us: ‘This was my home; I received my spiritual and religious formation here; I came here to Christology courses and it hurts us that they are leaving’, but they understand that we have a mission and that we are children of obedience, as well established by Saint Ignatius of Loyola,” he said.

For now, the temple of the Company of Jesus, located on Ricardo Flores Magón Street, in the main square of the city, will not be closed; it will become part of the patrimony of the Archdiocese of Antequera-Oaxaca, a Jesuit will be in temporary charge.

Through a public letter with which the Jesuit order confirmed its withdrawal, it referred that the first Jesuits arrived in the capital in the year 1574. At the beginning, they had an entire educational, pastoral and missionary network throughout the viceroyalty from the 16th to the 18th century.

According to the chronicle The Company of Jesus in Mexico and in Oaxaca: more than 450 years of Jesuit presence, by the priest Arturo Reynoso, the order had a mission route made up of 680 Jesuits in the country; however, this provoked the animosity of King Charles III, who plotted a coup by trying to emancipate them.

Also, at the request of the Dominican order, the bishop rejected the foundation of the Jesuit residence and withdrew their licenses to confess and preach in his diocese, published them as excommunicated and ordered, with censures and pecuniary penalties, that no one should treat or help them.

Its reestablishment did not take place until the Porfiriato in 1817. From 1950 to the end of the 20th century, “the Jesuits in Oaxaca have carried out, mainly, a great pastoral work, always trying to seek the most universal good and with their work, always seeking the greater glory of God.”

The Jesuits in Oaxaca founded an indigenous university —the Instituto Superior Intercultural Ayuuk (ISIA), of the Jesuit University System (SUJ)—, located in the Mixe town of Jaltepec de Candayoc.

The Institute receives important support mainly from the Iberos of CDMX, Tijuana, Puebla and ITESO. Even some professors from these sister universities move to teach intensive courses and mentoring.

Source: excelsior