STAFF WRITER

Although Jesuits abound on Fordham’s campus, the average student may not know the requirements for joining the Jesuit order.

“We look for one who is experienced in the tradition of the Catholic Church, so, one that he has some sort of prayer life,” said  Father Thomas Scirghi S.J., who explained the requirements of becoming a Jesuit. “Two, that he is familiar with the sacraments of the Church, [and] that he practices the sacraments with some regularity. And he has to be a sociable person, likes to be with people, not a recluse. We’re not raising hermits here.”

According to Scirghi, the process of becoming a Jesuit lasts more than a decade and is broken into periods called the novitiate, first studies, regency and theology.

“The novitiate is a two-year period,” Scirghi said. “They adopt a regimen of prayer. They will study the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, also a very important work by Ignatius of Loyola. They also study the history of the Society of Jesus, from Ignatius of Loyola and the founding of the Jesuits  up until the current day.”

After learning the order’s history, the beginners are sent out into the field.

“The novices are sent out various times, maybe a couple of months, maybe half a year, in different ministries,” Scirghi said. “They all do hospital ministries. In New York Province, they come to Calvary hospital here in the Bronx for terminally ill patients.”

If they complete the novitiate and are approved by a provincial, a potential Jesuit receives what are called first vows, and becomes known as a scholastic.

During this time, he completes the other phases of his ordination, which are each broken up into three-year blocks.

“After first vows, you go off to study philosophy,” Scirghi said. That’s what we have here at Fordham at Cizsek Hall. They’re what we call philosophers, and with that philosophy, they take some theology, and that’s a three-year program.”

According to Scirghi, that study is just the beginning for these young men.

“After they finish that, and that’s called first studies, then they go on to what’s called regency,” he said. “Usually, that entails teaching. So many of our guys will go to high schools, some might go to colleges for this regency. They’re living with a Jesuit community and they’re working in a Jesuit apostolate. After the three years of regency, they go to theology.”

When asked, Scirghi estimated that the rate of attrition was about 50 percent and said that candidates who do not complete ordination take several different life paths.

“They leave the novitiate,” Scirghi said. “Then some of them might think of entering the diocesan priesthood. They might say, ‘This is an awfully long period of time, I’d like to be ordained sooner than that.’ They might do that. Others may return to the lay life. They may discover they want to get married and have a family, or they may discover that this living in community is not for me.’ ”

Scirghi also described the process of how one could discern if he wanted to become a Jesuit.

“Say a young man, one of our students, asked me about this, and I said, ‘You know, I think he might have a ‘vocation’,” Scirghi said. “I would send him to the vocation director. They would talk more in depth about this. And then, if he presses forward on it, then he’ll go through a series of interviews, usually four interviews, to discuss his potential vocation with him. And what we’re basically listening for is, ‘does he hear the Lord calling?’”

Scirghi, who is returning from an academic year in Australia, said that he felt secularization would be a challenge to new Jesuit priests.

“Our society is becoming more secular, and certainly having just spent the year in Australia, Australia is a much more secular society than the United States is. Spending a year there, I wondered if I was looking at the future of America, in terms of that secular society.”

Scirghi, however, said that the long period of time one spends becoming a Jesuit would be beneficial in confronting the challenge of secularization.

He specifically added that this long period of study would help the Jesuit engage with the American culture. “I believe the Jesuits who are trained today are well-prepared to handle this challenge because of their preparation, their studies,” Scirghi said.