The Society of Jesus

Catholic religious order* of men founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola* and a small group of his multinational « friends in the Lord, » fellow students from the University of Paris. They saw their mission as one of being available to go anywhere and do anything to « help souls, »
especially where the need was greatest (e.g., where a certain people or a certain kind of work were neglected).

Today, numbering about 23,000 priests and brothers, they are spread out in almost every country of the world (« more branch offices, » said Pedro Arrupe,* « than Coca Cola »)–declining in numbers markedly in Europe and North America, but growing in India, Africa, Latin America, and the Far East.

The abbreviation « S.J. » after a person’s name means that he is a member of the Society of Jesus.