My first brush with the Society of Jesus was not a positive one. I was in eighth grade, my first year in a Catholic school. One of the parish's associate pastors was a Jesuit, and he visited our class one day to talk about Genesis. To put it charitably, our class was a tad skeptical when he told us the story of Adam and Eve was a myth.
Fortunately, not all my experiences with Jesuits were negative. In college, I knew two extraordinary Jesuits, Thomas McGovern and Gerard Steckler. They had rare gifts seldom found together: brilliance and clarity. They were witty, each in his own way. I recall Fr. Steckler praying for vocations at Mass, but "only to seminaries that teach the truth." He in particular seemed to relish the outlaw-in-exile aspect of his life as a faithful Jesuit. I thought about these two great priests when I read that Fr. James Schall had passed away during Holy Week, for he was another brilliant, clear, and witty Jesuit.
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