Time Magazine, Jesuits Suffer Due To Lack of Ordinations

Though more recently established, more traditionalist movements and religious orders such as Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ have gotten more attention of late, the Jesuits are still far and away the largest clerical order in the Church.

They too, however, have suffered from declining ordinations, down to fewer than 20,000 members from a peak of 36,000 in the 1960s.

The election for the latest successor of St. Ignatius, the 16th century founder of the Jesuits, will take place in the days following next Monday's opening of the 35th General Congregation(GC35 , GC 35), a meeting of 226 delegates elected from the orders geographical "provinces" around the world. Though there is no set date for the election, which requires a three-fourths majority of delegates, Jesuit sources say by mid-January there should be a new Superior General.

Link to Time Magazine's article "Jesuits to Elect a New Black Pope"