…when traditionally Jesuit institutions do things like this, you can’t blame us if the word, well…"jesuitical" pops into our heads:

St. Louis University, a Jesuit school proud of its Catholic heritage,
celebrated a legal victory last week that affirmed it is not controlled by the
Catholic church or by its Catholic beliefs.

The Missouri Supreme Court agreed with the school in handing down a decision
that the city of St. Louis did not violate state and federal constitutions by
granting the university $8 million in tax increment financing for its new arena.

Opponents of the $80 million arena sued the school in 2004, halting
construction.

The Missouri Constitution prohibits public funding to support any "… college,
university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed,
church or sectarian denomination whatever."

The debate came down to two words: "control" and "creed." Does the guiding
mission of a Catholic university align with the specific system of religious
faith espoused by the Catholic church? And if so, does that system of faith
control the actions of the university?

In a 6-1 decision, the court said SLU "is not controlled by a religious creed."

The Jesuits are an order of priests and brothers, founded in the 16th century
by St. Ignatius Loyola. They are best known for their mission work and
dedication to education. The Jesuits’ General Superior, the Rev. Peter-Hans
Kolvenbach, is headquartered in Rome. St. Louis University, though it is a
Catholic institution, is not under the authority of its local bishop — in this
case, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke.

As the suit, filed by the Masonic Temple Association, made its way to the
Missouri Supreme Court, SLU argued that it was not controlled by the Catholic
church, or even by the ideals of the Society of Jesus (or Jesuits), but by its
mostly lay board of trustees.

In its Supreme Court brief, SLU said it "… is not now owned or controlled by
the Society of Jesus."

The school reminded the court of its decision to sell St. Louis University
Hospital to Tenet Healthcare in 1998 "despite the strong and well-publicized
objections of the Archbishop of St. Louis."

Christopher Key Chapple, a theology professor at Loyola Marymount University, a
Jesuit school in Los Angeles, said that while Kolvenbach and Pope Benedict XVI
have authority over individual Jesuit priests at SLU, including its president,
the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, they have no authority over the institution.

He said all 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S. are governed with a
board like SLU’s. Most Jesuit universities began including lay people on their
boards in the wake of the Second Vatican Council reforms of the 1960s. SLU
introduced laity to its board in 1967 and says it was the first Catholic
university to do so.

See, the thing is, this is all very true, and something of which the Jesuits are very aware and for which they are, in terms of religious identity of the schools, working to compensate for. There aren’t enough Jesuits to supply substantial administration and faculty for all the institutions they have, and it’s really not getting any better. (For example, the panel that Grant Gallicho, Rocco Palmo and I were on at St. Joseph’s was part of a series sponsored by the office on that campus dedicated to supporting Catholic and Jesuit identity.) But the broader point is, I think, the impression given by this to the public, and it really does seem to be one more manifestation of the bait and switch we see among too many institutions of higher learning and even secondary schools: In recruitment, we’re Catholic for you. When we want tax dollars….not so Catholic.