Last week, we received word that a Jesuit priest was coming and staying with us for a year. Fr. Francis SJ arrived and is helping out as an administrator at the Don Bosco Senior Secondary School. Like many of the Jesuits I have encountered over the years, Fr. Francis and I hit it off. However, after talking about my past with the Jesuits, but now being with the Salesians, he lightheartedly said, “You betrayed us!” Not again I thought J.
Though I seem to be in the middle of a heated rivalry, I feel like the luckiest guy on earth. Not many people get to form such close relationships with these two great orders. While they love to joke about one another, the more I spend time with the Salesians, the more I see how similar they are to the Jesuits, and vise versa. At their cores, both focus on educating the youth and being missionaries of Christ. Seeing the two orders work together here shows me they are first and foremost Catholics serving the Lord, and that trumps any affiliation they have to their order. They both want to spread Christ love and bring people closer to him, and they rely on each other’s strengths for help. Think about it… with Jesuits’ strength in education and the Salesians’ forte in youth formation, the kids here with have no choice but to be amazing students and followers of Christ. Plus, now we all have both St. Ignatius and St. John Bosco watching over us.