Study: 85% Of Jesuits Doubt The Existence Of St. Ignatius

A new study from the Center for Belief in Washington, D.C. has found that 85% of Jesuits worldwide doubt the very existence of their founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The study, which simply asked priests in The Society of Jesus whether or not they believed that St. Ignatius, one of the most beloved saints in Church history, every existed, revealed that most not only did not believe he ever did exist, but that they had lost faith in him during seminary.

“I think it’s all a fairy tale,” said once Jesuit, Fr. James O’Conner. “He’s as real as the tooth fairy, if you ask me. Honestly, prove to me that he did exist…how about that? Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn’t, and that’s the key. I have no problem with people that believe in some guy in the sky praying for us, but I’m just not one of them. Anyhow, I gotta go say Mass.”

A fellow priest of O’Conner’s, Fr. Reginald Wallace posed a question to EOTT, asking why a good and loving saint would ever allow God to allow suffering.

“Either Ignatius isn’t praying hard enough for us, which makes him cruel, or he just doesn’t exist, and I tend to believe the latter.”

At press time, Wallace has admitted that one of those sufferings that he has had to endure since becoming a priest, and therefore allowed by Ignatius, is having to hear tedious confessions once a year.