Our Ministries
The mission of the Society of Jesus, in service to the Crucified and Risen Christ, is directed to the ways in which he makes his presence felt in the diversity of human cultural experiences, in order that we may present the Gospel as Christ’s explicitly liberating presence. Ours must be a dialogue, born of respect for people, especially the poor, in which we share their cultural and spiritual values and offer our own cultural and spiritual treasures, in order to build up a communion of peoples instructed by God’s Word and enlivened by the Spirit as at Pentecost. Our service of the Christian faith must never disrupt the best impulses of the culture in which we work, nor can it be an alien imposition from outside. It is directed towards working in such a way that the line of development springing from the heart of a culture leads to it kingdom.
--GC 34, Decree 3: Our Mission and Culture, #8
 In 1984, the Jesuits named five criteria for determining their choices for ministries in the Oregon Province. These Characteristic Ways of Proceeding continue to form the basis for both choosing and evaluating Jesuit apostolic works today. Jesuit ministries are intended to be: Collaborative; Formative of an Apostolic Laity; Involving Solidarity with the Poor; Evangelizing, and Intellectual and Spiritual in nature.
In the Oregon Province there are seven apostolic areas where the Jesuits have chosen to commit both their men and resources.
- Education: We serve two universities, four high schools, and a Nativity School.
- Parishes: There are seven Jesuit parishes in the Pacific Northwest.
- Spirituality: In addition to serving as spiritual directors and chaplains, the Province also supports the Ignatian Spirituality Center in Seattle, Holy Spirit Center in Anchorage and Nestucca Sanctuary on the Oregon Coast.
- Native Americans: Jesuits live and serve with the Yup'ik Eskimos in Alaska and with the Native American tribes of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
- Social Ministries: Oregon Jesuits are providing needed counseling and ministry to those incarcerated in prison and to those living on the streets of our Northwest cities.
- International Ministry: From the Oregon Province we have sent men throughout the world to a wide variety of ministries. We share our men and resources with both the Colombia and Zambia/Malawi Provinces. In addition, we have sent men to serve in Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Italy.
- Pastoral Ministries: Jesuits of the Oregon Province continue to follow the tradition of Fr. DeSmet and minister wherever the need is greatest.
 Since the days when Fr. Pierre DeSmet and his Jesuit companions settled in Montana's Bitterroot Valley as a direct response to the invitation by the Blackfeet people, the Society of Jesus has dedicated both men and resources to the building up of God's kingdom in the beautiful and spacious Pacific Northwest.
From Barrow, Alaska to Medford, Oregon; from the shores of the Pacific to the eastern borders of Montana, Idaho and Oregon, Jesuits in the Oregon Province are serving God in a variety of apostolic ministries.
When Fr. Pierre DeSmet arrived in the Bitterroot Valley, he never could have expected how much further the apostolic efforts of those early Jesuits would extend from that first small mission. But one thing is certain. The same devotion and zeal that brought DeSmet and his companions into this part of the world continues to drive and motivate the hundreds of men who carry on the traditions of Jesuit ministry throughout the Pacific Northwest.
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