Erik Sorensen got his first job at 12, shovelling snow for an apartment building in his hometown of Red Deer, Alta. In high school he worked in a grocery store stacking cans and filling up the bins of potatoes.

Jesuits have a long tradition in science and there’s a good reason for that, says Jesuit lichenologist and ecologist Fr. John McCarthy.

VATICAN – Promoting and defending Catholic teaching is itself a pastoral practice, said Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

VATICAN – In a conversation with Jesuits during his recent visit to Peru, Pope Francis said he regularly meets with victims of sexual abuse on Fridays, and that while the percentage of priests who abuse is relatively low, even one is too many.

ROME, Italy – To mark Monday's feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, Pope Francis as usual visited his brother Jesuits at their General Curia house in Rome.

COLINA, Chile – In winter, the dirt roads in the slum known as Rivera Sur are muddy and full of puddles.

Jesuits who strive to see God in all things had a secret weapon in Fr. Bill German – a priest with an uncanny ability to connect all people with their own instinct for God. His missionary career took German from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Darjeeling, India. In Canada he was treasured as a spiritual director, confessor and pastor.

ROME, Italy – Discernment is one of the words Pope Francis repeats most, especially when speaking to priests and seminarians – a concept that may seem obscure without an understanding its importance to the Pope's Jesuit formation.

There’s nothing older or more essential to the Church than the laying on of hands. In the Acts of the Apostles, one of the first things the newly formed Church does is commission seven men who speak different languages and represent different cultures. They were ordered (ordained) to make sure that the widows and orphans of every ethnicity, tribe and clan within the young Church are cared for.

ST. FRANCIS, S.D. – The Jesuits are returning more than 500 acres in South Dakota to the Rosebud Sioux. The formal return of the property is expected to be complete sometime in May.

Ontario’s Jesuits are using retreats as a way to help homeless people build a caring community of support among themselves.

The leader of the Catholic religious order that helped found Georgetown University addressed more than 100 descendants of slaves and sought their forgiveness.

If discerning a vocation was simply a more holy version of making career choices there would be no need to talk about love. But for Jesuits, the conversation about a vocation is always a conversation about love.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – South Africa's Jesuit Institute said it is appalled at government actions that led to the deaths of 94 mentally ill patients in Gauteng province, and the bishops' justice and peace commission called for compensation to affected families.

VATICAN CITY – On Wednesday Pope Francis added world famous director Martin Scorsese to the list of Hollywood stars he has welcomed for a private meeting in the Vatican, following an official Rome preview of Scorsese’s new film Silence.