Historic Merger of the CJ and Loreto Sisters

The Congregation of Jesus and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto) have united into a single global congregation, continuing the mission and legacy of their foundress Mary Ward to empower women in the Church and the world.

At a solemn Mass on 4 November 2025 in the Basilica of Loyola, the General Superior of the Jesuits, Fr Arturo Sosa SJ, presided over a celebration marking the merger of the Congregation of Jesus and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto) into one congregation. Tracing their foundation to Venerable Mary Ward (1585–1645), some 1,800 sisters worldwide will continue to honour her legacy and charism, sharing the same constitutions and fourth vow of universal mission as the Society of Jesus across six continents.

Strict enclosure had been imposed on all nuns in the Western Church under Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), and this was confirmed at the Council of Trent. Mary Ward, who came from a Yorkshire family of recusants and martyrs, dreamed of a Jesuit-style congregation of women free to undertake apostolic ministries anywhere in the world. The Church was not ready for this, and her congregation was suppressed in 1631. She was imprisoned as a heretic for daring to believe that ‘there is no such difference between men and women that women may not do great things.’ Yet the dream lived on in the few followers who remained faithful to it.

Teresa Ball, educated at the Bar Convent in York, founded the Irish branch of Mary Ward’s congregation, later known as the Loreto Sisters, in 1821. Characterised from the beginning by a strong missionary impulse, foundations rapidly followed across the world. Saint Teresa of Kolkata spent twenty years as a Loreto Sister before founding the Missionaries of Charity. Informal contacts between both branches of Mary Ward’s family grew into a strong desire for union. A major attempt in 1909, led by Australian Mother Gonzaga Barry, failed because of political and cultural tensions of the time, and a similarly energetic attempt led by General Leaders Jane Livesey CJ and Noelle Corscadden IBVM was delayed by the global COVID pandemic in 2020. However, their determination prevailed, and a lengthy process of prayer and discernment began which culminated in unanimous votes for merger at both congregations’ General Chapters.

Mary Ward’s belief that women might do great things inspires the ministries of her followers across the world today. Her sisters came to East Anglia over 125 years ago to establish St Mary’s School in Cambridge, where her values continue to shape the education of girls from a variety of faiths. Pupils support the international efforts of Mary Ward Sisters in educating girls and women in parts of the world where they may be considered as valuable for trading against cattle. They learn about sisters and their lay collaborators campaigning against people trafficking in Albania and female genital mutilation in Kenya, or supporting people in basement shelters and refugee camps in Kyiv. New missions are being opened and sustained in Cuba, Mozambique, Myanmar and Timor-Leste.

Together in this newly united congregation, Mary Ward’s sisters continue to fulfil her dream that ‘women in time will do much’. At a time when women’s ministries within the Church remain a vexed question for many, the Congregation of Jesus also hopes that her beatification might provide an inspirational model for building on women’s capacities within the Church, to the greater glory of God.

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