Funding the Mission: Jesuit Networks, Outsider Access, and "The Origins of Marquette College" Revisited

Abstract

This article explores the impact of external and internal challenges facing private donor networks for funding Jesuit overseas missions. Revisiting Garraghan's influential study of "The Origins of Marquette College," the article reveals understudied sources of network disruption that facilitated outsider access to the Belgian Jesuit funding network for the Missouri Mission and how the outsider's subsequent missteps enabled the network's recovery. The article adds to the growing literature on Jesuit finances and overseas missions by calling attention to the challenges created by divisions within networks over funding priorities and practices.