In April 2026, the diocese of Tabasco announced the decision of the Company of Jesus to end its pastoral work in that particular Church.
The diocesan spokesperson, Father Denis Ochoa Vidal, explained that the Jesuits, who were in charge of the parish of San José and Our Lady of the Remedies in the community of Plátano y Cacao, municipality of Centro, were handing over the parish communities to the diocese.
It was not a request from Bishop Gerardo de Jesús Rojas López or a local conflict; it was a determination by the Mexican Province of the Company, motivated by the decrease in vocations and the need to concentrate available human resources.
On August 9, 2026, the thanksgiving Mass was celebrated, marking the formal closure. According to the official communiqué from Jesuits Mexico, the presence in that specific parish reached 53 years.
The footprint in Tabasco is broader. For decades, the Jesuits also served La Conchita, Santa Cruz, and Loma Linda, a space they once ceded for the diocesan seminary.
In Plátano y Cacao, they developed work that combined sacramental life with community organization, the defense of dignity, the promotion of cooperatives, the formation of pastoral agents, and accompaniment of youth and families in a territory of ranches and rural communities: «Today the parish remains organized into 27 communities distributed across six areas, accompanied by animators and various promotion teams.
Among its main signs of hope are precisely young people and adolescents, as well as so many others formed over these years, who continue to put their gifts at the service of the Church and their communities,» noted the Mexican Province.
Bishop Rojas publicly recognized the value of that spirituality and the void left by their departure, while the diocese assumed the continuity of pastoral care with diocesan priests.
The decision is part of a broader pattern. In the last three years, the Mexican Province has reduced its parish presence in several states due to the shortage of priests.
The most emblematic case occurred in Oaxaca. In October 2024, the Province announced the withdrawal from the Temple of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Company of Jesus temple, in the historic center of the Oaxacan capital.
The handover to the archdiocese of Antequera-Oaxaca was completed between late 2024 and early 2025. The first Jesuits arrived in that city in 1574; the uninterrupted presence exceeded 450 years.
The then provincial, Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid, S.J., and later the local superior Rafael Aguayo Villanueva, S.J., explained that there are fewer and fewer Jesuits available to cover the works and that the Spirit invites strengthening other places, including those where the Church accompanies peace processes.
Archbishop Pedro Vázquez Villalobos expressed his regret and acknowledged that he had insisted they stay, but respected the order’s decision.
These are not isolated cases. Diocesan spokespersons and journalistic reports from 2025 and 2026 have noted that the reduction in personnel has led the Company to reevaluate its parish deployment in different regions, prioritizing indigenous missions, higher education, spirituality centers, work with migrants, and the promotion of social justice.
According to public data cited in national media, the Mexican Province has around 250 priests (figures close to the 239-300 total members reported in recent years), a significant decrease compared to previous decades.
Worldwide, the Company has gone from more than 20,000 Jesuits to about 14,000, and the decline in vocations hits religious orders in Mexico with particular force.
This reconfiguration forces dioceses to assume the care of communities that for decades were accompanied by religious. In Tabasco, Father Ochoa Vidal made clear the gratitude of the local Church and the hope of an eventual return when the Province has more personnel. In Oaxaca, the temple was not closed; it passed to archdiocesan administration.
The phenomenon reflects a structural challenge of the Mexican Church: the total number of priests, around 17,449 at the end of 2024, is not growing at the pace of pastoral needs, and religious congregations are experiencing aging and a lower influx of new members more pronounced than diocesan seminaries.
The history of the Company of Jesus in Mexico provides the framework for understanding the depth of these farewells from the historic Order. On September 9, 1572, the first group of 15 Jesuits sent by Saint Francis Borgia and led by Father Pedro Sánchez arrived at San Juan de Ulúa.
In a few years, they founded schools in the capital of the viceroyalty, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Valladolid (Morelia), Zacatecas, and Pátzcuaro, and opened missions among indigenous peoples. The Province of New Spain became one of the most numerous outside Europe.
In 1767, King Charles III decreed the expulsion of the Jesuits from all Spanish domains; nearly 678 members of the Province of New Spain were surprised and deported.
The universal suppression of the Company by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 closed that chapter. Pius VII restored the order in 1814; the Jesuits returned to Mexico in 1816, although full reconstruction was consolidated only at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
Since then, the Company has combined the educational tradition (today visible in ITESO, the Ibero-American universities, and multiple schools) with missionary work in the Tarahumara Sierra, accompaniment of indigenous peoples, defense of human rights, care for migrants, and promotion of peace processes.
The preference for the peripheries and the Ignatian spirituality of the Spiritual Exercises have marked its identity. The departures from Oaxaca and Tabasco do not mean a forced reorganization due to demographic and vocational reality.
The Company remains active in more than a dozen states through educational, social, pastoral, and spirituality works.
What happened in Plátano y Cacao closes a cycle of more than half a century of concrete service in Tabascan communities and adds to the handover of the historic Oaxacan temple.
Both decisions, made with pain according to the Jesuit superiors themselves, illustrate the cost of the shortage of priests and the need to discern where the order can serve with greater effectiveness today.