JESUITS PLAN NOVITIATE IN SCOTLAND

AJESUIT novitiate for Scotland will be opened in September, 1961, stated Fr. James Christie, S.J., superior of the Jesuit community at Edinburgh, on Sunday. It will be situated at Woodall House in the Juniper Green district of Edinburgh.
Inherent in the plan to open a novitiate in Scotland is the intention lo establish shortly a Scottish vice-province of the Society ol Jesus. The Society thus hopes to increase the scope of its work in Scotland and also to entrust specific foreign mission enterprises to Scottish Jesuits. particularly in British Guiana.
Woodall House, which dates in part from the 16th century, stands in grounds of 17 acres between the Waters of Leith and the Pentlands. An extension of the present building has been planned, and work will start in the near future.
It will not be the first time there has been a distinct Scottish unit within the Society. Only two years after the Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560, the first Scot entered the Society, and 22 years later a Scottish mission was estabidshed, which continued under the direct care of the General until the Society was suppressed in 1773.
The 258 members of the Scottish Jesuit mission known by name there may well be more include the martyr Blessed John Ogilvie.