The new leader of the Jesuits met Saturday with Pope Benedict XVI and told him the religious order would study the pontiff’s invitation to confirm their “total adhesion to Catholic teaching,” said the Associated Press.
What? They have to study this? If not, what church do they belong to?
The Jesuits, says the AP, have had a tense relationship with the Vatican on issues of doctrine and obedience. You think?
According to the Jesuit’s web site, The Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, a Spanish missionary and theologian with extensive Asian experience who was elected as superior general Jan. 19, had a warm and friendly conversation with the pontiff.
I wonder how Pope Benedict would characterize the meeting?
Shortly before Nicolas’ predecessor, Dutch priest Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, handed in his resignation for reasons of age, he received a letter from Benedict in which the pope said it could be “extremely useful” if the Jesuits reaffirm total adhesion to Catholic doctrine.
Yes. The Pope would like to know if Jesuits are still Catholic. Seems reasonable, right?
The pope wrote Kolvenbach that he was particularly concerned about those neuralgic points which today are strongly attacked by secular culture, according to the text released by the Jesuits.
Neuralgic? I looked it up. It seems to mean painful.
The pope cited aspects of the theology of liberation, and various points of sexual morality, especially … the indissolubility of marriage and the pastoral care of homosexual persons, the letter said.
The Jesuits said Benedict was pleased to hear from Nicolas that Jesuits had formed a committee to study his letter to Kolvenbach. Yeah right! I’m sure he was pleased.
The Vatican announced that Benedict and Nicolas had met in a private audience but gave no details of their talks.
I can’t wait for the answer to the Jesuit’s “study.” How will they study it anyway? Go through the Catechism line by line with a “redact” black marker? Yes to this. No to that. Isn’t that the way new religions are formed?
January 28, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Umm anyone who has to look up what the world neuralgic is probably not a voice to be trusted. Big words challenging small minds.
January 28, 2008 at 7:16 pm
You guys at CMR are much smarter than this post makes you sound.
For what it’s worth, I’m sorry if the Jesuits hurt you and those you love. I think most of your readers already know how damaging the disobedience by some (important) Jesuits has been.
But you do yourselves a discredit when a strange mix of whining and wrath and shadenfreude take over the tone of a post.
January 28, 2008 at 7:56 pm
What the hey…? I had to shake the neuralgic shadenfreude from my brow after I read the two preceding comments.
Joseph…was that sarcasm? I really couldn’t tell especially since you misspelled the word “word” as “world”. Your second sentence is a fragment.
Anonymous…Why the apology for the Jesuits? Do you also castigate the editors of America and Commonweal for their manifest disdain for orthodoxy, which I might add, they would deserve? Why assume CMR has impure motives in posting as they do?
The tone of CMR is a mix of healthy wit, sarcasm, holiness, and irony.
This post itself is highly appropriate especially since the Jesuits were created to be the standard bearers and defenders of orthodox Catholicism under obedience to the pope, and these same Jesuits now propose to “study” the Holy Fathers admonition that they be loyal to Catholic teaching. I think the overall effect here would fall under the “irony” category.
The new father-general ought to have given an “aye-aye sir” to the pope, about faced, and whipped his order into shape.
I love faithful Jesuits.
January 28, 2008 at 8:17 pm
thanks bnwied, Your check for bodyguard services is in the mail. In the future, if anyone messes with me I’m telling them “You don’t want to mess with bnwied.”
January 28, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Here is another word for the Jesuits to consider…
S U P P R E S S I O N.
Because if they cannot be brought into line, then they need to cease and desist. Plain and simple. Tired of their dissenting ways and the perverting of the faith (sentence fragment)
January 28, 2008 at 9:48 pm
bnwied,
Don’t expect a response. Both of these post smack of “throw a bomb and run” types to me.
January 28, 2008 at 11:50 pm
bnwied and anonymousII,
Not to “throw a bomb and run” I’ll respond:
I apologize for the Jesuits because I am one. I know my apology isn’t much, but it is all I can offer in a comment box.
“Do you also castigate the editors of America and Commonweal for their manifest disdain for orthodoxy, which I might add, they would deserve?”
Where did that come from? I am in no way trying to stick up for America or Commonweal.
I am not assuming CMR has impure motives. I am just saying CMR is better than what this post sounds like. I like CMR. I read CMR regularly. I’m just used to better (more healthy wit, sarcasm, holiness, and irony). That is all.
“I love faithful Jesuits.”
I love you back 🙂
January 29, 2008 at 4:26 am
Anon,
If you expected better from us, we sincerely apologize. We never intended to have anyone think that we have something reasonable to say. If in the past we accidentally displayed healthy wit or an intelligent point, we completely disavow it now. Any similarity in any of posts to coherent thought is purely accidental. Hopes this clears up any misunderstanding.
January 29, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Anonymous,
Yes, where did that come from? I guess my cheap shot about America and Commonweal looked good on paper (so to speak). I can’t find a proper basis for my hasty response to you in your first comment. For this I am sorry.
This medium is inherently dangerous in that I do not have to look you in the eye when I fire off salvo after salvo. It’s easy to write what sounds good and witty-sort of a popularity contest-rather than writing what it is right to write.
Be that as it may (or “apis ille ut sit” as my favorite classicist professor likes to pun), the sarcasm of the post may have been over the top since we know so very little about the new superior-general. I guess it would be right and proper to support him rather than attempt to undermine him, (unless he proves that he is going to merely tow the current party line).
Thanks for being a faithful Jesuit. My favorite saint, besides Inigo, is Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, and then Saint Isaac Jogues.
Matthew…you’d better stop payment on that check.
January 29, 2008 at 6:01 pm
bnwied,
Thank you for your response.
“Without the help of grace, men would not know how to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil, and the violence which under the illusion of fighting evil only makes it worse. This is the path of charity, that is, of the love of God and of neighbor.” – C.C.C. 1889
Let us pray for that grace for each other. I know I could sure use it.
February 15, 2008 at 9:01 pm
An interesting piece of Jesuit mission history, The Black Robes in Paraguay by William F. Jaenike, has just been published by Kirk House Publishers.
http://www.kirkhouse.com/catalog