Philippine Jesuits And Politics

Going beyond the disappointment
By Boyet Dy

Philippine Daily Inquirer

05/13/2008
The “Guidelines for Communal Discernment and Action” that was circulated by the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus Commission on the Social Apostolate last Easter Sunday was the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s “Talk of the Town” on April 6 and April 13.

This should be a welcome development; as stated in the accompanying endorsement letter from Jesuit Provincial Fr. Danny Huang, the invitation was precisely that “communities and institutions read, reflect, pray over and discuss these Guidelines.” I was able to read critical reactions to the Guidelines. It seems that the overriding sentiment is disappointment over the Guidelines’ failure to join calls for resignation.

I should have been disturbed too. I was Ateneo Student Council president when the “Hello, Garci” scandal broke out and, at that time, we called for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s resignation. I have even recently reiterated my call for Ms Arroyo to resign within my own circles at the height of Jun Lozada’s whistle-blowing. I maintain that calling for her resignation and punishing her and her family members and minions who brazenly drag their weight around are legitimate and appropriate demands because of their accountability to acts of corruption and abuse of power that ultimately undermine hard-won institutions, delay reforms that demand time and crush the hope of the Filipino people. Nevertheless, I was not disappointed by the Guidelines. It seems that the disappointment is misplaced since it is premised on two misinterpretations. One weighty “if.” Closely revisiting the Guidelines will reveal that calling for Ms Arroyo’s resignation is not categorically excluded.

In the analysis of the “Arroyo Resign” position, the last sentence provides nuance by saying that “while this position is one of principled moral conviction, it ceases to be a real political option if GMA [Ms Arroyo] … will not resign voluntarily.” There is a weighty “if” in that phrase, making the expressed caveat conditional, not absolute.

To my mind, it means that while the “Arroyo Resign” position is by no means being junked, it should also by no means steer us away from doing the other equally important democratic work of strengthening institutions and empowering citizens now—especially because calls for resignation still continue to fall on deaf ears. I find this prudent because in the thick of demanding her resignation, I am reminded that I might lose sight of the other democratic work that cannot afford to wait and that in fact must be in place if and when she does resign, so that regime change will be authentic and structural. One can even argue that attending to the democratic work of institution-building and citizen empowerment, even as one persists in exacting ultimate accountability, can precisely be a process of “ripening” so that the resignation call becomes increasingly irresistible, forceful and definitive. A set of guidelines.

Rereading Father Huang’s endorsement letter puts everything in perspective because it unambiguously states that: “The following Guidelines are not a ’statement’ or a ’manifesto’ of a ‘Province position or stand’… but provides a substantive analysis, based on Catholic moral and social doctrine, of our present national situation and the various options and courses of actions taken or advocated in response to that situation.”

If a reader approaches the Guidelines with the expectation of knowing the Jesuits’ stand on Ms Arroyo’s presidency, then the reader will certainly be disappointed because the rubric for assessment is irrelevant to the document’s purposes. Assessed using the correct lenses, the set of guidelines is a valuable document because it was able to paint the complexity of the current situation and remind us of the cornerstone principles that we should use in responding to the complexity. However, the document’s shortcoming, which may be the central source of the misinterpretations, is that in advocating specific action areas, it was conspicuously silent on the resignation question. It was thus not able to clarify that its proposed action areas are the immediate but certainly not the only steps that can be taken in response to the continuing crisis, especially as developments continue to unfold. This is perhaps the reason why it might have come off that the resignation route has been excluded by the Guidelines not only for now, but for always. The real challenge. The difficulty is that these misinterpretations have colored the way the Guidelines has been subsequently appreciated by the critics, resulting in the disproportionate emphasis on and re-framing of the aspects of the Guidelines that reinforce the misinterpretations.

With this has come a downplaying of other important considerations contained in the Guidelines, such as prioritizing the poor, which has become doubly urgent as we confront a ballooning food crisis. At the least, we have seen that the Guidelines did elicit critical reflection and conversation, as it was meant to do. My only hope is that these resultant conversations will be healthy ones that will broaden our perspectives, and not contribute to the hardening of diverging positions, leading to even deeper divisions. In the end, we are one against the evils of this administration and not each other.

The challenge is to go beyond the disappointment—and our differences—and continue exploring ways of how we, who are concerned about the excesses of Malacañang, can come together to rise from these dark times, in the true spirit of Easter.

Link (here)

Photo is of Fr. Danny Huang, S.J.

A Jesuit Astronomer And Those "Little Green Men"

Vatican says little green men are part of Creation Richard Owen in Rome

The Vatican's chief astronomer has said that belief in aliens is not at variance with Christianity and that any extra terrestrials would form "part of God's Creation". Father Jose Gabriel Funes, a Jesuit, yesterday told L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that "It is possible to believe in God and in extra-terrestrials".

He said Christians could "admit the existence of other worlds and other forms of life, even those more evolved than ours, without necessarily questioning faith in the Creation, the incarnation and the redemption of mankind".

Father Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory, or Specola, said although many astronomers "lost no opportunity" publicly to profess their atheism, it was "a myth that astronomy favours an atheistic vision of the world". He said astronomy "does not favour the view of a Godless world. In fact, I think it is those who work at the Specola who bear witness to the fact that it is possible to believe in God and work with science in a serious way".
He said that the Observatory, formerly housed at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence in the hills south of Rome, would inaugurate its new headquarters in a monastery in nearby Albano next year. The Vatican Observatory also operates a 1.8 metre telescope at Mount Graham in Arizona in the United States.

Father Funes said that just as there existed a "multiplicity of creatures on Earth", so there could exist "other beings created by God, including intelligent ones. We cannot place limits on God's creative freedom."

St Francis of Assisi had described our fellow creatures on Earth as our brothers and sisters, "so why can we not also speak of our extra terrestrial brothers? They too would be part of Creation". He said that aliens, like humans, would be able to benefit from the redemption offered by Jesus Christ and "the mercy of God".

Link (here)

De Smet's Home Church In Belgium Under Protection From Terrorists

Police Protection for “Mohammed Pulpit”
From the desk of Thomas Landen on Tue, 2008-05-13 20:43
Belgian police is protecting a 17th century pulpit in the Flemish town of Dendermonde. The pulpit in the Catholic church of Our Lady dates from 1685, two years after the battle of Vienna when the Christian armies of the Polish King John III Sobieski defeated the Turks poised to overrun Europe. The sculpted wooden pulpit, made by Mattheus van Beveren, depicts a man subdued by angels and represents the triumph of Christianity over Islam. The man is generally thought to be Mohammed. He is holding a book which is generally assumed to be the Koran. Two years ago, on April 16, 2006, during the height of the Danish cartoon affair, this website published a photo of the pulpit to show that there is a long tradition of depicting Mohammed in European iconography. Last Friday the Turkish newspaper Yeniçag reprinted our picture on its front page with the caption “Stop this hideous insult.” Yeniçag demands that Belgium remove the pulpit. The paper writes that “We have had the crusades and now they are still trying to humiliate us. This is as bad as the Danish cartoons and Geert Wilders’s Fitna movie in the Netherlands. Even Pope Benedict does nothing to stop these humiliations.” Since Friday, we have received threats while the authorities in Belgium, which has a large population of Turkish immigrants, fear that the pulpit and the church may be attacked. The Belgian press reported today that the police is guarding Dendermonde’s Our Lady church to prevent vandalism to church and pulpit. Dendermonde, a town in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, lies halfway between Brussels and Ghent.

It is the birthplace of the famous American missionary Peter John (Pieter Jan) De Smet (1801-1873), the head of the Jesuit missions among the Indians of the Northwestern USA and a friend of Sitting Bull, Kit Carson and other heroes of the 19th century American West. On his return trips to his Flemish home town, Father De Smet used to preach from the pulpit which is currently under police protection.

According to the Belgian press the pulpit controversy has been deliberately caused by this website, which is being described as “pretending to be neo-conservative” but run by “neo-fascists.” Piet Buyse, the mayor of Dendermonde, told the media that he deplores that the pulpit “figures on websites which aim to provoke negative reactions from Muslims.” The mayor said that the depicted man represents an unbeliever and may also be Luther or Calvin. Aimé Stroobants, the custodian of Our Lady in Dendermonde, told the newspaper De Standaard that the figure on the pulpit “cannot possibly be Mohammed” because “He is wearing a Persian dress, while we know that the Prophet came from the Arab Peninsula. For all we know the depicted man might even be a Jew.” Meanwhile, radical Muslims in Italy are still demanding the destruction of an early Renaissance fresco in Bologna's Church of San Petronio, painted by Giovanni da Modena in 1415. The fresco depicts Mohammed being tortured in Hell.

Link to original blog post from The Brussels Journal, entitled "Police Protection for Mohammed Pulpit"

Cardinal Newman Society Beats The Jesuit University System

The politics of commencement
Catholic colleges avoiding controversial honorees
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

May 12, 2008
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the nation's most powerful Catholics, but this year the only commencement address she gave was at one of the eight campuses of Miami Dade College. Senator John F. Kerry is headlining three commencements this year - the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, UMass Lowell, and Wheelock College - but it's been nine years since he's done one at a Catholic institution, Boston College Law School.

As for the scion of the nation's most famous Catholic family, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, ( Jesuit Ivy )his major commencement address this year is at Wesleyan University, founded by Methodists.

After repeatedly getting criticized by conservative Catholics, and after years of pressure from the Vatican and some American bishops, Catholic colleges and universities are now shying away from politicians - especially those who, like Kennedy, Kerry, and Pelosi, support abortion rights - as commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients. Instead, the schools are scrutinizing the public records of potential honorees for evidence of open dissent from key church teachings, especially on abortion, and they are choosing noncontroversial church insiders or nonpolitical figures for their most prominent honors. "I think there's a concerted effort to use the moment of naming people who reinforce the Catholic identity of our institutions, and I'm pleased by that," Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston said in an interview.

At the College of the Holy Cross, where the local bishop boycotted commencement five years ago because the speaker was Chris Matthews, an alumnus and television personality who had voiced sympathetic opinions about abortion rights, this year the speaker is Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, a specialist in tropical medicine who had worked with Mother Teresa.

Boston College, which in the past has given honorary degrees to abortion rights supporters such as Senator Warren B. Rudman and Attorney General Janet Reno, this year chose as commencement speaker the Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough. Catholic University of America graduates will hear from Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, and his wife, Dorian.

And the University of Notre Dame, which once spurned complaints from several cardinals and gave its highest honor, the Laetare Medal, to the abortion rights-supporting Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, this year chose as its commencement speaker Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the very prelate who chaired a task force urging colleges not to have abortion rights-supporting politicians ascommencement speakers or honorary degree recipients.

"I think that Catholic administrators at Catholic colleges are much more attentive to the selection process than they may have been in the past, and there is a growing awareness that these types of invitations are related to Catholic identity and mission," said Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester, who is chairman of the education committee for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. "I call it truth in advertising," McManus said. "Why would you honor a person, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, that has publicly contradicted the positions of the church?" The issue of honorary degrees and commencement speakers has been the most visible manifestation of two decades of tension between Catholic universities and the church hierarchy over what it means to be a Catholic university in the United States.

In 1990, Pope John Paul II released a document, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, in which he declared that "Catholic teaching and discipline are to influence all university activities." Some Catholic academics balked at the implications for academic freedom, and, in particular, at a hotly debated measure that requires Catholic theologians to seek approval from local bishops for their teaching.

That requirement, approved in 2001 by the US bishops, has been widely, although not universally, ignored. "There was some pushback within the academic community, because of what they perceived as external influence," said the Rev. David M. O'Connell, president of the Catholic University, in Washington, D.C. But, O'Connell said, "it gave an impetus to a broader discussion about what Catholic identity and mission mean." In 2004, the presidential candidacy of Kerry, a Catholic Democrat who supports abortion rights, led to the creation of a task force of bishops examining how the church should relate to such politicians.

That task force failed to settle the prickly question of who should decide whether such politicians should receive Communion, but it was clearer about commencement, declaring, "The Catholic community and the institutions which are a part of our family of faith should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."

Since that time there has been an obvious impact on commencement ceremonies. The Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative organization that each year scrutinizes the hundreds of men and women who are given honorary degrees by the nation's 225 Catholic colleges and graduate institutions, has identified a dwindling number of honorees who dissent from the church on key moral teachings - 24 in 2006, 13 in 2007, and six thus far this year.

"When a Catholic college administrator deliberately chooses a person who is publicly opposing the church, it raises serious flags, and very often the schools choosing those commencement speakers have problems across the board in terms of applying their Catholic identity to what they do," said Patrick J. Reilly, the president of the Cardinal Newman Society.

Reilly's organization is itself controversial for its tactics, and many college administrators resent its role. "Some groups with a certain ideological perspective have focused on these decisions and, I think it's fair to say, orchestrated campaigns to embarrass institutions or put them in a negative light," said the

Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame. Jenkins, despite honoring McCarrick this year, is being criticized by the Newman Society for also honoring Marye Anne Fox, the chancellor of the University of California San Diego, who has supported that institution's embryonic stem-cell research.

Jenkins said he, like other Catholic university administrators, does not quiz potential honorees about their beliefs. "I think it would be inappropriate to interrogate someone for an honorary degree, but it's appropriate to look at their public record, to see how does that life size up," he said. Even O'Connell, who heads one of the more conservative Catholic institutions in the nation, acknowledges the decisions are often difficult. In 2004, he barred the actor Stanley Tucci, who had supported abortion-rights organizations, from speaking. But O'Connell says the question of who can speak on campus is a difficult one. "Suppose I wanted to have a conference on the environment, and a senator is an expert on the environment, but is prochoice, can I bring him onto campus?" O'Connell asked.

The change in approach is exemplified at Fairfield University, a Jesuit school in Connecticut. In 1991, a philosophy professor, the Rev. Thomas J. Regan, criticized the choice of the singer Billy Joel as commencement speaker because of the lyric, "You Catholic girls start much too late."

Last year, Regan, was himself chosen as Fairfield's commencement speaker. And this year, the college's president is giving the speech himself, after declaring four years ago that he intended to limit commencement to "speakers who have a close relationship to Fairfield and to the kind of education we stand for." "It's not a matter of, 'I have to be careful of the Cardinal Newman Society,' or what the bishop thinks, but from listening to a lot of awful commencement addresses from famous people," said

Fairfield's president, the Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx. There are still colleges courting controversy, including, this year, Regis College in Weston, which chose as its speaker an active alumna, state House Majority Whip Lida E. Harkins, who supports abortion rights. Regis's president, Dr. Mary Jane England, said Harkins's position was not an issue, and that she simply tries to select people "for their commitment to social justice." Harkins said she had no conversations with Regis about her stance on abortion,

but that she considers herself a Catholic and a proud Regis alumna and is planning to reflect in her commencement speech on the civil rights issues that dominated her time at the college in the mid-1960s. But Regis is an exception. The Rev. D. Paul Sullins, a professor of sociology at Catholic University, noted that while his university "has never honored any real Catholic dissenter," in past years there have been speakers whose primary claim to fame was not their Catholicism. This year, though, the university chose the head of the Knights of Columbus. "It doesn't get more Catholic than that," he said.
Michael Paulson

Link (here)

Ignatian, But Not Jesuit: The Servants of Jesus and Mary

A congregation directed towards youth
SJM - Servi Jesu et Mariae
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SJM- where are we from and what is our purpose?
Our community was acknowledged as a Congregation of Papal Right in 1994 and is called the Servi Jesu et Mariae (SJM). We call ourselfes the Servants of Jesus and Mary as we wish to dedicate our lifes in a special way to the service of God and his holy Mother.

The first members of the SJM when it was founded in 1988 saw their apostolic task as being totally available for service to young people.

A focal point of this work was apostolic work in the Scout Movement and group work in the Catholic Scout Movement of Europe (Katholische Pfadfinderschaft Europas - KPE).
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Our Spirituality
“To the Greater Glory of God”- this was the moto of Saint Ignatius of Loyola under whose rule we try to live - this is the programme of our apostolate and our spirituality. In this sense, our congregation is to be seen as a community of people in Holy Orders, brothers and priests with a missionary zeal, who make the center of their life the spreading of the word of God.

Shaped by the spirit of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, we would like to carry Christ’s banner into the world and thereby lead young people back to the church.

In this sense, we understand life according evangelical precepts as a reply to the call of Christ the King, who calls upon us to follow him in good spirits and to live, in even greater freedom, for Him and His Kingdom completely.

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A Life in accordance with the Gospel
All members of the SJM therefore make three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience, in order to bind themselves ever closer to Christ in the service for His church. In poverty, there is a link between a simple modest life style and and a certain adventurious and pioneering spirit, which demands from us to seek again and again new shores and even to disregard our conveniences and to go everywhere, where we could hope for the honour of God, as it is written in our Rule. Poverty means, with this in mind, above all mobility and freedom for service to the benefit of souls. In the context of the scout movement, this means the readiness to be able to renounce the comforts of the consumer market and to share a simple life in nature with the boys and girls entrusted to us.

Even if the vow of chastity does not need to be explained any further, it is nevertheless, of central importance, as it links us in a special way even closer to Christ.

Obedience binds us to a special loyalty towards the Pope and the teaching office of the church. We see the Bishop of Rome as Christ’s Vicar on earth, who acts as a guarantor of church unity and who is the Rock to which we must hold firm. It is for this reason that the members of the SJM endeavour “to live in special loyalty to the Pope and his highest teaching office, in order to prove themselves as precious members in the preservation of Church unity and the purity of the faith.” (from the Papal Foundation Decree) Concretely this means, that we are give obedience to the superiors in all things that are not sins.

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Our Prayer life
According to the model of the Jesuit Order, our community does not have common prayer in choir, so that they can be freer and more mobile for their apostolate. For this reason, it is even more important for each individual member to have a deep inner life of prayer, at whose centre there is the Eucharist, and which is seen in a frequent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

We have one hour of contemplation and inner prayer daily, which is referred to by Theresa as “a dwelling with a friend”, in order to get to know Christ better so that we can love Him even more. A successful apostolate is only possible if we do this ! Over and above this, the members of the SJM pray a daily rosary together.

A important constituent of our Spirituality is the dedication to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, whose servants we wish truly to be. This dedication is renewed daily and lived through by each individual member.

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The Liturgy
The centre and highlight of the day is the celebration of the Holy Mass - the renewal of celebrating the Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross. This is the reason why the SJM sees in the dignified manner of Sacrifice of Christ in both Roman Rites according to the Missal of 1962 (Old Rite) and the Missal of the Pope Paul VI (New Rite), an important contribution toward liturgical renewal in the sense of the continuing tradition of the Church.

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How many are we? And what do we do?
At this point in time our Congregation has about 50 members, of which about 25 are priests. We are working in several parishes in the German speaking area, but do not limit our apostolate to this countries; we are currently also active in Kasachstan, Albania, Rumania, Ukraine and in France.

Besides the care of souls in parishes, we also offer retreats, religious training groups and catechism. We are specially concerned with children and youth work. Those who know young people will understand how many tasks exist in this area. We run a boarding school and are engaged in the group work of the Catholic Scout Movement of Europe.

We do not shy away from facing questions from young people who we meet in sports fields, in schools or parties and elsewhere. Over and above that, some individual members are engaged in the protection of unborn life and work in the press apostolate and in philosophical and theological teaching activities.

Link (here)

Hat Tip to MDV

New Jesuit Rector Has Interesting Solutions To The Vocational Crisis Within The Society

Third-parties bring new tenor to debate
By: Michael Baldwin
April 30, 2008
After one year and one month of directing Seattle University’s goals for Jesuit Catholic mission and ministry, Patrick Howell, SJ, will become rector for the Jesuit community on July 31.

The Jesuit Superior General appointed Howell as rector last week to replace Peter Ely, SJ, for the next six years. Ely will take a year-long sabbatical before returning to Seattle U. A rector is the religious superior in the Jesuit order, and will guide the Jesuit community’s spirituality and faith at Seattle U and two other Northwest towns, Anacortes and Mount Vernon.

“We Jesuits fondly welcome him as our next religious superior,” wrote Stephen Sundborg, SJ, president of Seattle U, in a campus-wide email. Howell, who did not plan on entering into Jesuit leadership when he became a Jesuit in 1961, said he was surprised upon hearing of his new appointment. “I didn’t see myself as rector last week,” said Howell. Finding new Jesuits to bring into Seattle U will be a priority Howell will engage when he assumes his rector duties in July. While Seattle U has 25 resident Jesuits and three satellite Jesuits, national Jesuit numbers and enrollment declined steadily since 1971, according to Howell and his U.S. Jesuit directory. Now, all 28 U.S. Jesuit universities struggle to restock their communities with Jesuits. He said Jesuit leadership did not begin to manage the declining numbers until 15 years ago. Now, because of their delayed response, there are both fewer Jesuits and fewer Catholic lay people, or non-ordained people, in administration and education positions. Three of the Jesuit universities provide recent examples of this trend: Le Moyne University, in Syracuse, New York and Georgetown University in Washington, DC do not have a Jesuit president. “We need to be more intentional in Jesuit leadership formation,” said Howell.

Despite the problem of finding new Jesuits, Howell contends the Oregon Province has substantial enrollment compared to many other provinces. Despite being what Howell calls “great” Catholic provinces where 50 percent of the population is Catholic, Boston and New York experienced several years with no new Jesuits. ( Maryland , New England and New York )

Meanwhile, California, Oregon and the South maintained steady Jesuit populations.

Howell said there half the number of priests from when he entered in the Society of Jesus in 1961, yet there are two-and-a-half times more Catholics. This leads to increasing lay person leadership. Several issues factor into fewer men becoming Jesuits, according to Howell, including a more secular culture in Europe and America. “We [the Society of Jesus], put too much emphasis on celibacy,” said Howell, “to the detriment of access to the Eucharist and sacrament.” Howell believes this could be circumvented by relying on women more than the church does.

He also sees the Jesuits’ ecumenical ventures as a way to help form strong communities and encourage an attitude toward social justice in staff and students. “We have dedicated teachers at Seattle U,” said Howell. “We’re helped by rubbing shoulders with Protestants, Jews and Muslims.” Ecumenism is an actively promoted belief of Howell’s. In 2000, he was a scholar-in-residence at Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, and later he became dean of the School of Theology and Ministry, and began making the courses more ecumenical. He founded and is the editor of the Seattle Theology and Ministry Review, a journal of articles about ministry, ecumenism and interfaith dialogue. “We have a better articulation of our mission: ecumenism, interaction with culture and society, justice and peace,” said Howell. Howell hopes to further his ecumenism as rector at Seattle U. Over the next six years, Howell will guide the spiritual formation of the 25 Jesuits based from Seattle U’s Arrupe House. He will also observe the enrollment and development of new Jesuits with the hope of integrating them into Seattle U’s community.
Link (here)

New Jesuit, New Blog

Brother Jeff from the Phillipines
Loyola House of studies, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City Philippines

Here is one of his latest posts.
Photography and the Spiritual Exercises
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Jesus and the World
Jesus combined prayer with ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, sothat I may preach there too. Because that is why I came’ (Mark 1:38)
Points for my reflection:
1. How can I be more for the world and not of the world?
2. How can I attain courage to be always available to people?

Fr. Fessio On The Reform Of The Reform And Girls As Altar Servers

Every week or so IgnatiusInsight.com will ask some questions of Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder of Ignatius Press and Chancellor of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida since 2002. If you have a question about the Catholic Church, Ignatius Press, or current events you would like to ask Fr. Fessio, please send it to IgnatiusInsight.com editor Carl Olson and he will consider asking Fr. Fessio to respond to it.

Q: What's going on with the Reform of the Reform?

Fr. Fessio:

Yes, we've seen some good documents on the Eucharist and a slowdown in ICEL's influence, but we've seen a set back when the USCCB mandated that standing is the normative posture for receive Communion. Is the Reform of the Reform gaining any ground anywhere? Is there any movement on re-translating the Novus Ordo or even modifying the rubrics to more faithfully reflect what Vatican II intended? Can the new Liturgical Institute started by Cardinal George be seen as a positive development? Fr. Fessio: I believe that the "reform of the reform" has made progress. You mention the USCCB mandating standing as a normative posture to receive Communion. However, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has made it clear that this is not a norm in the sense of a requirement. Rather, Catholics are free to receive communion standing or kneeling at their choice. The relevant letter from that congregation can be seen at the Adoremus web site.

The Novus Ordo has been re-translated the draft has already been circulating. In the form in which I saw it, it was a great improvement on the previous (mis)translation. Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia is the chairman of Vox Clara, the commission which is overseeing this translation so I have every hope that it will be a vast improvement over what we now have. My own view is that no rubrics really have to be modified in order to reflect more faithfully what Vatican II intended for the Mass.

There are many legitimate options in the Novus Ordo. Many priests regularly choose those options which are most in continuity with the Church’s continuous liturgical tradition. I do think that Cardinal George’s new Liturgical Institute is a positive development.

Q: Why do we in our US Catholic Churches have female altar servers?

Fr. Fessio:

The answer to your question is much more complex than the matter appears. I have it on authority of a Roman canonist who has been involved that even to this day, technically, female altar servers are not permitted by the Code of Canon Law.

There has been a permission given to bishops to allow female altar servers in their dioceses. Note that this is only a permission to allow, not to require. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has clearly shown its preference for the traditional male altar servers and also made it clear that no priest can be required to have female altar servers. However, bishops are not reluctant to overstep their authority and introduce the practice as a requirement.

Since priests who do not go along with this can be reassigned to unpopular places, and because good priests want to obey their bishops even when the bishops are not speaking authoritatively, the practice has become widespread.

Link (here)

Jesuit Legacy In Argentina Is Now Civic Cultural Center

South America; A cultural Kaleidoscope
By Garry Burns

The city is adorned with colourful kiosks of flower sellers,

and is filled with the sounds of salsa and tango music from cafes. Both appear on almost every street corner.
Sitting on a four-block area of the city's most expensive real estate, the 183-year-old Recoleta Cemetery is an historical document for the people of Argentina. It is filled to capacity with the grand architectural tombs of the nation's most prominent citizens, including that of Eva Peron. We visited this amazing cemetery and the presidential Pink Palace where she lived in the Plaza de Mayo, the centre for the most important political and social events which take, and have taken, place in Argentina. Buenos Aires is an intensely cultural city filled with theatres, galleries, museums and historic neighbourhoods.

Housed in one of Buenos Aires' oldest architectural ensembles is the Centro Cultural Recoleta. This building was converted in 1980 from a 17th-century Jesuit monastery into a cultural centre; now, it houses exhibitions, concerts, theatre, dance, book presentations, film and video, classes, and seminars.

Some of our group had the opportunity to meet contemporary Argentinean artist Ana Maldonado. Her exhibition, "The Static Activist," about women who protest while waiting for something to change or happen, had just opened in the centre. The stunning architecture and collection at the Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) - opened in 2001 for the collection of Argentine businessman Eduardo Costantini - is definitely the jewel in the crown of Buenos Aires galleries. More than 200 pieces by about 80 artists - including key works of art from 20th century Latin America - are housed in this award winning architectural masterpiece by three young Argentinean architects: Gaston Atelman, Mart¡n Fourcade and Alfredo Tapia.

Link to the full travel piece (here)

Black Robe Vs. The Mission

This is an interesting exchange between "Our Favorite Jesuit", Jesuit John the author of a great website entitled "Companion of Jesus". The blog authors of "Southern Appeal", a conservative issues oriented blog, the "SA" guys started talking about movies they liked. Topic: Black Robe vs The Mission

Enjoy!

Email of the Day
Filed under: Movies By Feddie (Email) @ 8:09 pm
So, as many of y’all know, I also blog at the biggest and baddest conservative blog there is: RedState. Well, one of the major perks of being a RedState contributor is that I am allowed to participate in the ever-so exclusive RedState/VRWC email list. As you might expect, there are all sorts of interesting “conversations” that take place between the contributors on this email list, and today one of the fellas sent out an email listing “Ten Beautiful Films You May Not Have Seen.” With the permission of my co-blogger, Leon Wolf, I am publishing one snippet of our email exchange on this topic:
Feddie: Ooooh, and “The Mission.” Y’all simply must see the Mission. So very good. One of the best movies ever.
Leon: I also liked the movie, except that it left one with the impression that the Jesuits believe literally in Christ.
Heh. That cracked me up.
PermaLink

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3 Rebel Yells to “Email of the Day”
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Jesuit John Says: May 7th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
“except that it left one with the impression that the Jesuits believe literally in Christ.”
Cheap shot…
You should check out “Blackrobe” for a more historical approach.
http://www.companionofjesus.com/
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Joe Says: May 8th, 2008 at 1:53 am
Feddie: I thought it was funny joke, but I went to a Salesian High School.
And please tell us the ten movies!
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Feddie Says: May 8th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Jesuit John-
He wasn’t talking about old-school jesuits like you.

German Jesuit Discusses Muslim - Catholic Dialogue

Muslim proposal needs critical observations, says German Jesuit

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- Welcoming the invitation to dialogue proposed by 138 Muslim scholars, Christian theologians must demonstrate they take the initiative seriously by highlighting its promises and acknowledging potential pitfalls, said a German Jesuit expert on Islam.

Jesuit Father Christian W. Troll, a professor of Islamic studies, spoke May 6 at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University about "A Common Word," the letter Muslim scholars sent to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders in October. The letter outlined their proposal for a new level of Christian-Muslim theological dialogue focused on common teachings about faith in one God, love of God and love of neighbor.

"We must be the first to recognize the beauty of the form and content of this letter," Father Troll said. But "together with gratitude, esteem and trust, this kind of dialogue requires study, criticism and the desire to learn from and inform the other; otherwise it is just a spectacle without dignity," he said. Asked why so much of the Christian reaction to the letter seemed to move immediately from hailing it as a breakthrough in Christian-Muslim relations to pointing out problems or omissions,

Father Troll said respect for the Muslim scholars' seriousness required Christian scholars "to translate this esteem for Muslims into constructive and even critical observations." One common criticism, reflecting a concern of Pope Benedict, is that the letter failed to raise the topic of religious freedom.

Father Troll said that while Christians and Muslims in many parts of the world are engaged in serious dialogue and cooperative projects, "which are more important than an occasional dialogue in the Vatican," dialogue can take place only where both Christians and Muslims are free to practice their faith. "This is why I ask my Muslim friends to do what they can to defend religious freedom," Father Troll said. Father Troll and Jesuit Father Christiaan van Nispen, a professor of Islamic studies who teaches in Cairo, Egypt, said one of the most important things about the letter is the number and variety of Muslim scholars who signed it. Father Troll said, "With this initiative, we see the emergence of something like an intra-Islamic ecumenical movement," bringing together Sunnis and Shiites from all over the world. Father van Nispen said, "I find it interesting that, at least until now, there have not been attacks against this letter" from other Muslims "even though it represents a new approach" to Christianity." In Islam, there is no 'magisterium,' no doctrinal authority, but what is most important is consensus" among community leaders and more broadly among believers, he said. "This letter is certainly an expression of a certain consensus -- at least 240 scholars have now endorsed it." Another element the priests identified as interesting was the Muslim scholars' use of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures.

Father Troll said it was "a highly significant fact" that the letter quotes the Bible and does so with a positive tone. "Does this indicate something of a break with classical Islamic doctrine, which regards the Jewish and Christian Scriptures as corrupted forms of the original revelation of God?" he asked.

Father Troll said that if the scholars intended to demonstrate a willingness to recognize the Jewish and Christian Bibles, even if differences of interpretation remain, they should have said so explicitly.

Father van Nispen said it is essential that Christians remember "there is not just one form of Islam, just as there does not exist one form of Christianity; even though all the Christian churches are centered on the person of Christ, deep doctrinal differences exist." And, he said, "if among different Christians theological dialogue is not easy,"

people should not expect Christian-Muslim dialogue to be easy. The Muslim scholars' letter, he said, is an important part of creating "a climate which will allow us to meet in all our diversity."

Link (here)

Silliness Of Art: Former Jesuit Presides Over Silly Faux Funeral

Alter ego to be laid to rest to mark end of “troubles”
By Emily Sharpe 8.5.08
LONDON. The artist Brian O’Doherty will mark the restoration of peace in Northern Ireland by laying to rest his alter ego at a ceremony at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) in Dublin on 20 May. Thirty-six years ago, the Irish-born, New York-based conceptual artist assumed the pseudonym Patrick Ireland in response to the events of Bloody Sunday in which 13 protesters were killed by British soldiers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. O’Doherty vowed not to sign his works with his real name until “such time as the British military presence is removed from Northern Ireland and all citizens are granted their civil rights”. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, O’Doherty said he sees the symbolic burial “as a small flag of hope for other bitter conflicts that they too are not insoluble”. He added: “It’s an unexpected joy. I thought I would die as Patrick Ireland. I’m not the only one. Jackson Pollock’s widow Lee Krasner once told me I’d be him forever.”

Michael Rush, director of the Rose Art Museum (At Brandies University) in Mass­achusetts, will officiate at the service during which an effigy wearing a death mask will be interred within the museum’s grounds. When asked why Mr Rush was selected to preside over the ceremony, O’Doherty said “he’s a friend and familiar with my work. He’s also a former Jesuit priest and I’m an old boy of that persuasion so it seemed like a good fit.”

Describing the gravesite, O’Doherty said: “I wouldn’t mind it for myself actually. My wife likes it so much that she says she just might throw herself in after Patrick.”
©2008 The Art Newspaper

Photo is of Brian O' Doherty

Flexible Jesuit

Jesuit Yoga I

2008-05-07

Francis X. Clooney, S.J.

Some excerpts.

Several months ago I mentioned that I was teaching a seminar on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This fundamental yoga text, from nearly 2000 years ago, is brief -- 195 very succinct verses -- but it is the reference point for all the later yoga systems....Yoga is extremely supple in its ability to take on various rationales -- nondualist, devotional, health-oriented, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. -- and my impression is that even expert teachers of disciplined yoga practice are rather fluid -- sometimes unhelpfully vague -- in their explanations as to what it is all for. The Sutras help pin down a succinct attitude toward the practice and its purpose....In the 1960, Fr. Gaspar Koelman, a Jesuit working in India, did a meticulous study of Patanjali, The Patanjala Yoga, that is invaluable even today. From a very different angle, in 1990 Ravi Ravindra, a Hindu scholar, published an insightful interpretation of the Gospel according to John entitled The Yoga of the Christ.... And --

lest we forget -- there have been many columns, essays, and letters by Christian leaders cautioning Christians against being enchanted by physical practices that ultimately mean a whole way of life -- possibly or probably incompatible with Christian values. (examples: Benedict XVI writes on the (here) , Theosophy (here) and Yoga and the Catholic parish (here) )

(See for instance, Laurette Wills' comments at http://www.praisemoves.com/ChristianAlternative.htm and, of course, the 1989 letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "Some Aspects of Christian Meditation" ) So the fruits of my seminar -- this latest "Jesuit Yoga" -- need to be carefully assessed, for the sake of the general question, How can we benefit from the ancient and wise tradition of yoga, as Christians?....Note to the studious reader: The Sutras are available in numerous translations, and those interested would do well to sample several, perhaps beginning with those by Georg Feuerstein, Chris Chapple and Yogi Ananda Viraj (real name: Eugene P. Kelly, Jr. ) , or Barbara Miller.

Link (here)

Photo credit, guru Perasiriyar Brahma Shri K. S. Sundareysan of Chennai Yoga: Patanjalee Yoga (here)

Manressa Jesuit Retreat House, yoga program (here)

How About Pilgrimages For Jesuit High School Graduates?

125,000 Polish high-school graduates plan Marian pilgrimages
Warsaw, May. 6, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Roughly one-fourth of the students graduating from Polish high schools this year will make a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine at Czestochowa, the KAI news agency reports. About 125,000 students are expected to participate in the 34 different pilgrimages that are being organized by Polish dioceses for recent high-school graduates.
Link (here)

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St. Ignatius of Loyola's, Rules for Thinking with the Church

Rule # 6 To praise relics, the veneration and invocation of Saints: also the stations, and pious pilgrimages, indulgences, jubilees, the custom of lighting candles in the churches, and other such aids to piety and devotion. Link to these very important rules (here)

In The 17th Century The Blessed Mother Appeared In Naples, Italy to Several Jesuits

Five years after her visit to New Mexico she returned to Old Mexico at San Juan, appearing to the bishop there along with a group of other faithful as the Pilgrim Virgin of San Juan de Los Dos Lagos. That same year she visited Argentina as Our Lady of Lujan where the processioners tried to carry her statue through the streets and she would not move, speaking to them to be reverent and ever vigilant and to carry in a solemn procession her Divine Son present in the Blessed Sacrament instead. A year after this miraculous occurrence,

the Blessed Mother appeared in Naples, Italy to several Jesuits with the prophecy of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius near Pompeii.

Three years later she returned to the new world with an appearance at Quito, Ecuador where she appeared to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres there and proclaimed herself Our Lady of Good Success. A year later the Virgin Mary appeared as Our Lady of the Angels in Costa Rica. It would be fifteen years before she would appear again, this time in Venezuela as Our Lady of Coromoto while in 1644 Pope Urban VIII established the Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. In 1657 the founder of the Sulpicians Jean Jacques Olier applied mystical language to Marian concepts in a novel way, no doubt aided by locutions from Our Lady herself. Laus in France was the site of over 600 visits from Our Lady to visionary Benoite Rencurel between 1660 and 1665.

Link (here)

If anyone can link more information in the combox regarding the Jesuits and their interaction with Our Lady regarding this particular incident, I would greatly apreciate it.

Thank you Spirit Daily, see their reference post to GJBJ entitled, HUGE EVENTS AGAIN IN ASIA TIE INTO TRENDS AND EVENTS THAT FALL INTO PROPHETIC LINE (here)

Legacy Of Jesuits In Kansas City Comes To An End

St. Aloysius parishioners welcomed to new community
By Jack SmithCatholic Key Editor

St. Aloysius parishioners process behind the Eucharist from The Concourse to St. Anthony Church. Father Joseph Cisetti, pastor of St. Anthony, welcomed them saying, 'You are all welcome here. This is your new home.'

KANSAS CITY - The community at St. Aloysius Parish in northeast Kansas City celebrated their final Sunday Masses April 27 before the parish is merged into nearby St. Anthony. "I would ask you what you felt about that," said Benedictine Father Brendan Helbing at the beginning of the 8:30 a.m. Mass, "but I can already tell. I see the tears in the eyes of the young, the middle-aged and the old." In his homily, Fater Helbing told a story which ended with God's declaration that "Where people meet in love, there my presence shall dwell." Father Helbing said the people at St. Aloysius formed a "generous and loving" community held together by "Jesus love for us, our love for him and our love for one another." He reflected that in the weeks leading up to the closure of St. Aloysius, parishioners had "wisely" expressed their feelings about the future of the community. Among other feelings, "You've expressed feelings of anger," Father Helbing said. "Where there is anger, there is always a deeper emotion underneath that sparks the anger, namely fear." He also said there are feelings of sadness, "which is an emotion expressed when our fears are materialized."

After seven years of service at St. Aloysius, Father Helbing said that he was at home with the people and "at home with the buildings. ... But I remind myself that a church, in one sense, is only a building - albeit a sacred building ... with a lot of fond memories attached to it."

However, Father Helbing explained, "A church in its most basic sense is a people - a people gathered by Christ and with Christ; Christ who is the head and heart of our church. "It is Christ I love," he said, "not a building. It is you I love, not a building." Father Helbing told the congregation of his hope that the move to St. Anthony would be "an occasion for renewed life for yourselves personally and for the community where you are going. "You are a brave people equal to this challenge," he said, "You are a generous and self-sacrificing people ... who have so many gifts to share ... with your new community." Father Helbing explained that the measure of a truly loving parish family is that its members "reach out not just to one another . . . but to everyone we can bringing and being the Good News of God's love for them by the love we have for them." At the end of Mass, Fr. Helbing carried the Eucharist from the church to a van leading a vehicle procession to The Concourse near St. Anthony.

From there parishioners followed Fr. Helbing in procession as the priest carried the Eucharist in Monstrance to the steps of St. Anthony Church.

The St. Aloysius community stood below a huge welcome banner outside the church and sang hymns as they waited for the morning Mass to end at St. Anthony. From there, they processed into church where the community and the Eucharist from St. Aloysius was received by St. Anthony pastor Father Joseph Cisetti and the entire congregation. Following Benediction, Fr. Cisetti offered words of welcome to his new parishioners saying, "We face the future with hope. We face the future with faith, with faith in God, in the Eucharist we remain united," he explained, "Your history is now part of ours and our history is now part of yours . . . and we move forward in faith." To great applause, Fr. Cisetti declared, "You are all welcome here. This is your new home." A welcome reception was held following Mass and similar celebrations are receptions were held following the 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. Masses at St. Aloysius.

St. Aloysius parish was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1885 and remained in the Society's care until 1945 when the parish was transferred to the care of the diocese.

Following a year long study of the needs of the Catholic community in northeast Kansas City, it was determined that due to the saturation of churches in the neighborhood, the shortage of priests and the difficult situation of area church finances, that St. Aloysius parish would be merged into nearby St. Anthony. The assets of the closed parish, minus any debt, will become part of the patrimony of the merged parish.
Link (here)

Professor At The Jesuit University Defends The Wearing Of Dresses By Men During Liturgical Processions

Archbishop wants dancing after Santacruzan stopped
05/07/2008
MANILA, Philippines - After banning gays from dressing as women during the Santacruzan, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales is now discouraging holding "dances" at town plazas to cap the procession.

Rosales, in a statement posted on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website Wednesday, reminded organizers that the Virgin Mary is at the center of the activities of the Santacruzan. "We should not set aside the fact that our beloved Blessed Virgin Mother Mary is the center of these activities and celebrations. We should give importance to Mary and reflect on her life. Everything we do in this time is for our devotion to her," he said."There are new practices in the different villages, but if these do not conform with the lessons we learned from the Virgin Mary, let us not give them importance," he added.

Rosales also reminded parishes in Manila to keep the purity of Marian devotion in the wake of a brewing controversy on the barring of gays from participating in the "Santacruzan." The prelate earlier scolded leaders of one parish for allowing gays dressed as ladies to participate in Santacruzan parade. "I told them that it is not right because that's (Santacruzan) a procession. You are destroying the purity of the devotion," he said.

Santacruzan recalls the search for the Holy Cross by Queen Helena and her newly converted son Emperor Constantine the Great. They found it in Jerusalem and brought it to Rome to joyous thanksgiving.

On the other hand, Rosales stressed he is not discriminating against homosexuals but only wanted to preserve the solemnity of the processions. "We should keep sacred what is sacred," he said as he admonished parishes not to allow male homosexuals to play Saint Helena and other female roles traditionally given to local beauty queens.

"The procession is religious. (But) what the parishes do is organize a parade. That's an insult to the Blessed Mother ... Instead of pious young women, gay men are paraded, which makes (the procession) ridiculous," he added.

For their part, leaders of the gay community said that "Marian devotees" among them deserved a place in the tradition. Jonas Bagas, secretary general of Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network in the country (Lagablab), said the Church should be "liberal about this." Danton Remoto, a professor at Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, said most gay participants were low-income types who had spent for expensive gowns they would wear in the procession "out of the goodness and love in their hearts for the Virgin Mary." "There is really no intention to malign the Catholic Church," Remoto said. - GMANews.TV

Link (here)

Former Jesuits Need Work Too...

Some Latin American politicians grounded in Catholic social teaching

By Barbara J. Fraser

This article is loaded with inaccuracies and misleading wording, it is not a sound journalist piece, but can serve as a useful tool to explore some of the communists and narco-politicians that are currently in power in South and Central America. J.F.

Catholic News Service

LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- After Latin America's bishops established their "preferential option for the poor" in a conference in Medellin, Colombia, in 1968, the church became a training ground for active Catholics throughout the region. Although some were involved with leftist movements that fought rightist governments in the 1970s and 1980s, more and more Catholics are gaining political clout at the ballot box.

The rise of presidents who are controversial in some circles but who campaigned on platforms of fighting poverty and social inequality -- such as Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador,

and most recently retired Bishop Fernando Lugo in Paraguay -- is putting Catholic activists in many government offices. "The liberation movement had a tremendous impact on the Catholic left in Latin Ameri