Karen Hall, "GC35 Is Our Business ! "

I See Red Flags...They're Everywhere...

I swear, my plan for the last year has been to keep an open mind about GC35 and to hope for the best, if not for outright miracles. And to tell you the truth, I'm still hoping for outright miracles. Because it is obvious to me from what I've read so far that we are going to need them.
"Who is "we?" I can already here a certain faction of Jesuits screaming at me. Our GC, our fearless leader, our business, you don't even begin to understand, etc. etc. etc. But here's the thing. Your real fearless leader -- no, not him, the other Basque -- yes, the short one with all the archaic "man of his time" notions -- sent you out into the world. So you're out here, changing people's lives in ways that are not minor and, regardless of what you may believe, have the highest possible eternal consequences. That's why we get to have an opinion about your business. You can't be out here in the world, and then go into a huddle and tell us it's none of our business.

It's only none of our business if you don't come back out of the huddle. Let me put it in more concrete terms. We are the parents who spend years and years of hard work raising our children and going through the enormously difficult task of instilling our faith in our children, helping them hold on to it during the gangrene (teen) years, and then paying an enormous amount of money to send them to your colleges where they are taught that Jesus never performed miracles and the Church is wrong about (fill in the many blanks) and they should feed the poor because justice is the #1 concern of any true Christian and Hell...? Are you serious? And that is one of many, many reasons that GC35 is our business. I happen to think that there are much bigger reasons -- and it's hard to come up with "bigger reasons" than the fate of your child's soul.

Bigger than that is the fact that the world is in deep, deep trouble. And here's a clue: it's not because of Global Warming. Which brings me to my first tirade: GC35's heavy duty focus of environmental concerns. How can I be against saving the environment? I don't have time now to count the ways, but stay tuned. Let me just tell you what I notice: abortion doesn't make the list of the Jesuit concerns in the year 2008. But we have GOT to do something about the plight of the polar bears. Yes, I know, the sky is falling. We have to do everything we can to prop it up because it is, after all, completely the fault of Evil Human Beings (all contrary scientific evidence notwithstanding or even examined) and, of course, we have the power to change it.

The first point I'd like to make is that current ocean temperatures are not nearly as high as they were when St. Ignatius was sailing them. And the second point is that if Jesus had come down on a cloud and told him that the sky was indeed falling, his response would not have been to call a meeting of his guys to discuss what they should do to keep the sky from falling!!!! The meeting would have been, "The sky is falling, we have to work harder to save as many souls as we can, because the clock is ticking! We need more Jesuits and more boats."

Remind me, where on the list of GC35's priorities is anything that has anything to do with the salvation of souls, given the fact that the sky is falling? (According to Creighton's GC35 site, "Out of its concern for Justice, a new awareness of the ecology drew more response than any other topic." My problem with the emphasis on "justice" is, always has been, and always will be its myopic focus on this life. What profiteth a man if he saves the planet and in the process, allows many to lose their souls? Kill a baby, plant a tree. Doesn't work, guys.

Link to Karen Hall's post (here)