New Jesuit Blogger

Congratulation is in order to John Brown, SJ, the author of the Companion of Jesus website has posted his first blog entry at the The Catholic Illustrator's Guild . Read it (here) and don't forget to write a comment.

Our Good Father Colombiere Has Obtained That The Holy Society Of Jesus Be Blessed

On the Feast Day of St. Igantius

wouldn't Ignatius want us to devote ourselves to Jesus Christ?

The Sacred Heart and the Society of Jesus
There are five letters of St. Margaret Mary in which she refers to the commission from Christ to the Society of Jesus to propagate devotion to His Sacred Heart. The first two, dated July 4, 1688, and June 1689, were addressed to her former superior, Mother de Saumaise; the third was to Father Croiset, S.J., on August 10, 1689; the fourth again to the superior on August 28 of the same year, as also the last, to Father Croiset, on September 15. Quotations which follow are in sequence from these letters, citing the pertinent passages and omitting items which overlap. When St. Margaret Mary speaks of the "Fathers of the Society of Jesus," we know from the context and from the tenor of her other statements that all the members of the Society are concerned.

• "Then turning to Father la Colombiere, this Mother of Divine Goodness said: 'As for you, faithful servant of my divine Son, you have a great share in this precious treasure. For if it is given to the daughters of the Visitation to know and distribute it to others, it is reserved to the Fathers of your Society to show and make known its utility and value, so that all may profit from it by receiving it with the respect and gratitude due so great a benefit. In proportion as they give Him this pleasure, this divine Heart, source of blessings and graces, will shower them so abundantly on the works of their ministry that they will produce fruits far beyond their labors and hopes, even for the salvation and perfection of each of them in particular.' "
  
• "Our good Father Colombiere has obtained that the holy Society of Jesus be blessed … with all the graces and special privileges of this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus … He promises that He will bless abundantly, even profusely, their labors for souls and the works of charity in which they are engaged."
  
• Although this treasure of love is a good everyone can claim and to which everyone has a right, it has hitherto been little known… . It is reserved to the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus to make known the value and advantages of this precious treasure, of which the more one takes the more there is to take. All they have to do, then, is to enrich themselves abundantly with every grace and blessing from it. For it is by this efficacious means which He is entrusting to them that they will be able to carry out perfectly according to His desire the sacred ministry of charity committed to them. This divine Heart will so spread the sweet unction of His charity on their words that they will penetrate like a two-edged sword the most hardened hearts and make them susceptible to the love of this divine Heart. The most sin-ladened souls will be brought by this means to salutary repentance… . He expects much of your holy Society in this regard and has great designs upon it. That is why He made use of the good Father la Colombiere to begin the devotion to this adorable Heart."
  

• "This Sacred Heart will shower upon it [the Society of Jesus] grace and blessings in abundance… . To the daughters of the Visitation He has given the commission of revealing His Heart and making it known by establishing the devotion to this all-lovable Heart. He wants the Reverend Jesuit Fathers to make known its utility and worth. This is reserved for them."

• "If it is true that this most attractive devotion is to take its origin in the Visitation, it will be spread through the efforts of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers… . There is nothing more attractive or gentle and at the same time stronger or more efficacious than the unction of the ardent charity of this lovable Heart… . It will melt by His love the coldest hearts. This applies especially to the holy Society of Jesus, to which He offers His graces in order to give its members effective means for worthily and perfectly fulfilling the duties of their ministry of charity, for the glory of God, in the conversion of souls. The members of the Society ought frequently to exhort souls to avail themselves of the great treasures contained in this devotion to the Sacred Heart."
  

Link to the Jesuit Fr. John Hardon's Homily entitled, For Jesuits - Heart of the Lord

"I promise you, in the excessive mercy of My Heart

that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive

Holy Communion on the first Friday for nine consecutive months

the grace of final repentance; they shall not die in My disgrace

nor without receiving the sacraments;

My Divine Heart shall be their safe

refuge in that last moment."

Jesuit Says Church Subjects Women To Men's Authority

Why not ordain women?

In the April 11 issue of Commonweal, Robert J. Egan, SJ, invites readers to look again at this question. Egan doubts that “the tradition of excluding women from the diaconate, presbyterate, and episcopate” has “really been faithful to the teaching and practice of Jesus.” In his opinion, the tradition probably rests instead on

“a mostly unexamined and partially unconscious bias for subjecting women to men’s authority and power.”

Until the church honestly faces “the whole truth about our history,” he writes, Catholic women will continue to suffer a grave injustice.

Link (here) to the full Commonweal post.

Robert J Egan, SJ Bio (here)

Is it a sin for a Catholic / Jesuit to be a forceful advocate of Catholic priestesses ?

Purified By The Eternal Dew

St. Ignatius in a letter from Rome, April 25, 1543. To Ascanio Colonna

An excerpt.

....In this life a thing is good only in the degree in which it serves eternal life. And it is evil in that degree in which it makes us turn aside or away from it. In this way the soul, suffering contradictions on this earth, enlightened and purified by the eternal dew, builds its nest on the heights, concentrates all its desires on the search for Christ crucified since, after being crucified in this life, it will rise to life with Him in the next.
You can find the full text of St. Ignatius' letter at Companion of Jesus ,under heading ANIMA IGNATIANA - The Ignatian Spirit - The End of Man

The World Is His House

'Retreat' offers inside look at Jesuit order
By Susan Whitney

Deseret News
July 26, 2008
A LONG RETREAT, by Andrew Krivak

For eight years, Andrew Krivak was on the path to become a Jesuit priest. He entered the order in 1990, shortly after six Jesuits had been murdered in El Salvador. The slain priests had been university professors and humanitarians, outspoken in their beliefs. Krivak was in awe of the work they did.

In his new memoir, "A Long Retreat," Krivak describes life within the Jesuit order. Jesuits follow the same path Ignatius Loyola followed. Though they spend time in prayer daily, and though they live in community and spend long stretches in silence, they are not monks in the traditional sense. They are not cloistered. "The world is our house," the Jesuits say.

Nonetheless, the life of a novitiate begins in solitude and prayer. Krivak's priesthood began with him making what is called the long retreat. During that 30 days of silence he reflected on the Gospels and on his own desire to serve. According to the rules of the order, no one is allowed to become a Jesuit unless his life and doctrine have been probed by long and exacting tests. And so Krivak learned to examine his conscience daily. He studied. He taught. He gave up all his possessions. He worked in hospitals in the U.S. He prayed with those who were dying of AIDS. Eventually, through long months, through many twists and turns, Krivak says, he came to believe he had, indeed, been called to the life of a Jesuit priest.

He writes, "I had — I've marked in my journal — made my decision to stay in the Order and become a Jesuit on that morning. ... I say a decision, but it was more like that moment of discovery I had been hoping for, believing that I was being led into and through this life, and all I needed to do was trust." On that day, Krivak found himself able to trust that he was doing what God wanted him to do. But then he continued to have to pray about it. The finding of faith over and over again and the searching for God's will, this is the story Krivak tells.

He writes, "This isn't some lazy attitude of indifference, where we accept as God's will whatever direction in which we're pushed. It's the hard work of constant watching and trusting." Krivak grew up admiring the priest in his own boyhood church in Pennsylvania. He writes, "He held our parish together with something more than duty, something that strengthens faith and proves love, something that he alone understood and desired: the search for God every waking hour of the day through the holy dialectic of prayer and work." And so, in the end, he does not easily give up the priesthood.

Krivak had been a poet all along. After leaving the priesthood he became a writer of nonfiction, eloquently able to describe the details of a Jesuit's life.

Prayer can open pathway to inexhaustible font St. Jane de Chantal called prayer a familiar conversation with the Divine Majesty in one's soul. By the time I entered the Jesuits, I had had an eclectic but scattered experience of prayer, not yet like the conversation promised by de Chantal. Still, the thinnest experience of prayer can open a pathway into a place that seems almost certain to be an inexhaustible font, and so something worth staking your life on. I knew the Mass was prayer, perhaps my earliest form of the act, from the opening and closing blessings of the priest to the gradual understanding that the liturgy is the unifying prayer of the Church, as though it, too, were a person kneeling down to pray for the space of an hour.

I got that much. At home we said the rosary, novenas to the Sacred Heart, and a whole host of devotional recitations many Catholics seem to absorb through osmosis. The meditative experience that comes with the recitation of a thing like the rosary regularly when one is young can create a powerful metronome in the heart and mind.

So, while I had given up this piety by the time I entered religious life, the prosody — the song — of this prayer has never left me.

— from A Long Retreat, by Andrew Krivak

Link (here)

Previous post on GJBJ on Andrew Krivak (here)

Jesuit Drummer

Last night, I had the great honor of participating in an African liturgy. Indeed, I was impressed into service as the drummer. Link (here)

Two Jesuit Brothers

Tour guide Daniel also pointed out tiny Île des Frères, no bigger than an ordinary Montreal municipal swimming pool. The island was named for two Jesuit brothers who sat on hot sunny summer days and played music for passing boaters.

Link (here)

Photographiée à partir de l'île-des-Frères. (here)

When In Rome, Do As The Jesuits Do

Blogger at Carmelite spirituality and the practice of mental prayer makes pilgrimage to Rome and makes Jesuit's Churches in Rome - Il Gesu and St Ignatius of Loyola an intergal part of his experience.

An exceprt.

Planning my little pilgrimage, I was determined to visit two Jesuit Churches, Il Gesu and St Ignatius of Loyola, as St Ignatius is my Patron Saint. Below is the little movie I compiled from pictures I have taken, but I also included several pictures from the web. The movie starts with Il Gesu (The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus) which is the Jesuit Mother Church.

It is built on the very place St. Ignatius chose for his headquarters shortly after he founded the Society of Jesus in 1540.

In the same time, Pope Paul III presented new formed Religious Order with a small neighborhood chapel, Santa Maria della Strada (Our Lady of the Wayside), which soon proved too small for quickly expanding Society.

Read the whole post (here)

The Jesuit Church In Cologne

I escaped Frankfurt for about 24 hours and went to Cologne. Below is the interior of the Jesuit Church there, on the left the Cathedral.

From The Diary of a Rookie Priest, Fr. Mark Mossa, S.J. his post is entitled, Cologne see his pictures and full post

Detroit Province Jesuit And The Sudanese Vocation Miracle

Jesuit educates Sudanese priests

Toledo-born cleric, 84, is teaching at Khartoum seminary
The Rev. Paul Besanceney, who has been a missionary in Sudan for 28 years, was in Toledo to visit family and friends. In Sudan, a country that has been torn by decades of civil war, the Rev. Paul Besanceney has been teaching about God, love, and peace for the last 28 years.

His efforts have produced some impressive results. "When I got to Sudan, there were 60 Sudanese priests. Now there are 450. I am delighted that I had something to do with that,"

Father Besanceney said in an interview this week. The 84-year-old Catholic priest - a Toledo native who belongs to the Detroit province of the Society of Jesuits - stopped in Toledo recently to visit cousins, grandnieces, and friends from Central Catholic High School's Class of 1942. Father Besanceney is in the United States for a three-month visit before heading back to Khartoum, Sudan's capital city of 2 million, where he will resume teaching sociology next month at St. Paul's Major Seminary. He said he decided to join the Jesuits after high school because he believed the religious order's leaders would find a way to put his abilities to good use - although he wasn't sure what those abilities were at the time. The Jesuits chose to utilize Father Besanceney's gift for learning. He earned degrees from Xavier University, Loyala University, and St. Louis University before receiving a doctorate in sociology and anthropology from Michigan State University in 1964. Father Besanceney taught high school and college classes in English, geometry, Latin, and sociology, then served as the provincial - a leadership position similar to that of bishop - of the Jesuits' Detroit province from 1971 to 1977. In 1980,

Father Besanceney joined the faculty at St. Paul's Major Seminary in Bussere and Muniki, Sudan. Why did he go to the eastern African nation? "Because my provincial sent me,"

he said matter-of-factly. The seminary and its buildings were not exactly up to U.S. standards, he said. "There were leaky ceilings, snakes would fall from the roof, you had to check your shoes for scorpions," he said. "But I was happy to be there. I looked around and saw the work that needed to be done." Father Besanceney said only about 10 percent of Sudan's 40 million people are Christians, most of whom are Roman Catholic. About 70 percent of Sudanese are Muslims, and 20 percent practice an indigenous religion, which Father Besanceney said is monotheistic and combines animist beliefs with a reverence for ancestors. "Catholic Christian citizens have a tough time. If you're a Muslim, you can get a job or get relief. But there's no support for Christians there," he said. Although some Christians are persecuted and some have even been killed for their beliefs, there are signs of a growing religious tolerance,

Father Besanceney said. "We have one seminarian from a Muslim family and the father did not disagree with his becoming a priest," he said.

Father Besanceney served as provincial of the Jesuits' five-nation Eastern Africa Province from 1988 to 1995. The Rev. Robert Scullin, provincial of the Jesuits' Detroit province, said African Catholics must have had great respect for Father Besanceney. "It is quite an honor for an outsider, particularly an American, to become a provincial in a foreign environment,"

Father Scullin said. "Father Besanceney must have won their minds and hearts in every sense of the word." He said he knew Father Besanceney since the late 1960s when he was a seminarian. "He is a very traditional leader, in the very best sense of the word,"

Father Scullin said. "He helped me a lot in my early formation." Father Scullin said Father Besanceney has played an important role in teaching Sudanese to become priests.

"Detroit has 20 to 25 men in formation, people from the novitiate first year to ordination and post-ordination," he said. "In eastern Africa, there are 120 to 125 men in formation now. It's very vibrant. There's a real enthusiasm despite all kinds of problems."

Father Besanceney said that even after 28 years in Africa, he does not consider Sudan to be "home." "No, but I am familiar with the seminary and the culture. And the people are friendly," he said. He drives around Khartoum in a 1986 Suzuki that at one time had four-wheel drive but is now a two-wheel drive vehicle. The city's streets are jammed with cars, scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, and animals, he said. "It's quite an experience to drive in Khartoum," Father Besanceney said with a laugh. Temperatures in the city can hit 115 degrees in the summer and they rarely drop below 50. The area does not receive much rain, and when it rains there are often flash floods. With Khartoum being at the juncture of the Blue and White Nile rivers, the Sudanese depend on irrigation more than rainfall to provide their water.

Life in Khartoum is a lot less challenging than when Father Besanceney first arrived in Sudan and was assigned to the rural south, where electricity was mostly provided by generators. "Our generator broke down one time and it took six months to get parts," he said.

During Sudan's two lengthy civil wars, the first starting after independence from the United Kingdom in 1956 and lasting until 1972, and the second raging from 1983 to 2005,

Father Besanceney said the Jesuits were expelled from the south in 1964 and had to move their seminary seven times because of "disturbances."

He said he has not been to Darfur, the western region now wracked by violence, but he has encountered refugees who fled the region for safety in Khartoum. He described the current situation in Sudan as a "fragile peace." The priest, who said seminarians call him "grandfather," is retired now but there is much work to be done so he continues to teach at the seminary, although he carries has a lighter teaching load. In his spare time, Father Besanceney enjoys writing and receiving e-mail now that the seminary has Internet access from a satellite. And he likes to watch CNN and BBC television networks. He has traveled throughout the five-nation province, especially when he served as provincial, visiting Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Sudan. "Nature is beautiful and the wild animals are stimulating to see," Father Besanceney said.

Link (here)

Photo is of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum Cathedral circa 1933.

The Tablet On S.. And The Modern Catholic,

From Fr. Ray Blake in his blog entitled,

Tablet Survey on Humanae Vitae: a failure in catechesis .
Forgive me for making such a recommendation but read The Tablet on Sex and the Modern Catholic, the article is based on a survey of Mass going Catholics by the Von Huegal Institute, as part of the Tablet's Humanae Vitae "celebrations". All the statistics are pretty frightening like the attitudes of most Catholics to abortiofacients or artificial contraception.

Link (here)

Sri Lankian Jesuit In Video Interview On The Devastation of 2004 Tsunami

Meet Fr. Paul Satkunanaygam, S.J.
mikemcnulty
7/24/08 10:06 pm
This short movie is to introduce you to Fr. Paul Satkunanaygam, SJ, a trained counseling psychologist and Catholic priest who founded the Professional Psychological Counselling Centre of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka (PPCC). Fr. Paul has brought counseling to this area traumatized by war and natural disaster. In this segment, he gives a tour of Navalady, a peninsula area, where nearly 3700 people died in The Tsunami of 2004 on February 3, 2005, five weeks after the disaster. He also discusses how he helps others to manage pain, and find resilience.

Link (here)

Jesuits in Sri Lanka (here)

Former Jesuit Retreat House Is Now A Golf And Country Club

Weir exorcises ghosts
Jeremy Sandler

July 25, 2008
OAKVILLE, Ont. -- The spirit of a long dead Jesuit priest supposedly roams the back stairs and main hall of the former monastery that now houses the Royal Canadian Golf Association offices on the grounds of Glen Abbey Golf Club. But whatever spectres float inside the slate walls of Golf House, the ghosts that haunted Mike Weir at many Canadian Opens -- and Glen Abbey in particular -- seemed firmly exorcised Thursday. The 38-year-old Weir fired a 6-under par 65 in the first round that left him in a three-way tie for the RBC Canadian Open lead.

Link to the full story (here)

I Wish I Was At This One

Religion and politics is topic of discussion
ORLEANS, MA — The St. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic Church Adult Education Series continues with a program on religion and politics, called "Two Things You Never Talk About in Polite Company," at 7 p.m. Monday (July 28, 2008) at the church, 61 Canal Road. The Rev. Thomas Massaro, a Jesuit priest and professor of moral theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, will provide insight into the U.S. Bishops' document, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." This document aims to provide guidance to Catholics as the nation approaches the upcoming election. Key document themes, such as human dignity, social justice and global solidarity, will be explored in light of the more controversial issues of our time: abortion, gay marriage, war, and illegal immigration. For more information, call 508-255-0170.

Link (here)

How Big Is Your Jesuit?

No holding back on indigenous health

An excerpt.
Brian McCoy is a Jesuit priest and a wati - an initiated man under traditional Aboriginal law. Does he know of anyone else who shares this duality? "No," he says. "Not one." His manner is quiet and, at that moment, faintly humorous. He is speaking on the phone from the Aboriginal community of Balgo, in Western Australia........One of what he calls "the biggest wounds" in Aboriginal culture is that so few kartiya (white people) either respect or understand their culture. "We don't really listen to Aboriginal people and learn from them."

I ask him whether the Christian God and traditional Aboriginal beliefs are compatible. When Patrick Dodson tried to bring them together in the 1970s, when he was still practising as a Catholic priest, he was accused of inciting paganism.

"It depends how big your God is. If you have a theology which says God comes with this physical church, then the answer is probably no. If you see God at work in the lives and hearts of other people regardless of their culture, which is part of a long Jesuit tradition, it's not a problem."

Link (here) to a much larger article in The Age

The Jesuit Bend

Jesuit Bend, Louisiana Map (here)

Jesuit Bend, Louisiana Info (here)

Jesuit On Preaching

Priests tempted to avoid tough topics online
07/25/2008

An excerpt.

with the online earthquake that followed Father Michael Pfleger's sermon in which he pretended to be Hillary Clinton, sobbing because of her losses to Sen. Barack Obama. "She just always thought that, 'This is mine. I'm Bill's wife. I'm white,'" said the priest, speaking at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. "Then out of nowhere came, 'Hey, I'm Barack Obama.' And she said, 'Oh [darn], where did you come from? I'm white. I'm entitled. There's a black man stealing my show.'" It's natural to watch these cyber spectacles while muttering, "What were they thinking?"

The answer is quite simple, according to Father John Kavanaugh of St. Louis University. Like many preachers before them, they fell for the temptation to "preach to the choir," their listeners who already agreed with them. "You're supposed to be a messenger. You're supposed to be the person who brings people the Good News,"

said the Jesuit, author of "Following Christ in a Consumer Culture" and other books on faith and ethics. "But instead of being the mediator, you can end up putting the focus on yourself. You can become the message and, before you know it, people can start basing their faith on you instead of God."

Link (here) to full story

Photo is of Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J. speaking to Mother Teresa

"Traditional Anarchist" Noam Chomsky And His Jesuit Painting

Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Vincent Navarro

An excerpt.

a painting given to me by a Jesuit priest. On one side, Archbishop Romero, who was assassinated in 1980. In front of him, six leading intellectuals, Jesuit priests, who had their brains blown out in 1989 by U.S.-run terrorist forces who had already compiled a hideous record of massacre of the usual victims. And the Angel of Death, standing over them. That event captures Reagan - not the cheerful uncle.

That's the reality of the 1980s. I just put it there to remind myself of the real world. But it's been an interesting "Rorschach" test. Almost no one from the United States knows what it is; because we're responsible for the massacre, we don't know.

People from Europe, maybe 10% know what it is. From South America, I'd say, everyone knows what it is. Until recently. By now, young people often don't know because they, too, are having history driven out of their heads. History and reality are too dangerous. On the other hand, they're now coming back.

Read the full interview (here)

More on the real Noam Chomsky (here) , (here) and (here)

Jesuits and Noam Chomsky (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

Noam Chomsky and Catholicism (here) and (here)

Noam Chomsky and atheism (here) and (here)

Can You Decipher This?

"while rightly affirming the growing need for a strong papacy in the paradoxical face of increasing globalization and nationalism, does not take sufficient account of inculturation as the necessary enfleshment of the one Gospel in all times and places; the relationship between unity and inculturation—or between primacy and collegiality—should not be a balancing act, but a reinforcing one. "

Read the full article (here)

Jesuit In Afganistan

New Jesuit blog from Afganistan, yes that is right Afganistan.

To Hear the Word and do His Will: Discernment.

An excerpt.

Let us pray to Our Blessed Mother who carried the Word of God in her Heart long before she carried it in her womb that we become the ark of the covenant like her to carry the Word of God faithfully and fulfilling it perfectly

Link to Leo Anand, S.J. (here)

Debilitating Malaise

In an article in America magazine

July 17, 1993

Jesuit Richard McCormick (RIP) wrote that the prohibition of any serious discussion of the encyclical had led to "a debilitating malaise that has undermined the credibility of the magisterium in other areas."
Link (here)

Jesuit Is Being Reassigned To Polish Catholic Parrish He Grew Up In, Which Is Named After A Polish Jesuit Saint

Three Saint Stanislaus Board Members Reconciled With Church

—Lawsuit Filed To Reconcile Former Parish
The Archdiocese of St. Louis issued the following statement on July 23, 2008:

Mrs. Bernice Krauze, Mr. Stanley Rozanski, and Mr. Robert Zabielski, members of the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Parish Corporation, met last month (June 10) with Archbishop Raymond L. Burke to be reconciled fully with the Catholic Church. They are once again in full communion with the Catholic Church and are no longer under any censure.Since then, the three have joined other parishioners of the former Saint Stanislaus Kostka parish in filing a lawsuit against the Saint Stanislaus Parish Corporation. The lawsuit is asking for the corporation to adhere to the 1891 Bylaws, to which the parish and the Archdiocese of St. Louis had agreed. If the lawsuit is successful,

the Archdiocese of St. Louis is prepared to appoint a Catholic priest, Rev. Michael Marchlewski, S.J.,

to Saint Stanislaus as administrator.
Q & A Regarding Reconciliation of Saint Stanislaus Board Members and Lawsuit
Text of the Petition Filed in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, July 23, 2008 (168.42 Kb PDF file)
Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish Charter (319.12 Kb PDF file)
Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish Articles of Agreement (771.87 Kb PDF file)
Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish Bylaws (1891) (604.58 Kb PDF file)

Link (here)

Painting is of St. Kostka, S.J.

Catholic Jesuit Writes Book With Jewish Rabbi

A Confrontation Between Image and Text
By: Menachem Wecker

An excerpt.

The different authorial encounters that went into Panim el Panim – the second book in Marymount Institute Press’s series, Robert B. Lawton S. J. Studies in Faith, Culture, and the Arts – mirror the human-divine encounters in the Bible. (The first book in the series presented commentary on a 14th century Christian poem, which, in part, praises Jews.) Linesch, a Reform Jew, is an art therapist and chair of the Graduate Department of Marital and Family Therapy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Stettin, an Orthodox Jew, is an abstract painter whose works often have spiritual and psychological themes. The two view their collaboration − Stettin’s images and Linesch’s words − as creating what they call “visual midrash.”

Link (here) to the longer original article.

The Management Of One’s Life For The Salvation Of The Soul

John Brown, S.J. the author of the Companion of Jesus website, which solely devoted Ignatian spirituality has post some of St. Ignatius' key statements in a section entitled "ANIMA IGNATIANA" - The Ignatian Spirit

.
This comes from the section called Spiritual Exercises.

...by this name of Spiritual Exercises is meant every way of examining one’s conscience, of meditating, of contemplating, of praying vocally and mentally, and of performing other spiritual actions, as will be said later.

For as strolling, walking and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies

, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise.

Link to the Companion of Jesus

Who Is Responsible For The Glitch?

A Priest Walks Into Qatar and . . .
By Fr. Ryan J. Maher, S.J.
July 20, 2008
The class I was teaching was called "The Problem of God," but I was facing a more immediate problem. Would I, one of my students had asked a classmate, be going to hell? The class held its breath; I pretended to focus on erasing the board. After what felt like an eternity, the other student replied, "Yes." And then, "Sorry, Father." Not quite what I was hoping to hear. But her answer -- and my experience with a class of mostly Arab Muslim students in Doha, Qatar -- revealed more than I ever imagined it would about the struggle to teach about faith in a world where religious fervor fuels many of the fires that our diplomatic corps struggles to put out.
In the spring of 2005, I was asked to move from Washington to Doha for two years with a group of Georgetown faculty members opening a branch campus of our School of Foreign Service at the invitation of the Qatari royal family.

I was the first Jesuit priest ever assigned to that tiny Persian Gulf emirate, a distinction that my Irish friends cheerfully assured me would be worth a line in my obituary.

Without a moment's hesitation, I went. The majority of my students in Qatar came from across the Middle East, from varied social and economic backgrounds. They arrived at Georgetown's campus in Qatar in search of an education that would prepare them for jobs in international affairs. Many will become professional diplomats. My job -- the gig I'd signed up for when I left the comfort of my cozy room overlooking the Potomac for a sterile, marble-tiled apartment in a baffling city halfway across the globe -- was simple: lead them through a version of Georgetown's traditional freshman theology course. That was not an easy course to teach. I imagine it was not an easy course to take, either.

We were all aware that we were engaging in something novel, a college class of mostly Sunni and Shiite Muslims exploring with one another and with their Catholic priest professor some of the basic theological issues: the existence of God, free will, sin, prayer and Judgment Day.

One day early in the semester, in the middle of a discussion on the definition of revelation, one of my students, an intensely bright Muslim from Bosnia, heaved a deep sigh and blurted out, "I hope we don't get blown up for talking about this stuff." I was writing on the blackboard, with my back to the class. I laughed. When I turned around, I saw that he wasn't joking. During my two years in Qatar, I learned that many of my students approached discussions of faith and religion with an intensity and passion that differed in kind, not just in degree, from what I had grown accustomed to in the United States. Sure, there were those, Muslim and Christian alike, who were more interested in arguing than learning.

But there were many more for whom religion was something more profound: the outward manifestation of an inner relationship with the divine.

I had spent years discussing religious matters with smart American students in excellent schools before I was sent to the Middle East. I had found those conversations enjoyable, often challenging and usually sincere. But something was often missing, something I found hard to pin down.

An Egyptian Muslim friend I met in Qatar helped me understand what that something was. Talking with Americans about faith and religion, he told me, is like having coffee with Forrest Gump: pleasant enough, but not of much substance.

"They just don't have much to say because they just don't get it," he said. "They just don't get it" is never something a teacher wants to hear. That's especially true when I think about our mission at Georgetown, where we educate many students who will become foreign service officers for the United States and other countries. One of the more important and pragmatic qualities I hope our students carry with them into those careers is a felt-in-the-bone understanding of what it is to live one's life committed to one's faith. Most professors I know nod vigorously when I suggest to them that an understanding of faith and its claims on the imagination of faithful people is essential for future diplomats. "Of course, of course," they say. "If we don't know about Islam, we will never be able to help untangle the mess in the Middle East." I usually don't have the heart to tell them that they have missed my point entirely.

The majority of Georgetown students I know are fairly knowledgeable about religion. They can talk intelligently about Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The glitch is that they talk from the perspective of anthropologists and sociologists and historians.

These are valuable perspectives. But they are not enough. Of course we need to raise young people who can be smart, savvy, sophisticated participants in international affairs. What we also need are young people who can be all of those things while at the same time knowing and understanding what it is to live one's life with a commitment rooted in faith. That's a tall order for American higher education. A few years ago, I had an enjoyable conversation over dinner with a friend, an accomplished diplomat with experience in difficult negotiations all over the world. It was the fall of 2004, and our conversation quickly turned to the presidential campaign.

My friend argued that Sen. John F. Kerry's reluctance to talk about his own faith was a good thing, showing that the candidate understood that faith has no place in politics or public policy.

Out of the blue, a question occurred to me: "Other than me, do you have any friends or professional colleagues of any religion who attend services every week?" He was quiet for a long, thoughtful minute. "Not that I know of," he replied. I have thought about that conversation for a long time. It has helped me understand what hobbles American higher education when it comes to educating people for careers in international affairs. It's not that we don't know about religion; it's that we don't understand faith and its life-shaping power. The majority of people I know in higher education would argue that there is nothing wrong with religion for people who feel they need it.

Their sentiments come down to something like this: "You have your religious convictions, I have mine. Let's acknowledge our differences and agree to disagree with one another within the confines of polite debate."

That makes sense, of course, but it is not enough to prepare a new generation of diplomats who will be asked to engage the Muslim world in the decades to come. This template for discussing religion and faith is fundamentally flawed. It presumes that different groups of faithful people approach their religions in the same way football fans approach their favorite teams: I cheer passionately for mine, you cheer passionately for yours, and we all agree to play by the rules and exhibit good sportsmanship. For people of faith, religion isn't like that.

A person of Muslim faith and a person of Christian faith engaged in honest conversation about religion are not like two fans pulling for their respective teams.

They are more like two men in love with the same woman, each trying to express, safeguard and be faithful to his relationship with his beloved. Love brings with it complexities that football does not. Recently, I had a conversation with a young woman who is about to begin her sophomore year at Georgetown. She has a passion for art history and American democracy and is serious about her Jewish faith. She hopes to work in international affairs one day. We were discussing the courses she might take this fall. She reported that people had been telling her she really should take more economics. "What if instead of that," she said, "I took only four courses this semester and used the extra time to go with my Christian and Muslim friends to their churches and mosques? I just think that if I had a better sense of how they prayed and what they mean when they use the word 'God,' I'd be able to have much better conversations with them about the situation in the Middle East." What do you say to that, except "Amen"? And, "Have you thought of taking the foreign service exam after you graduate?"
Father Ryan J. Maher, S.J. is an assistant dean at Georgetown University.

Link (here)

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The Meat

"The majority of Georgetown students I know are fairly knowledgeable about religion. They can talk intelligently about Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The glitch is that they talk from the perspective of anthropologists and sociologists and historians. "

Who or what is responsible for this glitch?

The Jesuits Of St. Simeon's

Fort William a history treasure chest
Ottawa Riverkeepers takes a healing journey
A group of outdoor enthusiasts working to protect the ecological health of the Ottawa River spent the night at the historic outpost at Fort William, Quebec. Ottawa Riverkeepers' Healing Journey departed Point Alexander recently to make a 50- kilometre journey downstream to Westmeath.

Setting up camp on the shores of the Ottawa, the group of 30 canoeists were treated to a walking tour of the former Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post. "It's linked to the historical youth of the river," said Joann McCann, of Old Fort William Cottagers' Association.

"It had fur traders, lumbering, steam boats." Appearing in late 19th century period dress, Ms. McCann greeted the group at the Hotel Pontiac. During the entire tour, she played the role of Kate Perrault, a local girl who was educated by governess and later attended school in Pembroke and Kingston. She is assisted in retelling the fort's past by Chris Cavan, who plays her sister, Harriett. Both sisters worked at the Stopping House tavern. Strolling out of the hotel, Ms. McCann tells the group it was originally built to accommodate steamship passengers and once was three times its current size with 60 rooms. It's most famous guest was Canadian Hollywood actress Mary Pickford. However, the hotel was popular destination for such steamships as the "Pontiac", "Oiseau" and "Princess", and some wealthy passengers would shuttle over from Pembroke to spend the evening here. "During the 1920s, they'd have their parasols and fancy dresses and they'd come over for dinner and then stroll on the boardwalk," remarked Ms. McCann as she waved her hand towards the beach. In 1823, the Hudson's Bay Company established the fort as a trading post under the leadership of John Maclean. It soon diversified to servicing the growing lumber industry.

It is named after William McGillvery, who was the fort's first postmaster. In addition to the hotel, many of the original buildings still stand including the clerk's house and the chief factor's house, both built in 1846, the blacksmith shop and a church.

The foundation for the original store, laid in 1852, remains although the "Sale House" which acted as the store is now a brick building. Standing near the dock, Ms. McCann tells the group of the night the first store, a large log building, burned down. Apparently the store clerk, George McTavish, was resupplying a ship's crew. He was tipping a barrel of alcohol to fill up some bottles when a nearby candle ignited the mixture. It created an inferno that Ms. McCann described as "10 canons and three bombs going off." The stone shed behind the building did survive and contains the original brass hooks that use to hold fur pelts. The tour ends in the woods behind the shore where the historic St. Teresa of the Little Flower Chapel is tucked away.

Built in 1857 as St. Simeon's, it was established so Jesuit priests could administered the sacrament. The church, itself, has been well preserved and remains in pristine condition.

Ms. Cavan added Fort William is an amazing place because so much history can be found within a few kilometres of the location. She noted she's discovered 3,000- year-old stone, copper and bone tools and clay pipes once smoked by the early fur traders. "Fort William is a history treasure chest," she said. Ottawa Riverkeepers is an organization that brings people together to protect and promote the ecological health and diversity of the Ottawa River and its tributaries.

Link (here)

More pictures of St. Teresa the Little Flower Chapel (here)

Guarani Baroque And The Jesuits Of Argentina

Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio Miní (Misiones, Argentina)
San Ignacio Miní was one of the many missions founded in 1632 by the Jesuits in the Americas during the Spanish colonial period. In terms of preservation, including the architectural and sculptural details that typify the style known as "Guaraní baroque", San Ignacio Miní may be the most outstanding surviving example of the 30 missions built by the Jesuits in a territory that now comprises parts of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. It is a tourist favorite for its accessibility, surrounded by the present-day village of San Ignacio in the province of Misiones, Argentina.

Rediscovered in 1897, San Ignacio gained some notoriety after poet Leopoldo Lugones led an expedition to the area in 1903, but restoration work had to wait until the 1940s.

Parts of the ruins are still precarious, supported by sore-thumb scaffolding that obscures the essential harmony of the complex but does not affect individual features. Side entrance to the church. Side entrance to the church. San Ignacio's centerpiece was Italian architect Juan Brasanelli's monumental church, 74m long x 24m wide, with red sandstone walls two meters wide and ceramic-tile floors. Overlooking the settlement's plaza, decorated by Guaraní artisans, it is arguably the finest remaining structure of its kind. The adjacent compound included a kitchen, dining room, classrooms, and workshops.

The priests' quarters and the cemetery were also here, while more than 200 Guaraní residences, whose numbers reached 4,000 at the mission's zenith in 1733, surrounded the plaza.

The complex of the ruins currently holds the Museo Jesuítico de San Ignacio Miní museum. Since 1984 it has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Phoney Ex Jesuit

TradeMe vendor admits priest lie

By AMY MILNE

The Southland Times

Tuesday, 22 July 2008
A Mataura man who claimed he was an ex-Jesuit priest, to enhance the worth of Catholic memorabilia he was selling on TradeMe, has confessed he told a "porky" about his religious career. Invalid beneficiary Bruce Gotobed, 46, has been a TradeMe member since January 2003 and regularly contributed to the site's message board (chatroom).

In November Mr Gotobed sold Auckland woman Allison Doody a pectoral cross that he claimed was made by the papal tailors in Rome.

Before buying the cross, traders including Mrs Doody posted questions on the site asking for proof of the cross' origin. Mr Gotobed replied that he was an "ex-Jesuit priest" and was a "clerk for Cardinal Ratzinger" when he was prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. In his reply he says he did not have a certificate of authenticity because asking a friend proof of a gift given was "hardly the thing to do" .

He said it was given to him in 1983 before the cardinal's election to Pope. Mrs Doody won the auction and paid $1000 for the cross.

However, she became suspicious about Mr Gotobed last week when other traders raised questions about "mendlesmanor' (Mr Gotobed's TradeMe name) and accused him of being a fraud, she said. Posts were later put on the message board under mendlesmanor's name but the writers claimed to be Mr Gotobed's wife "Toni" and also his brother "Tony". The messages say Mr Gotobed had a massive stroke and was in a coma because of all the stress of the claims that had been made. Mrs Doody said "Toni" wrote in exactly the same style as Mr Gotobed, with random capital letters and poor grammar. She said she later discovered "Toni" was a man called Noho Tony Taitok, who was Mr Gotobed's live-in partner.

Mrs Doody then checked the United States online trading site e-Bay and found what appeared to be the same cross she had bought. "It's for sale with a bid of $26 on it. It's exactly the same. It used exactly the same photos that he (Mr Gotobed) used in his auction."

Mrs Doody said she e-mailed Mr Gotobed, demanding a refund. Mr Gotobed was first confronted about the alleged fraud claims at his Mataura home on Sunday but his partner said he was too ill to talk.

Yesterday, he confessed he was not an ex-Jesuit priest but was a former Franciscan monk and that he'd bought the cross off e-Bay.

He said he had told a porky that he was an ex-Jesuit priest. "It was a stupid mistake. I don't know what I was thinking. My thought patterns at times are quite wonky. I say things sometimes and think `why the hell did I say that'." He blamed this on the medication he took for his bowel cancer, brain tumour and congenital kidney diseases. Mr Gotobed has agreed to refund Mrs Doody her money. "The cross itself and the cord are genuine items. It's just the provenance of it that was wonky. That's why I will be refunding her." Mrs Doody said if she did not receive the money she would lay a complaint with police. She has agreed to return the cross. Mr Gotobed said he planned to keep it. Trade Me trust and safety manager Dean Winter said the company had restricted Mr Gotobed's membership and would respond to any complaints as they were received. While it appeared the member had lied about his background, it did not indicate any intent to defraud, Mr Winter said. Trade Me had not received any official complaints but would be contacting Mr Gotobed and Mrs Doody to ensure the matter had been resolved, he said.

Father Anthony Malone, a former superior of the Franciscan friars in Auckland, said Mr Gotobed was never a monk but he did begin training to be a friar in the 1980s.

Fr Malone said it took about seven years before a trainee could be ordained as a friar. He said Mr Gotobed was asked to leave after only six months into his first year of training because his health was deemed to be too poorly. When asked if he had any knowledge of Mr Gotobed becoming a Jesuit priest, Fr Malone laughed and said it was very unlikely. Mr Gotobed said the claim he was an ex-Jesuit priest had come about after he had told media in a previous interview about a lock of Princess Diana's hair, which he tried to sell on TradeMe last year.

However, when the story went to publication, "Franciscan monk" had been changed to "a former Jesuit priest",

he said. Mr Gotobed said he had posted the threads pretending to be his wife "Toni and also his brother Tony as a way out". But this only fuelled what he called a witch-hunt. He said he would not be trading on TradeMe for some time.

Link (here)

Jesuit Goes Down Into The Earth

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Strake Jesuit's, Jesuit is in Poland
Today we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow. There have been active mines here since the 14th century. The salt not only provided the majority of the wealth for the Polish people for many years but it also provided an artistic outlet. When they were done extracting the salt from an area, they would carve statues and even chapels in the remaining vaults. Most of the art work was completed in the 18-19th centuries. It is really spectacular at times. Sometimes it was a little kitsch, but mostly it was quite interesting. The most interesting part for me was that our tour guide sounded like he belonged in a castle in Transylvania. I called him Pawel Drakula. He certainly had the accent and deep voice all he needs is a black suit and red cape to complete the whole creepy picture...especially in a cave!! I feared that one of us was going to get eaten by him, but we all managed to make it out...unbitten. As you can see from the pics, it is quite dark down there, so many of them didn't turn out. I have posted the best of the lot. As you can also see some of the guys decided to buy pipes today and were tickled to death by walking around puffing air through them and talking in fake British accents while pointing at stuff and saying "intellectual" things. It was quite entertaining.

Link (here)

Bottom picture is of St.Mary's Chapel, many wedding are preformed and Pope John Paul II has presided over Mass here. There is one portion of the tour that takes your breath away, the main cavern is about 200 feet high with a winding stair case, it has the feel that you are in Tolkien's "Mines of Moria". As the blog post says, their are various chapels, this is true most are no longer in use but are part of the tour, their primary function is/was for the miners to receive the Sacraments. In Poland their really is nowhere that the Church is not, this is one example of where the Church and Polish society are in unison, even two thousand feet below the surface.

Jesuit Landmark In Goa, India Built In 1594

Professed House of the Jesuits

by blenure on July 19, 2008
Also known as the Casa Professa, it was constructed by the Jesuits after some local opposition in 1594.

It was built in the center of the city on a square known as Terreiro dos Gallos. The house has no particular founder but owed its creation to the efforts of the Jesuit fathers of Goa.

It was a magnificent building in its time. The building that stands today is a part of the original edifice, some of its long corridors and spacious apartments having been destroyed by fire and some by time. After the expulsion of the Jesuits on September 26th 1759 from Goa, the house was placed under the care of the Archbishop of Goa. The Marquis of Pombal, architect of the expulsion decreed that the House be used as the Archbishop’s Palace and had it named House of Bom Jesus. The subsequent move of the capital to Panjim meant that this never materialized. Of note is that in one of the halls on the third floor, the Relics of the body of St. Francis Xavier was kept for 13 years.

On April 3 1956, the then Patriarch of Goa, Dom Jose Alvarez appointed Fr. Estanislau Martins S.J. as the administrator and rector of the Church of Bom Jesus. He actually began living in the Professed house from April 3oth 1956. The Jesuits finally returned to their house. Even today, they are only the administrators of the house, the ownership still lies with the Archdiocese of Goa.

The Professed House plays host to the Retreat Movement today. The second floor of the residence functions as the Retreat House for thousands of students both Christians and non-Christians across the nation, its mission being to help people to grow as “Lights of the World”.

Link (here)

Here Is A Switch: Anglican Priest Becomes A Catholic Jesuit

What Have 'ex-Anglicans' Done for us?
7/19/2008
The Catholic Herald (UK) (www.catholicherald.co.uk/)

Some excerpts.

LONDON (The Catholic Herald) - Last week, The Catholic Herald revealed that the Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, wants to lead his traditionalist flock into full communion with Rome.

The reaction of some Catholics was indignant. "The last thing we need is more ex-Anglicans," they groaned.

Such a response is not only un-Catholic; it also betrays depressing ignorance about the history of the post-Reformation Catholic Church in England. ..............

Meanwhile, one of Britain's most distinguished architectural historians, Anthony Symondson, is now a Jesuit priest, having left his Anglican ministry in the mid-1980s.

.............One of the blessings of the arrival of former Anglo-Catholics is that they bring with them precisely the skills needed to implement Pope Benedict XVI's liturgical reforms.

The best Anglo-Catholic liturgies - and by this I do not mean the most ornate - are performed with an attention to detail and a devotional intensity that arises partly out of the movement's need to prove a point - that they are true Catholics. Once received into the Church, the former Anglicans do not need to prove anything; but the intensity remains.

Many Anglo-Catholics "get" Pope Benedict's theology of worship in a way that some cradle Catholics do not. The next wave of Anglican conversions, if it comes, could be the most important of all.

Link (here)

Photo is of the nave at St Mary the Virgin in Wellingborough.

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. Writes On St. Paul

Mike Aquilina writes in his post entitled, Paul for All.

Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J., is a biblical scholar of remarkable depth, but he’s also a preacher and television host who can communicate to ordinary people. In St. Paul: Jubilee Year of the Apostle Paul Edition: A Bible Study for Catholics, has produced something rare indeed: a profound synthesis of St. Paul’s thinking on a variety of subjects, but in a form that’s digestible for parish groups and home Bible studies. His special focus is the Church’s sacraments, but he also touches upon other doctrinal, moral, and disciplinary issues. With this overview, we can recognize our present-day parishes in the congregations of so long ago. The Church is one, not only throughout the world, but through all time. This is the best introductory Bible study to Paul I’ve seen.

Link (here)

Mike Aqualina is an author or editor of more than a dozen books on Catholic history, doctrine, and devotion. He is vice president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology based in Steubenville, Ohio. Mike is co-host, with Scott Hahn, of “The Lamb’s Supper” (2001), “Hail, Holy Queen” (2002), “First Comes Love” (2003), “Lord, Have Mercy” (2004), and “Swear to God” (2005) — all airing on EWTN. He also appears regularly as a panelist on "The Weekly Roman Observer," broadcast by Catholic Familyland Network. Mike's career in publishing spans two decades, and hundreds of his articles have appeared in many periodicals and journals in the United States and abroad.

Link (here)

It Has Been 235 Years Since The Jesuit Suppression

On July 21 in 1773, Pope Clement XIV issued the brief, Dominus ac redemptor noster, officially dissolving the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The politically based suppression left conspicuous gaps in Roman Catholic education and foreign missions.

Link (here)

Painting is of Clement XIV

Jesuit Down Under On The Holy Father

Pope's deep sorrow
JAMES MASSOLA
20/07/2008 1

An excerpt.

The Pope made his apology at a mass at St Mary's Cathedral for seminarians and other young religious people.

One seminarian, who asked not to be named, said the feeling in the church was ''amazing''. ''First the congregation was surprised. Then we were moved to a deep appreciation of the significance of the moment,'' he said. ''YOU could see it in the faces of the other seminarians. Despite the formality of the ceremony, the thing which grabbed us was the deep humanity displayed by the Pope, unseen thus far, and quite without warning.''

Jesuit provincial Mark Raper said he had not been surprised by the apology, despite leading figures in the Pope's entourage warning in recent days that an apology was no certainty. ''He promised to do it. This apology comes right from the top and it catches all the important elements recognition of the betrayal of trust, justice, compassion and the need for prevention, as well as healing,''

Father Raper said. ''He affirmed what the church here has been trying to do in terms of reconciliation and healing. I think it is a powerful statement, affirming for victims, advocates and it is good leadership.''

Father Raper said the church's policy towards victims of sexual abuse supported compensation.

Link (here)

Jesuit Brother, 50 Years Of Service

Brother William Spokesfield, SJ, entered the Society of Jesus at age 42. He always had the desire to be a missionary. Brother William spent 20 years in Brazil as a “jack of all trades” doing anything that needed to be done to support the mission. When he returned to the United States, he took care of the retreat house. Brother now resides at Campion Center and will be 92 in January. Link (here)

Jesuit Legacy In Argentina

Catholic blog The Steel Lily post on their observations on their trip to the Jesuit mission.

We saw the Manzana de las Luces, an old Jesuit mission, on Thursday night and heard a choral concert; I played a solo concert on Friday for a group of my grandmother's friends, and they asked me when we were coming back; on Sunday after touring La Boca and seeing St. Felicitas (from the outside) we took the overnight bus to Alta Gracia, and here we are.

Here we saw the beautiful main church and the Jesuit mission museum.

There was furniture from the Jesuit time and from when it was the Viceroy's house, including everything from millstones to a spinning wheel to gorgeous bedroom and dining room furniture, and the forge in the back garden. There are still orange and lemon trees in the front courtyard and I was dying to pick some!

Link (here)

Excommunicated Priestess Has Jesuit Connections

3 women to be ordained Catholic priests in Boston
Excommunication automatic, church warns
Globe Staff / July 18, 2008

A expert.Three aspiring Catholic priests will be anointed and prayed over this weekend in an ordination liturgy that will resemble the traditional in most ways but one: The three being ordained are women. The ordination ceremony Sunday, at a historic Protestant church in the Back Bay, is the first such event to take place in Boston, one of the most Catholic cities in the nation.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, in accord with Vatican teaching, says the participants in the ordination ceremony will be automatically excommunicating themselves.

But the women being ordained say they are acting because they feel called to the priesthood and compelled to resist what they view as a wrong church teaching. "We're part of a prophetic tradition of disobeying an unjust law," said Gabriella Velardi Ward, a 61-year-old Staten Island architect with two children and five grandchildren,

who will be ordained along with Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore

and Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, N.J.

Read the full article (here)

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This is from Gloria Carpeneto's retreat discription at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, Maryland.

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JOURNEYING TOWARD THE LIGHT:

An Advent Retreat with the Labyrinth December 1 - 3, 2006

Gloria Carpeneto, D.Min, Ph.D
During this weekend retreat, we will begin our journey through Advent by walking and praying the labyrinth with others on the path. We will learn about the labyrinth, and how it has become a Christian symbol for pilgrimage. And as we prepare to walk with Mary toward the birth of Christ at Christmas, we will reflect on what each of us is being asked to bring to birth in our lives, both in this Christmas season, and in the New Year. Throughout the weekend, there will be adequate time for personal prayer, reflection, journaling, reading, group sharing, and several walks through the labyrinth, both individually and as a group of Advent pilgrims!

Gloria Carpeneto, D.Min., Ph.D. is a spiritual director, counselor, Master and practitioner of Reiki who has been working with the labyrinth for nearly ten years. She has designed and offered labyrinth workshops and retreats in retreat and spiritual centers on the East Coast. Dr. Carpeneto is a member of the Worldwide Veriditas Network of labyrinth facilitators, trained by (Episcopal priestess) Dr. Lauren Artress at the Episcopal Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

Gloria is currently working on a book that weaves the Spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius with the practice of walking the labyrinth, reflecting on both as tools for conversion, transformation, and growth.

Link to this page at the Jesuit Center (here)

Link to the romancatholicwomanpriests site (here)

Link to the womanpriests website (here)

The real Church teaching on woman priests (here) , Pope John Paul's ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS

Church teaching on Reiki (here)

The phoney Catholic ordination (here)

Latest update with video interview of Gloria Carpeneto (here)