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| Jack de Groot |
Former Jesuit Jack de Groot, head of Catholic aid agency Caritas, is slightly sceptical of this notion. The Jesuit spirituality is attractive - ''people are redeemed by God to do good things. It's a large vision with a bit of risk-taking and adventure, and intellectual rigour and robustness'' - but he thinks there is a myth and mystique about Jesuits, which they trade on and encourage. He says they struggle to collaborate and that they have lost inspiration as they lose control of their enterprises. Jesuit provincial Steve Curtin acknowledges there is some justice in de Groot's criticism. ''We are doing more now than we've ever done,'' he says. ''There's lay leadership in a lot of areas. It's an evolving partnership, but it's not easy for Jesuits to learn to work collaboratively. We've been trained to take the initiative and be out on the front line without a lot of support or help. Teamwork has not been our forte.''
Link (here) to the full article in The Age
2 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this article, especially the sentiment that: “…management can be pastoral.” Right now, we have Corporations that are shaping values and shaping governments in their own image.
I would love to see more Jesuits controlling and running major corporations (not as employees of secular corporations.) I think we have some good starting points in models such as “result oriented work environment” that emphasize results rather than process (and so maximize individual free will) and the book “The Joy of Work” (written by a religious person about his time as CEO of a Fortune 500 company.)
And I can’t imagine a better way to become positioned to address many problems in this world – while facing many problems to “shape the soul” of themselves and others.
Let's hope this ex-Jesuit is loyal to Caritas, but whoever appointed him should be removed.
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