"Help The Poor Help Themselves”

St. Xavier’s Social Service Society (SXSSS) is a charitable Jesuit organization in India that aims to “help the poor help themselves”. Founded in 1976 by Fr. Ramiro Erviti, S.J., a teacher at Loyola School, along with other staff members through its Social Service League (SSL) outreach program that went out with their students to slums of Ahmedabad in the 60’s. The program later took the formal shape of the SXSSS. It’s initiatives to meet the aim of empowering the poor include projects in education, self-help, facilitation and others, all of which can be found on the website.

LINK
St. Xavier’s Social Service Society

The Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception In Baclayon

Baclayon, in the eastern part of Bohol, is the first municipality established by the Spaniards where one can find the historic Baclayon Church, as well as many ancestral houses. 

Originally called Bacayan—because travelers used to detour (bacay) around a rocky cliff along the shore to avoid going over the top of the cliff—the town was founded in 1595 by two Jesuit priests, Fr. Juan de Torres and Fr. Gabriel Sanchez, who also built a stone church, 

which is considered the oldest stone church in the country.

Link (here) to the Business Mirror

PRODH

"PRODH was founded in 1988 by members of the Society of Jesus in Mexico, as a response to the climate of increasing state repression against social activists, Church leaders and political dissidents. The Jesuits created this centre as a means of fighting for the human rights of the general population, which at that particular time, was experiencing great suffering under an authoritarian regime.

Link (here)

Fr. James Martin, S.J. On Bloggers, Sr. Margaret Mary McBride, Fr. Ladislas Orsy, S.J. And Bishop Olmsted

This is a small excerpt of a larger piece by Fr. James Martin, S.J. on the excommunication of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride by Bishop Olmsted.

And he (referring to a blogger) disagrees with Ladislas Orsy, S.J., professor of canon law at Georgetown University, who has also taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Fordham University, the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and is the author of numerous books on canon law.  Fr. Orsy wrote about the case in a Letter to The (London) Tablet.  

Link (here) to the full post by Fr. James Martin. S.J. at In All Things.

"An Unborn Child Is Not A Disease" Bishop Thomas Olmsted

In a medical crisis, the unborn child possesses the same inalienable right to life as an adult patient and must be treated with equal respect. Bishop Olmsted confirmed this point in a public statement issued last month.  

“An unborn child is not a disease. While medical professionals should certainly try to save a pregnant mother’s life, the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child. The end does not justify the means,” stated the bishop.  

“We always must remember that when a difficult medical situation involves a pregnant woman, there are two patients in need of treatment and care, not merely one.”

 

Link (here) to the National Catholic Register article entitled, Questions Remain in the Phoenix Excommunication.

Jesuit Speaking Of Another Jesuit

At his funeral, all the words of praise for  Fr. Robert Drinan's commitment to "human rights" dripped with unintended irony, when viewed through a pro-life lens. The Reverend Ladislas Orsy, S.J., declared that "he was a voice for those who have no voice." 

Link (here) to First Things

Professor Ladislas Orsy, S.J. In A letter To Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

In reference to excommunication, however, I have consistently held (and do hold) as follows:

Automatic excommunication (latae sententiae) should have no place in modern canon law because it is an anachronism; it compels a person to be the accused and the judge in his own case and it allows persons and communities to be condemned without the benefit of a hearing. Such a procedure is hardly in harmony with the Scriptures and it offends contemporary sensitivities concerning human rights.
In our age in doctrinal matters excommunication is not an effective policy to lead an errant soul back to the “obedience of faith”. St. Peter Canisius, a person vastly experienced in dealing with rebellion against faith. pleaded repeatedly with his Superiors to do what they can to convince the Roman authorities not to use the weapon of excommunication against the Reformers; it only consummated a breach that perhaps could have been healed. His respected biographer, James Brodrick writes:

The Bull, In Coena Domini, {by Pius IV) which was so named because issued afresh each Holy Thursday, made him {Peter Canisius) very sad when it reached him in April, 1564, as it contained nothing but threats and prohibitions. “Would to God”,he wrote, “that we could find some means of helping both pastors and people in the present great corruption, especially as every mortal thing seems full of excommunications. Nobody cares to give a little aid and consolation to the unhappy pastors who still sweat and labor for the religion that is dear to them”. This was, Brodrick continues, “an old complaint” of the Saint who desired “to secure a more kindly treatment for Germans in the matter of ecclesiastical censures, and to obtain greater consideration in Rome for parish priests who desire and are able to help the Catholic cause”.(7) 

Link (here) to read the full letter

Fathers Maurizio Flick, S.J. And Zoltan Alszeghy, S.J. With Angels

When we speak of angels "to the good angels, that is personal beings who praise God, help people, serve them and are united God and the saints in the eternal happiness of heaven. The Devils, however, are personal beings, with the same natural perfections of the angels, however, rebelled against God, attempting to destroy and hinder his work and are condemned to eternal punishment." Regarding the origin of the division between angels and devils, it must be said that "the foundation of this division is a sin freely committed by demons."

The biblical texts of Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 12-15 and 28.12 for the Old Testament and Lk 10.18, Jn 12:31, Rev 12, 7-8, Jude 6 and 2 Pet 2.4 New Testament traditionally argued that the fall of angels in Christian preaching is not enough for the second Father Maurizio Flick, S.J. and Fr. Zoltan Alszeghy, S.J. theological affirmation that in them the sacred writers commit their authority to affirm the objective truth of that fact of the angelic fall. . As the doctrine of the Fathers, there is unanimity in the certainty that the sin of these angels turned into demons, and in turn the diversity in the description of angelic sin.  In any case, the Fathers do not doubt in saying that when some angels sinned, as did the faith.  The theological reason according to these two theologians, shows a special significance on this topic. . If you deny the sin in the angelic world, you get two heretical and absurd: the handle that allows the existence of one or more of the principles of evil and independent from God, or an admission that the good God has created beings who are bad by nature.  How magisterial documents which have the sin of the devil as belonging to the faith and Flick Alszeghy mention the canon of the council of Prague 7 of 561 (cf. DH 457), profession of faith sets the Waldenses by Innocent III (cf. DH 790), and the condemnation of error dualist Albigensian in the fourth Lateran council (cf. DH 800).  It is precisely the definition of that council which proposes the doctrine of angelic sin as the basis of the distinction between good and bad angels as a dogma of faith: "The devil and other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but for them themselves became bad ".

Link (here) to the blog post entitled, originally written in Italian by Fr. Marcello Stanzione's at his website of an organization called The Militia of St. Michael the Archangel
Painting of the Archangel Michael (here)

New Jesuit Priest Ordianed In St. Louis

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson ordained Father Kevin B. Dyer to the priesthood for the Society of Jesus on June 12 at St. Francis Xavier "College" Church in Midtown St. Louis. Father Dyer, 35, is the son of David and Judy Dyer of St. Paul Parish in St. Paul. After graduating from St. Dominic High School in O'Fallon, he attended St. Louis University, where he met a number of Jesuits who inspired his religious vocation. After graduation from St. Louis University, he attended law school at Georgetown University for a year before applying to the Jesuit novitiate, entering in August 1999. He professed his vows in 2001.

Link (here)

Fr. Geoffrey King, SJ On The Excommunication Of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride

Abortion and excommunication

As a canonist I was taken aback by Bishop Olmstead’s declaration of a latae sententiae excommunication in the case of Sr Margaret Mary McBride. The immorality of Sr McBride’s action in giving advice that the termination of the pregnancy is at very least open to question, as Charles Curran (5 June) indicates. But I would argue on more narrowly canonical grounds that Bishop Olmstead’s declaration of a latae sententiae penalty is unjustified.
Canon 1329§2 deals with accomplices in a delict, and imposes a latae sententiae penalty only on those without whose cooperation the relevant offence would not have been committed. Laws imposing penalties must be interpreted strictly (canon 18). It seems to me that in the strict sense Sr McBride’s ethical advice was not indispensable to the termination of pregnancy.

Even if this argument were to be rejected, there would remain the even more significant list of factors that in effect excuse from a latae sententiae penalty. These are enumerated in canon 1324, and include motivation from necessity or even grave incommodum – which is a bit more than “serious inconvenience”, but still a rubric under which saving a human life would surely fall. Even if one erroneously believes that such a factor is present, it is enough to excuse from the penalty. Canon 1324§1 ends with the more general statement that one who acts without full imputability, even where the imputability remains grave, is not bound by a latae sententiae penalty (cf. canon 1324§3). Given that we are dealing with a disputed moral question, and that Sr McBride was surely motivated by the desire to save a woman’s life, her imputability surely falls short of being “full”.

Whether Sr McBride acted rightly is perhaps open to argument, but it is a huge canonical step from a wrong action to an offence meriting excommunication.

Fr. Geoffrey King, SJ

Link (here) to the Tablet.

Brigade Of The Sacred Heart

The whole idea of his arrangements was borrowed from the constitutions and rules of the Society of Jesus; so much so, indeed, that—to quote the words of one of the kind contributors to his obituary, who was himself at the College,— 

"Those who came afterwards to learn the rules of the Society, were surprised to find that they had been keeping these same rules unconsciously, and perhaps when their thoughts were but little directed to the religious state."  

His general method in carrying on this grand work in the best interests of the little ones of Jesus and Mary, may be more clearly understood by the following interesting extract from a letter written by a Father, who for six years was a master under his presidency: " His Brigade of the Sacred Heart was his special and favourite work for the spiritual good of the scholars. Many were the experiments through which a candidate had to pass, before he reached full membership ; and when he succeeded in attaining what I may call his profession, then he became a marked boy "— that is to say a boy of mark—"

Link (here) to the mentioned portion of the book entitled Memoir of Father James Harris, S.J.

Vested Here In The Purple Cassock

Here is a wonderful photo of Fr. Tim Ofrasio, S.J., professor of Liturgy at the Loyola School of Theology at the Ateneo de Manila University. 

He is vested here in the purple cassock and laced surplice as MC of the ordination to the diaconate of Filipino Jesuits. This is found in his Facebook profile. Fr. Tim is one of the eminent liturgists of the Philippines. 

He is the good one, if you get what I mean. He celebrated the EF Mass at the Parish of the Lord of the Divine Mercy in Sikatuna Village in Quezon City. He also celebrates regular TLM at the University.

Link (here) to The Pinoy Catholic

Climate Change Jesuits

Anyone who wants to know what science has to say about global warming (and the legitimate areas for uncertainties) should read James Hansen’s  2009 magisterial book, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. Hansen carefully documents why human green house gas is the culprit “forcing” climate change and , then, discusses, with great care, some remaining uncertainties about possible feed-backs  mechanisms which lead scientists to debate, somewhat, about timing, the amount of possible increases of greenhouse gas which can be absorbed , etc.

Link (here) to the full post, Merchants of Doubt  at America's blog in In All Things by Fr. John Coleman, S.J. 

Other Jesuits on climate change.

Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli speculated that fluctuations in the number of sunspots might be to blame, for he had noticed they were absent. Looking back through sunspot records reveals many periods when the Sun's activity was high and low and in general they are related to warm and cool climatic periods. As well as the Little Ice Age, there was the weak Sun and the cold Iron Age, the active sun and the warm Bronze Age. 

Link (here)

Fr. Jerome Sixtus Ricard, S.J. spent his early years in France. Born in Plaisians, France, on January 21, 1850, he attended public schools in Plaisians and the Jesuit Colleges at Avignon, France and Turin, Italy. In 1871, he joined the Society of Jesus in Monaco, and later became a member of the Turin Province of the Society of Jesus. In 1873, Jerome came to America and studied philosophy at Santa Clara College in California for several years. He was ordained in 1886, and completed his Jesuit training at Florissant, Missouri, in 1891. Then he returned to Santa Clara to teach ethics, mathematics, political economy, and history. About 1890, Father Ricard enrolled in a summer astronomy course at Creighton University and discovered that he had a passion for sunspots. In 1900, he began a systematic study of sunspots with an 8-inch telescope mounted in the Mission Gardens. The American Association for the Advancement of Science elected him a member in 1907. By then he had perfected his controversial theory, the ideal that sunspot activity affects the weather on earth.

Link (here) 

Young Jesuits In Afganistan

Three young Indian Jesuit seminarians about to head off to war-ravaged Afghanistan, say mission work there will make their religious commitment more meaningful. David Raj, 28, Lancy Dias, 27, and Alex Yagoo, 28, volunteered to work in Afghanistan to recapture their congregation’s original spirit of going to new and dangerous places to spread Christ’s message. Dias will go to Herat, Raj will go either to Herat or Kabul, while Yagoo will go to Bamiyan, where Jesuits have been working for the past five years.

Link (here) to the full story with a picture of the young Jesuits.

Field Of Vision

Fr. Robert Thul, S.J. told me that I had to narrow my field of vision so that I could only see this one spectacular thing. I expected that to be the beautiful face of my Beloved. Fr. Thul pulled a fast one on me, however. The one spectacular person I was to look at was not Jesus, but myself. He said to only look at what is good about me. Uhhhhh. Right. But I began. I'm still working on it, and it ain't easy!

Link (here) to Ragamuffin Diva to read the full blog post.

Spanish Jesuit In Cagayan de Oro

Spaniard Fr. Jorge Beneito, S.J. lived in Peru for most of his Jesuit life. He arrived in Cagayan de Oro last June 12 and will be teaching Scriptures and Christology. He says he is getting used to the warm weather in Cagayan de Oro, also after having been in Manila for the past 4 months. He lived in the cool and mountainous area of Cuzco in Peru. Father Jorge hopes to stay in Cagayan de Oro until February 2011

Link (here) to the blog of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in the Philippines.

Fr. Richard Leonard, S.J. And Glass Doors On Tabernacles

This piece is from Fr. Z at WDTPRS, below is an excerpt of Father John's comments.

The Precious Blood may not be reserved except in very rare cases when a tiny amount from Mass may be kept for Communion of sick people who absolutely cannot take even the smallest amount of solids or gluten, etc.Otherwise, if a tabernacle had a door made from something that was a strong as the glass that goes into military vehicles in Afghanistan, then I suppose it would be okay.  In any event, it should be veiled.  The veil, not the sanctuary lamp, is the best sign of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

Link (here) to read the full post. 
More on Fr. Richard Leonard, S.J. (here)

New Canadian Jesuits

On June 5, 2010, the Most Rev. Terrence T. Prendergast, S.J., ordained John David Meehan, S.J., and Teofilo Castro Ugaban, S.J., to the priesthood at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Toronto.

Link (here) to read their bio's at the Canadian Jesuits website.

New Orleans Jesuit On Home Schoolers And Athletics

La. House Bill 303, proposed by Jefferson Parish Representative Cameron Henry-R was voted on and passed by a margin of 22-10 today by the Louisiana State Senate. The bill which will take affect beginning with the 2010-2011 school year will permit qualified home schooled students to participate in athletic programs that are members of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA).

According to the legislation, home schooled student's will be subject to the same residency and academic requirements as their on ground counterparts in order to be eligible as a qualified participant in the school's athletic program. The bill also establishes each LHSAA schools' principal as the final decision making authority in the matter.

In a document issued by the LHSAA, Father Anthony McGinn, S.J. of Jesuit High School in New Orleans wrote these “talking points” concerning home school students’ participation at an LHSAA school.
1. It destroys any sense of school spirit and identification of the team with the school
2. It symbolically raises athletics to an importance greater than schooling
3. It will be very difficult to administer from the view of school discipline
4. It could create a financial burden on schools that are not compensated for the expenses incurred by the home schooled players
5.It has its origin in individualism and personal rights and freedom from state control, but it uses the power of the state for the benefit of a very small minority

Link (here)

New York City Jesuit Parish And Archbishop Timothy Dolan

St. Francis Xavier parish in New York City is defying Archbishop Dolan’s request and planning to participate in the “Pr!de March” scheduled for June 27. 

According to informed sources, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, wrote Father Joe Costantino, SJ, the Pastor of St. Francis, to say he would not like to see any group participate in the Pr!de March under the parish banner. 

In spite of this directive from the Archbishop the LGB/T ministries and their family and friends hand out brochures about the Church of St. Francis Xavier encouraging participation in the event.

Read full article and the text of the flier (here) at Pewsitter.

The Life Of St. Francis Borgia Of The Society Of Jesus By A. M. Clarke

Kessinger Publishing specializes in reprints of rare, scarce, and out-of-print books. These are frequently facsimile editions of the original works and often the only version of the original text available. But, please note before purchasing: because of the condition of the original texts and difficulty in reproducing them, the reprints are sometimes difficult to read.

Link (here)

Documents of the Thirty First and Thirty Second General Congregations of the Society of Jesus, 

by John Padberg

Link (here) to Ebay

Jesuit On Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi

What was it like delivering an invocation before Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as Speaker of the House?
The invitation from Speaker Pelosi to deliver the invocation at her swearing-in was a great grace and wonderful surprise. 

I have heard her say so many times in so many places that her parents raised her “to be holy.”  

Whether one agrees with her politics or not, she is a woman of faith whose commitment to public service reflects her desire to live St. Francis’ prayer -- to be “an instrument of peace” and “bring hope to those in despair and light to those in darkness.”  You may argue with the means but you cannot argue with her goals.

Link (here) to the text of the full interview at the San Francisco Examiner with Fr. Stephan Privett, S.J. the president of the University of San Francisco

Jesuit On The Sacred Heart Of Jesus And Ascetical Mystics

Jesuit devotion to the Sacred Heart, however, did not actually begin with St. Margaret Mary. In fact, the devotion had already achieved a quasi-public status among the faithful by the middle of the 16^th Century, complete with specially formulated prayers and a battery of pious practices.  

Jesuit ascetical writers and mystics, such as Fr. Alvarez de Paz, St. Francis Borgia, St. Peter Canisius, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, and St. Alphonsus Rodriguez were practicing and promoting this form of the devotion decades before Christ prescribed to St. Margaret Mary its official form (i.e., celebrating the Solemnity on the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi, observing the monthly First Friday devotion, hoping in the twelve promises, etc.).  

This is hardly surprising.  It’s hard to see how a devotion to the divine-human love of Christ could not appeal to an order dedicated to the “salvation of souls” and accustomed to contemplating the Incarnation after the method of the Spiritual Exercises.

Link (here) to Jesuit Scholastic Aaron Pidel's full post at Whosoeverdesires

Seminary And Mission Bureau

Jesuit Seminary & Mission Bureau
39 E 83rd StNew York, NY 10028-0810 map

Jesuit Seminary & Mission Bureau is a private company categorized under Churches and located in New York, NY. Our records show it was established in 1947 and incorporated in New York. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of 2,994,168 and employs a staff of approximately 9.
Link (here) to Manta

Vocations To The Priesthood Must Be Prayed For

This remarkable woman made a habit of praying for an hour each day before the Blessed Sacrament in the house chapel at Courtfield. She prayed to God for a large family and for many religious vocations among her children. And her prayers were heard! 

She gave life to 14 children and died shortly after the birth of the last child, John, in 1853. one of the fourteen children was Fr Bernard Vaughan ~ a Jesuit priest who traveled the world extensively, preaching. Here is his biography. 

Of the 13 children that lived, six of her eight boys became priests: two priests in religious orders, one diocesan priest, a bishop, an archbishop and a cardinal. From the five daughters, four became nuns in religious orders. 

Link (here) to read the remarkable story of Eliza Vaughan at the blog entitled, Spiritual Motherhood for Priests

U Turn

In a news release Wednesday, Marquette's president, the Rev. Robert A. Wild, S.J., said: "We deeply regret the upset and unwanted attention that we caused this outstanding teacher and scholar, and we are grateful for the graciousness with which she has handled this matter in the weeks since the decision was announced."

Link (here) to the Seattle Times article

Marquette officials said that Jodi O’Brien, a sociology professor who is openly g@y and writes about gender and sexuality, had written “strongly negative statements about marriage and the family,”

Link (here) to the Spectator Blog 

Fr. James Martin, S.J. On The Sacred Heart Of Jesus And Dopey Looks

The Sacred Heart of Jesus has been part of the mission and spirituality of the Society of Jesus, aka the Jesuits. 

But lately the devotion has been viewed by many in as "outmoded" in the post-Vatican II Catholic world. Too many kitschy dime-store paintings of the Sacred Heart, too many cheesy statues where Jesus has a dopey look on his face, 

seemed to have doomed this devotion to spiritual obscurity and religious irrelevance.

Link (here) to Father Martin at The Huffington Post 

Business Profile

Society of Jesus-Jesuits is a private company categorized under Churches and located in Chicago, IL. Our records show it was established in 1928 and incorporated in Illinois. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $2.5 to 5 million and employs a staff of approximately 20 to 49.

Link (here) to the full blog post at Manta.

Watch St.Louis University's live web-cam perched atop the clock tower (here)

The Buddhist purchased the Jesuit retreat house at the Auriesville Shrine a few years ago. (here)

The Catholic Marquette University "Pays Off" The Non-Catholic, Non-Employee For Not Being Catholic

Throughout my tenure as president, I have vigorously defended the academic freedom of various faculty members – in the face of statements from bishops, in support of the breadth of intellectual inquiry that makes a university strong, and in making promotion and tenure decisions. And I will continue to do so. I certainly respect the rights of our faculty to pursue any research in their own fields of expertise, including scholarly investigation of gender, sexuality and identity. While the events of the past few weeks have raised questions about Marquette’s commitment to the LGB/T community on campus, s@xual orientation was not a factor in my decision. I remain firmly and fully committed to and supportive of the university’s efforts to improve faculty and student diversity. Throughout my administration, and with my active support, openly gay faculty and staff.

Link (here) to the latest in the "Jesuit g@y wars" by Marquette University President Fr. Robert A. Wild, S.J.

Read (here) the official release on the unspecified financial settlement with Dr. Jodi O'Brien 

Jesuit On Holy Orders, Transubstantiation And The Year Of The Priest

The Year of the Priest ends this week. Suitably enough, it ends in the week that began with the Feast of Corpus Christi which is one where the Eucharist gets focus. One of the heresies common among Catholics - I've even heard it from priests - is that the supreme significance of priesthood is that from Ordination on, the priest has the power to change bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord. It was put that starkly by one commentator responding to my recent blog on the Real Presence of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist.

Link (here) to CathNews, the post entitled, The Destructiveness of Clericalism written by an Australian Jesuit Priest, Fr. Micheal Kelly.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church

1336 The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples, just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them: "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" The Eucharist and the Cross are stumbling blocks. It is the same mystery and it never ceases to be an occasion of division. "Will you also go away?": the Lord's question echoes through the ages, as a loving invitation to discover that only he has "the words of eternal life" and that to receive in faith the gift of his Eucharist is to receive the Lord himself.

The institution of the Eucharist

1337 The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love. In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and Resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; "thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament."

Link (here)

 

Jesuit On St. Thomas Aquinas And The Feast Of The Corpus Christi

I would like to invite your prayerful reflection on one of the most important liturgical texts of the day,

the sequence Lauda Sion, which St. Thomas Aquinas composed for Corpus Christi shortly after Pope Urban IV prescribed the celebration of the feast throughout the Latin Church. 

Meant to be intoned immediately before the proclamation of the Gospel, this sequence has remained a part of the liturgy to this very day, though I suspect that relatively few contemporary Roman Catholics have the opportunity to hear it sung during Mass.

Link (here) to the post Corpus Christi at the blog entitled City and the World by Jesuit Scholastic Joseph Koczera.

Fr. Gerald E. LeClaire, S.J. "Rest In Peace"

Father Gerald E LeClaire, S.J., former principal of Sherubtse College in Kanglung, passed away at the Jesuit infirmary in Pickering, Ontario, on Sunday May 23. He was 82. A selfless and dedicated educator, Father LeClaire, from Montreal, Quebec, served as principal of St Joseph’s college in Darjeeling, before taking over as principal of Sherubtse college in the late ‘70s, when Father Mackey moved to Khaling to establish Jigme Sherubling higher secondary school. Although stern sometimes, he always lent an attentive ear to the students’ various grievances. He had many old Sherubtse history students enthralled with his lively and fascinating classes.

Link (here) to the full article at Buhtan's Kuensel Newspaper.

The Jesuit Of The "Pre-Embryo"

The Sacred Choices tome is nothing new for those who refuse to accept the fact that a human being begins at his biological beginning. Dan Maguire  of Marquette University was merely following in the footsteps of others in his category, including Richard McCormick, S.J,, the infamous theologian/priest who suggested that there were such things as nuanced positions, not only on abortion per se, but regarding the actual beginning of the life of a preborn person. It was he, among others, who coined the term (pictured) "pre-embryo", which is simply a meaningless term designed to dehumanize the person prior to implantation.

Link (here) to read Judi Brown's article entitled Agony, Mercy and Murder at Renew America

Jesuit Archbishop To Be A Part Of Irish Apostalic Visitation

THE FORMER Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, is to take part in a special inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland. The Vatican announced earlier this week that the Apostolic Visitation, as it is known, will be made up of five senior prelates.

They include Cardinal Murphy O’Connor, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Boston, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, New York, Archbishop Thomas Collins, Toronto, and Archbishop Terence Prendergast SJ, Ottawa.

The clergymen, all of Irish descent, have played leading roles in investigating and responding to allegations of sexual abuse and Church mishandling of abuse in their own countries.

Link (here) to the full article.

Five New Jesuit Priests From Ranchi Province India

(Top, L-R) 

Fr. Anuranjan Hassa Purty, Sarwada; Fr. Sanjay Dilip Ekka, Patrachauli;
(Below, L-R) 

Fr. Rajenius Barla, Lachragarh; Fr. Bruno Toppo, Noadih; Fr. Vijay Kumar Minj, Mandar.

Link (here)

From Chef To Ordination As A Jesuit Priest

The Rev. Robert Pecoraro will be one of two Jesuit priests ordained by Archbishop Timothy Dolan at Fordham University Church (pictured) ordon June 12, 10:30 a.m. Father Pecoraro, 43, was born on Staten Island and is the older of the two sons of Geraldine and the late Robert Pecoraro. He grew up in Rosebank, graduated from Monsignor Farrell High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in food systems management from New York College at Buffalo. For years, he worked as a private-sector chef, culinary instructor and restaurant consultant. He taught at the New York School for Food and Hotel Management in Manhattan. But it was a job running the food service department at Mount Manresa in Fort Wadsworth at age 31 that deepened his spiritual journey. “I helped with the retreats and it became more and more evident that I wasn’t just supposed to help out with the Jesuits, but be a Jesuit,”

Link (here) to the full article.

Jesuits On Immigration Politics

The Jesuits are asking for legislation based on five core principals shared by the USCCB's Justice for Immigrants Campaign.

1. A path to legalization that ensures undocumented immigrants have access to full rights.

2. A legal employment structure for future workers that protects both migrants and United States workers.

3. Expedited family reunification and emphasis on family unity.

4. The need for due process and humane enforcement of our immigration laws.

5. Economic development assistance and fair market access for developing countries.

For the complete text of the letter, go (here)

Link (here) to the full article at Oregon on Faith

Link (here) to a very interesting article from 1891 with heavy Jesuit influence in Philippino immigration.

Boldino Monastery Was Once Administered By The Jesuits For 40 Years

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill consecrated the Trinity Cathedral at the Boldino Monastery in the central Russian Smolensk Region on Sunday, the Russian All Saints’ Day. About a 2,000 people attended the ceremony, including Smolensk Region governor Sergei Antufyev. The monastery was founded in 1528 by Reverend Herasim. No war that ravaged on the lands of Smolensk Region passed it by.

In the second half of the 17th century during the Polish-Swedish invasion it was held by Jesuits for more than 40 years. 

It was ruined by Napoleonic troops in 1812. The monastery was shut in 1929 and turned into a museum and then into a grain warehouse. Then, in 1943, the retreating German troops blew up its churches and belfry. Finally, in 1990, the Boldino monastery was returned to the church. By now, all its edifices, including the 30-metre-high seven-dome Trinity Cathedral, have been fully restored. The Patriarch awarded the Order of St Seraphim of Sarov of third degree to the monastery’s superior, Archimandrite Antony, and handed over the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.

Link (here) to the full article

Play Jesuit Hangman

 

Newly ordained Jesuit priest of the New Orleans Province 

Fr. Anthony Barrow, S.J.  

has a personal website he a game on the site called "Jesuit Hangman".

You can play it (here).

Bavarian Jesuit And Engineering Innovations

Christoph Scheiner was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt, a city in Bavaria, Germany. From 1603 through 1605, he taught humanities at a Jesuit school in the district of Dillingen. Scheiner invented the Pantograph in 1603. Some 27 years later, in 1631, he wrote and published Pantographice, which explains his invention.Pantograph, from Book Pantographice seu ars delineandi, Page 29 The pantograph is used to make a copy of a figure at a reduced or enlarged scale. The Canadian Centre of Architecture’s collection of drawing instruments includes a pantograph, made in England in the early nineteenth century.

Link (here) to the post entitled Enduring Form and Tool in the Pantograph at the blog called Metal Miner.

Pro Abortion Former Priest Dan Maguire Stirring Up More Trouble At Marquette

So what does the administration at Marquette mean when they say Dr. Jodi O'Brien lacks "the ability to represent the Marquette mission and identity"? Is she unable to work for the greater glory of God because of Rev. Wild's estimation of her views on family? 

Dr. Daniel Maguire, a long-time theology professor at Marquette University, wrote a scathing open letter to Rev. Wild and the Marquette administration. I interviewed Dr. Maguire, whose disappointment was palpable. "I criticize the theology department; the administration made their case (against Dr. O'Brien) with Catholic teaching without consulting the theological experts on campus," said Maguire. 

He says these theological experts "have sat on their hands." Maguire explained that Marquette's administration has performed an "anti-Catholic action"

Link (here) to Tyler Mahoney's article at the lefty Huffington Post

An Interview Of Fr. Stephen Sundborg, S.J.

I think all of us realize that the Jesuit universities are sitting on a goldmine that no one else has an opportunity to mine, 

which is this international network of higher education institutions with a common mission. Who else has that? 

And what would it be like if faculty had the opportunity to do joint scholarship with faculty from Latin America and India on issues of poverty or the Millennial Goals or sustainability or peace issues?

Link (here) to the full interview of Fr. Stephen Sundborg, S.J. at Seattle Commons.

Three Jesuits To Be Ordained To The Priesthood

The Jesuits of the New Orleans Province celebrates its 2010 ordination class of three men who will be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, June 5, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. Archbishop of Mobile, Thomas J. Rodi, will preside over Mass and the ordination in St. Joseph’s Chapel at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. 

Link (here) to find out who is being ordained

How Much Do You Know About St. Edmund Campion, S.J.?

1. When was St. Edmund Campion born?
a) 25 January 1540
b) 19 May 1536
c) 22 September 1527
d) 9 December 1529

2. Where was St. Edmund Campion born?
a) Bristol
b) London
c) Liverpool
d) Cambridge

3. At which university did St. Edmund Campion teach?
a) Yale
b) Harvard
c) Edinburgh
d) Oxford

4. Where was St. Edmund Campion received in the Catholic Church?
a) Cardiff
b) Belfast
c) Douai
d) Paris

5. Which order did Edmund Campion join?
a) Order of Preachers
b) Oblates of Mary Immaculate
c) Society of Jesus
d) Order of Friars Minor

6. When did St. Edmund Campion distribute the pamphlet Decem rationes?
a) 5 March 1574
b) 27 June 1581
c) 24 August 1577
d) 1 December 1571

7. What did St. Edmund Campion Decem rationes denounce?
a) Rationalism
b) Existentialism
c) Anglicanism
d) Calvinism


8. When did St. Edmund Campion die?
a) 5 March 1584
b) 6 April 1592
c) 12 July 1597
d) 1 December 1581

9. Who canonized St. Edmund Campion?
a) John XXIII
b) Paul VI
c) Pius VIII
d) Clement IX

10. When is the feast day of St. Edmund Campion?
a) 1 December
b) 6 April
c) 12 July
d) 25 October

Link (here) to read the answers.

Dedicated Jesuits Are Willing And Able

Santa Clara County in California has threatened to eliminate the Masses, which have been offered at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose for more than 25 years, as a cost-cutting measure and to downplay Catholicism in favor of a more ecumenical viewpoint. The county had planned to terminate the Masses in February.

“Valley Medical Center had intended to end the Mass and regular priestly visits for two reasons: to save the county an annual $30,000 it had contracted with the diocese, and to develop a program that better reflected the rainbow of religions in the county, and not just spend money on Catholic rituals,” the Mercury News reported May 26. “Thus far no other religious group has asked for regular services at the hospital, although clergy members from various faiths do visit when patients request them.”

But, when 76-year-old Theresa Asquith learned in late February only one more Mass was planned at the hospital, “she phoned up high-powered players to uphold the religious tradition,” the newspaper reported. Asquith, said the Mercury News, is “the retired co-founder of Mother's Milk Bank, who has attended Mass at the county hospital for more than 25 years.”

Among the leaders who became involved was Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese, a parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi Church in San Jose, who contacted all the parties involved, according to the newspaper. “Over the past three months, this agreement has been hammered out by Cortese, the California Province of the Society of Jesus, the vicar general at the Diocese of San Jose, and Sylvia Gallegos, acting director of the Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System,” said the Mercury News.

The details of the compromise, said the San Jose newspaper, include: “The two Jesuit priests, the Revs. Gene Corbett and William Stout, who are both semiretired and in their 70s, will continue to lead Saturday and Sunday Mass in the meditation room, for free, as long as they are willing and able."

Link (here) to the full article at the California Catholic Daily.

Fr. James Martin, S.J. Is Depressed

Today’s front-page story in The New York Times, "Prospective Catholic Priests Face S@xuality Hurdles," by Paul Vitello, about the exclusion and weeding out of g@y men from seminaries and religious formation houses, made for depressing reading. Why depressing?  Several reasons.

Link (here) to read the full blog post entitled, Weeding Out G@ys From The Seminaries by Fr. James Martin, S.J.

A German Jesuit Priest Called Father Bertram

"From 1957 to 1990, I beat several hundred children and adolescents of both sexes on their exposed buttocks, in nearly painless symbolic acts of punishment," he wrote in a report in 1991. 

Link (here) to a detailed article at Cleveland.com
Watch a video news account from Rome Reports (here)

On Praying For The Society Of Jesus

The Golden Jubilee Committee for the 50th anniversary celebration of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church in Selangor, Malaysia invites parishioners to pledge their presence before the Blessed Sacrament to pray for our beloved Jesuit priests

Link (here)

Your Darling Dr. Bert

Noreen Wood made her first suicide attempt in August of that year and was sent to the Melbourne Clinic - the first of 10 admissions over the next four years. Meanwhile, 

Fr. Herbert Balding, S.J.  (here) , (here) and (here) was moved to the Jesuit centre at Sevenhill in South Australia, where he wrote to her that the ''shrinks are not doing you any good. It's time to put yourself into the hands of your darling Dr Bert''. Somehow, he persuaded her husband and her psychiatrist that she needed a holiday, and he arranged for her to come to Sevenhill, where he would try to have sex with her while the other Jesuits said Mass next door. 

After Wood's husband, suspicious by now, complained to the police and the Melbourne vicar-general, Balding was sent to Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory in 1979. From there he rang her so often that the bishop queried the phone bill, Wood says, while she got sicker and sicker. In 1983, he returned to Melbourne as emergency chaplain at St Vincent's and wanted to resume his relationship with Wood, who had separated from her husband. She refused. In 1987, a friend suggested another Melbourne Jesuit priest as someone she could talk to. She met the priest - who she now calls an opportunistic predator - in his room at the Jesuits' house in Parkville. After a long conversation, she says he kissed her on her mouth. Wood says she threatened another suicide attempt, so the Jesuit arranged for her to stay with his mother. It was New Year's Eve, and the mother went out to visit friends, leaving the priest to look after her.

''All his talk was of a s@xual nature. He was using f--- and worse. I'm not stupid, I know when a guy's getting revved up. He's telling me about his e...@ulations and drinking. He pushes me against the wall and tells me in explicit language what he'd like to do to me. But when someone walks past the unit he jumps away. ''He told me the only reason he didn't do what he wanted was because 'it would look as if every f---ing Jesuit was f---ing me'.'' 

Later, when Wood asked him why he behaved like that, she says he told her he had to stop her ''coming on'' to him - he had to speak that way as a form of shock treatment.

Link (here) to the full article at the Australian national newspaper The Age. 

Photo is of St Aloysius Church, Sevenhill, in the Clare Valley, South Australia  
 
Background and further details can be found at
 Melbourne women in legal row over abuse claim at CathNews
Row over abuse claim settlement at The Age

Jesuit Threat Letter

From the teller window, the midday drop-box deposit looked mundane.

The mysterious reference to "Jesuits" on the note wasn't. Neither was the death threat against (pictured) Henry McMaster, the state's attorney general and a candidate for governor. 

The note has State Law Enforcement Division agents guarding McMaster around the clock and asking the public for help to identify the person who dropped the note. 

Link (here) to read the full piece at The Post and Courier

On Memorial Day. "Reduced To Community Organizers"

In the lead piece in the Jesuit published America, columnist Nancy Sherman writes the Memorial day piece entitled, What Good Soldiers Bear. When you read the full piece notice the words that are missing; Jesus, God, honor, courage, bravery, valor, freedom, liberty, fortitude and self-sacrifice. Nancy Sherman is university professor in the philosophy department of Georgetown University, is author of the recently published The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers.

An excerpt.

Some U.S. soldiers have complained, the new rules require them to fight “with one arm tied behind our backs.” It is even harder to accept the restrictions when

American lives are risked to win the hearts and minds of a population whose army may not itself be sharing adequately in the fight. 

But the rules are also in place to protect the hearts and minds of our own troops. U.S. marines and soldiers in Afghanistan are fighters, but also serve as police and community organizers, charged with building moral and civic order “in a box.”

Link (here) to the article entitled, What Good Soldiers Bear by Nancy Sherman a philosophy professor at Georgetown University and at the United States Naval Academy. 

Listen to a revealing 50 minute interview of Nancy Sherman at WHYY (here).

Notice the words and phrases the article does contains; "weak contract" , "They want to feel with moral insight" , "psychological anguish in war is also moral anguish" , "psychological trauma" , "sense of revenge" , ,"desensitizing warriors" , "soldiers getting used to killing", "inescapably agents of war’s carnage" , "guilt was the elephant in the room" , “accident guilt.” , "blowing off most of the face of a private" , "awful weight of self-indictment" , "undeserved luck", "betrayal of those who were injured", "accidental or unintended killing of innocents" , "Iraqi children were injured or killed" . "They could not shake what they had done or justify the killing" , "restrictive rules" "the face of a helpless child", "that child’s face haunts a soldier", "irrational guilt" , "soldiers guilt" , "reparations" , "numb the moral anguish of war", "hard to accept morally" , "moral insulation from war’s moral burdens" "feelings of guilt and shame" 

Photo "Raising of the Flag" during the Battle of Iwo Jima. 
Read the Doctor of the Church Saint Thomas Aquinas on "Just War Theory"contained in his Summa Theologica.