Fr. Sebastien Rasles, S.J. In The Land Of The Illinois Indians

Their rivers are covered with swans, bustards, ducks, and teals. One can scarcely travel a league without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, who keep together in flocks, often to the number of two hundred. They are much larger than those we seen in France. I had the curiosity to weigh one, which I found to be thirty-six pounds. They have hanging from the neck a kind of tuft of hair, half a foot in length. Bears and stags are found there in very great numbers, and buffaloes and roebucks are also seen in vast herds. Not a year passes but they kill more than a thousand roebucks and more than two thousand buffaloes. From four to five thousand of the latter can often be seen at one view, grazing on the prairies. 

They have a hump on the back and an exceedingly large head. The hair, except that on the head, is curled, and soft as wool. The flesh has naturally a salt taste, and is so light, that although eaten entirely raw, it does not cause the least indigestion. 

When they have killed a buffalo which appears to them too lean, they content themselves with taking the tongue, and going in search of one which is fatter.

Link (here) to the mentioned portion of the book entitled, The Early Jesuit Missions in North America by William Ingraham Kip

Who is Fr. Sebastien Rasles, S.J.? (here) , (here) and (here)

New Jesuit Priest

Archbishop Wilton Gregory with Fr. Joel Medina, S.J.

As a nurse, Fr. Joel Medina, S.J. treated physical ailments. Now, he wants to treat spiritual ones. After years working in health care, the 56-year-old has traded his scrubs for the collar of a Jesuit priest. “I was interested in serving people,” Medina said. “I felt the call to do that by serving as a priest.” Joel Medina Medina started his career in health care at age 19, working in Jackson as a nursing assistant. He went on to become a registered nurse through Jackson Community College and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit. He then worked about 16 years off and on at the University of Michigan hospital. That all ended nine years ago, when Medina applied to be a Roman Catholic Jesuit and entered The Society of Jesus, Chicago-Detroit Province’s Novitiate at Loyola House in Berkley, Mich. Friends and family said they weren’t surprised by the decision. “We always knew (the priesthood) is where he’d end up,” said Medina’s sister, Linda Berkemeier, 51 of Jackson. “He was sensitive and interested in theology. We were just waiting for him to do it.”

Link (here) to read the full article at  MLive.com

Controversial Fordham University Professor's Unconventional Views On Our Lady

In Truly Our Sister, Elizabeth Johnson reveals that feminists have a grudge against Mary for standing above them as the Virgin Mother of Christ. Johnson, a Sister of St. Joseph who teaches theology at Fordham University, claims that a torrent of hatred for women has resulted from the honor given to Mary. 

But change is coming, she hopes, because devotion to Mary has died out among “hosts” of women and our culture scorns “medieval” faith symbols. Yes, medieval, even though there is evidence that our Lady was evoked in the third century. 

Johnson thinks it is time now to remove such titles as “Mother of mercy” from Mary and give them back to God — “She Who Is,” according to Johnson — and to “reclaim” Mary with “new liberating interpretations.” From now on, God will have “her own maternal face,” and 

Mary will be demoted to the level of other women. 

Accordingly, Johnson depicts Mary as a Galilean drudge and outcast lacking all supernatural privileges, but who is now “truly our sister” because she is no longer honored above other women. 

Link (here) to the full article at New Oxford Review

Chicago Province Jesuits Under Severe Legal Scrutiny

Former Provincial Fr. Robert Wild, S.J.

An Illinois judge sharply criticized the Jesuit order in a ruling issued yesterday for not taking adequate steps to rein in defrocked priest and twice-convicted child molester Donald McGuire, asserting that McGuire was preying on teenage boys "right under the noses" of his superiors and that rules established to protect minors from him were "a sham."

The ruling allows punitive damages to be levied against the Jesuits if they lose a lawsuit over McGuire's four-decade career as a predator priest that is now pending in Cook County Circuit Court. The lawsuit names as a defendant the Chicago Province of the Jesuits, where McGuire was technically based. McGuire -- an eminent Jesuit who served as spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa -- taught at the University of San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s, and ministered to Bay Area families extensively throughout the 1990s.

"The court accepts that the Jesuits are a religious order with a rich history of service to the faithful," Judge Jeffrey Lawrence wrote. 

"However, the leaders of the Chicago Province fell far short of this ideal. Plaintiffs have amply demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of proving facts at trial which would support an award of punitive damages."  

The lawsuit is being brought by several victims of McGuire, including one of two boys from Walnut Creek he allegedly molested. The Jesuits had argued that punitive damages should not be permitted in the suit because McGuire's bosses had no way of controlling him and the wayward priest flaunted his order's vows of obedience. But Lawrence, 

noting that the Jesuits received nine "credible" complaints against the priest over 33 years, 

rejected that argument. 

He stated that rules the Jesuits issued forbidding McGuire from ministering to minors were never enforced. "The guidelines they set for him were a sham," 

 he wrote in his ruling. Moreover, Lawrence noted, the Jesuits proactively lied to other church officials about McGuire's troubled past.

Link (here) to read the full article at the San Francisco Weekly.

Link (here) to read an extensive explanation of the sad saga at The Bishop Accountability website

Investigation Started In 2005

A D.C. Jesuit who has served as a national leader on spiritual music and African American worship has been permanently removed from ministry after an investigator concluded that he improperly touched a child in the 1980s. The Rev. J-Glenn Murray was associate pastor at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in Northwest Washington when he was removed this month, according to a statement by the regional office of the Jesuits, an order of the Catholic Church.The abuse allegedly took place when Murray worked as a teacher at St. Frances-Charles Hall high school in Baltimore. The school is now called St. Frances Academy.

The accuser first made a complaint in 2005, the statement said, but an initial investigation concluded that the person was not credible. The statement said police told the Jesuits that their investigation was closed because the accuser would not speak with them.

A spokeswoman for the regional office of the Jesuits was not able to say immediately whether the allegation involves more than one incident. The pastor at St. Aloysius declined to comment.

Link (here) to read the full Washington Post article.

Conflicted

Suicide’s legalization has been advocated by prominent professors in Catholic universities including Georgetown, Marquette, Santa Clara, and Boston College. It is a particular irony that the bishops’ statement comes this year, even as the bishops are quietly reviewing the implementation of Vatican guidelines for Catholic higher education in the 1990 constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

The professors’ efforts came to light during a Cardinal Newman Society investigation in 2005, following news reports of a legal brief filed by 55 bioethicists in opposition to “Terri’s Law,” a Florida measure that empowered Gov. Jeb Bush to ensure that the comatose Terri Schiavo received water and nutrition. 

As reported in “Teaching Euthanasia,” an exclusive report in the June 2005 issue of Crisis, multiple professors at Catholic universities had taken positions on end-of-life issues that seemed to conflict with Vatican teaching.

Link (here) to the full article at Crisis Magazine

Catholic Education Tepid In Presenting The Faith In American Society

Fr. John Piderit, S.J.

“For teachers preparing to work in Catholic elementary or high schools, most offer little that is specifically Catholic,” said Jesuit Father John Piderit, president of the Catholic Education Institute, who served as president of Loyola from 1993-2001. “Why is this important for administrators?” asked Father Piderit’s colleague Melanie Morey, senior director of research at the institute. “Every year you bring young faculty into your schools” and they are by and large unprepared to teach specifically as Catholics, she said. That means the task of forming faculty in Catholic teaching methods falls almost entirely upon the shoulders of administrators, the two educators said. Bringing the Catholic faith and the Catholic view of the world and of the human person into the classroom “is adding texture and depth and meaning,” Morey said. Father Piderit and Morey spoke at a seminar for administrators as part of Marin Catholic’s second annual Substantially Catholic Conference, a three-day event presented by the Catholic Education Institute to help Catholic high school teachers and administrators infuse Catholicism across the curriculum and in the school culture. Father Piderit said that when comparing Catholic schools of today with those of 50 years ago, schools are more tepid in presenting the faith even as American society has become more aggressively secular. Some of that can be traced back to departments and schools of education at Catholic colleges and universities which, he said, are so concerned with keeping pace with secular competitors and meeting ever-changing requirements for accreditation, that they are not teaching, or doing research into, ways to present Catholic faith and culture in subjects other than religion.

Link (here) to read the full article at Catholic San Francisco

Black Culture, Fr. J. Glenn Murray, S.J. And Leprosey Of The Soul

Fr. J-Glenn Murray, S.J.

Jesuit priest James "J-Glenn" Glenn Murray was recently removed from ministry by his provincial after a credible accuser came forward about s@xual impropriety conducted by Fr. Murray. 
You can read about the  specifics  of the case (here).  

Below is an excerpt of a blog post by Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. after he attended a Mass presided by Fr. Murray.

I attended the "Black Culture" liturgy, presided over by Fr. J-Glenn Murray, S.J., a liturgist renowned for his respect for the mass and his challenging depth of insight.  I went mostly to hear what J-Glenn had to say; and he was good, as always. He talked about the angers that we hold on to as a sort of "leprosy of the soul", eating away at us from the inside.  Really good stuff. (Here's some J-Glenn videos I found online.) But looking back, the most profound thing to happen to me at that Mass occurred during the opening procession. Rather than simply processing in, first the deacon holding aloft the book of the Gospels and

then J-Glenn actually danced up the central aisle, their movement a steady sway to the rhythm combined with fantastic 360 degree spins akin to a child imagining he is a soaring plane.  It was those spins that got me, the relish of it, the sense of a joy so wonderful 

it has to be delighted in, expressed.  More than any words could, they drew me into the Mass as a moment of celebration.  

Link (here) to the lengthy blog post by Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. at his blog entitled, Gone Walkabout.

Dancing With Their Smoking Bowls Of Incense During A Children’s Grade School Mass

Fr. J Glenn Murray, SJ. is a Jesuit liturgist and here’s his bio.   “J Glenn” specializes in African-American worship,..........He was Director for the Office of Worship in the Diocese of Cleveland from 1995 to 2007.  That’s the same diocese where the bishop (Bishop Pilla) resigned in the wake of an embezzlement scandal, where the rainbow flag/colors have adorned their G@y & L@sbian Family Ministry website and where they supported dissident organizations like Future Church with office space in a rectory basement through 2006.  But I digress… Fr. Murray himself created a stir in 2003 by issuing new directives in the Cleveland diocese for how Catholics were to receive communion. An article in the August 24, 2003 Cleveland Plain Dealer that extensively quoted Fr. Murray said, “American Catholics are about to experience major changes in the Communion rite as dioceses begin implementing updated General Instruction of the Roman Missal.”   The only problem is that Fr. Murray’s changes were NOT actually what the GIRM called for. Among his changes were:

• the congregation using the “orans” posture during the Lord’s prayer (this means hands raised as only the priest does)
• embracing fellow worshippers during the exchange of the sign of peace
• “ undoing a lifetime of tradition by not kneeling in prayer after Communion.  Instead, in a sign of the communal nature of the sacrament, worshippers will stand and sing until each person has received Communion.”

Fr. Murray acknowledged the changes would “unsettle many Catholics” but said, “”I think it’s a vast improvement.”

Adoremus summarizes the situation and response. Here are a few excerpts:

These changes were advocated by some liturgists  a few years ago — a revision that was eventually rejected by the Holy See….[and] never approved by the bishops. And they were neither included in the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the universal Church, nor in the ‘American adaptations’ of the GIRM.

Cardinal Arinze, then head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, even was asked to weigh-in, and he said:

Earlier, similar responses from the Vatican made it clear that changing customary kneeling to standing was not intended; indeed was ‘laudably retained’.

Adoremus concluded:

The liturgy office in the Cleveland diocese (and several others) is mandating changes that are neither specified nor mandated in the norms for the universal Church or for the US Church. Far from promoting unity, the effect of mandating these deviations from the customary practice in the Catholic Church in the United States is literally divisive — dividing one diocese from another, one parish from another, one Catholic from another.

Besides having no basis whatsoever to change the Cleveland liturgy, he is also a fan of liturgical dance. In this 2004 report, Fr. Murray was seen “accompanied by scantily clad liturgical dancers in black skimpy costumes dancing with their smoking bowls of incense during a children’s grade school Mass.”  He was at the same Religious Ed conference in Los Angeles where Fr. Tim Radcliffe talked about g@y novels and movies. Fr. Murray led a “Black Culture” liturgy:

Beginning with a bongo drum sequence and featuring black Gospel singers dressed in native African costumes, the event featured Jesuit Father J. Glenn Murray…He concluded his homily by leading a hand-clapping rendition of “Can’t Nobody Do Ya Like Jesus,” and dancing all around the stage, with Cardinal Mahony, from his presider’s chair, clapping along with the crowd.

Murray left Cleveland in 2007 after Bishop Richard Lennon arrived in 2006 and started cleaning house.

Link (here) to read the full blog post at Bryan Hehir Exposed

Going Over A Cliff With Fr. Breaux

When I was a young seeker, at age 14, a most enlightened Jesuit priest encouraged me to throw all belief out the door, question everything, find out for myself. This was not how I’d been taught religion or belief – up to that point it had been rote memorization and coerced belief backed by threat of punishment. 

What Fr. Breaux did was certainly not in the objectives of the Jesuit organization, which was to turn out well educated, strong men. Men who were good Catholics. Perhaps Fr. Breaux saw that in the long run, strength of spirituality is the most desired state, no matter the religious affiliation of the person. 

I am forever grateful to him. He gave me permission to explore and come up with the best spiritual way for me. He gave me permission to follow the path no matter where it leads, even if it’s off a cliff!

Link (here) to read the blog post at the blog called McJeff's and all about the cliff

Jesuit Archbishop's War Time Diary

Archbishop James T.G. Hayes, S.J.

A Jesuit missionary in Cagayan de Oro City kept a diary of the Japanese war in northern Mindanao. For security, he excluded personal names, but he could not pass over the "terrible days during the occupation, during the puppet Republic of the Japs." It covers a period of three years less three months, but here we cite only a few passages of the lengthy manuscript. Without any provocation or "just cause," the Japanese attacked the Philippines. On Jan. 2, 1942, Manila fell. Bishop James T. G. Hayes, S. J. of Cagayan left his convento and the cathedral for a safer place chosen by the commanding officer of the USAFFE. He left as vicar in charge of the diocese a Filipino Jesuit, the author of this diary.

An excerpt of that diary.

A Filipino Jesuit missionary went to Dansalan to minister to the people there. On July 1, 19__, guerrillas attacked the barracks the Japanese had built in the town. The missionary hid in a foxhole, but the Japanese caught him. They tied him up for interrogation. Many times, the poor missionary had to raise his voice and weep loudly as a little boy, according to a Filipino caught with him. They slapped him, kicked him from head to foot, hit every part of his body, and clubbed his shoulders.

Link (here) to read the article at Business World

Jesuit's Premier Educational Institution To Hold Important Symposium

Monsignor Charles Scicluna

The Vatican said Saturday it is working to give bishops information on the best ways to combat clergy sex abuse, teaming up with the Jesuit university in Rome to host a major symposium on abuse and launch an Internet learning center for follow-up guidance. The Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna told Vatican Radio the symposium is intended to send a very strong signal of determination, born of the Pope's own determination to look the sin and crime of pedophilia in the face, while at the same time affirming that we must be able to give a clear, credible, firm and effective response to this problem within the Church.. The symposium next February will draw experts in psychiatry, church law, sociology and child protection programs to the Pontifical Gregorian University for three days of meetings and workshops with 200 bishops and religious superiors.

Link (here) to read the full USA Today article.
Link (here) to a similar story in the New York Times. 
The Catholic News Agency on the same subject (here)

Flashback 1928: Assassin Breaks Into The Jesuit House In Rome

Jesuit Curia in Rome

A friend of Signor Benito Mussolini dating from before his rise to power is the learned Jesuit scholar, Father Tacchi-Venturi of Rome. He persuaded Il Duce some years ago to present a State collection of ancient religious books to the Vatican. Generally it is known that Father Tacchi-Venturi has since been the chief intermediary between his Great & Good Friend and Pope Pius XI in recent attempts to negotiate a settlement of the Roman Question (TIME, Feb. 13). Last week a paper knife entered the flesh of Jesuit Tacchi-Venturi amid dramatic circumstances. To the House of the Jesuits at Rome there had come and yanked the ancient bellpull a decently dressed youth who announced himself as Signor De Angelis. He must, he said, he must make an important confession to good Father Tacchi-Venturi. The porter, rubbing sleepy eyes, told the youth that his desired confessor was immersed in study, could not be disturbed.

Next day Signor De Angelis returned, yanked the bell still more violently, and prevailed upon the porter to usher him into the Jesuit's study. Father Tacchi-Venturi, upon raising his eyes from his papers, saw a pale, demented face and a hand which grasped a slender, dagger-like paper knife. Quick, the assassin sprang. Quicker, the Jesuit dodged. As a result the knife barely lacerated the neck skin of Father Tacchi-Venturi. 

Meanwhile the sleepy porter had valorously collared Signor De Angelis. The incident closed when Father Tacchi-Venturi's neck was neatly bound up at the Santo Spirito Hospital. Later, seated in an armchair, he received a visit of condolence from Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, suave Papal Secretary of State.

Link (here) to read the Time Magazine article.

Happy Father's Day

THE LIFE OF CHRIST OUR LORD FROM TWELVE TO THIRTY YEARS 

 St. Luke writes in the second Chapter [51, 52].

He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; 

and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and 

age and favor before God and man.

First Point. 

He was obedient to His parents:  

“He advanced in wisdom, age and grace.”

Second Point. 

He exercised the trade of carpenter, as St. Mark shows he means  in the sixth chapter. 

“‘Perhaps this is that carpenter? ‘"

Link (here)

The True End Of Man

The earth, a comparatively small region of the solar system, is man's temporary habitation, the place, in which his life is originated, developed and completed. But what is the task which he is expected to accomplish during his brief sojourn in the present world? God creates nothing without a purpose or end. 

If His own rational creatures do nothing without some object or design, the same must, with far greater reason, be said of the infinite Creator, who could not make man, the crown and complement of creation, without a wise purpose, so that human existence might not be useless, so to speak, and meaningless. 

No necessity whatever pressed God to create the world, or man its inhabitant, for the infinitely perfect Being stands in need of nothing external to Himself. But when He once decreed to create, it was necessary that He should wish to attain by creation an end worthy of Himself. Such is evidently the postulate demanded by His infinite wisdom. Intending to speak further on of God's purpose in the creation of the universe, we ask now what is the end for which God made man?

Link (here) to read the mentioned portion of the book entitled, The Future Life by the one time Superior of the California Mission Fr. Joseph Casimir Sasia, S.J.

Removed From Ministry

Fr. Glenn Murray, S.J.

The Society of Jesus has removed Fr. Glenn Murray, S.J., from the Ministry. Murray taught at Gonzaga from 1974 to 1976. Most recently, he was an assistant pastor at St. Aloysius Parish but wasn’t a staffer or part of the faculty at Gonzaga. There have been no reports of inappropriate conduct while Murray was at Gonzaga or St. Aloysius Parish.  

“I presume to take this occasion to assure all members of the Gonzaga community of our deep commitment to the safety and well-being of our students and all minors,” 

said Rev. Joseph E. Lingan, S.J., president of Gonzaga College High School. “I ask you to join in praying for the healing of the young person, now an adult, who came forward and for all those who are affected by this sad matter.”

Link (here) to the full story at WJLA

Man Can Become The Author And Maker Of His Own Everlasting Bliss

The Lord's promise registered in the Apocalypse (11,10), '' Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life," points out to us all our sublime earthly task in the clearest language.

Whoever fails to merit God's remunerative crown will fall into the hands of His punitive justice, the awful lot which the sinner himself freely and deliberately chooses. 

As it is stated in several parts of this work, the final decision as to the place where eternity is to be spent lies in the power and will of man himself—either eternal happiness or eternal misery, either heaven or hell. Such is the choice which he must make before departing from this world. With the help of divine grace, which is granted to all in answer to prayer, man can become the author and maker of his own everlasting bliss. No one will be reckoned among the elect unless he deserves this lot by his own earnest efforts. On the other hand, no one will be counted among the reprobates unless he brought upon himself that greatest of evils, the loss of celestial bliss. In the light of eternity our temporal life acquires a value and a significance which are truly astounding, nay, overwhelming.

Either man chooses the arduous and steep path of virtue, which leads to heavenly happiness, or runs headlong on the broad way of sin, which brings him to perdition, that is, everlasting misery. 

This is the alternative presented to all by Jesus Christ in His Gospel. Here there is no neutral ground for us to stand upon, for He tells us: "He that is not with Me is against Me." No mortal that has reached the use of reason can evade this dreadful alter

Link (here) to the position of the book entitled, The Future Life by the one time Superior of the California Mission Fr. Joseph Casimir Sasia, S.J.
 

The Rest Of Us Who Escaped Abortion.

Theologically, we wonder about the ultimate status of these aborted children. They are created in and for the exact same eternal destiny as the rest of us who escaped abortion. As far as I know, no country has yet permitted the erection of a monument to aborted babies, at least to acknowledge their humanity, though I believe several have been proposed.  

Christians naturally associate this slaughter of the unborn with the Holy Innocents who were killed after Christ's birth. Though these latter were already born, Christians associate the killing of these innocent babies before they ever have a chance in the world with those killed by Herod who was trying to eliminate the Messiah, conceived as a threat to himself. 

Sometimes, when we look at the vehemence and dishonesty with which the abortion movements and procedures have taken place both in practice and in law, we cannot help but wonder if there is not something diabolical about it, something that does in fact relate to the birth of the Messiah as a human child among us. 

Link (here) to read the full blog post by Fr. James Schall, S.J. at Ignatius Insight

Controversial Fordham Professor On The Trinity

The feminist theologian Saint Joseph Sister Elizabeth Johnson says, “I would not be at all adverse if we simply dropped the word ‘Trinity,’”
Link (here) to read the full article by James Hitchcock entitled, The Failure of Liberal Catholicism

The Jesuit Is No Dreamer: He Is Emphatically A Man Of Action; Action Is The End Of His Existence.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

It was an evil day for new-born Protestantism when a French artilleryman fired the shot that struck down Ignatius Loyola in the breach of Pampeluna. A proud noble, an aspiring soldier, a graceful courtier, an ardent and daring gallant was metamorphosed by that stroke into the zealot whose brain engendered and brought forth the mighty Society of Jesus. 

His story is a familiar one, — how, in the solitude of his sick-room, a change came over him, upheaving, like an earthquake, all the forces of his nature; how, in the cave of Manresa, the mysteries of Heaven were revealed to him; how he passed from agonies to transports, from transports to the calm of a determined purpose. The soldier gave himself to a new warfare. In the forge of his great intellect, heated, but not disturbed by the intense fires of his zeal, was wrought the prodigious enginery whose power has been felt to the uttermost confines of the world.

Loyola's training had been in courts and camps; of books he knew little or nothing. He had lived in the unquestioning faith of one born and bred in the very focus of Romanism; and thus, at the age of about thirty, Ins conversion found him. It was a change of life and purpose, not of belief. He presumed not to inquire into the doctrines of the Church. 

It was for him to enforce those doctrines; and to this end he turned all the faculties of his potent intellect, and all his deep knowledge of mankind. He did not aim to build up barren communities of secluded monks, aspiring to heaven through prayer, penance, and meditation, but to subdue the world to the dominion of the dogmas which had subdued him; 

to organize and discipline a mighty host, controlled by one purpose and one mind, fired by a quenchless zeal or nerved by a fixed resolve, yet impelled, restrained, and directed by a single master hand. The Jesuit is no dreamer: he is emphatically a man of action; action is the end of his existence. 

Link (here) to read the mentioned passage of the book entitled, Francis Parkman's Works
Who is Francis Parkman? (here) 

Georgetown University Receives Thousands Of Dollars From Multinational Islamic Organization

Georgetown's John Esposito

Georgetown University has some explaining to do based on documents obtained exclusively by PJM from a confidential law enforcement source. The documents reveal a scheme to pass $325,000 through the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been identified by the FBI as a front for the Hamas terrorist organization. 

The money was paid to Georgetown by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to promote its “Islamophobia” agenda, which includes its stated international objective of criminalizing any criticism of Islam. 

Even more troubling: evidence that Georgetown is not the only American university to cooperate with CAIR and the OIC in their joint plan to subvert the First Amendment right to free speech. The plot was apparently initiated in 2006 by discussions between the OIC, CAIR, and Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU). An email dated November 20, 2006, sent from OIC permanent observer to the UN Abdul Wahab to Nihad Awad and Hadia Mubarak — a CAIR board member and Georgetown CMCU “senior researcher” — urged them to expedite arrangements. The email also promised that funds would be transferred to Georgetown as soon as the OIC received a letter from John Esposito, director of Georgetown’s CMCU.

Link (here) to the lengthy article and back story at Pajamas Media 
Link (here) to Jihad Watch

Jesuit Urban Center Again

Four years ago, a methodical search for a new place of worship led a group of g@y Roman Catholics to the Rev. John Unni, the youthful priest at St. Cecilia’s Church. The search committee was blunt: Would the priest accept an influx of gay and lesbian parishioners? “He told us, ‘All are welcome,’ ’’ said John Kelly, now head of the St. Cecilia Rainbow Ministry. 

Kelly and other parishioners credit Unni with managing the merger of the predominantly g@y congregation from the Jesuit Urban Center, which closed in 2007, 

and with keeping ga@s and les@ians in the Catholic Church, despite the uneasy balance between the church’s message of love for all and its strict doctrine against g@y relations.

Link (here) to the full article at Boston.com

Fr. Geoffrey Schneider, S.J. To Turn 99

Fr. Geoffrey "Fritz" Schneider, S.J. far right

If Jesuit Fr Geoffrey Schneider knew that he would still be working at the age of 98, he may just have chosen another vocation, for it was the Jesuits' fierce work ethic that put him off joining the novitiate in the first place, reports Province Express.  

"I was baptised by a Jesuit, a friend of my father's, I lived in a Jesuit parish in Hawthorn, and I attended Xavier College. And so I saw a lot of the Jesuits," Fr Schneider explains. "I thought they worked too hard, so I didn't want to join them. Then after a while I realised that whatever work you do, if you aim to do it well you have to work hard. So I thought I might as well join the Jesuits." 

Seventy-eight years later, the capacity for hard work is like marrow in the bones of this gentle, affable Jesuit, who will turn 99 in December this year. Every school day, Fr Schneider walks from his home on Jeffereys Street in Milsons Point, Sydney, to the St Aloysius Junior School where he has an office with his name affixed to the door. Here he works as school chaplain, a position he has held for close on 30 years.

Link (here) to Australia's Cathnews

Jesuit Bishop In Syria, "“We Do Not Want To Become Like Iraq. We Don’t Want Insecurity, Islamization, And The Threat Of Islamists Coming To Power"

Jesuit Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo

The Syrian government must resist the uprising – and has the people’s backing in quelling forces seeking “destabilization and Islamization” – according to one of the country’s most respected Catholic bishops.   In a strongly worded defense of President Bashar al-Assad’s response to the protests and instability, 

Bishop Antoine Audo accused the media, including the BBC and Al Jazeera, of  “unobjective” reporting and unfairly criticizing the Syrian regime. The Jesuit who is the Chaldean Catholic Bishop of Aleppo went on to warn that, if Assad’s government were overthrown, it would cause widespread instability, a breakdown of basic services such as electricity, increased poverty, and a drive towards Islamization. 

Speaking from Aleppo in an interview with the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Audo said, 

“The fanatics speak about freedom and democracy for Syria, but this is not their goal.   They want to divide the Arab countries, control them, seize oil, and sell arms.   They seek destabilization and Islamization.   Syria must resist will resist.   80 percent of the people are behind the government, as are all the Christians.” 

Bishop Audo warned that, if President Assad were ousted, Syria would suffer the problems of a post Saddam Hussein Iraq, with a widespread breakdown of law and order. “We do not want to become like Iraq. We don’t want insecurity, Islamization, and the threat of Islamists coming to power.” “Syria has a secular orientation. There is freedom. We have a lot of positive things in our country.” The bishop was speaking after reports on Monday, June 13, of a third refugee camp being set up on the border between Turkey and Syria, amid no sign of an end to the violence and instability which dates back to the end of January.  The Syrian government has been strongly criticized for a hard-line military response to the uprising amid reports that the security forces have killed hundreds of protestors and injured many more. 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Syria’s armed retaliation against protestors as “unacceptable.” But the bishop stressed the scale of violence against Assad’s regime, saying how more than 100 police were killed within a few days, adding that the government had a right to defend itself. He said, “In some media organizations, such as the BBC and Al Jazeera, there is an orchestration to deform the face of Syria to say the government does not respect human rights and so on.” 

“The government respects people who respect law and order. Syria has a lot of enemies and the government has to defend itself and the country.” “There is a war of information against Syria. The media reporting is unobjective. We have to defend the truth as Syrians and as Chaldeans.” Stressing how the violence was centered on the country’s borders, especially in the northern sector overlooking Turkey, he said that, for most of the people in the Aleppo area, there was relative calm. But he did warn of increasing poverty, transportation and other communications problems, and described growing unemployment. He said,  

“Generally, life in Aleppo is very normal. Everything is continuing, but there is less work and transportation is poor.” In a reference to the country’s 1.5 million Christians, he said, “Our situation as Christian faithful is not really any different from other communities. We want peace and security.” “We do not want war and violence, and we very much hope that in the next few weeks the situation will be better.” 

As a Catholic charity dedicated to the persecuted and other suffering Christians, Aid to the Church in Need has worked with Bishop Audo to provide long-standing emergency aid for thousands of Christian refugees arriving in Syria from Iraq.

Link (here) the blog entitled, The Realm of the Virgin Mary 
Link (here) to the statement on the same subject by the public relations department of the Syrian Jesuits.

Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, S.J. "Letter On The Book Of Mormon"

Dear Reverend Father,

(To the editor of the Precis Historiques, Brussels)

The Book of M0rmon, like the KOran, is a tissue of contradictory plagiarisms and absurd inventions. The whole is interlarded with passages from the Bible. It has been proved that the portion given as historical is merely a plagiary of a romance of Solomon Spalding whose manuscript had been stolen by Smith. Spalding had written, under the title of The Discovered Manuscript, a romance on the-origin of the American Indians. He died before publishing it. After his death his widow removed to New York and Smith is known to have worked near her house. Some time after the publication of the Book of Mormon she discovered the loss of her husband's manuscript. Many of Spalding's relatives and friends detected The Discovered Manuscript slightly altered, in Smith's book. Spalding had been in the habit of reading long passages from his novel; the singularity of the facts, names and style, which was biblical, had so struck them that they did not forget it. Now, the Book of Mormon had the same characteristics, the same strange names, the same incredible facts, the same style. John Spalding the author's brother, thus expresses himself on the point:

" My brother's book was entitled The Discovered Manuscript, It was an historical novel on the first inhabitants of America. Its object was to show that the American Indians were descended from the Jews, or the lost tribes. There was a detailed description of their voyage, by land and sea, from their departure from Jerusalem to their arrival in America, under the orders of Nephi and Lehi. I have recently read the Book of Mormon. To my great astonishment I have found almost the same historical matters, the same names, etc., such as they were in my brother's writings."

Many other persons, who knew Solomon Spalding well, and who for the most part knew nothing of Joseph Smith, gave similar testimony under oath. The Book of Mormon probably derives its name from one of the chapters of this novel. A descendant of Lehi obtained the plates of gold, brass, etc., on which the prophets had engraved the history of the voyages and wars of their race, and this descendant was called Mormon. He abridged this history, and gave it to his son Moroni. The latter, having added a sketch of the history of Jared, inclosed all in a box, which he buried on a hill, A. D. 400. Smith, declaring himself chosen to give this wonderful book to the world, pretended to have received the gift of understanding and translating it. He did not write this translation himself, but dictated it. During the dictation he was concealed behind a curtain made of a bed-quilt, for the plates were so sacred that he did not even permit his secretary to gaze on them. To give a still higher idea of his golden bible, he explained the title after his own fashion. According to him, the word Mormon comes from the Egyptian man, signifying good, and the English word more; so that Mormon means Better!

Fr. Pierre-Jean de Smet, S.J.

University of St. Louis, Jan. 19, 1858

Link (here) to read the full letter.


Mormonism from a Catholic perspective (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)
Catholicism from a Mormon perspective (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

Fr. Roberto Jaramillo, S.J. "The Amazon Is In The Hands Of The Drug Trade."

Fr. Roberto Jaramillo, S.J.

..........the Amazon is in the hands of the drug trade. The outskirts of the cities are hostage to the sale and consumption of drugs. Half of the violence in this city is tied to drugs. Young people in the suburbs see no other options in life than smoking marijuana or snorting cocaine."

Link (here) to read an extensive interview with Fr. Roberto Jaramillo, S.J. at Latinamerican Press

Fr. Patrick Earl, SJ, “Just Having Something Public Is Not Going To Be A Big, Big Deal Here.."

Fr. Patrick Earl, S.J.

At St. Peter's Catholic Church, a Jesuit parish in Charlotte has canceled plans to read the Qur’an from the pulpit on June 26, the feast of Corpus Christi.  

“Just having something public is not going to be a big, big deal here, but to have someone come in and read from the Qur’an and to recognize publicly the existence of Islam and to reverence and respect is a good thing for the Church to do,” Father Patrick Earl, S.J., said on May 27. “I’ve heard from Muslim imams about what they and their congregations have suffered just from the fear, the fear of what they call Islamophobia.”  

On June 7, Father Earl announced the cancellation of the event; he said that he had been unaware that 2004 Vatican instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum forbade such readings. The document states that “it is strictly to be considered an abuse to introduce into the celebration of Holy Mass elements that are contrary to the prescriptions of the liturgical books and taken from the rites of other religions.”  

Link (here) to read the original story at Catholic Culture

 

A Wonderful Jesuit Priest

Lynn Nordhagen

I had left the Catholic Church not just once but twice. I had grown up Catholic, before and during Vatican II. I enjoyed sixteen years of Catholic schooling, living close enough to walk to school all the way through college.

Our parish was known in town, deservedly or not, as the “Holy Land” because of having the grade school, two convents, a high school, a Jesuit university, 

and a very high percentage of Catholic families in the neighborhood. I loved the Latin Mass, and in high school and college, I attended daily Mass and Communion. I was young enough to accept gracefully the changes of Vatican II, but not without some sadness. A wonderful Jesuit priest formed a group for a few of us interested high school students to study the documents of Vatican II. We loved our Church.
 

Link (here) to read the conversion story of Lynn Nordhagen at Marcus Grodi's Coming Home Network

Lynn Nordhagen was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, and graduated from Gonzaga University. She and her husband, Marvin, now live in Chattaroy, Washington. They have four children and six grandchildren. Lynn is editor of the book When Only One Converts (Our Sunday Visitor, 2001).

Jesuit Urban Center

The Rainbw Ministry of Saint Cecilia Parish invites all friends and supporters of the LGB T community to a Mass in celebration of Boston’s Pri@e Month. The liturgy will take place on Sunday evening, June 19, at six o’clock, with a reception following. The theme of the liturgy, “All Are Welcome,” honors Christ’s message of hope and salvation to all people. 

We will also celebrate the diverse community that finds its home at Saint Cecilia and acknowledge, in a special way, the generous and warm welcome extended to the members of the Jesuit Urban Center in 2007. The Mass will be celebrated by Father John Unni and concelebrated by several of the priests who faithfully ministered at the Jesuit Urban Center for so many years. 

Please plan to attend this special liturgy and support the diversity that makes Saint Cecilia such a special place

Link (here) to St. Cecilia's Parish bulletin. 
Blogger Note: This Mass was canceled by Cardinal O'Malley (here)

Maryland Province To Conduct An Investigation

Fr. Louis Bonacci, S.J.

For the second time in six months, Jesuit authorities in Maryland are investigating allegations that a priest with ties to Scranton may have s@xually abused a minor. The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus received information last month that the Rev. Louis A. Bonacci, S.J., may have inappropriately touched a minor in a family home between 1978 and 1982. During that time frame, Father Bonacci was serving as the assistant director of campus ministry at Loyola College in Baltimore. Father Bonacci served in the Scranton area, holding positions as a campus minister and adjunct professor of theology at the University of Scranton from 2003 to 2004and an adjunct professor at Misericordia University in Dallas in 2004. Starting in 2006, he served as the coordinator of spiritual direction for priests and deacons for the Diocese of Scranton, according to a statement released by the diocese.

Link (here) to read the full article at Citizens Voice

Sacrosanctum Concilium

Main Alter at the Chapel of St. Ignatius

Sacrosanctum Concilium. That document, though primarily about the reform of the liturgy, also spoke about church architecture. Some church designers, though, went farther than the document itself. “People within the various dioceses in the United States seized up on that because they wanted to promote modern architecture in the Catholic Church and said, ‘Well, Vatican II said we have to tear out all this old furniture because it’s old,’” Anthony said. “What a terrible destruction happened.” Duncan Stroik, an architect in South Bend, Ind., said, “The misinterpretation of Vatican II was like Pandora’s box in which architects and clients thought that it meant anything goes. Anything as long as it was not traditional styles.” 

 That spawned what Stroik called the “consistently dull” suburban churches of the late 1960s and 1970s. “Cheaply built, ugly, dysfunctional and iconoclastic,” Stroik said. “If they had been built as commercial or residential buildings they would have been torn down by now. There are some churches designed by famous architects which, though sophisticated, are rather poor places of worship.” He mentions Seattle University’s Chapel of St. Ignatius, 

the Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas in Houston and St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. He also cites the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, which some locals refer to as “Our Lady of Maytag” because its dome looks like the agitator of a washing machine. “Interestingly, they all received awards from the architecture community,” Stroik said.

Link (here) to the full article at The National Catholic Register.

The Former St. Francis Xavier's Novitiate

The June 3-16 Catholic Sentinel reported that the former St. Francis Xavier's Novitiate in Sheridan, Oregon, where young Jesuits were formed for decades, is now the Delphian School, a private boarding school that developed in the 1970s. The article went on to say that the school is affiliated with the Church of Scientology. Delphian school officials say that last point is a common misunderstanding. The Delphian school, they explain, uses study methods developed by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology but is not affiliated with the church.

Link (here) to read the original piece at The Catholic Sentential .

Fr. Edward Billottet, S.J. (1812-1860) Martyr Of Lebanon

Zahle, Lebanon

Fr. Edward Billotet’s first two years in Lebanon were spent teaching French while he studied Arabic. In 1848 he was appointed minister at the Beirut residence and later in 1850 he was made superior of the entire Lebanese-Syrian mission. As superior he increased the number of schools funded by the Propagation of the Faith and in 1853 he started an Arabic press for disseminating Christian literature. He spent a total of eight years as mission superior before he went to the Jesuit residence and church at Zahle in Feb 1859. Because the church had previously received the gift of a vineyard outside the city, the Druses, a fanatical Muslim sect in Lebanon tried to force Fr Billotet to pay taxes. But because he was a French citizen he was therefore not subject to the sultan’s taxation. As the revenue from the vineyard went to support a Christian school and a Catholic church, the Druses continued to harass Fr Billotet and tried to force him to leave the country. The Druses then began from June 1860 to massacre Maronite Christians. Within three weeks they killed 7750 Christians, destroyed 560 churches, burned 360 villages, razed 42 convents and left 28 schools in ruins. Zahle was the worst casualty because of its concentration of Catholics.....the Druses rushed upstairs they forced all seven Catholics onto the terrace.... As Fr Billotet raised his eyes to heaven and thanked God that he could offer Him this sacrifice, several bullets struck him in the breast.

Link (here) to read the full biography of Fr. Billottet  and the other 4 Jesuit martyrs of Lebanon at the Singapore Jesuit website.

Phenomenon Of Violence

Fr. Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J.

The following is from "Freedom Made Flesh, the Mission of Christ and His Church," by the Rev. Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ, rector of the University of Central America, San Salvador, who was murdered last week (November 1989).

We must unmask certain attitudes that are now widespread in the face of the global phenomenon of violence. We must make a distinction between the different forms that violence assumes, to enable us to talk about one kind of violence that is always evil and condemnable, and another kind of violence that on occasion may be absolutely necessary even though it undoubtedly entails evils. Given the circumstances, the latter kind of violence may be not only tolerable but even required.

Link (here) to the LA Times

Fr. Nicholas Russo, S.J. (1845-1902)

We rented an old bar-room in the Lower East-Side, turned ourselves into carpenters, cleaners, and decorators, made an altar and two confessionals, cleaned the walls, painted the inside doors, etc. -- in a word gave the appearance of a chapel and put up a big sign on the outside, "Missione Italiana della Madonna di Loreto."

Link (here) to the brilliant article by Pat McNamara at Pathos. 

Fordham's Sister Elizabeth Johnson On Feminist Liberation Theology

Let me illustrate this observation with the Statement’s assessment of female images of God (to which I will return below). The Statement rightly acknowledges that the images which Quest discusses, namely those clustered around divine maternity, Wisdom (Sophia), and Spirit (ruah), are found in the Bible. But then the Statement criticizes the book’s account of how these ways of speaking about God are being used by feminist, womanist, mujerista and Latina theologies in the United States and around the world, saying: “The names of God found in the Scriptures are not mere human creations that can be replaced by others that we may find more suitable according to our own human judgment...."

Link (here) to Sister Elizabeth Johnson, professor of theology at Fordham University, latest letter defending her book against doctrinal errors by the USCCB in, Quest for the Living God

Until I Entered A Jesuit High School

Micheal Moriarty

Divorce, unless overseen by the Holy Spirit, is war. The Holy Spirit wasn't to enter my life until I entered a Jesuit high school (U of D Jesuit High School). Until then, my sister and I were the children of war. Now, as I ponder the Jihadists' terrorism and Islam's apparent aim to "dominate the world". I realize how imminent a world conflict is. Yes, a world war, making billions of human beings the children of war. There is a certain safety and comfort in numbers when you've lived your childhood in the secrets of war by divorce. Then again, with the present day weapons of mass destruction awaiting their starring entrance upon the world stage of a suicidal world, and a war that appears to be inevitable because of a very temporary but deadly alliance between the Communists and Islam, one wonders if our Far Left and Islamic leaning President Obama is willing to defend any part of Judeo-Christianity at all.

Link (here) to read Micheal Moriarty's full blog post at his blog entitled, Enter Stage Right