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| Cardinal Jean Daniélou, S.J. |
Mimì Santoni, the prostitute, saw Jesuit Cardinal Jean Danielou fall to his knees with his face on
the floor before he breathed his last. And to her "it was a good death,
for a cardinal." He had gone to bring her money to pay for a lawyer
capable of getting her husband out of prison. It was the last of his
works of charity carried out in secret, on behalf of despised persons in
need of help and forgiveness. The Jesuits conducted exhaustive
investigations to discover the truth. They ascertained his innocence.
But they also shrouded the case in a silence that did not dispel the
suspicions. The rupture between Daniélou and his other Jesuit
confreres in Paris and the rest of France was in effect the true origin
of the neglect that fell upon this great theologian and cardinal. A rupture that preceded his death by at least two years. Since
1972, in fact, Daniélou had no longer been living in the residence of
"Etudes," the leading cultural magazine of the French Jesuits, where he
had lived for decades. He had moved to a convent of sisters, the
Daughters of the Heart of Mary. The clash had been precipitated
by an interview with Daniélou on Vatican Radio in which he harshly
criticized the "decadence" that was devastating so many men's and
women's religious orders, because of "a false interpretation of Vatican
II." The interview was interpreted as an accusation brought
against the Society of Jesus itself, the superior general of which at
the time was Father Pedro Arrupe, who was also the head of the union of
superiors general of religious orders. The Jesuit Bruno Ribes, director of "Etudes," was one of the most active in making scorched earth around Daniélou. The
positions of the two had become antithetical. In 1974, the year of
Daniélou's death, Ribes positioned "Etudes" in open disobedience with
respect to the teaching of the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" on
contraception. And he collaborated with other "progressive"
theologians – including the Dominicans Jacques Pohier and Bernard
Quelquejeu – in the drafting of the law that in that same year
introduced unrestricted abortion in France, with Simone Veil as health
minister, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as president, and Jacques Chirac as
prime minister. The following year, 1975, Father Ribes left the
helm of "Etudes." And afterward he abandoned the Society of Jesus, and
then the Catholic Church.
Link (here) to read the full story at Chiesa
4 comments:
My Father had an expression: God is always right on time ;)
Cardinal Jean Daniélou was a very humble man. He had died already when I entered the Society of Jesus, but cardinal Henri de Lubac told me extensively about him since they were close friends, and also the philosopher Jean Guitton. Jean Guitton told me once that Cardinal Daniélou was trying to crash down all the honors he had received in his life: being a famous writer and apologist, being a member of the French Academy, being a cardinal... Therefore he was always seeking to humiliate himself. The kind of death he got is the crown he received from the Lord. Many of his fellow Jesuits at the time entertained the worst rumors about his death unfortunately. But Cardinal Daniélou remains a true disciple of Christ who died in communion with the humiliated divine Master
Father Thomas: Thank you so much ...We know that there are still good and humble Jesuits. We also know how you and they must suffer~I am always encourage when I see one of your comments :)
http://youtu.be/-3A3B02WSC0
Well, he did die in a prostitute's house!
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