Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year



I'll be on blogger vacation until January 9th. Thank you all, over 1,200,000 visitors from all over the world who have come to visit this blog. This has been my Advent meditation for many years John 3:16 (For God So loved the World) , John 6 (Bread of Life Discourse) and John 17 (Prayer of the High Priest) in sequence. If you are looking for more Iganciophile stuff, please check out my side bar, I have linked well over 400 hundred Jesuit blogs, websites, books and essays. See you January 9th!

Monday, December 9, 2013

A Jesuit On The Creche

'Christ plays in 10,000 faces'
Crèche exhibit casts new light on message of Jesus' Nativity

CLAUDIA BAYLISS

For some married couples, a special aura surrounds their first Christmas. That was true for James and Emilia Govan.Together, they purchased their first crèche in 1962. Then, after a few years, they bought a second one. When several more years passed and they acquired a third, they wondered, Jim Govan says, what they were going to do with three Nativities.Although the Govans didn't know it at the time, that question, which led to their decision to collect Nativity scenes, planted the seed for the exhibition now on display at Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago."Art of the Crèche: The James and Emilia Govan Collection" grew out of what Jim and Emilia shared: the Roman Catholic faith, an attraction to art and -- rooted in their Lithuanian and Italian immigrant backgrounds -- an interest in different cultures.The couple's collection grew slowly at first, Govan recalls during a recent interview by telephone. But in the early '80s, when they had about 20 Nativities and Jim had started reading up on the crèche's history, he and Emilia decided they wanted to document their budding collection. They wanted to learn as much as they could about the lives of the artists and artisans who made them, as well as the materials they used and how the crèches were made. Today, Govan continues to build the collection, in memory of his wife, who died in 2000. He has more than 450, all stored at his home, and has displayed them in churches and other venues -- including the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, from 2001 through 2005.The first crèche they bought, however, never leaves Govan's Arlington, Va., home. "It represents in so many ways," he says, "the life I had with my wife. The bond and joy we had together."Although people tend to seek out traditional crèches, Govan's collection, by choice, includes many that are indigenous. The diverse cultures they represent and the sometimes unusual materials they are made of -- including potato clay and cinnamon paste -- draw people in, though. Curiosity about their own ethnic backgrounds leads many to ask, as one person recently did, "Do you have one from Slovakia?" Or Korea? an adopted child wanted to know. He does, he told them, stored in his home.Making the story theirs It's easy for a LUMA visitor to see the collection's enormous appeal. Like the stained-glass windows and Mystery Plays that predate them, crèches tell the story of faith, the


Rev. Mark Bosco says.
The Jesuit priest, an assistant professor of theology and English at Loyola University, gave a talk on the history of the crèche at LUMA on Nov. 27. When the first missionaries were sent out from Europe, "one of the first things they brought with them was the story of the Nativity," Bosco says. Jesuit records show, he adds, that the people they met -- whether from Japan, India, South America, wherever -- "were carving Mary, Joseph and Jesus with the cultural and human characteristics of their own people." Early Christians focused on the cross -- the Crucifixion -- because they saw celebrations of births "as a pagan, a Roman thing," he says. But when the Emperor Constantine issued an edict legalizing Christianity, and after his mother, St. Helena, brought back to Rome from the Holy Land a relic of Jesus' manger, Christians began to focus their attention on His Nativity. Nativities were displayed in the great cathedrals. Then, over time, they became "domesticated," Bosco says, moving into people's homes.
The movement to greater inclusiveness also was occurring in Europe in the 16th century. The Duchess of Amalfi ordered a crèche made in Naples that included 167 figurines, Bosco says. There was the butcher, the baker, and all the other members of a village and the guilds active at that time. The unique Nativity scenes that reflect their makers' cultures communicate the universal need to feel "we belong," Bosco says. "I'm part of this family."

Friday, November 29, 2013

Pope On One Of The Three Powers Of The Soul: Intellect

The Pope said that, in order to understand the signs of the times, a Christian must think not only with his head, but also with his heart and spirit. Otherwise, he cannot understand the “way of God in history”: “In the Gospel, Jesus does not become angry, but pretends to when the disciples do not understand him. At Emmaus he says: ‘How foolish and slow of heart’. ‘How foolish and slow of heart’… He who does not understand the things of God is such a person. 
The Lord wants us to understand what happens, what happens in my heart, what happens in my life, what happens in the world, in history… What is the meaning of what is happening now? These are the signs of the times! On the other hand, the spirit of the world gives us other propositions, because the spirit of the world does not want a community: it wants a mob, thoughtless, without freedom.”
While the spirit of the world wants us to take a “restricted path,” Saint Paul warns that the “spirit of the world treats us as thought we lack the ability to think for ourselves; it treats us like people who are not free”: “Restricted thought, equal thought, weak thought, a thought so widespread. The spirit of the world does not want us to ask ourselves before God: ‘But why, why this other, why did this happen?’. Or it also offers a prêt-à-porter [‘ready to wear’] way of thinking, according to personal taste: ‘I think as I like!’. This is okay, they say…. But what the spirit of the world does not want is what Jesus asks of us: free thought, the thought of a man and a women who are part of the people of God, and salvation is exactly this! Think of the prophets… ‘You were not my people, now I say my people’: so says the Lord. And this is salvation: to make us people, God’s people, to have freedom.” Pope Francis added that Jesus asks us “to think freely… in order to understand what happens.” The truth is that “we are not alone! We need the Lord’s help”. We need to “understand the signs of the times”: the Holy Spirit, he said, “gives us this present, a gift: the intelligence to understand”: "What path does the Lord want? Always with the spirit of intelligence with which to understand the signs of the times. It is beautiful to ask the Lord for this grace, who sends us this spirit of intelligence, in order that we avoid weak thought, we do not have a restricted thought and we do not have a thought according to personal preference: we only have a thought according to God. With this thought, which is a thought of the mind, of heart, and of soul. With this thought, which is the gift of the Spirit, [we] look for the meaning of things, and to understand the signs of the time well."
Link (here) to The Vatican Radio

Link (here) to more on St. Ignatius'  Three Powers Of The Soul (here), (here) and (here)

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Fr. Hugh Thwaites, S.J.

Faber To Become Jesuit Saint

Pierre Faber, a “Reformed” Jesuit priest whom Francis sees as a model figure, is to be proclaimed as saint before Christmas, Stefania Falasca reports in an article for Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire. The process for his cause in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints is complete and now all that remains is for Francis to issue the Bull of Canonization that will proclaim the first companion of St. Ignatius a saint, extending the cult of the soon-to-be-saint to the Universal Church. Faber was born in the Upper Savoy region of France in 1506 and died in Rome in 1547 just a few weeks before he was due to attend the Council of Trent. He was beatified in September 1872 with a Papal Rescript issued by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and ratified by the Society of Jesus. Now Francis is extending the liturgical cult to the Universal Church. The process followed for Faber’s canonization is called “equivalent canonization”. This is when the Pope omits the judicial process and ceremonies involved and orders a servant of God to be venerated in the Universal Church, when such a saint has been from a remote period the object of veneration, when his heroic virtues (or martyrdom) and miracles are related by reliable historians, and the fame of his miraculous intercession is uninterrupted. “Examples of this in recent history include John Paul II, who decreed 3 such canonizations, Benedict XVI who decreed 1, the last of which was that of Angela da Foligno, confirmed last 9 October by Pope Francis,”
Link (here) to Fr. Z

Saturday, November 23, 2013

A Thorough Jesuit

" Can I refuse to become holy when God Himself entreats me to be holy ? ' Walk before Me and be perfect.' ' Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.' Another great motive for becoming a saint — the wish, the command of God ! I have been called by God to be a member of the Society of His Son. To be a true Jesuit I must be a close imitator of Jesus Christ, an ' alter Christus.' The Society was instituted to glorify the Name of Jesus by its learning, by its zeal, but above all by its holiness. I must, therefore, strain after three things : to become learned, an authority on all subjects, not for self or the glory of self, but for God and the glory of God ; to become a lover of souls ; to become holy, this first and foremost, because the Jesuit without sanctity is no true son of Ignatius. " O loving Saviour, forgive me the past, accept me repentant, help me, for I am going to become with Thy assistance — A Thorough Jesuit and a Great Saint."
Link (here) to the biography of Fr. William Doyle, S.J.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

200 Year Anniversary

The miracle of Pope Pius VII 'levitating' at Mass on 15 August 1811
The superior general of the Society of Jesus, the Church’s largest male religious institute, has issued a letter commemorating the upcoming bicentennial of the institute’s restoration with the issue of Solicitudo omnium ecclesiarum. by Pope Pius VII. Founded in 1534, the Church’s largest male religious institute was suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 under political pressure. Father Adolfo Nicolás, the superior, proposed five themes for the 2014 bicentennial year: “creative fidelity,” “love for our Institute,” “fraternal companionship,” “universal mission,” and “faith in Providence.” 

Link (here) to Catholic Culture

His Excellency The Marquis of Pombal, "The Slayer Of The Jesuits"

POMBAL.
"EL MATADOR DOS PADRES."
In one of the principal squares of Lisbon may be seen the statue of King Joseph Emmanuel, son of John V., Don Sebastian Carvalho y Melho, Count d'Oeyras, Marquis de Pombal. The relative position of the figures ought to have been reversed. The minister was the tyrant of the monarch, as well as the scourge of his subjects. In the present notice we shall limit ourselves to giving an account of the manner in which the Marquis de Pombal earned his title of "Slayer of the Fathers," after enumerating the causes of his enmity against the Company of Jesus.
King of Portugal. At the foot of the statue is represented his Minister of State,
Pombal, who was a "philosophic" atheist and an encourager of the Calvinists, had certain reasons of private ambition for wishing to introduce Protestantism into Portugal. While pretending outwardly to be the enemy of the English, he was secretly doing all in his power to bring about a marriage between the Princess de Beira and the Duke of Cumberland —a marriage which would have eventually entitled the latter to the crown of Braganza. Like the rest of the Portuguese, the Jesuit Fathers were naturally opposed to English and Protestant domination in their own country. They were confessors to all the royal family, and Pombal regarded them as the chief obstacle in the way of his designs—an offence which he never forgave them.
.........Pombal was a great builder of prisons. The number of his victims demanded considerable accommodation, for at one particular time in Lisbon he had more than four thousand prisoners of state, and this in a capital of (at that period) one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. Dona Eleanora, the Dowager Marchesa de Tavora, was separated from her children. Masters and servants, men and women, disappeared as if the earth had swallowed them up. In letters of the time we find that Pombal was enraged on discovering that some poor ameliorations had been made in the dreadful state of the captives by the pity of subalterns. Besides the De Tavora family a large number of hidalgos had also been arrested and thrown into dungeons that same night. 
Among them was the greatest noble of Portugal, Don Jose de Mascarenhas y Lancastre, Duke of Aveiro and cousin to Dona Eieanora. Several of the Jesuit fathers, amongst whom was the confessor of the Prince Don Pedro, Father Hyacinth da Costa, were also suddenly carried off to prison.
All Lisbon was paralyzed with terror. A hand of iron weighed upon the city. In the streets nothing but mercenary soldiers were to be seen, and the king no longer went out of his palace. Whoever dared to express doubt as to the guilt of the arrested persons, or the least pity for them, was summarily arrested also. According to the laws of Portugal accused persons had a right to be judged by their peers. Pombal denied his victims the benefit of this right. He created a tribunal composed of creatures of his own, and entirely devoid of legal authority. 
This tribunal lie named the "Court of Mistrust," and over it he appointed himself president. As it was not yet, apparently, so much a question of the Jesuits as of the nobility, the French Encyclopaedists were somewhat offended at these monstrosities, and we hear of the "bad effect" produced in the philosophic world of Paris by the frightful vagaries of Pombal, whom, nevertheless, it was desirous to excuse as far as possible, on account of his "generous ideas." Not content with presiding, Pombal took upon himself the "examination" and "instruction " of the cases. It was he who gave the verdict and pronounced the sentence, which still exists, written by his own hand. 
And how was the examination conducted? By intimidation of every kind, shamelessly employed, by "testimony invented," and witnesses forced by torture to assent to accusations which they were never allowed to retract, and thus furnishing a reason for a judicial carnage the attendant horrors of which are, perhaps, unparalleled in the history of any civilized nation. The Tavora family, as well as the other accused, remained silent under the fearful torments to which they were subjected, with the sole exception of the Duke d'Aveiro, who, in the extremity of agony, half dead as he was, and not knowing what he said, assented to whatever was put in his mouth, and thus accused his fellow-prisoners and— the Jesuits. Pombal, on hearing this, uttered an exclamation of ferocious joy. He had obtained what he wanted. What this implied we shall see further on. No sooner had the unfortunate Duke d Avei'ro recovered his senses than, learning what he had done, he retracted, declaring that excess of torment alone had wrenched from him accusations against persons who were innocent. It is needless to say that his earnest entreaties had no effect in inducing Pombal to allow his retractation. Sentence of death was pronounced against the De Tavora family, their relations and friends, as well as all their numerous domestics and dependants, on January 12, 1759. Pombal, fearing the popular indignation, had the scaffold prepared by night, outside the city, in the ■ Plaza of Belem, which was occupied by two regiments of mercenaries. 
The platform, lighted by torches, rose eighteen feet from the ground. The square and the river side were so thronged with soldiers that the spectators took refuge on the Tagus, where from hundreds of boats and other craft arose a mingled murmur of groans and curses. Thus passed the night of January 13. With the first gray sign of dawn arrived the numerous domestics of the Duke d'Aveiro. These were all bound to stakes at one corner of the scaffold and burnt alive. 
Then followed the Marchesa Eleanora de Tavora, alone; a rope round her neck, a crucifix in her hand, and her garments torn into rags by the torture. Pombal was there; for his Memoirs give, with a sort of infernal satisfaction, the full details of which he was an eye-witness on this night. With calm dignity Dona Eleanora mounted the scaffold, pressing to her heart the image of her God. The executioner approaching to bind her feet, she said to him gently : " Man, I pray you not to forget who I am. Do not touch me except to kill me." The man knelt down before her (Pombal himself relates it). Dona Eleanora was of those races who leave no service, even the last, without its recompense. Drawing her ring from her finger, she held it out to him, saying: " Every work deserves its reward. This is all I have, and 1 give it you that you may do your duty well." The executioner rose and did his duty. After this first noble blood had reddened the block the aged Marquis de Tavora, Dona Eleanora's husband, was beheaded, and next the husband of that Dona Teresa who had brought death and destruction on the noble house into which she had been welcomed as a beloved daughter. Then followed the other sons of Dona Eleanora— the youngest of whom was not twenty years old—her daughters, and her son-in-law; then the long file of officers and servants of her household, who died in their torments like brave men and Christians. Last of all, his garments nothing but tatters, came the Duke d'Aveiro, whose racked limbs could scarcely support him. He was fastened on the wheel; and for nearly an hour he struggled with this ghastly instrument of death, which slowly crushed his bones, while the clamor of his appalling agony could be heard even in Lisbon. The butchery at last consummated, the scaffold with all that was upon it was set on fire, and crumbled, with the half-burnt corpses, into the Tagus. After what has been related it matters little to know that all the friends and relations of these victims were kept in prison, their palaces and mansions razed to the ground, and the very sites they had occupied sown with salt. The arms of the De Tavora and their so-called " accopiplices " were effaced in the Hall of the Knights at Cintra, where their escutcheons still remain veiled with black, like the portrait of Faliero in the Ducal Palace at Venice. This last fact is remarkable, because the iniquitous judgment of January 12, 1759, has for long years past been annulled. Pombal lived long enough to feel even in this world the hand of God. All his victims were rehabilitated during his lifetime by decree of the High Court, solemnly given on April 7, 1781 ; and by this same decree Pombal was disgraced.
Link (here) to Catholic World

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Father Patrick Hartin A Professor At Gonzaga On Dante’s Hell

Link
After reading the Bulletin Friday morning, I’m convinced that I’m living in Alice’s Wonderland! Instead, it’s “Wonderland” – more like Dante’s “Hell”! …. To protect themselves and others in the neighborhood, the students defended themselves by pulling out a gun (one with a legal permit). Then the students called the police (as any law-abiding GU student would), informing them they had a legal gun with a permit. The police congratulated them on their whole mature behavior and response to this incident. There, the incident should have ended (if we were in the real world). But, we enter GU’s “Wonderland” or Dante’s “Hell.” 2:00 a.m. next morning: GU’s campus security breaks into the students’ apartment and their bedrooms and seizes their weapons…. Tragically, in GU’s “Wonderland,” these young gentlemen are turned from victims into criminals….
no
What about the cura personalis that is the bedrock of GU’s ethos? We could have been mourning “Two funerals and a rape” this weekend. Instead, the heroes who avoided such a catastrophe are punished as villains. What a far cry from our Jesuit ethos! 
In the Catholic tradition, to which I ascribe, every person has a right to defend him or herself and to use appropriate means to save their lives.
Go (here) to read the full piece, Fr. Hartin is Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga, and an ordained priest of the Diocese of Spokane, Washington.

Friday, November 15, 2013

The Lords Of Georgetown

Lord Nicholas Windsor
For those who are unaware of the splendid track record of Lord David Alton and Lord Nicholas Windsor, This link will take you to the presentation given by Lord Nicholas Windsor, Jan Graffius and David Alton at Georgetown University's Berkley Centre, Washington DC. The session was hosted and moderated by Professor Tom Farr. The presentation describes the purpose of the Christian Heritage Centre Project, the Collections held at Stonyhurst,and the challenges to contemporary religious freedom. Please share it with others.
they are both tireless warriors in defence of the unborn, doing much great work in Europe and the United Kingdom for the culture of life. Lord Nicholas Windsor, a cousin of the Queen, converted to Catholicism a few years ago and has been an indefatigable crusader for the pro-life cause ever since. Lord Alton has been supporting the pro-life cause in the House of Commons and the House of Lords for several decades.
Link (here) to the St. Austin Review

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

"Former Jesuits Now Outnumber Active Jesuits In The United States."

Were Ignatius of Loyola alive today, the Jesuit order he founded wouldn't ordain him. His once-formidable order is in the throes of a collapse as historically significant as its suppression in 1773. This disintegration, known to traditional Catholics for years (and to bishops too cowardly to stifle its corruption), is now even admitted by liberal pundits. Garry Wills' article about the book "Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits" appears in the New York Review of Books under the title, "Jesuits in Disarray." Jonathan Kirsch, a Los Angeles Times reviewer of the same book, notes that the order is in demographic free fall: "former Jesuits now outnumber active Jesuits in the United States."
society is now a corrupt club for
Meanwhile, traditional Jesuits who stay and seek to recover the order's original spark find themselves in exile. The office for the Jesuit Province in California confirmed to TAP that Joseph Fessio, the prolific San Francisco Jesuit publisher of orthodox books and publications, has been ordered to leave San Francisco for a new assignment, effective in May, at an obscure Catholic hospital in Duarte, California. Fessio's banishment coincides with his recent announcement to start a traditional Catholic school called Campion College next door to the openly dissenting Jesuit University of San Francisco, a school which in recent years has advertised such pagan oddities as a "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student Alliance."
Duarte, California, is becoming the Devil's Island for Jesuits who don't conform to the order's liberal regime. Father Cornelius Buckley, a longtime Jesuit history professor at the University of San Francisco deemed insufficiently liberal for the school, was reassigned to Duarte, California, in the late 1990s. The order called him "divisive."  The crack-up of the liberals in the order will likely accelerate in the wake of their panicky persecution of traditional Jesuits like Fessio. Such desperate actions are in proportion to their fear of exposure and accountability. In a typical liberal irony, the dissenters in the order who rose to power through disobedience to papal authority now use their power to repress "disobedient" traditional Jesuits, lest their revolution inside the Catholic Church grind to a halt.
The Vatican cannot ignore their outrages forever, especially as costly sex abuse lawsuits (the Jesuits settled in 2000 with a seminarian who accused over a dozen Jesuit superiors of sending him pornographic cards and asking him to perform sex acts on them)and lay backlash reveal the modern Jesuits as a chief source of degeneracy and dissent in the Church.
Perhaps it is time for a Second Suppression, not to kill the order, but to save it. Unless the Father Robert Drinans are soon suppressed and replaced with Father Fessios at the head of the order, its days are numbered. The cancer of corruption is rapidly devouring it. If the bishops won't take this fact seriously from the traditional Catholics they take for granted, perhaps they will listen to the liberal cultural commentators who acknowledge it as well. "Entering the Jesuits used to take one into a stable world; but that is far from the experience of recent times," writes Garry Wills. "A thirty-five-year-old still studying theology says: 'My novice master left to marry, my formation director left for a relationship with another man, et cetera. One cannot help but get the sense that we of this generation of Jesuits may be the last of the Shakers.'"
Link (here) to the full article at The American Spectator

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Jonathan Taylor Breaks Into Gonzaga Dorm Students Defend Themselves

A "mug shot" of Jonathon Taylor
In case you missed it, administrators at Gonzaga University have decided to place four students on probation, with the possibility of expulsion on the table. Their crime? Defending themselves against a six-time felon Jonathan Taylor inside their university owned apartment by brandishing a firearm (for which they have a permit). Naturally in typical academic fashion, officials are punishing their own students for fighting back and protecting themselves from a violent criminal with a long rap sheet.

The details of this story have already been covered, but what's missing is the scrutiny against the so-called "intellectuals" in this situation.
The actions taken by Gonzaga officials to punish students for a) owning a firearm and b) using that firearm in self-defense, shows us exactly how far they're willing to go in the name of their own partisan ideology. Officials at Gonzaga are clearly more interested in upholding their anti-gun agenda than keeping students safe.
Think the case of a felon on Gonzaga's campus is an isolated incident? Think again. In 2007, a young woman named Amanda Collins was raped at gunpoint just 50-feet from the campus police station at The University of Nevada-Reno. The University of Nevada-Reno is a gun free zone. At the time of the attack, Collins was in possession of her concealed weapons permit but was not in possession of her firearm due to university policies prohibiting carrying concealed weapons on campus. Her attacker, a serial rapist, went on to rape two more young women, killing one of them. Red-tape and university policies empowered her attacker while she, the victim, was punished. 
Link (here) to the full story at Townhall.com

Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., A Liberal Commentator, Has Described Archbishop Kurtz As A “Smiling Conservative”

In Louisville—and before that, as bishop of Knoxville—Archbishop Kurtz has demonstrated strong conservative values, and has been a staunch defender of Vatican directives on doctrine and liturgy. Fr. Thomas Reese, a liberal commentator who has frequently disagreed with Vatican politics, 
has described Archbishop Joseph Kurtz as a “smiling conservative” in the vein of New York’s Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, who is “very gracious but still holds the same positions” as Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
who has boldly challenged Catholic politicians who dissent from Church teachings on abortion.
Link (here) to Patheos

Saturday, November 9, 2013

19th Century Jesuits "Fervently Ultramontane, Devoted To The Sacred Heart, Fierce Defenders Of Pope Pius IX And The 1870 Definition Of Papal Infallibility And SuspiciousOf Liberalism In All Its Varieties"

Pope Pius IX
In his introduction to The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits (2008), editor Thomas Worcester realized
he needed to address an imbalance in the volume: fourth-fifths of the essays addressed the history of Jesuits before their suppression in 1773.  “[T]here are relatively few good studies of the Jesuits since 1814 – in any part of the world – at least compared with the abundance of excellent work done on the history of the ‘old’ Society and its ‘corporate’ culture,” Worcester explained. “In general, the Society of Jesus, for much of the century and a half from its restoration until Vatican II, was conservative and even reactionary.” (7-8)
Just one year earlier, John McGreevy, made the point even stronger in America magazine.  Reviewing Gerald McKevitt’s Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848-1919 (Stanford, 2006), McGreevy wrote: 
“19th-century Jesuits – fervently ultramontane, devoted to the Sacred Heart, fierce defenders of Pope Pius IX and the 1870 definition of papal infallibility and suspicious of liberalism in all its varieties and the public schools that seemed to inculcate it – surely seemed unlikely role models for Jesuits and non-Jesuit scholars in the immediate postconciliar era.”
It might be difficult to identify with men whose worldview was shaped as much by the 1773-1814 suppression as by the European liberal revolutions that forced them into exile (once again) to all corners of the globe a generation later. And yet, to ignore the post-1814 Jesuits is to miss a crucial aspect of Catholic history over the last two centuries. For one thing, the story of the Jesuits in America, is a story of the Restored Society.  All but one of the twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States today – and all of the secondary schools – were founded by Restored Jesuits. But the story of the Restored Jesuits is far broader: they were a globalizing force in the “long nineteenth century,” the age reframed by C.A. Bayly, as The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (Blackwell, 2004). 2014 marks the bicentennial year of the lifting of the Suppression.  In commemoration of the Restoration, Loyola University Chicago is hosting a major conference on October 16-19, 2014.  It aims to bring together junior and senior scholars to begin a conversation about the contribution to American identity of both restored Jesuits and the women religious with whom they worked in their enterprises.  The conference aims at locating these initiatives within the specific experiential context of building an American nation. The stories of these men and women provide studies in what Thomas Tweed has termed Crossing and Dwelling (Harvard, 2006): the crossings and dwellings of refugees from European exclusions; transatlantic immigrants; multilingual and transnational identities; settlers in ethnic urban cores; boundary-dwellers in frontier peripheries.  A copy of CFP can be found here, with a February 1, 2014 deadline for proposals.
Link (here) to US Religion

Monday, November 4, 2013

Boston College's Fr. James Keenan, S.J. At Center Of Controversy

Linda Hogan
It’s worth noting that the only source cited for these reports is Fr. James Keenan, SJ, who posted Facebook his personal suggestions for a woman cardinal; he included Hogan prominently on his list of contenders, along with Sister Teresa Okure, a theology professor at the Catholic Institute of West Africa in Nigeria, and Maryanne Loughry, associate director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Australia. Google around, and you’ll find multiple reports today on the Linda Hogan rumor from a variety of news outlets; virtually every one goes back to the Keenan Facebook post as the source for Hogan’s name. There’s no one from the Vatican. No one in a position to know is quoted. This amounts to little more than wishful thinking and an educated guess. Could Linda Hogan soon be Cardinal Hogan? If the pope wants to rewrite Canon Law, sure. Anything is possible. But really: I’ll believe it when I see it. Right now, the only one who has elevated her to the rank of cardinal is a Jesuit with a Facebook page.
on

UPDATE: Then there’s this, from the Vatican: 
The Holy See yesterday dismissed as “nonsense” weekend Irish media reports that Pope Francis might nominate two Irish women as cardinals. Responding to reports in Irish and Irish-American media that Pope Francis might name both TCD ecumenics Prof Linda Hogan and former president Mary McAleese as cardinals at a future conclave, senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said: “This is just nonsense . . . It is simply not a realistic possibility that Pope Francis will name women cardinals for the February consistory. “Theologically and theoretically, it is possible,” he added. “Being a cardinal is one of those roles in the church for which, theoretically, you do not have to be ordained but to move from there to suggesting the pope will name women cardinals for the next consistory is not remotely realistic.”

Link (here) to the full post by 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sure On This Shining Night

Listen to the this beautiful classical chorale arrangement of Sure On This Shining Night
by composer Morten Lauridsen musical artists are Polyphony & Stephen Layton



Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder wand'ring far alone
Of shadows on the stars.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Galileo, Kepler, Coperincus, Ptolemy And St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.

Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition by Cristiano Banti
Galileo Galilei has been disinterred, times without number, by the opponents of papal infallibility, and made to pronounce judgment against all such pretended claims. He has been portrayed as a martyr championing the cause of science against the Vatican obscurantists, as one tortured by the Inquisition, cast out of the Church's pale, and refused Christian burial. For these and other mythical reasons we Catholics are expected to feel nervously uneasy when the name of Galileo is mentioned — much as though a skeleton was in danger of being dragged from the cupboard to cast a shadow upon our good name.

Of these various accusations we are here concerned only with one, namely, that the sentence passed against Galileo and against the orthodoxy of his opinions is a glaring instance of science having proved that the infallible guide blundered.

THE STORY OF THE CASE. —
The answer to this well-worn fable will become apparent from a brief statement of what occurred. Galileo lived from 1564 to 1642. In many branches of science, he was justly famous, but here we are interested only in his then novel theory that the earth moved round the sun. This theory was first mooted by Copernicus, and found additional arguments in its favour from the discoveries which Galileo made with his telescope.

(Footnote: It is undeniable that the arguments of Galileo for the heliocentric system were not by any means conclusive. He had not found evidence for what was later found to be true. Even Huxley who examined the case, states that the opponents of Galileo "had rather the best of it." The medieval astronomer had merely put forward an hypothesis that squared very satisfactorily with the facts.)

In spite of all deficiency in his arguments, Galileo asserted as indisputable the truth of his opinion. He wielded an able pen; and, as we shall see, this partly accounts for the treatment he received.

For four years, he had been proclaiming his theory, convincing some, and finding others who detected the weak points in his argument. In 1615, the ecclesiastical authorities took alarm. Up to that time, the letter of Holy Scripture was taken to express the final judgment in all matters, scientific and religious. On this principle, it seemed that Scripture clearly taught the opposite of Galileo's theory — for Scripture spoke of the sun staying its course at the prayer of Joshua, and of the earth as being for ever immovable. How then, it was asked, could Galileo, in the face of this, assert that the earth went round the sun?

Hearing that he was in disfavour, Galileo, in 1615, presented himself at Rome, and was courteously received. But meantime the official machinery was set to work. The experts, or "qualifiers," of the Inquisition were called upon to give their opinion on two propositions taught by Galileo: first, that the sun is the centre of the world and does not move from its place; and, secondly, that the earth is not the centre of the world and has a diurnal motion. The Qualifiers reported that the first statement was outright heresy, because in open contradiction to the explicit teaching of Scripture; and that the second statement was, at least, theologically, incorrect. Cardinal (Saint Robert) Bellarmine was instructed to inform Galileo of this decision, and to tell him that he must renounce these opinions and promise not to advocate them either by word or by writing. This Galileo promised to do, and so avoided further trouble.

This report of the experts of the Inquisition inspired a decree of the Congregation of the Index, which forbade the publication of works advocating the Copernican system, and which gave as its reason that it was open to heresy to declare that the sun did not move through the heavens.*

(Footnote: We may note in passing that this decree seems to have been a clumsy compromise between the more conservative theologians and those who saw that perhaps it was not necessary to hold that every expression in Scripture was scientifically exact; for the decree allowed the Copernican system to be held as an hypothetical explanation of the movements of the heavens, provided this was not stated as a fact. Clearly, if the doctrine embodied formal heresy, no Church authority could tolerate its discussion, even as an hypothesis.)
On this point, (that it was open to heresy to declare that the sun did not move through the heavens) it is to be noted that Cardinal Bellarmine, the most influential member of the Sacred College, writes to one of Galileo's ardent supporters: — "I say that if a real proof be found that the sun is fixed and does not revolve round the earth, but the earth round the sun, then it will be necessary, very cautiously, to proceed to the explanation of the passages in Scripture which appear to be contrary, and we should rather say that we have misunderstood these than pronounce that to be false which is demonstrated." This admission is important in the light of after events.
Galileo paid no attention to his promise made to the Inquisition, and again loudly and constantly proclaimed his system true beyond all doubt. In 1624, he visited Rome again and was treated with lavish hospitality by the Pope; but he failed to secure the withdrawal of the decree against his works. In 1632, he employed a method of defence which was of rather questionable morality. He submitted to the Church authorities a work in which his view was treated all through as an hypothesis. The book was a dialogue between a Ptolemaist and two Copernicans, in which the Ptolemaist was completely routed. The censors gave leave for the work to be published. Having obtained this permission, Galileo now changed the setting of the work by advancing his view not as a theory but as a fact, and made the routed Ptolemaist closely resemble the reigning Pope, Urban VIII. This was published in 1632, and was rightly regarded by the officials at Rome as a direct challenge. Being cited before the Inquisition, he protested that since his former condemnation he had never held the views of Copernicus. This insincere declaration did not save him; he was condemned, as suspected of heresy, to incarceration at the pleasure of the tribunal, and to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week for three years.

The story of his torture and severe imprisonment is fiction. In no true sense was he a prisoner. His Protestant biographer, von Gebler, tells us "he spent altogether twenty two days in the buildings of the Holy Office, and even then not in a prison cell with barred windows, but in the handsome and commodious apartment of an official of the Inquisition." He was then allowed to live with his friends, first at Rome, and later at Florence, in a delightful place amongst the suburbs. When he was dying he received a special blessing sent him by the Pope, and, so far from being refused Christian burial, he was interred in the church of Santa Croce at Florence.

THE OBJECTION RAISED. —
Our adversaries take their stand upon the decree which was published by the Congregation of the Index when it first condemned Galileo's theory. They assert that the question was one of faith, for a doctrine is condemned as heretical; and, moreover, that the Pope had full knowledge of the doings of the Congregation and sanctioned all its proceedings. Hence, they conclude that there is here another instance of the infallible guide blundering, and this time being corrected by science.

COMMENT ON THE CASE. —
We frankly admit that this decision against Galileo was most unfortunate, in that it asserted, an opinion to be heretical which was later allowed to be orthodox; its finding was reversed when, years later, a proof for the heliocentric system was submitted which was as cogent as Galileo's was defective. The principle of biblical interpretation, upon which the decision was based, was a false one, although it was current at that time. It was thought, for instance, that Scripture must always speak in scientific terminology and with scientific accuracy, even when using the language which men ordinarily employ when conveying their ideas to one another; thus when it spoke of the sun rising or going to rest, it meant that the sun went through the two operations of rising and sinking. Whereas we now admit that the Scriptures, when describing what appears to our senses, may and do use the ordinary terms which we employ. For the sake of accuracy, the Scripture is not obliged — any more than was Newton — to avoid using the expression "the sun rose," or "the sun was stayed in its course through the heavens."

THE OBJECTION ANSWERED. —
Did the Pope err as an infallible teacher? Surely not, if he did not assume the role of such a teacher. It is simply misrepresenting history to say that anyone, even the Pope himself, thought an ex cathedra statement had been made. As a matter of fact, the Pope's signature is not appended to any of the documents connected with Galileo's condemnation, and even if the signature were appended, it would merely be a guarantee of the authenticity of the document — unless clear indication were given that much more was intended. And, further, though the Pope was present at some of the deliberations of the Cardinals, and was aware of what steps were being taken, that fact alone does not constitute the decisions arrived at as infallible pronouncements. The same answer applies to the objection that a Papal Bull was issued accompanying a later edition of the list of books proscribed by the Index, amongst which books were included any that advocated the Copernican system. Such a Bull merely gives the list a guarantee that it is official.

CONFIRMATORY EVIDENCE FROM PROTESTANT WRITERS. —
Fair-minded Protestant writers are as explicit on these points as any Catholic could be. Thus, for example, the astronomer Proctor writes: "The Catholic doctrine (of papal infallibility) is perfectly definite; and it is absolutely certain that the decision in regard to Galileo's teaching, shown now to have been unsound, does not in the slightest degree affect the doctrine of infallibility as defined by the Vatican Council" of 1870 (Knowledge, volume 9, page 274). And again, another Protestant, Karl von Gebler, in his work, Galileo and the Roman Curia, writes to the same effect: "We grant that the two Congregations of the Index and the Inquisition, with the two Popes who sanctioned and promulgated their decrees, were in error; but not one ever held that the decisions of the Roman Congregations were in themselves infallible, even when approved by the Pope, unless specially set forth by the Pope with all the conditions required for an ex cathedra definition."

We note further that the action of Cardinal Bellarmine clearly shows that the answer of the Congregation was not intended to be final; for he admits that if science can show, which at that time it could not do — that the earth moves round the sun, the principle then in use for interpreting Scripture will have to be carefully readjusted.

THE FATE OF KEPLER. —
In conclusion, when we are taunted with the condemnation of Galileo, we may reply with a tu quoque (‘you also’) argument. For Protestants as well as Catholics, held to the views of Galileo's judges; for example, Luther called Copernicus a fool, for turning astronomy upside down, and Melanchton and practically all Protestant professors strongly condemned the system as contrary to the teaching of the Bible. And more remarkable still, just thirty-seven years before Galileo got into trouble, the Protestant Theological Faculty of Tubingen condemned Kepler for teaching the identical scientific truth which Galileo favoured. The divines unanimously decided that Kepler’s book, Prodromos Disserationum Cosmographicarum, contained a deadly heresy, because it contradicted the teaching of the Bible in that passage where Joshua commands the sun to stand still. Now, these divines held the doctrine of "private interpretation of Scripture"; are they not then in difficulties, when science has proved that on one occasion this interpretation was erroneous — and if on one occasion, why not on others? The condemnation of Kepler by the Protestants tells far more against them than does the condemnation of Galileo against us; for in the one case, science gives the lie direct to a fundamental principle of a whole religious system — the principle of private interpretation; while in the other case a defined dogma, that of papal infallibility, as in no way affected.

THE OBJECTION PRESSED FURTHER. —
It is urged that the case of Galileo at least shows that the Church was itself mistaken in matters of faith; for it held a wrong canon of biblical criticism, namely, that the expressions in Scripture which describe physical phenomena are always scientifically exact. We answer that the Church never even considered this question — much less did she believe with the assurance of faith that this principle was correct; it was merely admitted by the majority of the theologians as a commonly accepted rule, and as yet, no convincing reasons had been adduced for rejecting it. No one ever asserted that it was a doctrine of faith; as we have twice remarked, Bellarmine was prepared to give it up; and, moreover, other orthodox theologians explicitly rejected it, maintaining, in defence of Galileo, that "the Bible taught us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go."
Link (here) to read the full article by Fr. H. B. Loughnan, S.J.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Georgetown University And Abortion

A Washington D.C.-based private Catholic university is slated to offer a class next semester that is expected to teach students how to promote and protect abortion coverage provided under the Affordable Care Act. The course, “Regulatory Advocacy: Women and the Affordable Care Act,” is set to be taught at Georgetown Law, and it has upset staunch Catholics, according to The Cardinal Newman Society, which first reported on the new academic offering.
“We have long warned about Georgetown scandals that undermine the Church’s strong defense of innocent life,” Patrick Reilly, society president, told Catholic Education Daily. “But here students are being required to work for a pro-abortion lobby, making America’s oldest Catholic university an active agent of the culture of death.”
The course will hone in on “regulatory advocacy as it pertains to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and women’s health,” and calls on students to work with the National Women’s Law Center “to develop projects that will assist in the organization’s regulatory advocacy efforts.” The law center publicly supports Obamacare and its mandate requiring religious institutions provide insurance coverage for abortions and other birth control.
Link (here) to The College Fix

Monday, October 28, 2013

“A Copernican Revolution”

Jan Matejko's Conversations with God
In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Father Cristian Martini Grimaldi, an Argentine Jesuit who has served for decades as a missionary in Japan, recalled the future Pope Francis’s leadership as a Jesuit provincial. Father Grimaldi, who was sent to Japan by the future Pope, now directs the martyrs’ museum in Nagasaki.

Father Grimaldi recalled how Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio would emphasize that the Jesuits under his care must take responsibility for their actions.
In Argentine Catholic culture at the time, Father Grimaldi recounted, priests would wait for the lay faithful to come to parishes before interacting with them. Father Bergoglio, he said, instituted “a Copernican revolution”: he instructed Jesuit novices to go out and teach the catechism in poor neighborhoods and invite the poor to church. 
Link (here) to Catholic Culture

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Blatty Effect

Protesting the speech by Kathleen Sebelius at Georgetown University
In over the year that the canon law Petition led by William Peter Blatty has been worldwide news, Georgetown University's "newspaper of public record," The Hoya, has given the matter scant news coverage, their last piece invented facts that were not true. By contrast, the managing editor of the blatantly liberal Georgetown Voice recently published an op-ed agreeing with one of Blatty's main allegations.
On Friday, The Hoya finally weighed in with some substance, publishing an interview of Georgetown University's canonist, Rev. Ladislas Orsy, S.J., still going strong at 92!
Orsy was one of the earliest critics of Ex corde Ecclesiae when it was issued 23 years ago and has argued for years that it has minimal reach. He does so again in The Hoya. Orsy had previously made the same argument regarding the canons of the 1983 Code of Canon Law addressing Catholic universities. Both documents were promulgated by Blessed Pope John Paul II and were each unfinished matters called for by the Second Vatican Council. (Vatican II). Both documents ended the "Land o' Lakes" apostasy, at least in words. Unfortunately, part of the problem with the Orsy interview is The Hoya's uninformed questions. Orsy clarifies that the Blatty Petition is not a lawsuit. There is no disagreement there. A recent press release by the Father King Society states: "The canonical procedure being employed is not a 'lawsuit'." Astonishingly, however, Fr. Orsy tells The Hoya that "[Ex corde Ecclesiae} says that the president of a Catholic university should be voted on by the board of trustees and agreed upon by the Vatican." In fact, Ex corde neither says nor suggests that! Orsy tells The Hoya that the Church has no power to remove its consent for Georgetown University to call itself "Catholic," suggesting that there is a difference between a university like Georgetown and a university that has "Catholic" in its name. Orsy's opinion has been repeatedly contradicted by Church officials and other canonists for decades now. 
Link (here) to Catholic.org

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Pope Francis, "The Presence Of The Devil Is In The First Page Of The Bible And The Bible Ends With The Presence Of The Devil, With God's Victory Over The Devil."

Did not Jesus call us to cast out demons? Did He not charge to us the task of healing? The Pope himself pointed this out recently when he during a homily at Casa Santa Marta after the reading on how some accused Jesus of casting spirits out in the name of Beelzebub and about how evil can attack. The Pope, as reported by Vatican Radio, noted that all along, 
"and even in our days, there is the temptation to belittle the figure of Jesus. Some priests when they read this Gospel passage, this and others, say: 'But, Jesus healed a person from a mental illness.' They do not read this here, right? It's true that at that time you could confuse epilepsy with demonic possession, but it is also true that there was the devil! And we have no right to simplify the thing, as if to say: 'They were not possessed; they were mentally ill.' No! The presence of the devil is in the first page of the Bible and the Bible ends with the presence of the devil, with God's victory over the devil." 
In this regard, warned the Holy Father, "we must not be naive." They are words spoken by a man who understands the spiritual component, words that should be sent to every parish in North America, Western Europe, and Australia -- where the devil has been turned into a cartoon as the Church bowed before scientism, listening, with all due respect, to Freud more than to Jesus. Will that change? How many cases are medical or psychological issues? How many have at least a partial demonic element? Judging from how many times Jesus cast out evil spirits before effecting a cure, the answer would seem to be, if not most, "many." Muteness. Deafness. Crippling ailments. Female problems. Epilepsy. Are not these all some of the illness Jesus cured by expurgating the devil?
Link (here) to Spirit Daily

Friday, October 18, 2013

Saint Among Savages

St. Isaac JoguesWe could say that St. Isaac is the true standard bearer of the faith in a new land, carrying the banner of Christ into unchartered territory. In this he followed in the footsteps of Christ himself, laying down himself in sacrifice out of love for others, even those who despised him, and in doing so became a pioneer in the truest sense: “Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb 12:2). This deliberate following of Christ can be seen in a consecration of himself that Jogues made while still safely within his Huron mission in French Canada. Fr. Francis Talbot, S.J., in his monumental biography of Jogues, Saint among Savages, recounts this incident: “He begged and demanded of God that he would be immolated, would be sacrificed as a victim of Divine love. He offered himself, body, soul, will, mind, memory to God, that God might do with him as He pleased.” Like the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, this prayer ought to be considered one of the foundational statements of America. This This willingness to endure death at the hands of savage torturers helped birth a new Christian realm in this continent. Interestingly enough, during his captivity Jogues had a dream in which his ministry and martyrdom appeared to him as a tour through a large city, built upon the exact spot as the Mohawk village of his imprisonment. He describes his first sight of the city as follows: “I had gone out of our village as I usually did…. When I returned, everything seemed changed. The tall palings that surrounded our village on all sides were transformed into very beautiful towers, battlements, and walls…. some savages…came out and assured me that it truly was our little hamlet.” Entering the first wall of this city he saw a slain lamb over the gate. Passing through a second gate he encountered a garrison and was apprehended and brought to a palace. Outside the gate of the palace Jogues saw many people who knew from France. He was taken in and judged and punished by the king of this city in a manner similar to how the Mohawks had tortured him. Jogues interpreted his judgment of suffering as the price he had to pay to abide in this city. He does not, however, provide us with an explanation of the rest of the dream. Could this great city be an image of the new realm of Christendom which was formed in the continent of America? What strikes me most about the city is that it combines images from America, France, and Heaven with Christ as king ruling over all. The city was placed on the site of the Mohawk village, with the natives outside of and exiting the outer ring; the second ring that of his fellow Christians and guarded by angels; and finally the palace, the seat of Christ. To me it seems that from the palace Christ’s reign would extend to the outer circle through the mediation of the more interior one. Thus, we can see Christ’s plan for the extension of his domain, creating a unity that draws all together, but through the mediation of Christian suffering.
Link (here) to Crisis Magazine

Friday, October 11, 2013

Naval School of Mechanics

The Vatican has firmly denied these claims and there have since been many reports of the "quiet diplomacy" used by Pope Francis, who was then named Jorge Mario Bergoglio and head of the Jesuit order in Argentina. There was no official word on the content of the talks between Francis and Jalics, who was born in Hungary and now lives in a German monastery. Francis has said he experienced "a period of great internal crisis" at the time of the junta and admitted to making mistakes in his leadership. A recent book by an Italian journalist, however, said he took in many leftist students at risk of being jailed by the dictatorship and advised hi
s priests on how best to avoid being spied on. It also published transcripts from testimony given by Bergoglio to prosecutors investigating the crimes of the junta in which he said he lobbied for the release of Jalics and Orlando Yorio.
The two young Jesuits who were preaching in the slums were taken in March 1976 to the notorious Naval School of Mechanics, a torture centre run by the junta. They were freed after five months. 
Father Franz Jalics now lives in a monastery in Germany. Following controversy after the Pope's election in March, Jalics released a statement saying: "Yorio and I were not reported by Father Bergoglio". "I myself formerly tended to believe that we were reported. At the end of the 1990s however it became clear to me after numerous conversations that this assumption was baseless," Jalics said.
Link (here)

Thursday, October 3, 2013

William Peter Blatty, "Georgetown Takes Pride In Insulting The Church And Offending The Faithful,"

William Peter Blatty
Concluding that his alma mater "takes pride in insulting the Church and offending the faithful," William Peter Blatty, author of the best-selling book The Exorcist, filed a Canon Law petition with the Vatican this summer asking that Georgetown University be denied the right to call itself Catholic. Calling Georgetown a "Potemkin village," Blatty complained that at "alumni dinners, a Jesuit would be placed at every table like a flower centerpiece." For Blatty, Georgetown is "merely the leader of a pack" of schools that are failing to live up to their Catholic identity.
Mr. Blatty's 200-page papal petition contains more than 480 footnotes, 99 appendices, 124 witness statements. It also includes a commissioned 120-page institutional audit of Georgetown. According to Manuel A. Miranda, who serves as Mr. Blatty's counsel, "We have documented 23 years of Scandals and dissidence, over 100 Scandals in the most recent years alone."
The petition -- with the signatures of more than 2,000 Catholics -- asks Pope Francis to require that Georgetown implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the 1990 papal document requiring all Catholic colleges to teach "in communion" with the Church. The goal of Blatty's petition is to revoke Georgetown's right to call itself Catholic -- unless it complies with Church teachings. Since 1967, when Catholic college leaders gathered in Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin, to create a manifesto that declared their "true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical," most Catholic college presidents have ignored any attempts by their presiding bishops to bring the Catholic colleges and universities into communion with the Church. 
Link (here) to The Huffington Post

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

“I Used To Do Abortions Before My Conversion"

A former abortionist’s far-fetched dream of surrendering the medical instruments with which he had once performed abortions to Pope Francis became a reality recently, when, to his astonishment, Dr. Antonio Oriente found himself face to face with the pontiff.
In a testimony posted to Facebook, Dr. Antonio Oriente expresses his surprise at the encounter, explaining that he had originally decided not to go to Rome for a conference of gynecologists to which he was invited, because of a father-in-law in “grave health” and the fact that there was no guarantee he could even see the pope personally. But at the last minute, he changed his mind.
Oriente, the vice president and founder of the Associazione Italiana Ginecologi Ostetrici Cattolici (AIGOC), told ACI Presna, “I used to do abortions before my conversion, and I had the desire to entrust the [instruments] to the Holy Father, after I had failed to do it with John Paul II nor with Benedict XVI.” A fellow member of AIGOC had confirmed that the group would be included in a papal audience for the conference, but said only a small number would be able to meet personally with the Holy Father. Of AIGOC, he said, only the president and secretary were in that number. “I knew I could not confer with the Pope, and that therefore my desire to give him the surgical instruments which I used as an abortionist would have been nearly impossible,” Oriente said in his testimony. But despite these reservations, and worries about bringing the instruments on a flight, Oriente decided to take the flight up from Messina to Rome, “after I prayed and asked the Lord just the same”. 
Link (here) to Lifesite to read the full story

"I'm Not Francis Of Assisi"


"I'm not Francis of Assisi and I do not have his strength and his holiness. But I am the Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic world. The first thing I decided was to appoint a group of eight cardinals to be my advisers. Not courtiers but wise people who share my own feelings. This is the beginning of a Church with an organization that is not just top-down but also horizontal. When Cardinal Martini talked about focusing on the councils and synods he knew how long and difficult it would be to go in that direction. Gently, but firmly and tenaciously."
Link (here) to the full interview by  Eugenio Scalfari of Pope Francis 

Link (here) to the twelfth rule of Saint Ignatius' Spiritual Exercise and his his complete discourse, TO HAVE THE TRUE SENTIMENT WHICH WE OUGHT TO HAVE IN THE CHURCH MILITANT


Twelfth Rule
 We ought to be on our guard in making comparison of those of us who are alive to the blessed passed away, because error is committed not a little in this; that is to say, in saying, this one knows more than St. Augustine; he is another, or greater than, St. Francis; he is another St. Paul in goodness, holiness, etc.

Pope Francis On St. Ignatius Of Loyola, "Ignatius Who Founded The Society, Was Also A Reformer And A Mystic. Especially A Mystic."


"Ignatius, for understandable reasons, is the saint I know better than any other. He founded our Order. I'd like to remind you that Carlo Maria Martini also came from that order, someone who is very dear to me and also to you. Jesuits were and still are the leavening  -  not the only one but perhaps the most effective  -  of Catholicism: culture, teaching, missionary work, loyalty to the Pope. But Ignatius who founded the Society, was also a reformer and a mystic. Especially a mystic."

Link (here) to the full interview by Eugenio Scalfari of Pope Francis 

Link (here) to read about St. Ignatius' mystical vision at Manreza