When It Hits The Fan

Dozens of youth in Colombia reacted against Jesuit priest Father Carlos Novoa's support for abortion and called on Colombian bishops and the Society of Jesus to make a statement on the controversy. 

“It is very disappointing and frustrating to see people who have received formation as Jesuits not defending the message of Christ and the principles for which St. Ignatius of Loyola fought his entire life,” said student protestor Liz Rodriguez. 

On Nov. 12, young people gathered outside the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogota where Fr. Novoa teaches to protest against his repeated statements in favor of abortion. In several recent radio and television interviews, Fr. Novoa defended the practice through his own interpretation of passages from John Paul II’s encyclical "Evangelium Vitae," documents from Vatican II and canon law. Maria Isabel Magana, a student taking part in the protest, said that 

“the statements by Fr. Novoa have been very damaging to the Church because they contradict the messages that have been part of the magisterium and tradition of the Church throughout history which Pope Benedict XVI has also defended.” “When a priest goes contradicts this message in the media, he is confusing the faithful. This attitude must be counteracted with courage and rigor,” 

she added. Another protestor, Ramon Cortes, said Fr. Novoa’s statements are ultimately damaging to the pro-life movement at large. 

Link (here) Creative Minority Report

Go (here) to read about Fr. Carlos Novoa, S.J.

Former Jesuit Rocks Out

It’s got to be a good show when an 82-year-old former Jesuit priest rocks out. Leon Isaza yelled and sang along to lyrics like a young schoolgirl, pumping his fists into the air while Colombian superstar Juanes belted out a decade’s worth of award-winning songs infused with Latin folkloric rhythm and fierce guitar. While Isaza, a Colombia native, stuck out in a crowd of mostly 20- and 30-somethings Sunday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, he couldn’t help but be electrified by one of the most influential and dominant Spanish-language artists of the era, who feverishly bounced around the stage, giving his best to fans on the third stop of his worldwide tour behind his new album P.A.R.C.E.  ........The crowd roared as Juanes personally waved to fans, including his wife and daughter in the front row, and sent a smile and wave to Father Isaza, though the two don’t know each other. Isaza promptly put his cane to the side and swayed along to most of Juanes’ songs, rarely sitting down for a break.

Link (here) to Soundcheck

Jesuit In The Company Of Communists

Piedad Córdoba is an intelligent and brave person, a brilliant speaker, with well-articulated thoughts.  A few weeks ago she visited us in the company of other distinguished personalities, among which was a remarkably honest Jesuit priest.  They came spurred on by a profound desire to seek peace for their country and they were requesting Cuba’s collaboration, remembering that for years, and at the instance of the government of Colombia itself, we lent our territory and our collaboration for the meetings that took place in our capital between representatives of the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army.

Link (here) to the full post with pictures, the blog is entitled The Marxist -Leninist.

Columbian Memories

The Trujillo massacre was actually a series of killings spanning six years between 1988 and 1994. The most gruesome of all was the death of Father Tiberio Fernandez, the local Jesuit priest. He was kidnapped on his way to Mass in April 1990 with his niece and two other parishioners. His decapitated and castrated body washed up a few days later.
Link (here)

The inscription on Fr. Fernandez's tomb reads

"If my blood helps Trujillo to wake up and flower in peace
then I will gladly spill it"

Fr. Otto Messmer, S.J. And Fr. Victor Betancourt, S.J. Rest In Peace

Two Jesuit priests found dead in Moscow flat

29/10/2008 10:58 MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) - Two Jesuit priests were found murdered in their flat in central Moscow on Tuesday evening, a Russian Catholic Church official said on Wednesday.

Otto Messmer, who heads the Russian Independent Region of the Society of Jesus, and Colombian priest Victor Betancourt (Ruiz), were found dead in their apartment on Petrovka Street, with severe bodily injuries.

"They did not answer telephone calls, so their brothers in the order went to their apartment, where they found them already dead," Igor Kovalevsky, the general secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, told reporters.

The motive for the killing is not known, he said.

Earlier reports said the priests were injured in a fight near their house involving two other individuals. A local police source said the clerics died from injuries sustained in the fighting.

Eyewitness said a man of Hispanic appearance, aged around 40, killed the priests.

The Russian Independent Region of the Society of Jesus, which was officially registered in June 1992, carries out educational and missionary work throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Link (here)

More information from America Magazine (here)

Another in depth and detailed article from Australia (here)

Zenit.org article in German (here) and in English (here)

Blog links Communio and City and the World

Fr Anthony Symondson SJ said...

This is tragic news. I knew Victor Betencourt Ruiz on the first European Tertianship in Dublin two years ago. He was good, solid and dependable, a typical Ecuadorean with a Conquistador background. What makes his death even more difficult for his family is that he had to return to Ecuador on two occasions to minister to his dying grandfather and father and to a nephew who almost died in a car accident. This will be hard for his mother and I hope many will pray for her as well as for the souls of him and his companion. The Jesuits in Russia have a particularly hard and demanding apostolate and both were indispensable to the mission. They too need Masses, prayers and financial support.

October 29, 2008 11:10 AM

From the combox (here)

An Interview With A Columbian Jesuit: Edwin Martinez C, SJ

When the first time you thought about being a Jesuit?

Several times in my life, people have asked me when I begin to be a Jesuit, why I am a Jesuit and why I wanted to be a Jesuit. Actually, I am not sure I have a good answer because I just feel called to be a Jesuit. Even in the beginning, my family, a very Catholic family in Colombia, did not understand my decision. I was studying in a Jesuit high school (like Seattle Prep or Gonzaga Prep) and Jesuits used to come to this school to talk with the students who might want to be Jesuits. The students who went to speak with the Jesuits did not have to go to classes and so it was fun for us to skip class. Many times I was in these meetings with the Jesuits, especially when I had mathematics and difficult quizzes, because first I did not want to be in these classes but later because I began to feel differently. I really wanted to be a Jesuit. At this time, I was 16 years old and I was a high school junior.

Colombian Jesuits have a special house named Manresa in Bogota for young men who think they have vocation. In this house, people who want to be a Jesuit live for some time and they think and pray about making a good decision. When I was a high school senior, I lived in Manresa and I came to know Jesuit history and other important things about the Society of Jesus. I was really coming to appreciate Jesuit history and also the justice projects that Jesuits were involved with in Colombia. Every weekend, I used to go to different parishes and I would meet many people. Really, I never thought about being a Jesuit but working with the people and I felt so happy in doing so that the result was that I wanted to be a Priest as soon as possible.

However, Jesuit formation is very long and though I have been in Jesuit formation nine years and still I have to study four or five years more. I think that is good because religious vocation is not a profession. The religious vocation is road that we are invited to travel our entire life.

Read the full interview (here)

Cartagena Jesuit Legacy

San Pedro Claver Church

17 th Century church in Plaza de San Pedro Claver, one of the most conspicuous landmarks in the city. Houses the relics of Saint Pedro Claver and the old Jesuit school – now the site of the Maritime Museum. Link (here)

Jesuit Heading Back Home To Columbia

Father Zea's going home

And that will leave a huge void at St. Joseph Church, where the Colombian native is beloved

by Joseph Trevino
June 28, 2008
For years, The Rev. Virgilio Zea has been an outspoken defender of immigrant rights. The Colombian native has been a fixture for Latinos since he was assigned to Yakima's St. Joseph's Catholic Church in the winter of 2003. But now, his visa is about to expire and the well-liked priest is scheduled to board a Delta Airlines plane that will take him to Mexico City, then Bogota. It will be a trip filled with mixed feelings for the 75-year-old Jesuit. He wants to see relatives and friends in Colombia, but after ministering to St. Joseph's churchgoers for the last five years, he will miss them. "The people's kindness here is so much that one feels at home here," the priest said Tuesday in a broken voice in his rectory office. Emma Magaña, who with her husband headed a Charismatic Renewal prayer group that last April attracted about 6,000 carismaticos to a religious event at the SunDome, said Zea has been instrumental in helping local Latinos with their spiritual needs. Whether as a counselor, hearing confessions or supporting them in putting it all together for the biggest Catholic Hispanic event in the Pacific Northwest, she said the priest's dedication is unquestionable. "Ever since he came to Yakima, he has always been there for us," said Magaña on Tuesday. "He is always visiting the sick at the hospital or at their homes or counseling people. He never says that he is too busy for no one." Zea came to St. Joseph's as part of a program that supplies Colombian priests to the Pacific Northwest and the Yakima Valley. A theology and anthropology professor who has taught in universities in Colombia and Ohio, Zea was recruited by his Jesuit superiors to work with Yakima's working class and poorest Spanish-speakers.

A slim, easygoing man with aristocratic manners who frequently wears a sweater over Roman-collared shirts, Zea's favorite pastime is reading. He celebrates Mass decked out in elaborately engraved old-school priestly robes, regularly reminding his flock of Jesus' love, extolling them to forgive those who have offended them and to help the downtrodden, even those in faraway lands.

But when it comes to defending immigrants, including undocumented workers, Zea's kind voice becomes firm and his gentleman's gait, resolute. The Jesuit has led many pro-immigrant marches since he has been in Yakima, including the downtown rally May 1. But Zea, who many consider, in addition to a priest, a champion of immigrant rights, will have his religious visa expired. He said he can reapply for another one in a year. Still, he will have to return to Colombia, where a consular officer in Bogota will decide if he can come back with a tourist card, he said. He added that his superiors want him back in Colombia, where there is a lot of work for him, but parishioners in Yakima have grown fond of him, too. One of those is Magaña, who says she will be among the many who will sorely miss Zea. She said Yakima needs him and he must return. "We are praying that he can come back," Magaña said. "We will be waiting for him with open arms."

Link to original story (here)

Read more about the history of the Jesuits in Yakima at St. Joseph's (here)

Picture is of St. Josephs in Yakima

South Americian Jesuit Hospital Defending Life

Battle in Colombia over woman who wants to abort deformed fetus
Bogota, Mar 3, 2008 / 03:46 pm (CNA).- A woman in Colombia who is in her sixth month of pregnancy has filed a lawsuit demanding that the San Ignacio Hospital grant her an abortion after tests revealed the baby is deformed. Migdony Yolima Bernal Castillo decided to file the lawsuit after the San Ignacio Hospital ruled against granting the abortion for ethical reasons and insisted that despite the abnormalities, the baby could be saved and could live. Castillo alleged that her unborn child, who suffers from hydrocephalus and symmetric growth, should be aborted because “it is better to live with that pain now and avoid seeing our child like this, because he has the right to a decent life.”

The hospital, operated by the Society of Jesus, said an abortion is not only unnecessary in this case, it also goes against its principles, which hospital officials said they would defend no matter what the cost. “Because of the Hospital’s mission and ethical position, abortions will not be performed at any time,”

said Dr. Julio Cesar Castellanos, director of the facility. He said they would await a ruling from the court before deciding on what step to take next. According to an official from the Ministry of Social Protection, the hospital can only refuse the procedure if a statement of objection to abortion signed by the doctors exists. Colombia’s Constitutional Court has legalized abortion in cases of rape, grave deformation of the fetus and life of the mother. However, according to the law, abortion is legal up to the twenty-second week of pregnancy, and Castillo has already reached her twenty-seventh week. She alleges that the delay has been the result of “medical negligence,” about which the courts will decide. According to the Secretariat of Health, an abortion at this stage would pose a risk to the life of the mother. Castellanos said, “We carried out an exam and we can confirm that the fetus does have serious deformations, but they are not lethal. Other babies with similar problems have been born.”

Link (here)