What Is Conscious Evolution?

Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.

The second concern the cardinal raised was the subject matter of recent LCWR assemblies, publications and programs. He said that the CDF mandate was criticized as “unsubstantiated” when it spoke of religious “moving beyond the Church or even beyond Jesus.” That is hard language that probably sounded “harsh” to many faithful religious, he said, and he emphasized that the CDF does not call into question “the eloquent, even prophetic, witness of so many faithful religious women.” However, he continued, “the issues raised in the assessment are so central and so foundational; there is no other way of discussing them except as constituting a movement away from the ecclesial center of faith in Christ Jesus the Lord.” Cardinal Müller explained that, for the last several years, the CDF has been concerned about the LCWR focusing attention on the concept of conscious evolution. He said that since Barbara Marx Hubbard addressed the 2012 LCWR assembly on the topic, every issue of the LCWR newsletter has discussed conscious evolution in some way. “We have even seen some religious institutes modify their directional statements to incorporate concepts and undeveloped terms from conscious evolution,” he added.

Apologizing for sounding blunt, the cardinal continued: “The fundamental theses of conscious evolution are opposed to Christian Revelation and, when taken unreflectively, lead almost necessarily to fundamental errors regarding the omnipotence of God, the incarnation of Christ, the reality of Original Sin, the necessity of salvation and the definitive nature of the salvific action of Christ in the Paschal Mystery.”

Cardinal Müller said he is concerned that “such an intense focus on new ideas such as conscious evolution has robbed religious of the ability truly to sentire cum Ecclesia (think with the Church and embrace its teachings).” He also expressed concern that the religious hearing and studying this topic may not discern these divergences from the faith and the LCWR does not present counterpoints that explain Church teaching.

“The assessment is concerned with positive errors of doctrine seen in the light of the LCWR’s responsibility to support a vision of religious life in harmony with that of the Church and to promote a solid doctrinal basis for religious life,” the cardinal continued. “I am worried that the uncritical acceptance of things such as conscious evolution, seemingly without any awareness that it offers a vision of God, the cosmos and the human person divergent from or opposed to Revelation, evidences that a de facto movement beyond the Church and sound Christian faith has already occurred.”

Link (here)

Fr. Jean-Yves Calvez, S.J. "My Friend Karol And I"

Fr. Jean-Yves Calvez, S.J.

.....in the days before the Ted Williams tunnel in Boston, and getting back and forth through the Sumner and Callahan Tunnels could be something of a chore. As we sat there, under the harbor, in the tunnel, Fr. Jean-Yves Calvez, S.J. asked me a simple question: “So Michael, what theology classes are you taking this semester?” I answered: “Well Father, I am taking Jesuit Spirituality and Vatican II Theology.” Fr. Calvez quickly responded: “Very interesting, I was at the council you know.” “No Fr. Calvez, I didn’t know that, what did you do at the council?” This turned out to be the first dumb question that I asked, I expected an answer like “I got coffee,” or “I was a page.” With all gentility and humor, Fr. Calvez responded: “I worked on a document.” My second dumb question: “Really Father, which document?” I expected to hear one of the more minor documents and that he had just advised in the writing of it.

He responded: “I wonder if you have heard of it, it is called Gaudium et Spes, my friend Karol and I wrote most of it.” STOP for a minute; let’s just break down that statement. 1) Gaudium et Spes, arguably the most important, revolutionary, beautifully written, document of the council. 

Inarguably in the top four in all categories because it is one of the four Constitutions, the four most authoritative documents, of the council. (2) His friend Karol. You likely know this polish friend of Jean by a different name, John Paul II. 

Read (here) the full post at the Jesuit authored blog, The Road From LaStorta by Scholastic Mike Rogers, S.J. 

Easter Monday Of 1859

Notre Dame de Paris

It would be difficult to form an idea of the crowd of men that besiege the houses of the Jesuits toward the end of Lent, and one often wonders how the health of these Fathers, generally so delicate, can withstand the fatigue of hearing so many confessions. When they have been engaged in that occupation during the whole day, one or more will come in after time in the evening, or at night, and still the door is opened, and they find the Father they ask for, receiving them with open arms. For a sinner returning to God, a Jesuit never admits obstacle or delay. "At any hour of the day, at all hours of the night, we are ready to assist you," said Father Felix, at the close of one of his retreats. Father Lefebvre, who consecrates himself especially to the direction of men, was, one day, asked how many he had sent, for his share, to the General Communion at Notre Dame. "About eight hundred," was the answer. 

The Fathers seem never so happy as when, on Easter morning, they are worn out and speechless with fatigue—that is their alleluia !" You abuse your strength," said a friend to one of these indefatigable laborers; "nature can not bear such an excess of work." "After me—another" was the simple and almost careless reply. His Superior, to whom it was remarked, on Easter Monday of 1859, that he must be very much fatigued with the past week's labor, answered: "Ah, we have had great consolations! There have been many conversions; our ministry has been blessed; the confessionals were crowded. The Lord be praised!" 

Of his great fatigue, of his weak health—not a word! The ministry at Paris, during the winter, is overwhelming. When a Jesuit is exhausted, they give him a vacation; they send him to preach a retreat in the provinces. So as to lose no time, he travels by night, and generally ascends the pulpit on the day of his arrival. After the first exercises, he is called to hear confessions, and thenceforth all his time is divided between the pulpit and the confessional; that is what they call vacation. 

Link (here) read the full account of the Parisian Jesuits in the book entitled, The History of the Society of Jesus

Saint Among Savages

We 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

On Fr. Paul Ginhac, S. J., "The Divine King Of Souls Was Eager To Establish His Reign In This Young Soul,"

John Anthony and Clare Monica preserved intact the noble traditions of their patriarchal families. They had twelve children, of whom Paul was the seventh. He was born on the last day of Mary's month, during the Octave of the Ascension, May 31, 1824, and on the same day he was baptized by the names of Peter Paul Hippolyte. His parents gave five of their children to God. One of these, a young curate in the Diocese of Mende, was struck down in the flower of his age; two daughters died almost immediately after profession in the Trappistine Convent of Maubec; another of Paul's sisters entered the Order of the Visitation; only one child, Victor, remained in the world, where he carefully cherished the precious inheritance of faith and virtue left to him by his ancestors. The father of eight children, he had the happiness of seeing three of his daughters consecrate themselves to God in the Order of St. Ursula, and one of his sons ascend the altar steps. Paul's father, John Anthony, was a simple, honest man, and a good Catholic. His home is thus described by an old servant: 

"I worked at Le Mazel for fifteen years, so that I saw and heard all that went on. There were no quarrels or disputes among the children, and the father, who was very kind to us all, worked hard. Every evening he taught us the Catechism, and twice every day we were called for prayers. Before supper, we usually said the rosary, and after supper we had prayers, which were recited by one of the family. Then a book was read, and none of us dared to leave till all was finished. Such has always been the custom in that house."

A Visitation Nun of Marvejols writes that, when she was quite young, she used to hide in a corner of the church in order to see M. Ginhac pray. His respectful attitude struck her with admiration. Clare Monica gave good example in everything, and watched carefully over her children and servants. The old people say that she was very liberal towards the poor, and that she loved to welcome them to her house. Nearly every night one of them would sleep in her barn, after having received a substantial supper. She privately gave them food, which she often secretly took with her to Serverette for them, so as to avoid notice. Another old servant says: "I went to Le Mazel as shepherd in 1814. Monica, then quite young, showed her mother-in-law the greatest respect. Never did I see her in anger, and this meekness was not indolence, because naturally she was very active. Once one of her servants got married, and Monica would not take another in her place, but did all the work herself." "She always feared to irritate us. She did not command, but begged! When others scolded us, she took our part immediately. In her later years Monica was still the model woman of Serverette, and it is through her that God's blessing has descended on that house." Canon Michel says: "She passed for a saint in the eyes of the public. She went every Sunday to Holy Communion, and, though not robust, she never hesitated to go in all weathers, fasting and on foot, to the church. Often it was only at High Mass that she could communicate." The Superior of the Visitation of Marvejols adds: " Monica lived in constant union with God, and so had heroic strength to endure the many crosses sent to her by Providence."

Formed to a Christian life by the example and lessons of such a mother, Paul's childhood was passed in study or performing the little tasks which in the country are usually confided to children. Like St. Vincent de Paul and Blessed Peter Faber, he will boast of this in his later life. During the long retreat at Liesse we shall hear him say: 

"'I go fishing,' said St. Peter to the other Apostles who were with him. He did not disdain his first calling, and neither will I hide my origin. In my youth I tended my father's cattle, but God gave me good and Christian parents, for which I daily thank and bless His Divine Providence."

At Le Mazel all the children did as they were commanded. They never uttered a word against father, or mother, or uncle, neither were they to be seen at the inn on Sundays. If, after Mass or Vespers, they chatted to their friends, it was only for a short time, and then went quickly back to Le Mazel, led by their mother, who would not allow any of them to remain behind. When Paul was nine years old, he was considered sufficiently instructed and pious enough to be allowed to make his First Communion. The Divine King of souls was eager to establish His reign in this young soul, which the devil was soon to assault so violently.

Link (here) to read A Man After God's Own Heart: Life of Father Paul Ginhac, S. J. written by Fr. Arthur Calvet, S.J.

Cardinal Jean Daniélou, S.J., "It Destroys The Very Base On Which The Religious Life Is Built"

 Cardinal Jean Daniélou, S.J.

The August 7-11 meeting in St. Louis, Missouri of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious remindsus of the sober words of Cardinal Jean Daniélou, SJ in 1972. The LCWR featured a keynote speaker whose theme was “Conscious Evolution,” which is as removed from the Pope and the Magisterium as science fiction is from Albert Einstein. In the National Catholic Reporter on August 6, 2012 Alice Popovici wrote of the LCWR keynote speaker: “Barbara Marx Hubbard, an evolutionary thinker who is to speak this week before the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, is not Catholic or part of any mainstream religion. But she says she has faith in the future.”  

By sharp contrast, Daniélou warned in an interview on Vatican Radio on October 23, 1972:

One of the greatest threats to religious life today is the mass of disputable theological opinions. In minimizing the supernatural aspect of God’s gift, in minimizing everything that pertains to the action of the Spirit, it destroys the very base on which the religious life is built. That is why it is important today to seek out spiritual directors and theologians from those who represent the true thinking of the Church. There must be a care to have a deep unity with the sovereign Pontiff and with the orientations given by him the Sovereign Pontiff, in particular those which concern religious life.

As to a union with the Sovereign Pontiff, the LCWR rejected even the presence of the canonical pontifical delegate:

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, who has been charged by the Vatican with responsibility for supervising a reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), has been told by the group’s leaders that his presence ‘would not be helpful’ at the LCWR’s annual assembly this week.

On the subject of the crisis in religious life, again in 1972 Daniélou spoke thus:

Vatican II declared that human values must be taken seriously. It never said that we were entering in to a secularized world where the religious dimension would be no longer present in civilization. It is in the name of a false secularization that religious men and women give up their religious habit and abandon the adoration of God for social and political activities. And this is, furthermore, counter to the spiritual need manifested in the world of today. (Why the Church?, p. 166-167)

Robert A. Connor succinctly summarizes the cardinal’s lifetime work:

After his short spell as a military chaplain ended with the fall of France in 1940, he devoted himself to the study of the Fathers of the Church, and with Fr. Henri de Lubac was one of the founders of Sources Chrétiennes, a popular yet scholarly series of key writings from the patristic period. Over the years, Daniélou produced a flow of books and articles on the worship and theology of the Early Church. Such was his reputation and influence that Blessed Pope John XXIII named him as a theological expert for the Second Vatican Council. In 1969 he was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI, and elected to the Académie Française.

Why would a patristics scholar of Daniélou’s stature get involved in current Church events at such a popular level? 

Link (here) to the full piece by Fr. Brian Van Hove, S.J., entitled,  The Lasting Legacy of Cardinal Daniélou

Pope Francis Takes Aim At Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's " Cosmic God"

Christians do not pray to a remote “cosmic god” but to the God who is our Father, Pope Francis said at Mass this morning.

Commenting on today’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus teaches his disciples to pray the Our Father, the Pope said: “To whom do I pray? To the Almighty God? He is too far off. Ah, I can’t hear Him. Neither did Jesus. To whom do I pray? To a cosmic god? That’s quite normal these days, is it not?… praying to the cosmic god, right? This polytheistic model that comes from a rather light culture.

“You must pray to the Father! It is a strong word, ‘Father’. You must pray to Him who generated you, who gave you life. Not to everyone: everyone is too anonymous. To you. To me. To the person who accompanies you on your journey: He knows all about your life. Everything: what is good and what is not so good. He knows everything. If we do not start the prayer with this word, not just with our lips but with our hearts, we cannot pray in a Christian language.”

According to Vatican Radio, he added: 

“We have a Father. Very close to us, eh! Who embraces us… All these worries, concerns that we have, let’s leave them to the Father, He knows what we need. But, Father, what? My father? No: our Father! Because I am not an only child, none of us are, and if I cannot be a brother, I can hardly become a child of the Father, because He is a Father to all. Mine, sure, but also of others, of my brothers. And if I am not at peace with my brothers, I cannot say ‘Father’ to Him.”

He reminded the congregation in the chapel of his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, that Jesus taught that unless we forgive others God the Father will not forgive us. “No, you cannot pray with enemies in your heart, with brothers and enemies in your heart, you cannot pray,” he said. “This is difficult, yes, it is difficult, not easy. ‘Father, I cannot say Father, I cannot.’ It’s true, I understand. ‘I cannot say ‘our’, because he did this to me and this…’ I cannot! ‘They must go to hell, right? I will have nothing to do with them.’ It’s true, it is not easy. But Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit: it is He who teaches us, from within, from the heart, how to say ‘Father’ and how to say ‘our’. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to say ‘Father’ and to be able to say ‘our’, and thus make peace with all our enemies.” 

Link (here) to The Catholic Herald 
More Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. and Teilhardism (here), (here) and (here)

Pere Marquette, Was Reburied On June 8, 1677

Pere Marquette Memorial Shrine in Ludington, MI

Father Jacques Marquette, better known as Pere Marquette, was reburied on June 8, 1677, according to American-Indian funeral customs. The French-born Jesuit priest — who explored the Mississippi River and the shores of Lake Michigan, founded St. Ignace and ministered to Indians — died somewhere along the Lake Michigan coast at age 37 on May 18, 1675, and was buried there. However, two years later, Kiskakons and Iroquois disinterred him and put his cleaned bones in the sun to dry before putting them in a birch-bark box. They transported Marquette’s remains in a convoy of 30 canoes to St. Ignace, where two priests rowed out to meet them. The pair asked the Native Americans to confirm it was Marquette, and then they recited the “De Profundis” psalm, according to Reuben Gold Thwaites’ book, “Father Marquette.” After the funeral rites, Marquette was lowered into a small vault in the middle of the church, the book says, “where it rests as the guardian angel of our (Ottawas) mission, The savages often come to pray over his tomb.” The small church was destroyed in a fire in 1700 and nobody knew where the beloved priest was buried until 177 years later, when the then-parish priest happened upon bone fragments with pieces of a birch-bark box.

Link (here) to the Detroit Free Press

Process Theology

One of the world’s most famous 20th-century Jesuits is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an adventurous theologian who studied paleontology in China. Like many Jesuits, Teilhard de Chardin was an intellectual and scientist. 

He helped develop a school of evolutionary Christianity, now called process theology, that continues to grow in renown in the 21st century. As a result of his visionary cosmological thinking, however, Teilhard de Chardin was criticized by the Vatican in the 1950s. 

Such official sanctions have happened more than once to Jesuits. The Jesuits have long been associated with radical actions, thinking and idealism.

Link (here) to the secular and anti-Catholic Vancouver Sun 

Tarillion, S.J. On Constantnople

Constantinople is a universe containing an immensity of Christians. They reckon at least two hundred thousand Greeks, and the Armenians perhaps are eighty thousand, amongst the permanent inhabitants, omitting those that come and go, whom commerce and the court circulate. The plague affords a striking proof how populous this city is. I have seen, myself, two hundred thousand people mown down by the mortality. The dead that passed the portals to be inhumed outside the city, gave us the means to make this calculation. And yet the streets were as full of living people a few weeks subsequently, as if nobody had died.

Many families that inhabited the town in the time of the Genoese, are still at Pera and Galatea ; they amount to about four hundred persons ; they are the ambassadors' interpreters ; while some are doctors, a profession from which they derive consideration, and free admission to the Turkish lords, without even excepting the seraglio. The retinue and households of the several ambassadors and the merchants of then nations, in all almost three thousand persons, are the most distinguished of the Christian Franks. The crowd is increased by the Christian vessels, and the streets near the shore are often to be seen thronged with their newly-landed. The Catholic slaves of Constantinople, who are working the ships, or chained to the gallies, or imprisoned in the bagnio of the Grand Seignior, are 5,000; there are 20,000 others in possession of his subjects. A native of Ragusa, M. R. Galani, a Dominican, and titular archbishop of Ancyra, a gentleman of great regularity of life, and who is strictly attentive to his duties, is ecclesiastical superior to all these Catholics. The situation of our house is such, that we can easily assist this population. At the centre of Galatea, near the sea, in the thoroughfare of all that come from the bottom of the harbour, appears the finest church in Turkey. The pillars that support, the balustrade that terminates the vestibule, and hems the staircase that conducts to it, these are all of snowwhite marble. It possesses the prerogative of mosques, a cupola, and a covering of lead. The nave is decorated by sepulchral monuments of ambassadors of France and of Princess Tekeli; you will find her mother's mausoleaum in a separate chapel. This pious and courageous princess died at Nicomedia. To render her the services which for several years she had received at Constantinople, the Jesuits considered it a duty to visit Nicomedia as long as she resided there. A mission had commenced at Nicomedia, which, impracticable without a plausible pretext, such as a visit to this princess, expired when the lady died.

Link (here) to the full 18th century letter by Father Trallion, S.J.

A Friend Of Charles Dawson

Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

was a friend of Charles Dawson, a Jesuit, a paleontologist, and a theologian. 

 He participated in the discovery of Peking man and Piltdown man. 

He is popular for his theological theories 

which are considered heretical by the Catholic church. 

Link (here)

He Raised The Baby From The Dead

Father Necktou was the Jesuit Provincial in the South West of France for many years. The priests who knew him regarded him as a Saint and Prophet. He prophesied the suppression of the Jesuit Order well before its occurrence in 1773. After the suppression occurred as he predicted, he lived as a secular priest in Poitiers. His public reputation for holiness during this period induced a young grieving mother whose baby had just died to bring it in hope to Father Necktou. It was attested by several witnesses that he raised the baby from the dead and returned it to its mother. He died in 1777 roughly 20 years before the French Revolution.

Link (here)

Fr. Maurice De La Taille, S. J. Victory Over Death In The Supper

David built the altar small, it was enlarged later by Solomon (II Kings, XXIV, II foll.). Cyril develops the allegory, showing that not only was death destroyed at the moment when our Lord partook of the Supper, but, also, that on the very Eucharistic altar a sacrifice was offered by our Lord whereby death was overcome: for, He says, it was offered on an altar, which later as it were grew, until gradually the Eucharistic celebration was spread throughout the nations. The victory over death in the Supper is found in writers of the Middle Ages. The following is a chant in a prayer Oratio ad communionem (A. H. 51, 297), in an English manuscript prayer book of the eighth or ninth century:

"For thy all-powerful Flesh is food indeed;
And thy Blood, O Jesus, the true drink of the faithful
By this sacred mystery thou didst redeem us from death
That we may live in thee, O Lord, in faith and sobriety.
Deign therefore we beg of thee, that we may be
Partakers of this holy mystery, to the glory of thy name."

But at a much earlier date, we find in the most ancient of our anaphorae, what I believe to be the expression of the same idea; I refer to the passage which introduces the Supper narrative:

"And who when He was given over to His voluntary Passion, in order to overcome death, to break the ties of the devil, to trample hell underfoot, to illuminate the just, to come to the end, and to manifest His Resurrection, taking bread and giving thanks to thee, said: 'Take ye and eat, this is my body which shall be broken for you,'" 

etc. (Latin Verona Fragments, ed. Hauler, 1900, p. 106-107).

That is to say, the ends enumerated, though all reflect the Redemption, seem nevertheless to be referred to the actual consecration of the Eucharist, as the cause of it all. Christ, as it were, willed to celebrate the rite, in order to redeem us from death, from the power of the devil, from the pains of hell, and to restore us to light and life.
Link (here) to the full work by Fr. Maurice De La Taille, S. J. entitled, THE MYSTERY OF FAITH Regarding The Most August Sacrament And Sacrifice Of The Body And Blood Of Christ

Percy of Newcastle On The Jesuit Missionary

Eustace Sutherland Campbell Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Newcastle

To the continental mind, however skeptical or hostile, this is obvious obvious alike to the Belgian freethinker confronted with Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier and to the Czech politician who meditates a new concordat with Rome. For in Europe a united and self-organised Church is still a ubiquitous power, a formidable factor in the political life of every state, and reason, which might find a dozen ready explanations of the existence of state churches or of scattered and ephemeral sects, is forced to seek a more potent motive to account for such continuity of existence and concentration of strength. But the English mind, confronted to-day with the reassertion by the Anglican Church of its independence from the State, the American mind disturbed by the rapid growth of the Roman Church in the United States, and the Protestant mind as a whole, influenced by the revived ideas of catholicity and reunion, must now be impressed by much the same considerations. We have here clearly no code of morality at the service of government, no mere sectarian fashions in doctrine, but a corporate consciousness persisting from century to century. 

The same course of reasoning may carry the investigator a little further. This conception must be something more than what is known as the "saving of souls' The Jesuit missionary among the Hurons might risk his life to "turn little Indians into little angels' to quote the words of one of them, by surreptitious baptism of dying infants ; he might be satisfied to win a convert at the torture-stake by the promise of the "French heaven"; but, both as a matter of reasonable deduction and of historical fact, it was no such restricted policy that had created the tremendous organization of his Order and inspired its Generals, or that gave to the New France of the seventeenth century the character that endures in the province of Quebec to-day.

 In our own times, the colonial administrator in Africa knows from experience that missionary teaching, even when deliberately confined to the plainest moralities and the simplest hopes of heaven, is inseparable, in the mind of the native learner, from ideas of corporate life and effort which distinguish it sharply from Mohammedan proselytism and, in some cases, still more sharply from the official view of the proper relations between Western civilization and backward races.

Link (here) to read the full piece by Lord Eustace Percy of Newcastle

Compelle Intrare And Pere Milleriot, S.J.

St. Augustine of Hippo and Compelle Intrae

If the first fruits were thus plentiful, what must the harvest have been which Father Milleriot was privileged to gather in during all the years he spent in Paris from the close of his novitiate until his death! He doubtless owed much of his success in dealing with souls to his natural gifts, his great moral and physical courage, his marvellous tact and readiness of resource, and the happy art he possessed of turning people's corners, so to speak. Not a little is due also to that strong will, the possession of which he so much deplored as a possible hindrance to his own sanctification, but which became the means of effecting the salvation of so many with whom he was brought into contact, for it can truly be said that no one has ever more thoroughly understood and more ably carried out the spirit of our Lord's injunction, compelle intrare, than did Father Louis Etienne Milleriot, S.J.. Kind as he was to every one, he had a positive weakness for the poorest and most revolting, his favourite clients being great sinners, "big fish," as he used smilingly to term them, those who were very ignorant, or who had neglected religion for years. His patience was unwearied, as is shown by the following account of the conversion of an aged man whom he used familiarly to call mon vieux Jeannin. He entitles the story, "A desperate case."

An old man of eighty-six, the father of one of our young workmen, who belonged to the Association of St Francis Xavier, had been for some time suffering from a nervous affection. On my asking his son about him, he spoke of him as being utterly irreligious.

"Very well," I replied; "next time I meet him I shall make friends with him."

"Oh, Father, take care what you do. You may be sure he will say something rude to you."

"Never mind, we shall see."

Shortly after I found myself face to face with my man. "Good morning, M. Jeannin," I said, taking his hand; "how are you?"

He pulled his hand away forcibly: "I don't like priests," he said. "Well, if you do not like priests, for my part I like people who speak their mind as you do. Besides, if you do not like priests, you like Almighty God."

"Don't bother me with your Almighty God!"

"For all that, I daresay you still say some kind of little prayer, night and morning."

"I want to hear nothing of your cursed prayers!"
"Goodbye, M. Jeannin ; some other time."

The poor old man was quivering with rage. "Never mind," I said to myself, you shall make up for the others, you old rogue; "My God, help me! you have often given me the grace to carry a soul by storm at the first or second attack; I shall have to take my time at this one." I determined to get at my old friend through his stomach; I sent him, by one of my penitents, a nice meat pie and two bottles of good wine.

"Father Milleriot has sent you a pie for you and your son, and two bottles of wine, that you may drink his health," said the kind messenger, when she presented herself at his house, laden with the good things.

At the first mention of my name, the old man broke out in a fury, but he soon calmed down, "Sit down, madam," he said, "Father Milleriot is very kind."

That was something gained. Shortly after, I called on him myself. "M. Jeannin, here is a friend come to see you!" "Take a seat, Reverend Father."

That was better still, yet my point was far from gained ; the pies and the wine had to be sent again and again, at stated intervals. I went to see him every month, and felt I gained ground every time. I avoided arguments, preferring to try and touch his heart By degrees he began to pray himself; after a time, whenever I went, we said a Pater and an Ave together. At length, after waiting four years, he was conquered; he made his confession, and I gave him his Easter Communion at his own home; for some time past, he had not been able to go out.

Before receiving Communion he said:

"Father, let me say a word to my son before you."

"By all means."

"Look here, James, your old father is going to Communion for the first time since he made his First Communion, seventy-nine years ago: you too have neglected the sacraments; of course you are free to do as you please, but if you will take my advice, you will do as I have done."

He then received our Lord with much devotion. Six months later, the poor fellow was said to be in danger; I administered the last sacraments to him myself, and he expired peacefully at the age of ninety-two years.

Link (here) to The Month to read the full account.

Precocious Jesuit

In the 1930s a precocious Jesuit scholar Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, in his The Phenomenon of Man, imagined and predicted the very world I believe we are now rapidly approaching -- the point in human evolution he called "the Omega Point." Teilhard's basic premise is that evolution is all about the development and perfection of the nervous system toward maximum consciousness, as creation on earth moved from simple one-celled organisms to the stunning complexity of the human body. The Omega Point, the end-point of this evolution of consciousness, was foreshadowed in the nineteenth century by the invention of telegraph and radio -- just when our need for information exceeded our internal capacity to extend our sensory collectors. We simply had to reach out. In terms of the human nervous system and its insatiable need to collect and process exterior information, these inventions allowed us for the first time effectively to communicate through time and space -- dramatically externalizing the internal nervous system. Years before its actual appearance, Teilhard predicted television, by which images as well as sounds and writing could be shared through space and time -- what Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy intimated in the visibile parlare, "visible speech," of the bas-reliefs on the walls of Purgatory.

Link (here) to Ken Atchity at the Huffington Post

Father Jean Pierre de Smet, S.J. And Brigham Young

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

By the time the spring of 1847 approached in Winter Quarters, nearly 400 Mormon lives had been lost to various causes. Yet there was a vital bit of good news during their stay. The news came when the famous Jesuit, Father Pierre Jean de Smet, passed through Winter Quarters on his way east. The Jesuit was one of the few white men who had ever seen the Great Salt Lake. His information on routes and conditions was extended freely to the Mormons, who eagerly anticipated their next move west. On April 5, 1847, Brigham Young led the first Mormon wagon train out of Winter Quarters bound for Utah. Conditions, timing, experience and organization were on the Mormons' side this time and the trip went much easier than the previous year's trial. 148 people, three of whom were women, 72 wagons, and a large collection of livestock made up this first group.

Link (here) to the National Parks Service website.

What Fr. de Smet, S.J. actually wrote about the Mormons (here)

“Indoor Snowfall”

Jesuit Cardinal Jean Daniélou

Perhaps in the tradition of Jesuits such as Robert Bellarmine and Augustine Bea, Jean Daniélou was expressly made bishop and cardinal in 1969 by the Pope. Not surprisingly, a flood of protest pamphlets descended from the clerestory and marred the Mass of ordination. The battle was engaged. Newspapers carried the photo of the “indoor snowfall” in the sanctuary of the church where the ordination took place. Friends of Daniélou reported that same year, 1969, that he had refused these ecclesiastical awards. However, Pope Paul VI had personally ordered him under obedience to accept being made bishop and cardinal “so that you might suffer with me for the Church.” The son of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Jean Daniélou, might have added, “If this be the case, then together we will proceed, both of us to suffer for Christ.”

Link (here) to "The Lasting Legacy of Cardinal Daniélou"

blog by Fr. Brian Van Hove, S.J.

Evolving The Church

Fr.  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

[The nuns] sat in silence for a long stretch, sang songs about truth and mystery accompanied by a guitar and a choir, and heard a keynote address by a futurist who was escorted to the podium by seven liturgical dancers waving diaphanous scarves of pink and tangerine. “Crisis precedes transformation,” the futurist, Barbara Marx Hubbard, told  the LCWR meeting of nuns. “You are the best seedbed that I know for evolving the church and the world in the 21st century. Now, that may be a surprise to the world. But, you see, new things always happen from unexpected places.”

The nuns, most dressed informally in pants or skirts, gave a standing ovation to Ms. Hubbard, a beatific presence with a mantle of white hair who quoted Jesus, Buckminster Fuller, the Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the current pope, Benedict XVI.

But if the nuns submit to the Vatican’s plan to overhaul their organization, it is doubtful that their meetings will feature a keynote speaker like Ms. Hubbard, who grew up a nonreligious Jew in a Scarsdale, N.Y., mansion (her father founded the Marx toy company) and is now acclaimed by New Age luminaries like Deepak Chopra for helping to lead what she calls the “conscious evolution” movement.

Link (here) to the NY Times 
Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. on the subject (here)
Fr. Dwight Longenecker on the subject (here)