The Pope Francis Effect

A year after Pope Francis’ election, one of the first measurable “Francis effects” may be emerging. The Jesuits, officially known as the Society of Jesus, have seen a 65 percent increase in inquiries from men seeking to join their religions order, according to the Jesuit Conference based in Washington D.C. For many Jesuit vocations directors across the country, that is a dramatic increase from what they were used to under the years of Benedict and previous popes.

The new wave of interest in the order, founded in 1540 and known for its commitment to service, social justice and education, represents a dramatic increase from what vocation directors were used to under the years of Benedict and previous popes.

“They’ve certainly been the largest numbers that I’ve seen in my time in this job,” said The Rev. Charles Frederico, who runs the Jesuit’s east coast vocations office, which stretches from Maine to Georgia
Link (here)

"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

I Am Not Tarzan

Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan

Pope Francis brought laughter to a crowd of young people on Sunday when he told them he was not "Tarzan" but gets his staying power during times of difficulty from his faith. Speaking off the cuff at the end of a trip to Sardinia, he said he had recently marked the 60th anniversary of the day he first felt the vocation to be a priest. "I have not regretted it. And it's not because I feel like Tarzan and have the (physical) strength to go ahead," he said, prompting of laughter and applause for comparing himself to the fictional character raised by apes in the jungles of Africa. "No, I have not regretted it because always, even in the darkest moments, in the times of sin, in the times of fragility, in the times of failure, I looked to Jesus and I trusted him and he did not abandon me. He is a faithful companion," Francis said.

Link (here)

Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., "Have You Ever Met Anybody Who Would Agree With That?"

Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J.

In an August  5, 2010 video interview with NonprofitNews Jesuit Fr. Greg Boyle was asked about the overturning of the referendum to ban homosexual ‘marriage’ Proposition 8.  

Fr. Boyle replied:

These things are actually easier than people make them out to be it seems to me. I think it’s always important to kind of say, ‘how does God see sexual orientation.’ Does God feel like that same-sex marriage could happen? I don’t think anybody who has a connection to God and God’s understanding and depth of compassion who’s gonna say no. And this is contrary to the party line.”

Fr. Boyle returned to the question later in the interview, speaking of opposing same-sex ‘marriage’ as “demonizing people.”  He said, “You cannot demonize people [whom] you know. It obliterates that forever. So, that’s important in all these issues, gay marriage, etc. All you need to know is the gay couple who have kids, and that obliterates forever anybody’s inclination to say this is wrong. “ Fr. Boyle also ridiculed the Catholic Church’s refusal to ordain women to the priesthood.  “You know the Vatican just said that the ordination of women is a grave sin,” he said. “Have you ever met anybody who would agree with that, I mean my 85-year-old mother doesn’t…”

Link (here) to Lifesite News

Link (here) to read about the new scientific study of identical twins on the "born this way" topic debunking DNA links to sodomy.

Superior General And Holy Father Speak Of Radical Change In Priestly Formation

Superior General Adolfo Nicolás also told the provincials that Pope Benedict XVI sought the help of the Society for the integrated formation of priests and stressed the need for a radical change in priestly formation during a “one-on-one” meeting he had with the pope.

Link (here) to Jesuit.org

The Purpose Of The Order Was Now The Defense And Propagation Of The Faith.

After his death in 1556, Ignatiusof Loyola was regularly presented in contrast to Martin Luther, and the Jesuits themselves were the prime culprits for this portrayal. Viewed in the context of post Tridentine counterattacks, such a rendering is understandable. Moreover, the military metaphors that Ignatius himself used in much of his writing, while ultimately rooted in his previous chivalric fascinations, corresponded nicely to the image of Ignatius and the Jesuits as the shock troops of the Counter-Reformation. Of course such a view of the Jesuits has some truth to it. Jesuits participated at Trent (though in a more peripheral manner) and were instrumental in implementing the decrees of the Council. Robert Bellarmine was one of the most distinguished persons of the era with his attacks on Protestantism and his defense of Catholic theology. Toward the end of his life, Ignatius himself was more active in the fight against the Lutherans. He frequently communicated with Peter Canisius, who was on the frontlines of the conflict in Germany, about his growing awareness for this aspect of the Society's mission. In 1550, Ignatius revised the bull that established the Jesuits, stating that the purpose of the order was now the defense and propagation of the faith.

Link (here) to Ignatius Insight

Labarum

Whoever wishes to be a soldier for God under the standard of the cross and to serve the Lord alone and His Vicar on earth . . . bear in mind that he is part of a community founded principally for the advancement of souls in the Christian life and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith by the ministry of the word, by spiritual exercises, by works of charity, and expressly by the instruction in Christianity of children and the uneducated.

Link (here) to Ignatiusinsight

"Radicalism Of Obedience."

The Roman Catholic Church authorities have remained adamant in their refusal to allow ordination of woman priests. Church authorities say they cannot ordain women because Jesus did not. According to the Catholic Church, Jesus chose only men as his apostles. Church law says only men may be ordained as priests. 

In 1994, Pope John Paul II issued a letter that said the church "has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women." In 2010, the church declared ordination of women a "grave crime," in the same category as the sexual abuse of minors. A "grave crime" is punishable by "defrocking or excommunication," NBC News reports. Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI denounced church priests advocating for women's ordination. He accused them of trying to change the church based on their "own preferences and ideas." For such, the pope recommended what he termed the "radicalism of obedience." 

The Daily Mail reports that although women are forbidden by the church to become priests, some groups have ordained women priests who celebrate Mass outside the official church. Sevre-Duszynska's advocacy group, Roman Catholic Womenpriests, is one of such groups. Fr. Bill Brennan, S.J. and Zawada are not the only Catholic priests who has been stripped of their priestly duties for supporting ordination of women. Last month, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, dismissed Roy Bourgeois, 74, from the priesthood after he participated in the ordination of Sevre-Duszynska in 2008, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. 

According to NBC News, Sevre-Duszynska urged other priests of the church to "walk in solidarity with [Brennan], stand up for justice and... make it a new world, make it a new day in our church." She added: "It’s time for the rest of the male priests to find the courage to listen to the workings of the Holy Spirit in their heart and conscience." 

 Although he is prohibited from performing priestly duties, Brennan is still a Jesuit and he may celebrate Mass and hear confessions but he can longer perform his priestly duties publicly. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Brennan said he understood the risks when he took the decision. He said: "Sometimes in our lives we have to trust our conscience and bring about the consequences. I wasn't trying to show off for the ladies." According to the Daily Mail, Brennan worked as a missionary in Belize and Honduras for 16 years. He returned to the United States as a teacher at Jesuit-run Marquette University High School. He later served as a pastor at St. Patrick Church in Milwaukee. In 2007, he traveled to Cuba in spite of U.S. economic blockade, to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies to the Cuban people.

Link (here) to read more at The Digital Journal

Jesuit On The Radio

Fr. Rocco Danzi, S.J., director of campus ministry at Saint Peter's University, discussed vocations, spirituality and engaging young adults in ministry and service on The Busted Halo Show with Fr. Dave Dwyer on Sirus XM Radio on Oct. 23. Click here to listen to the interview.

 

Diminishment: British Jesuits Shrink 80% In A Generation

Sacred Heart in Wimbledon

After almost 130 years, the Jesuits are to withdraw from running one of their landmark parishes as the order undertakes a review of all its apostolic work in Britain. 

The British Province of the Society of Jesus has announced that it will hand over Sacred Heart in Wimbledon, south west London, one of Britain's largest parishes with thousands attending Mass each week, to the Archdiocese of Southwark. In a letter to parishioners, Fr Dermot Preston S.J., the provincial, delivered the "very sad news" and said the decision had been taken because of the declining number of Jesuits. 

There are currently four serving the parish. Fr Preston pointed out in his letter that there were now fewer than 200 British Jesuits compared with almost 1,000 in the early 1960s. He added that the Jesuits "will need to hand over a number of our present commitments to other ministers" in the future and that Sacred Heart is our "strongest and most mature parish".

Link (here) to The Tablet

Jesuits To Reduce Provinces Down To Four In The United States

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Curiously enough, while I was in Atlanta making my retreat, the General of the Society of Jesus, Very Reverend Adolfo Nicolás, changed the boundaries of the New Orleans and Maryland Provinces.  South Carolina and Georgia, previously part of the Southern Province, will, on January 1, 2013, come under the jurisdiction of the Maryland Province.  This change is part of the realignment of the American Jesuit provinces that will occur in the next decade.  

Although individual Southern Jesuits have long worked in South Carolina, Jesuit presence in Georgia has been more of a corporate presence.  In 1887 the bishop of Savannah offered the New Orleans Mission a former seminary, Pio Nono College, for use as a house of formation if the Jesuits would agree to staff a local parish.  The Jesuits came to St. Joseph’s parish in Macon, where they stayed more than seventy years.  Pio Nono College became the novitiate and juniorate, until a totally destructive fire in 1921 led to the removal of the house of formation to St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. 

In Augusta the Jesuits ministered at Sacred Heart parish for almost seventy-five years.  During the first twenty years, the Society of Jesus conducted Sacred Heart College, a high school.

  In suburban Atlanta the mother of Father John Schroder, S.J., one of our retired Jesuits, donated the family’s summer estate on the Chattahoochee River to the New Orleans Province for use as a retreat house.  For six decades Ignatius House has offered the Spiritual Exercises to the people of Georgia and has provided the Archdiocese of Atlanta and individual parishes a place for prayer and meetings.  This ministry will continue with the Maryland Jesuits.

Eventually there will be four Jesuit provinces (administrative divisions) in the United States instead of ten.  The entire east coast, except for Florida, will be one province, with the combining of the New York, Maryland, and New England Provinces.  The south central United States will consist of the Missouri and New Orleans Provinces, including Florida.  The north central section will be composed of the Chicago, Detroit, and Wisconsin Provinces.  The Oregon and California Provinces will make up a western province including Alaska and Hawaii.

Our province has shrunk in size in other decades as well.  North Carolina, part of the Maryland Province since the nineteen thirties, was once a stark mission region staffed by Southern Jesuits.  Even Oklahoma, now attached to Missouri, was once Southern Jesuit territory.

The Maryland Jesuits once had the most unusual legal name in the United States: the “Roman Catholic Gentlemen of Maryland,” dating from the Suppression of the Jesuits in 1773.  Those priests in the Colony of Maryland incorporated themselves under that title to prevent the expropriation of Church property.  As of now, we Southern Jesuits have the most unusual legal title, the “Catholic Society for Religious and Literary Education.”

As our Jesuit journey continues, let us remember that all of us—all of us—are on pilgrimage from the Lord to the Lord.  Let us pray for one another especially at the Sunday Eucharist.  Please pray for us Jesuits as we seek to serve the Lord and the Lord’s Church.

In the Risen Lord,

Fr. Donald Hawkins, S.J., Pastor
Link (here)

Four Jesuits Ordained Priests In Indonesia

The Indonesian Catholic Church is celebrating the ordination of ten new priests in the dioceses of Semarang (Java) and Nias (North Sumatra). Two were ordained last week and will serve as diocesan priests in Semarang. Two young seminarians, missionaries of the Holy Family, were ordained on Tuesday.

 Four young Jesuit deacons are set to be ordained today. Mgr Ludovicus Simanulang recently ordained two Capuchins in Nias, one of areas most affected by the 2005 tsunami.  In a message to AsiaNews, Mgr Johannes Pujasumarta, archbishop of Semarang, said he was moved by the gift of these young men to the Church. "Each priestly ordination is not only a blessing for the parishes, dioceses and religious order, but for all Catholics," he explained. 

The prelate said he hoped that the presence of the new clergymen would provide an experience of faith and hope for all Catholics in order to bear new fruits for the Archdiocese of Semarang and the entire Indonesian Church. In a country of 232 million people, Christians represent 11.8 per cent, 6 million Catholics. Despite attacks and persecution by extremist Muslim groups, the Indonesian Church is very much active with some 3,000 priests in 36 dioceses.
Link (here) to AsiaNrws

St. Aloysius Gonzaga Catholic Church A Casualty Of The Jesuit Vocations Crisis

The following was released by the Very Rev. James M. Shea, S.J., Provincial of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus:

The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is deeply committed to continuing to fulfill its mission of service to the people of the Mid-Atlantic region through education, pastoral care and social justice, as we have for nearly 380 years.

Through the years, as needs and resources have changed, so have our ministries. Today, our province faces a decline in the number of Jesuit priests. Due to this decline in numbers, we are in the process of combining three provinces, and we have to make some very painful and difficult decisions about how to allocate our priests.

After prayerful reflection and careful consideration of how we can best use our human resources to serve those in need, we concluded that we can no longer staff St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish at 19 Eye St., NW (900 block of North Capitol Street), Washington, DC. The Jesuits will continue to be present in the Archdiocese of Washington through two other parishes, three schools, a university and a retreat center. The 300-household parish will merge with nearby Holy Redeemer Parish, which is located just three blocks away on New York Avenue, NW. The transition will begin July 1 and continue through the summer months. We are grateful to the Archdiocese of Washington and to Fr. David Bava, pastor of Holy Redeemer, for their support and welcome during this transition.

The church, which is owned by the Jesuits, is part of the Gonzaga College High School campus. Because it is physically connected with other buildings and integrated into the campus, it is not feasible to establish a non-Jesuit parish there. The church will continue to be used for school liturgies and, on a limited basis and in coordination with Fr. Bava, for special liturgies of Holy Redeemer parish, weddings and funerals for alumni and former parishioners, and other special events. 

In addition, the Father McKenna Center, the drop-in center for homeless men that has been on site since 1983, will continue to operate. This was a very difficult decision and one I wish did not have to be made. This change will be painful. Unfortunately, the Province can no longer staff the parish.

Link (here) to read the full statement

New Jesuit Novice Shares Critics' Questions Of The Church

Daniel Kennedy is entering the Jesuit novitiate at a time when membership in religious orders is shrinking. The Jesuits’ ranks worldwide have dwindled to about half their peak of 36,000 in the mid-1960s.

 Just 32 Americans entered the order as novices last year. The Roman Catholic Church is still reeling from the sexual abuse crisis and facing a severe shortage of priests in the United States. Recent actions by the church hierarchy - including the Vatican’s reprimand of American nuns and the US bishops’ investigation of the Girl Scouts - have drawn scathing criticism. 

Kennedy says he sees the church as a dynamic institution, and that he feels responsible for helping to bring about its renewal. “I’m not entering the church of 50 years ago or 500 years ago. I’m entering the church in 2012,’’ he said. “So you have to be realistic about the challenges of the images of priesthood in this day and age. . . . I don’t find it daunting, but it’s going to be a challenge.’’ 

He says he shares some of the critics’ questions, such as why the Vatican decided to investigate the US nuns, and why the church has taken such a hard line against gay relationships. He talks about the importance of lay empowerment and of affirming the role of women as leaders in the church. When he becomes a priest, he says, he plans to adopt a consensus-building approach, as some of the best priests he knows have done.  

“The intentions of leadership within the church I don’t think are bad - I don’t think they wake up every day and say, ‘How can we make someone’s life miserable?’’’ he said. “But . . . what is the lived experience of Catholics today? You have to account for that.’’

Link (here) to read the full story at Boston.com 
Fr. James Martin, S.J. on the subject (here)

Mother Teach Me How To Be A Priest

“Manuel was born in the same hour that Fr. José Camacho died. Upon hearing the news, I prayed to God that my son could replace him at the altar. …

When little Manuel began to talk, we prayed together for the great grace of a vocation to the priesthood. … 

On the day of his First Holy Communion and on all the major solemnities, he renewed this prayer. … At the age of 17, he joined the Society of Jesus.”

Link (here) to read this incredible post at the blog entitled, Spiritual Motherhood for Priests.

French Jesuit Cardinal, "The Life Of Prayer Is Abandoned And The First Consequence Of This State Of Confusion Is The Disappearance Of Vocations"

I think that there is now a very grave crisis of religious life, and that one should not speak of renewal, but rather of decadence. I think that this crisis is hitting the Atlantic area above all. Eastern Europe and the countries of Africa and Asia present in this regard a better state of spiritual health. This crisis is manifesting itself in all areas. The evangelical counsels are no longer considered as consecrations to God, but are seen in a sociological and psychological perspective. We are concerned about not presenting a bourgeois facade, but on the individual level poverty is not practiced. 

The group dynamic replaces religious obedience; with the pretext of reacting against formalism, all regularity of the life of prayer is abandoned and the first consequence of this state of confusion is the disappearance of vocations, because young people require a serious formation. And moreover there are the numerous and scandalous desertions of religious who renege on the pact that bound them to the Christian people. The essential source of this crisis is a false interpretation of Vatican II. 

The directives of the Council were very clear: a greater fidelity of religious men and women to the demands of the Gospel expressed in the constitutions of each institute, and at the same time an adaptation of the modalities of these constitutions to the conditions of modern life. The institutes that are faithful to these directives are seeing true renewal, and have vocations. 

But in many cases the directives of Vatican II have been replaced with erroneous ideologies put into circulation by magazines, by conferences, by theologians. Vatican II declared that human values must be taken seriously. It never said that we should enter into a secularized world in the sense that the religious dimension would no longer be present in society, and it is in the name of a false secularization that men and women are renouncing their habits, abandoning their works in order to take their places in secular institutions, substituting social and political activities for the worship of God. 

And this goes against the grain, among other things, with respect to the need for spirituality that is being manifested in today's world. A false conception of freedom that brings with it the devaluing of the constitutions and rules and exalts spontaneity and improvisation. This is all the more absurd in that Western society is currently suffering from the absence of a discipline of freedom. The restoration of firm rules is one of the necessities of religious life. An erroneous conception of the changing of man and of the Church. Even if these change, the constitutive elements of man and of the Church are permanent, and bringing into question the constitutive elements of the constitutions of the religious orders is a fundamental error. 

Link (here) to read the full 1972 interview with Cardinal Jean Daniélou, S.J.

Becoming A Jesuit

Pope Benedict XVI and the Superior General

As Pope Benedict notes, “The task of fostering vocations is to provide helpful guidance and direction along the way. Central to this should be love of God's word, a growing familiarity with Sacred Scripture, and prayer that will make it possible to hear God's call amid all the voices of daily life. But above all, the Eucharist should be the heart of every vocational journey: it is here that the love of God touches us in Christ's sacrifice..." Pray daily for vocations to the consecrated life and to the priesthood. Encourage your children or grandchildren to consider a vocation to a religious order or congregation. Pray that young men and women will say, with Mary our Mother, “May it be done unto me according to your word.” And, in a moment of shameless opportunism, if you know any young men thinking of becoming a Jesuit, have them call, write or e-mail me at any time. 

Link (here) to Fr. Jack MD, S.J.

Jesuit Vocations

the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesuits blames the culture’s, “Exaggerated individualism and consumerism” for the disappearance of the Jesuits.
Link (here) to the Cardinal Newman Society.

When The Last Remaining Jesuit Leaves

When John Langan came to Georgetown University in 1975 as a young Jesuit priest, he was one of 112 brothers from the Catholic order on campus. Jesuit Robert Drinan, a Massachusetts Democrat, was in Congress, and Jesuit John McLaughlin had recently been in the West Wing advising Republican President Richard Nixon. Today there are barely half as many Jesuits at Georgetown, the order’s flagship university. Gonzaga, a Jesuit high school in Northwest Washington, is down to 17, compared with 43 in 1970. There’s talk that St. Aloysius, a Jesuit parish in the District known for its social justice efforts, could close when the last remaining Jesuit leaves. And there are no full-time Jesuit staff members at the Washington Jesuit Academy, where the board chairman is Jewish.

Link (here) to First Things blog, First Thoughts the post is entitled The Archetypal and Declining Jesuits

Why Become A Jesuit?

If what's being offered is participation in the priesthood of Jesus Christ Himself, the ability to turn bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, the ability to forgive sins through Divine power, the ability to call down the Holy Spirit... these things make those sacrifices not only worth it, but insignificant by comparison. But if what's being offered instead is no different from what you'd get at nearly any secular doctoral program in the country, why become a Jesuit?

Link (here) to a very challenging post at the Catholic blog, Shameless Popery.