Dare To Believe In Beauty

Cardinal  Henri de Lubac, S.J.

Writing in The American Spectator, writes the world-famous philosopher Roger Scruton noted the presence "Much of our public art is a loveless art, and one that is also entirely without the humility that comes from love." The reason I associate this thought of Scruton's with Pope Francis is because, before he became Pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., gave an interview in 2007 as Archbishop of Buenos Aires in which he spoke about the beauty of the gospel:

of desecration in our world and the absence of beauty:

"To me, apostolic courage is disseminating. Disseminating the Word. Giving it to that man and to that woman for whom it was bestowed. Giving them the beauty of the Gospel, the amazement of the encounter with Jesus ... and leaving it to the Holy Spirit to do the rest. It is the Lord, says the Gospel, who makes the seed spring and bear fruit."

In that same interview, the Jesuit who is now Pope cited the writings of Cardinal Henri de Lubac, also a Jesuit, in order to answer the question, "what is the worst thing that can happen in the Church?" Cardinal Bergoglio replied that the worst thing is what De Lubac calls "spiritual worldliness," which presents "the greatest danger for the Church, for us, who are in the Church." "Spiritual worldliness is putting oneself at the centre," said the future Pope Francis. 

"It is what Jesus saw going on among the Pharisees: 'You who glorify yourselves. Who give glory to yourselves, the ones to the others.'"

That was in 2007. But in 2013, in handwritten notes from the morning of Saturday, March 9, when Cardinal Bergoglio addressed the penultimate congregation of cardinals that preceded the conclave, he had an outline of his thoughts on the danger of a "self-referential Church." Such a pharisaical attitude, said the notes

, "gives rise to that evil which is so grave, that of spiritual worldliness (according to De Lubac, the worst evil into which the Church can fall): that of living to give glory to one another."

Perhaps you can see why I connect Scruton's thought about beauty with this concern of the Jesuit who has become Pope. To do so, you have to realize two things. First, what the Jesuit motto is. Second, that glory and beauty are the same thing. First, this concern of Pope Francis (and of the cardinals who heard him express it and were thereby inclined to elect him) - namely, the concern to avoid a pharisaical "self-referential Church" - is already addressed in the Jesuit motto and way of life: ad maiorem Dei gloriam ("for the greater glory of God"). To glorify yourself? No, that would be desecration. To glorify God? Yes, that would be the way of beauty. Second, the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar points out that, although most theologians rarely talk about it, the Scriptures constantly speak of the divine "Glory" - which is another word for Beauty. In the first volume of his The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics - Seeing the Form, von Balthasar says, "We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past - whether he admits it or not - can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love." 

Link (here) 

Jesuit Professor, Confirmation And Gay Marriage

Fr. James Keenan, S.J.

............recently, Father James Keenan, S.J. was awarded the Portman Chair last year. Currently serving as the Founders Professor of Theology at Boston College, Keenan made headlines in 2003 when he appeared before the joint committee on the judiciary for the state of Massachusetts to offer his support for same-sex marriage. The judiciary was debating a bill (constitutional amendment H3190) that would mandate that only the union of one man and one woman be recognized as a marriage in Massachusetts. Claiming to present the Catholic perspective, Keenan claimed that “H3190 is contrary to Catholic teaching on social justice.… The Catholic theological tradition stands against the active and unjust discrimination against the basic social rights of gay and lesbian persons.” Keenan encouraged legislators to vote against a bill that would ban same-sex marriages

Link (here) to The Catholic World Report 

Bishop Michael Hoeppner

The parents of a teenage boy in the Diocese of Crookston (Minnesota) told the Fargo Forum that their parish priest has denied the Sacrament of Confirmation to their son, Lennon Cihak, because of his Facebook post in support of same-sex marriage. Father Gary LaMoine of Assumption Church in Barnesville denied the family’s charge but would not elaborate. “They’re my parishioners, and so when the press comes after me from different points of view and asks me all types of questions about their situation, I hesitate very much because I owe them, I owe that family confidentiality,” he said. “He said ‘I cannot, cannot confirm him,’” Lennon’s mother said. “Father would not confirm him, and they won’t confirm him unless he changes his views.” The parents also told the newspaper that they are no longer permitted to receive Holy Communion at the parish. “The mother did say that Bishop Michael Hoeppner of the Diocese of Crookston informed her that if Lennon stood before the church and denounced his support of same-sex marriage claims, he could be confirmed,” the Fargo Forum added. 

Link (here) to Catholic Culture.

Lessius, Molina, Loyola, Vasquez And Escobar

Leonardus Lessius, Luis de Molina,  St. Ignatius Loyola, Gabriel Vasquez And Antonio Escobar

The Prudent Man

Fr. John R. Connery, S.J.

PRUDENCE AND MORALITY by FR. JOHN R. CONNERY, SJ.

PRUDENCE to the modern mind suggests caution. The prudent man is the man who takes no risks. He is a conservative who will neither raise his head above the crowd nor stand out from it. If such prudence is associated with morality at all, it is with a kind of moral mediocrity. The prudent man never does anything very bad; neither does he do anything very good. Prudence of this stamp hinders rather than promotes perfection. If everybody practiced it, there would be no heroes because there would be no such thing as heroic virtue. In fact, a premium would be put on inactivity. 

The less a person did or said, the fewer mistakes he would make, and hence the more prudent he would be considered. To some the word may suggest something more positive, but at most it connotes nothing more than a kind of secular virtue. It is the virtue of the "children of this world." The prudent man is the worldly-wise man. He knows how to make his way around this world; he is the successful business man.

At its best, such prudence is indifferent to morality; at its worst, it is directly opposed to it. Moral t heologians themselves may have unwittingly cooperated in this secularization of the virtue of prudence. A glance through modern manuals of moral theology leaves the impression that it has little moral significance. If it is treated at all, it is dealt with only in passing, or at most as a kind of isolated virtue. 

Since the time of St. Alphonsus Ligouri moral theology has been built around the commandments rather than around the virtues, and while this is a more convenient approach in a subject of interest chiefly to confessors, it is concerned more with vice than with virtue. 

Justice and temperance, it is true, have survived this approach in moral text books, but prudence has lost the key position which it held in Scholastic moral treatises.

Link (here) to read the full article

The 15 Marks Of The Church As Defined By St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.

The 15 Marks of the Catholic Church

developed by

St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.

1542-1621,

Doctor of the Church and Cardinal:

<1>

The Church's Name, Catholic, universal, and world wide, and not confined to any particular nation or people.

<2>

Antiquity, in tracing her ancestry directly to Jesus Christ.

<3>

Constant Duration, in lasting substantially unchanged for so many centuries.

<4>

Extensiveness, in the number of her loyal members.

<5>

Episcopal Succession, of her Bishops from the first Apostles at the Last Supper to the present hierarchy.

<6>

Doctrinal Agreement, of her doctrine with the teaching of the ancient Church.

<7>

Union, of her members among themselves, and with their visible head, the Roman Pontiff.

<8>

Holiness, of doctrine in reflecting the sanctity of GOD.

<9>

Efficacy, of doctrine in its power to sanctify believers, and inspire them to great moral achievement.

<10>

Holiness of Life, of the Church's representative writers and defenders.

<11>

The glory of Miracles, worked in the Church and under the Church's auspices.

<12>

The gift of Prophesy found among the Church's saints and spokesmen.

<13>

The Opposition that the Church arouses among those who attack her on the very grounds that Christ was opposed by His enemies. The Unhappy End, of those who fight against her.

<15>

The Temporal Peace and Earthly Happiness of those who live by the Church's teaching and defend her interests.

Link (here)

Jesuit On "Counter-Truth"

We oftentimes suspect where truth might lead us, so we cleverly refuse to go there without ever honestly spelling out to ourselves what we are doing. We choose to deceive ourselves. We build an apparently plausible "counter-truth" to justify how we choose to live. We quietly put aside in our hearts any comparison between what we do and what we ought to do. The good, the true, and the beautiful, however, are interrelated in ways that can hide their inner-connections from those who do not want to see what is there.

Link (here) to read full piece by Fr. James Schall, S.J. at Ignatius Insight.

Jesuit On Dealing With Protestant Sects, Heretics, Outlaws And Whorshippers Of Idols

In a special pamphlet, ' Ueber die Treue welche man den Haretikern schuldet,' Fr. Martin Becanus, S.J. lays down the general rule: ' If you have concluded a treaty or an alliance with heretics, you must thoroughly and honourably fulfil that which you have promised, just as much as you would in the case of Catholics.' For ' we must never tell lies, never violate our neighbours' rights, never commit an act of injustice, never be guilty of perjury. In very deed, if you once admit that all such wrong-doing is allowable on the ground that you are dealing with a heretic, it follows that you also have the right to kill, rob, and hate heretics; but this would be contrary to reason and to the law of God.' Even towards unbelievers and worshippers of idols, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, faith must be observed —how much more, then, to the Protestant sects ? 

He then brings forward some specially important cases to show how we are bound to keep faith even with outlaws, excommunicated persons, and heretics, in marriage, in war, and in case of having granted a safeconduct. Charles V., for instance, did all honour to the name of a Catholic emperor when he refused at Worms to violate Martin Luther's safe-conduct. The most important section of the treatise bears the heading: 'Ob man den Haretikern Treue halten miisse, wenn es sich urn die Freiheit der Religion handelt' (' Whether it is necessary to keep faith with heretics, when it is a question of freedom of religion'). Becanus begins by reminding his readers that Christ's ideal, according to the testimony of the Gospel, was that men should have but one faith, one Church, and one supreme shepherd. A variety of religions in a State was dangerous, and disturbed the peace of civil life, as is seen from the history of the Donatists, the Iconoclasts, the Albigenses, the Hussites, and the Calvinists in England, Belgium, France, and Poland. No Catholic prince, therefore, ought of his own accord to introduce religious freedom. 

The greatest emperors of Christian antiquity, Fathers of the Church, such as Ambrosius, Chrysostom, Augustine, had striven with the utmost zeal to preserve to the Catholic Church alone the right of public worship of God. ' If, however, the Catholic ruling authorities in any given place are unable to prevent the existence of other modes of belief and worship side by side with the Catholic faith, without occasioning still worse evil to the community, they must then be allowed to tolerate the unorthodox religions.'  

This was the emphatic teaching of Thomas of Aquinas, and in the same sense, says Becanus, spoke the scholars of the Jesuit Order, Maldonat, Gregory of Valentia, and Molina. If, then, he says, in concluding his typical instances, a Catholic authority seals a contract with heretics with reference to toleration of this sort, ' there is no question whatever but that the contract must be adhered to; for the obligation of faith and loyalty arises out of every legitimate, honest compact. At the same time, however, it is permissible, and in accordance with the moral law, that freedom of religion be tolerated in order to avoid greater evil, and a Catholic prince has full right to make such toleration the subject-matter of a treaty; and, if he does so, he is bound in honour to keep his word.' In 1593 Peter Stevart, professor of theology at Ingolstadt, entreated the Emperor, princes, and Estates that ' for God's sake and for the establishment of truth they would plainly state whether they had ever received from the Society of Jesus any such instructions and counsels for the extermination of all the Evangelicals and Protestants.' ' For if your Imperial Majesty and your princely graces do really declare that the Jesuits are contemplating sanguinary onslaughts of this kind, our German nation will then come forward and call on your Imperial Majesty and the princes for vengeance against these insurrectionary people, and insist that they shall be at once sentenced to death.'

Link (here) to the fascinating book entitled, History of the German People at the end of the Middle Ages

Jesuit Theology Of The 17th Century

The Society of Jesus substantially adhered to the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, yet at the same time it made use of an eclectic freedom. Luis Molina (d. 1600) was the first Jesuit to write a commentary on the Summa of St. Thomas entitled, Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis (1588–89; “The Harmony of Free Will with Gifts of Grace”). He was followed by the first Jesuit Cardinal Franciscus Toletus (d. 1596) and by Gregory of Valencia surnamed "Doctor doctorum," (d. 1603), mentioned above as a controversialist. 

A leading Jesuit group are the Spaniards Francisco Suárez, Gabriel Vasquez, and Didacus Ruiz. Francisco Suárez (d. 1617), the most prominent among them, had the title "Doctor eximius", which Pope Benedict XIV gave him. In his colleague Gabriel Vasquez (d. 1604), Suárez found a good critic. Didacus Ruiz (d. 1632) wrote on God and the Trinity, subjects which were also thoroughly treated by Christopher Gilles (d. 1608). Harruabal (d. 1608), Ferdinand Bastida (d. about 1609), Valentine Herice belong to the history of Molinism.

During the succeeding period James Granado (d. 1632), John Præpositus (d. 1634), Caspar Hurtado (d. 1646), and Anthony Perez (d. 1694) wrote commentaries on Aquinas. Theological manuals were written by Arriaga (d. 1667), Martin Esparza (d. 1670), Francis Amicus (d. 1651), Martin Becanus (d. 1625), Adam Tanner (d. 1632), and finally by Sylvester Maurus (d. 1687), who is clear and a philosopher. 

Major monographs were:

• against Baius and his followers, Martínez de Ripalda (d. 1648), work on the supernatural order;
• Leonard Lessius (d. 1623), treatises on God and His attributes;
• Ægidius Coninck (d. 1633), on the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the sacraments;
• Cardinal John de Lugo (d. 1660), a moralist, wrote on the virtue of faith and the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist;
• Claude Tiphanus (d. 1641), on the notions of personality and hypostasis.

Cardinal Pallavicini, (d. 1667), known as the historiographer of the Council of Trent, won repute as a dogmatic theologian by several of his writings.
Link (here) to an extensive article called, History of Catholic Dogmatic Theology

Fathers Maurizio Flick, S.J. And Zoltan Alszeghy, S.J. With Angels

When we speak of angels "to the good angels, that is personal beings who praise God, help people, serve them and are united God and the saints in the eternal happiness of heaven. The Devils, however, are personal beings, with the same natural perfections of the angels, however, rebelled against God, attempting to destroy and hinder his work and are condemned to eternal punishment." Regarding the origin of the division between angels and devils, it must be said that "the foundation of this division is a sin freely committed by demons."

The biblical texts of Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 12-15 and 28.12 for the Old Testament and Lk 10.18, Jn 12:31, Rev 12, 7-8, Jude 6 and 2 Pet 2.4 New Testament traditionally argued that the fall of angels in Christian preaching is not enough for the second Father Maurizio Flick, S.J. and Fr. Zoltan Alszeghy, S.J. theological affirmation that in them the sacred writers commit their authority to affirm the objective truth of that fact of the angelic fall. . As the doctrine of the Fathers, there is unanimity in the certainty that the sin of these angels turned into demons, and in turn the diversity in the description of angelic sin.  In any case, the Fathers do not doubt in saying that when some angels sinned, as did the faith.  The theological reason according to these two theologians, shows a special significance on this topic. . If you deny the sin in the angelic world, you get two heretical and absurd: the handle that allows the existence of one or more of the principles of evil and independent from God, or an admission that the good God has created beings who are bad by nature.  How magisterial documents which have the sin of the devil as belonging to the faith and Flick Alszeghy mention the canon of the council of Prague 7 of 561 (cf. DH 457), profession of faith sets the Waldenses by Innocent III (cf. DH 790), and the condemnation of error dualist Albigensian in the fourth Lateran council (cf. DH 800).  It is precisely the definition of that council which proposes the doctrine of angelic sin as the basis of the distinction between good and bad angels as a dogma of faith: "The devil and other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but for them themselves became bad ".

Link (here) to the blog post entitled, originally written in Italian by Fr. Marcello Stanzione's at his website of an organization called The Militia of St. Michael the Archangel
Painting of the Archangel Michael (here)

Dogma Is The Ace, Moral Theology Is The King, Canon Law Is The Queen And Scripture Study Is The Jack

Before Vatican II dogma was Ace, moral theology was King, canon law was Queen, and Scripture study was Jack. That certainly was the case at Innsbruck, Austria, where I studied and where both Rahners taught and also the famous liturgist, Josef Jungmann, S.J..

In the USA before the Council in some theologates moral theology was Ace because priests were being prepared to hear confessions, while preaching was a secondary goal.

As a result of the emphasis in the seminary on the importance of dogma and morals, priests were well-schooled in those subjects and were prepared to preach on them. There was emphasis on dogma, and also morals, because of the certitude connected with them.

Each thesis had a “note” of doctrinal certainty, with the authority of the Church behind it from defined definitions in the previous twenty ecumenical councils.

Catholic dogma gives the student certitude about what the Church holds and also offers different levels of certitude, for example: a defined dogma, a matter of Catholic faith (de fide catholica), theologically certain, common opinion and so forth.

Scripture study, on the other hand, does not offer the certitude that dogma does. 

Yes, the text of the Bible is without error, but every text has to be interpreted and that is where the problem is. As you know, there are thousands of different interpretations of the meaning of passages in the Bible. The “sola scriptura” of the Protestants has resulted in thousands of different Protestant groups.
Link (here) to the full piece entitled In Defense of Dogma by Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J. at Homiletic and Pastoral Review.

French Jesuit Theologian Denis Petau, "The Fire Of Hell Is A Corporeal And Material Fire"

The learned Jesuit French theologian Denis Petau, or Dionysius Petavius, who in his treatise De Aiigelis (III. v. 7) says that

"All theologians in the present day, nay, all Christians also, are of one accord in the belief that the fire of Hell is a corporeal and material fire," 

though at the same time he allows that there is no definition of the Church asserting it. It would be tedious to go through the long list of theologians of the Society of Jesus who with one mouth proclaim the same doctrine. Toletus (in 1am partem S. Thomse, q. 64, a. 3); Lessius (De Div. Perf. xiii. 20); Theol. Wirceburg. (De Ang. iii. n. 66) ; Hurter (Medulla Theol. 1236-8) ; Mazzella (Be Nov. VI. vi. 80), are but samples of a long list that might be quoted. We rather turn to one or two who belong to other religious bodies, to show the prevailing unanimity among those whose learning gives them a right to carry weight in such a question as this. Thus the Dominican Bannez uses these words:

" The fire of Hell is a sensible and corporeal fire. This conclusion is so certain that the opposite is to be regarded as erroneous or proximate to error;" 

and Billuart (De Aug. vi. 3, 2) tells us that it is the opinion of the Fathers and of theologians generally (communiter) that the fire of Hell is a material and corporeal fire ; so that though the doctrine is not of faith, since the Church has defined nothing respecting it, yet it seems one that is to be held as certain. In the same way Estius (In Dist. iv. 44, 12):

" It is quite clear that the doctrine which lays down that the fire with which the bad angels, and the lost both before and after the Day of Judgment, will be punished is a corporeal fire, is the common doctrine, and therefore the doctrine of the Church, and one to which we must make no opposition," 

 while Patuzzi declares the opposite opinion to be " in the opinion of some heretical, in that of others, proximate to heresy, while all regard it as at least erroneous and temerarious in the extreme."1 There can therefore be no doubt that he who asserts the metaphorical nature of hell fire makes an assertion which, by the common judgment of Fathers and theologians, cannot be reconciled with the teaching of our Lord, and the repeated declarations of Holy Scripture, and the express proposition contained in the Athanasian Creed. It is not for us to brand the statements of the upholders of metaphor with any theological mark or censure, though we do not see how they can be regarded as men who are not in distinct conflict with the practical teaching of the Church.

Link (here) to The Month, published in 1893 the essay is entitled, Is the Fire of Hell a Material Fire? by Fr. R.F. Clarke, S.J.

The Olden Days

Johann Baptist Metz (pictured), Rahner’s student and friend, wrote that by the time Rahner died, “he had become probably the most influential and important Catholic thinker of his day.”

A priest from the southwestern U.S. said that of his 1970s seminary training, “Everything was Rahner; Rahner was in; Aquinas was out.” 

Metz said elsewhere, “Karl Rahner has renewed the face of our theology. Nothing is quite as it was before.”

Link (here) to the full article by John Vennari, entitled Karl Rahner's Girlfriend

The Superior General Was Priest's Theology Teacher In The Philippines

My theology lecturer in Manila, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J. did his doctoral dissertation on Hans Urs von Balthazar; I recall in a chat with Fr. Nicolas over breakfast saying, "I found Balthazar painfully verbose."

Link (here) to Fr. John George's post at True Catholic

Miserably Tormented, And Yet Replenished With Heavenly Comforts

Now I begin indeed to be the disciple of Christ." "Oh, the happy stroke of a sword," might St. Paul well exclaim, "that no sooner cuts off my head, but it makes a breach for my soul to enter into heaven. Let it be far from me to glory in anything, but in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let all evils band against me, and let my body be never so overloaded with afflictions, the joy of my heart will be sure to have the mastery, and my soul will be still replenished with such heavenly consolations that no words, nor even thoughts, are able to express it."

You may imagine, then, that the souls, once unfettered from the body, may, together with their torments, be capable of great comforts and divine favours, and break forth into resolute, heroical and even supercelestial acts.

The Holy Ghost tells us, that " the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things." (Wisdom IX:15) So that a soul, by the infirmities of the body, is violently kept from the free exercise of her functions; whereas, if the body were supple, pliable, and willing to follow the persuasions of a resolute and generous soul, or the inspirations with which she is plentifully supplied from above, what might we not be able to do, even in this life ? Now, that which is not done here,

but by very few, who are looked upon as so many miracles and prodigies of men, is easily performed by those separate holy souls, who are in the very porch of heaven, assured of their salvation.

Lastly; would you have a most perfect exemplar and idea of this wonderful combination of joys and griefs in one single person ? You may clearly see it in the most sacred Person of our Blessed Saviour; who, in the midst of His bitter Passion, and in the very height of His Agony and extreme dereliction, when

He not only seemed to have been abandoned by His Eternal Father, but had even abandoned and forsaken Himself, by miraculously withholding the superior part of His blessed Soul from relieving and assisting the inferior,

yet even then, had all the comforts of heaven, and saw God face to face, and consequently, was at the self-same time most happy, by the fruition of the beatifical vision : and yet so oppressed with griefs, that He cried out Himself, " My Soul is sorrowful unto death;" and again,

" O My God, alas ! why hast Thou thus forsaken Me !"

Conceive something like unto this, of the souls in Purgatory, who are most miserably tormented, and yet replenished with heavenly comforts.

Link (here) to this portion of the book entitled, Purgatory Surveyed by Fr. W.H. Anderdon, S.J.

This Is Not Rahner’s "World Church"

Pope Benedict is preeminently the Pope of Christian Unity. Pope Benedict has been struggling against forces within his own fold to achieve Christian unity.

His is decidedly not the unity that liberals (Richard McBrien, Gerald O’Collins) have in mind when they think of Christian unity, with its watered-down version of Roman primacy, liturgy, catechesis, sexual ethics and church discipline. In other words, a Christian unity without a Christian identity (christian with a small ‘c’).

No, Benedict’s unity is real unity, true unity that costs something, that stretches people, but that does not compromise what is essential to the Church.

This is not Karl Rahner’s "world church" where anything and anyone goes. It is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Christ Jesus.

Benedict’s true ecumenism is consonant with everything we are as a Church. People are going to be stretched, but absolutely nothing essential will be given away. You see where I am going with this. Liberals want ecumenism only with those whom they want in their sort of church.

Link (here) to the full post by Fr. Z.

“Oracles, Dissent, and Conversation"

Rev. Michael J. Buckley, SJ, one of the country’s leading Catholic theologians and educators and former director of Boston College’s Jesuit Institute, will return to campus to be honored by his former doctoral students at an Oct. 23-24 symposium.

“Oracles, Dissent, and Conversation: Reflections on Catholic Teaching,” co-sponsored by the Office of the President and the Church in the 21st Century Center, will feature a keynote address by University of Cambridge Professor Nicholas Lash and a response from BC Theology Professor Rev. Michael Himes. The presentation, which is open to the public, will be held in Gasson 100 on Oct. 23 at 4 p.m. The symposium continues the next day with events for invited guests.

The symposium will honor “Father Buckley’s important role as a mentor to the next generation of Catholic theologians,” said event organizer Anna Moreland MA ’99, PhD ’06, an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Augustinian Traditions at Villanova University.

“Our efforts as scholars and teachers at Catholic universities across the country have been profoundly shaped by Father Buckley’s work with us as doctoral students at Boston College “We are now giving away what we have most generously received.”

Fr. Buckley, now the Augustin Cardinal Bea Professor of Theology in the Religious Studies Department at Santa Clara University, was BC’s inaugural Canisius Professor, teaching in the Theology Department and serving as Jesuit Institute director. During his time at BC, Fr. Buckley was honored by the Catholic Theological Society of America with the John Courtney Murray Award, its highest award for excellence in theology.

School of Theology and Ministry Assistant Professor Dominic Doyle was one of Fr. Buckley’s doctoral students. “He was a fantastic, brilliant professor who was so dedicated to his students,” recalled Doyle, who will give a talk at the symposium on Oct. 24. “He was a ruthless cross-examiner. He had a saying: ‘Behind every successful PhD student is a director who nags.’”

Other former students who will speak include University of St. Thomas Associate Professor of Theology Cara Anthony PhD ’03 and Creighton University Assistant Professor of Theology Richard Miller MA’03, PhD’05.

There also will be a roundtable discussion on Jesuit higher education featuring Misericordia University Interim College of Arts and Sciences Dean Joe Curran PhD ’05; University of St. Mary Associate Professor of Theology Brian Hughes MA ’94, PhD ’03 and Institute of Jesuit Sources Associate Editor John Montag, SJ MA ’96. BC Theology Professor Frederick Lawrence and Santa Clara University Jesuit Community Professor Paul Crowley, SJ, also will participate in the symposium.

Information on “Oracles, Dissent, and Conversation: Reflections on Catholic Teaching” is available at www.bc.edu/church21.

Jesuit On St. Paul And Atonement

St. Paul's theology gathers up past, present and future— God, God made Man, Christ glorified—and gathers us up equally into the comprehensive truth. It is, in a special sense, theology applied and extended to man. Nowhere else will you find less formalism or more vitality in religion. Hardly has he proposed a belief before he passes on to show the relation of that belief to ourselves.

So his consideration of the Incarnation or the atonement merges almost at once into an application and extension of that Incarnation and atonement to the Church and the individual.

Yet when, as against all this, we consider how many sided is this mystery of the atonement, and how limited the capacity of the mind which can only attend to one aspect, one reasoned theory or set of values at any given time, then how very incompletely at best may we expect to comprehend that supreme fact in itself and its overwhelming import for us!

Link (here) to the essay entitled, THE EXTENSION OF THE ATONEMENT IN ST. PAUL. BY Fr. Leo E. Bellanti, S.J.

Hail Mary, Full Of Grace, The Lord Is With Thee

Father Francisco Suarez, the holy and learned Jesuit,
declared when dying that he would willingly give
all the many learned books he wrote, all his life's labors,
for the merit of one Hail Mary
prayerfully and devoutly said.

Link (here) to Sancte Pater

17th Century Jesuit Philosopher And Cartographer: Claude Buffier

Claude Buffier, S.J., was born of French parents, in Poland, in 1661, and educated at Rouen. He entered among the Jesuits, at Paris, in 1679, and afterwards fixed his residence at the College of the Society in that City. Besides the present, he composed many other works on a variety of subjects. His most celebrated performance is his

" Traite de premieres Verites," published in 1724. He died in 1737. Voltaire bestows on his Metaphysical Treatises the high commendation of containing passages of which Locke would not have been ashamed ; and observes, that " he is the only Jesuit whose writings exhibit a rational Philosophy."

" Buffier," says Sir James MacKintosh,

" the only Jesuit whose name has a place in the History of Abstract Philosophy, has no peculiar opinions which would have required any mention of him as a Moralist, were it not for the great reputation of his Treatise on First Truths, with which Dr. Reid so remarkably, though unaware of it, coincides, even in the application of so practical a term as Common Sense, to denote the faculty which recognizes the truth of first principles. His Philosophical Writings are remarkable for that perfect clearness of expression, which, since the great examples of Descartes and PasCal, has been so generally diffused as to have become one of the enviable peculiarities of French Philosophical Style, and almost of the French Language."

Link (here)

Map of Poland 1760 by Fr. Claude Buffier, S.J.

Archimandrite Jesuit

Renowned liturgist The Rt. Rev. Archimandrite Robert F. Taft, S.J. (facebook) presented the keynote titled “The Liturgical Enterprise Twenty-five Years after Alexander Schmemann (1921–1983): The Man and His Heritage”—the centerpiece of the colloquium and this year’s Father Alexander Schmemann Annual Memorial Lecture—to a capacity crowd of 400 people on Friday, January 30, 2009.

Remembering Fr. Alexander as protagonist for the discipline of liturgical theology, Fr. Taft honored him as a fellow "informer," not a "reformer," and as a "'kerygmatic theologian'... who was able to bring out of the liturgy its true meaning and make it live for people as a joyous event, which is the life in Christ." Fr. Taft emphasized the enduring and phenomenal "shelf life of Fr. Alexander's oeuvre" and termed his overall work a "landmark" in the field of liturgical theology. He also identified areas of scholarly progress in that field since Fr. Alexander's death, which will elucidate and guide the future of the academic study of liturgical theology.

Fr. Taft is a founding member of both the North American Academy of Liturgy and of the Association of Jesuit Liturgists, and a member of the U.S. National Committee for Byzantine Studies, of the Society for Armenian Studies (retired 1999), and of the International Societas Liturgica. He was a member of the Governing Council of the latter society for ten years (1979–89), and its President from 1985–87.

Link (here) to the full article

Fr. Taft is seated bottom row, far left.