Weigel: Keenan Redux

'Gay marriage' and Father Keenan, once again
By George Weigel
I regret having to revisit this matter, but as a point of personal honor has been raised, I must. In early 2003, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts engaged in a vigorous public debate over the definition of marriage. A proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as the stable union of a man and a woman, H. 3190, was introduced in the Massachusetts legislature. On April 28, 2003, three Catholic priests, including Jesuit Father James Keenan (now of Boston College), testified against H. 3190. Father Keenan began his testimony as follows: "I am here today to testify against H.3190 because it is contrary to Catholic teaching on social justice." Father Keenan concluded his testimony on the same note: "...as a priest and as a moral theologian, I cannot see how anyone could use the Roman Catholic tradition to support H. 3190." On June 2, 2003, staff members of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference [MCC] issued a "Memorandum by MCC Staff on the Erroneous Testimony on Catholic Teaching" that had been given at the April 28 hearing.

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The memorandum made the following points:

In the course of his argument against the Massachusetts marriage amendment, which he claimed would "deny 'gays and lesbians' the 'full range of human and civil rights,' Father Keenan erroneously stated that '[t]his same position has been endorsed by the United States Catholic Bishops.'"

Father Keenan and his fellow-witnesses did not inform the MCC, "the official representative of the Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts before the state legislature," of their proposed testimony beforehand, nor did they inform the committee that they were speaking without the knowledge or approval of the MCC.

All three priests who testified, including Father Keenan, "mischaracterized the teaching of the Catholic Church generally, while two [including Father Keenan] mischaracterized the position of the Catholic Bishops specifically," by attempting to buttress their position with the U.S. bishops' statement, "Always Our Children."

As a result of Father Keenan's testimony and that of his fellow-witnesses, "members of the committee expressed their confusion about the Catholic Church's position on the [marriage] amendment, on same-sex marriage, and on their moral responsibility as legislators."

The MCC staffers also noted that, based on their conversation with committee members, "the testimony left the false impression that the priests were speaking from authority, and that their private opinions represented the official position of the Catholic Church...." Father Keenan's Boston College colleague, Jesuit Father David Hollenbach, has now denounced as "malicious slander" a recent column in which I wrote that Father Keenan's testimony had argued that "the principles of Catholic social doctrine did not merely tolerate 'gay marriage,' they demanded it." That was arguably too telegraphic an interpretation of Father Keenan's rhetorical dexterity, both in his testimony and in a subsequent "clarification" issued after public criticism of his position. So here is my emendation, based entirely on the public record: In his 2003 testimony before the Massachusetts state legislature, Father Keenan argued that a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the stable union of a man and a woman offended Catholic social justice principles and ought to be rejected. In the course of his testimony, Father Keenan misrepresented the teaching of the American bishops, appealed to a theologically dubious magisterium of theologians, failed to tell the legislators the Massachusetts bishops' position on H. 3190, and neglected to inform the legislators of recent, authoritative Vatican statements on the subject --- all of which created the impression among legislators that justice required the rejection of any legal definition of "marriage" as the stable union of a man and a woman. The Web site of MassEquality, a pro-"gay marriage" group (www.massequality.org/ supporters), lists Father Keenan's name under the tag line, "Support for marriage equality can be found everywhere," and provides a link to Father Keenan's April 28, 2003 testimony. Permit me to pose two questions:

---Will Father Hollenbach now publicly damn MassEquality for "malicious slander?"

---Will Father Keenan ask MassEquality to remove from its Web site what Father Hollenbach evidently regards as a malicious and slanderous misinterpretation of his testimony?

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Link (here)

Weigel: Critical Truth

so where is weigel wrong?
Posted by: Diogenes - Mar. 26, 2008
About a month ago, George Weigel made public some reasons to think the new Jesuit General over-estimated the Society's deference to the Holy See. This provoked a heated and defensive reaction on the part of certain Jesuits, obliging Weigel to repeat, for the benefit of the offended parties, a lesson usually learned between one's thirteenth and seventeenth birthday:

the truth that criticism -- even wounding criticism -- is not always a product of ill will.

What baffles your Uncle Di is that the Jesuits who castigate Weigel don't make clear why he was wrong to make reference to Partial Birth Abortion and "Pretty Boy & Jabba the Slut" and the rest. Is Weigel to be faulted because the Society denounces the Drinan legacy and gay campiness -- and he slanderously suggested the opposite? Or

is Weigel to be faulted because the Society embraces the Drinan legacy and gay gamesmanship -- and he slanderously suggested this to be a departure from the Ignatian ideal?

Even if Weigel's a villain, these villainies can't both be true of him. Let's flip back a couple years to examine another prominent journalist who slipped into criticism of the Society. This is Andrew Sullivan, from his Daily Dish post of 10 July 2005.

Diametrically opposed to Weigel's ecclesial perspective, Sullivan is exercised by the upcoming Doomsday Doc forbidding the acceptance of homosexual seminarians.

He's in a lather about the bigoted Pope Benedict and indulges in some coloratura hyperbole:

Not since the Jesuits' ban on ethnic Jews, regardless of their conversion or Christian faith, has the Church entertained such pure discrimination. The insult to gay Catholics is, of course, immeasurable. It is also an outrageous attack on the good, great and holy work so many gay men and lesbians have performed in the Church from its very beginnings.

Later in the same post, Sullivan hastily reassures his readers that he intended no criticism of the contemporary Society of Jesus:

I don't think any reader of this blog would remember me having anything but respect for the Jesuits. In this country, they are becoming the underground resistance that will keep the decent church alive while Benedict spreads his brittle reactionaryism.

Sullivan is praising the Society for the very recalcitrance the Jesuit General emphatically denies, right? So was there an outpouring of white-hot Jesuit indignation protesting

Sullivan's claim that the Jesuits comprise "the underground resistance" to the Pope? If so, most of us certainly missed it. Well, lads, what about it? Are you critics of Weigel's libelous charge of Jesuit disloyalty willing to trash Sullivan for his?

If not, the rest of us will continue to believe that it was Weigel who had it right in the first place. And if we’re wrong in this, it would be a kindness to point out our mistake.
[tip to Karen Hall ]

Link (here)

The Jesuit Conscious: George Weigel

The Ignatian possibility today
George Weigel
In the early 1990s, I was given lunch at the Roman headquarters of the Society of Jesus by two very—no, make that extremely—high-ranking Jesuits. The table-talk turned to a fascinating question: Are there permanent religious charisms in the Church? Most religious congregations die within a century of their founding; our Lord might delay his return for tens of thousands of years, so that we are the “early Church.” Given that fact and that possibility, could we, today, judge that there are permanent religious charisms in the Church, gifts of the Holy Spirit that will endure institutionally in religious orders? My interlocutors quickly agreed that the Benedictine charism was enduring; that something like the Franciscan charism was certainly a permanent feature of Catholic life; and that there might be something enduring about the Dominican charism (a considerable concession for Jesuits!). What surprised me was that neither of my hosts argued that the Ignatian charism could, today, be judged an enduring one—“we’ll see,” was the gist of their discussion of the permanence of their own community’s distinctive spiritual character. This not only surprised me; it saddened me. Because I thought then, as

I think now, that the New Evangelization proclaimed by John Paul II very much needs the distinctive combination of spiritual élan, intellectual heft, missionary zeal, self-sacrificing obedience to the Pope, and evangelical joie de combat that is the unique charism of the Society of Jesus.

That 15-year-old discussion on the Borgo Santo Spirito was in the back of my mind when I wrote recently in this space about challenges facing the Society of Jesus and its new General, Father Adolfo Nicolas; that concern for the vitality of the Jesuit future framed my questions to the new Jesuit leader. For that reason, I am very grateful to the Jesuits—young, old, and in-between—and the friends-of-Jesuits who have thanked me for bringing into public discussion issues that are widely and urgently discussed among them. For that same reason, it is regrettable that some read my “Questions for Father General” as a blanket indictment, even condemnation, of the Society of Jesus—an interpretation that strikes me as counterintuitive, given what I wrote at the end of the column about my prayer for Father Nicolas’s success in his leadership of a “great religious congregation.” Still, columns being what they are, and readers being what they are, misunderstandings occur; I hope the context I describe above helps clear up at least some of the misunderstandings that have ensued.

The challenges I noted—the challenge to bring the truth of Catholic moral and social teaching into public life; the challenge to enhance the Catholic identity of Catholic institutions of higher learning; the challenge to live evangelical chastity in a culture saturated with various forms of eroticism; the challenge to Christological orthodoxy,

at a time of intellectual confusion in the West and amidst a global supermarket of “spiritualities”—are obviously not challenges for Jesuits alone; every religious community, and indeed every serious Catholic, faces them. That they are challenges for Jesuits, though, is not a matter of personal opinion but of the public record. I might add that these are matters I have discussed with Jesuit friends for decades—including young men whose Jesuit vocations I have tried to nurture. My work in the 1980s to rescue the great Jesuit theologian of the American experiment, John Courtney Murray, from intellectual oblivion;

my work with the U.S. Congress to free a brave Lithuanian Jesuit, Sigitas Tamkevicius (now archbishop of Kaunas), from the Gulag; over a quarter-century of intellectual work with Jesuits ranging from Cardinal Avery Dulles to members of the Pontifical Gregorian University faculty—all testify, I hope, to my regard for the Ignatian charism.

Like my column, my work with Jesuits has been an expression of my conviction that the Ignatian charism ought to be a permanent one— and my hope that the community which gave the Church such heroes as Francis Xavier, Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, Isaac Jogues, Miguel Pro, and Alfred Delp might be renewed in the image of their radical fidelity. A.M.D.G.

Link (here)

Audio Interview With The Father General

New Jesuit Father General Speaks
The newly-elected Father General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, SJ, spoke with Vatican Radio about his order's recently-concluded 35th General Congregation, which chose the 71 year-old Fr. Nicolas to lead the largest religious order of men. Fr. Nicolas told us the Congregation was a moment of reflection, and renewal of the Jesuits' commitment to the Holy Father and to their mission of service to the whole Church...

Link to Vatican Radio interview (here)

Confronting Criticism With Regards To Jesuit Obedience

On Obedience: Approval of the Second Decree
March 3, 2008
On the afternoon of 3 March, the General Congregation has approved its second decree, about obedience. While recent general congregations have touched on themes related to obedience, the last time a general congregation issued a decree on the topic was GC 31 in 1966. Vatican II had just ended, and we had just begun to respond to the council’s call to renew our Jesuit life from two sources: scripture and the charism of our founder. That renewal has matured, so the decree on obedience of GC 35 begins with a reflection on what the experience of the First Companions and the scriptures’ portrayal of Jesus teach us about Jesuit obedience. The decree then moves to the contemporary scene. At the time of GC 31, many were asking how we can ensure that structures which sustain the body of the Society not stifle individual creativity. The terrain has shifted in forty years. Now many are asking how we can ensure that individual efforts are integrated into the mission of the body. The decree suggests that both the account of conscience and renewed structures of community life are essential to achieving balance in that regard. Anyone who looks at the history of the Society will see that we have always understood our role of service in the Church in relation to the papacy. Therefore, the decree goes on to offer some reflections on living our relationship of obedience to the papacy today, especially with regard to our mission in the broadest sense. Before work on the decree began, discussion groups of delegates surfaced some areas of our life of obedience in the Society where they felt a word of advice or reminder was needed. In response, the decree ends with some reflections on obedience in our day to day life directed to Jesuits in formation, formed Jesuits, and superiors.

Fr Tom Feely SJ

Link (here)

General Reporting For Duty

Jesuit Superior's Greeting to Benedict XVI
"What Inspires and Impels Us Is the Gospel and the Spirit of Christ"
ROME, FEB. 21, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the greeting Father Adolfo Nicolás addressed to Benedict XVI on behalf of the members of the order's 35th General Congregation, who were received in audience by the Pope today.The General Congregation has been meeting in Rome since Jan. 7.* * *

Most Holy Father,

I would like my first word to be, in my name and in the name of all present, a heartfelt "thank you" to Your Holiness for kindly receiving today the members of the General Congregation meeting in Rome, after having already bestowed on us the precious gift of a Letter which by way of its rich content and its positive tone, encouraging and affectionate, has most surely been appreciated by the whole Society of Jesus. Gratitude, indeed, and a strong sense of communion in feeling confirmed in our mission to work at the frontiers where faith and science, faith and justice, and faith and knowledge, confront each other, and in the challenging field of serious reflection and responsible theological research. We are grateful to Your Holiness to have been once more encouraged to follow our Ignatian tradition of service right where the Gospel and the Church suffer the greatest challenges, a service which at times also lends itself to the risk of disturbing a peaceful lifestyle, reputation and security. For us it is a cause of great consolation to note that Your Holiness is more than aware of the dangers that such a commitment exposes to us. Holy Father, I would like to return once again to the kind and generous Letter that you sent to my predecessor Fr. Kolvenbach and through him to all of us. We have received it with an open heart, meditated on it, reflected on it, we have exchanged our reflections, and we are determined to carry its message and its unconditional words of welcome and acceptance to the whole Society of Jesus. We wish moreover to convey the spirit of such a message to all our formation structures and to create -- taking the message as our starting point -- opportunities for reflection and discussion which will enable us to assist our confrères engaged in research and in service.Our General Congregation, to which Your Holiness has given Your paternal encouragement, is looking, in prayer and in discernment, for the ways through which the Society can renew its commitment to the service of the Church and of humanity. What inspires and impels us is the Gospel and the Spirit of Christ: if the Lord Jesus was not at the centre of our life we would have no sense of our apostolic activity, we would have no reason for our existence. It is from the Lord Jesus we learn to be near to the poor and suffering, to those who are excluded in this world. The spirituality of the Society of Jesus has as its source the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. And it is in the light of the Spiritual Exercises -- which in their turn inspired the Constitutions of the Society -- that the General Congregation is in these days tackling the subjects of our identity and of our mission. The Spiritual Exercises, before becoming a precious tool for the apostolate, are for the Jesuit the touchstone by which to judge our own spiritual maturity.In communion with the Church and guided by the Magisterium, we seek to dedicate ourselves to profound service, to discernment, to research. The generosity with which so many Jesuits work for the Kingdom of God, even to giving their very lives for the Church, does not mitigate the sense of responsibility that the Society feels it has in the Church. Responsibility that Your Holiness confirms in Your Letter, when You affirm: "The evangelizing work of the Church therefore relies a lot on the formative responsibility that the Society has in the fields of theology, spirituality and mission." Alongside the sense of responsibility, must go humility, recognizing that the mystery of God and of man is much greater than our capacity for understanding.It saddens us, Holy Father, when the inevitable deficiencies and superficialities of some among us are at times used to dramatize and represent as conflicts and clashes what are often only manifestations of limits and human imperfections, or inevitable tensions of everyday life. But all this does not discourage us, nor quell our passion, not only to serve the Church, but also, with a deeper sense of our roots, according to the spirit of the Ignatian tradition, to love the hierarchical Church and the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ."En todo amar y servir." This represents a portrait of who Ignatius is. This is the identity card of a true Jesuit.And so we consider it a happy and significant circumstance that our meeting with You occurs on this particular day, the vigil of the Feast of the Chair of St Peter, a day of prayer and of union with the Pope and His highest service of universal teaching authority. For this we offer You our good wishes. And now, Holy Father, we are ready and willing, to listen and attend to what You have to say to us.

Link (here)

Cardinal Newman Society On Jesuit Institutions Of Higher Learning

CNS urges Jesuits to revive Catholic education tradition
Washington, Jan. 14, 2008 (CWNews.com) -

The Cardinal Newman Society, a lay group dedicated to preserving the Catholic identity of Church colleges and universities, has called upon the Society of Jesus to "take up the renewal of Catholic higher education." With delegates of the world's Jesuit provinces gathered in Rome for the order's 35th general congregation, Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) saw a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to recommit Jesuit colleges to excellence in education, founded upon an unwavering fidelity to authentic Catholic teachings." CNS president Patrick Reilly encouraged the Jesuit delegates to heed the admonition of Cardinal Franc Rode, the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Religious.

At a Mass inaugurating the 35th general congregation, Cardinal Rode had expressed severe misgivings about the hostility that many Jesuits have displayed toward the magisterium. He pointed to the many educational institutions founded by Jesuits in the US as a proud legacy of Jesuit education.

"Regrettably, several of these colleges are scandals to the faithful," he said, "endangering the souls of tens of thousands of students."

Link (here)

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, "Rode's" Georgetowns Fr. Phan

"The Rode Effect"

After consultation with St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, the Aquinas Institute of Theology has canceled its annual Aquinas Lecture for 2008. The Rev. Peter Phan, a Georgetown University professor and former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, was scheduled to give the prestigious lecture in about three weeks.

Hat Tip to the Curt Jestor (here)