Jesuit Looks At The Problems With Yoga

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. takes a look at the other ramifications of the division of the brain. He talks about meditation in the New Age movement. He talks about the way that some New Agers use to meditate like psychotechologies and yoga and what is wrong with yoga. He also takes a look at Christian spirituality and how Christianity is to be lived. He says that we should be defined as a deep relation with God.

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Listen to the full talk at EWTN's audio library by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. (here) entitled, Meditation Control.

A Musical Fundraiser For Jesuit Seminarian In The Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The Jesuit Communications Foundation, Inc. (JesCom) presents the Philippine Madrigal Singers in “Madz Goes Jesuit: From Traditional to Contemporary Sacred Music,” a fund-raising concert for the benefit of the Jesuit Seminaries, on Aug. 18 and 19, 7:30 p.m. at Teatro Aguinaldo, Camp Aguinaldo, QC. The Madz will trace the development of religious music from the classical era to the post-Vatican II era that gave birth to Filipino liturgical music spearheaded by well-known and beloved Jesuit composers like Fr. Manoling Francisco and Fr. Eddie Hontiveros, among others.

Link (here) to the full article.

7 Out Of 26

The Kansas City Star series mentioned above notes that, of 26 novices who entered the Missouri Province of the Jesuit order in 1967 and 1968, only seven were eventually ordained priests.
Link (here) to the full CatholicCulture.com article entitled, "The G@y Priest Problem"

The White Bearded Jesuit

Fr. Terry Charlton, S.J. with students

The schooling and the meals, as well as the new building at Nairobi's St. Aloysius Gonzaga students proudly occupy after inhabiting cramped quarters until two months ago, all cost money. 

The white-bearded Fr. Terry Charlton, S.J. projects the demeanor of the Jesuit scholar-priest, which is accurate enough, but he is also a tireless fundraiser, 

making annual visits to the U.S. every year to share the stories of successes and challenges in one of the world's most desperate places.

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Link (here) to the full article at  Indystar.com

The Jesuit Library

More than a mile long of archives with 50,000 volumes contain the history of the Society of Jesus "the Jesuits." This Jesuit Library houses the first letters of the founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and the latest books on the Society’s history. About 600 students each year pass through this place to discuss the history of the Jesuits. But these letters and books also describe many historical moments of which the Jesuits were prime witnesses.

Link (here) to CathNews India and watch the associated video.

Jesuit On Carring His Mother

Fr. John Powell, S.J. tells of his experience with his aging mother. “I used to carry my aged mother up and down the stairs of our home,” Powell writes. “And she would grab onto the banister while I was carrying her up or down the stairs and hold on to it so tightly we couldn’t move. I’d say, ‘Momma, you have to let go of the banister or we can’t move.’ And she looked at me with her plaintive little eyes and said, ‘I’m afraid you’ll drop me.’ I said, ‘Momma, I’m going to drop you right now. When I count to three, I’m going to drop you!’ And then she would let go, and we’d go two more steps, when she would grab on again."

“That is in microcosm my interaction with God,” Powell explains. “I’m hanging on to the banisters of life. I’m hanging on to these little things that make me feel secure. But God loves me more than I love my little mother, and God would never let me come to any harm. God knows where we’re going.”

Link (here) to the full article at MyPlainView.com
Unfortunately the story doesn't end here, go (here) and scroll down till you reach Father Powell's name.

Jesuit Priest Daniel Berrigan Traveled To Hanoi During The Vietnam War With Notorius Communist Howard Zinn

Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. (far left) and Howard Zinn (overcoat)

Howard Zinn was the quintessential scholar activist at the time of his death at age eighty-seven in Santa Monica, California on January 27, 2010.  He had been the target of a quarter-century long FBI surveillance operation.  Just four years after his return from World War II in 1945, the FBI opened its investigatory file on Dr. Zinn (hereafter referred to as the Zinn Files).  The 423-page report monitored his activities as special agents and unscrupulous informants throughout the country recorded his growing influence in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements.  His residences, phone numbers, attendance at meetings and numerous public utterances were recorded and filed.  His spouse, Roslyn Zinn, also came under FBI scrutiny. The Zinn Files were declassified and released on July 30, 2010.  Reflecting embryonic McCarthyism before Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s Wheeling address,  (entitled "Enemies from Within") it established early on a “Communist Party: Counterintelligence Program” dossier.  The FBI repeatedly accused Howard Zinn of being a Communist Party member from 1949-1953.  Special Agent Edward Scheidt requested on March 9, 1949 that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover investigate the “communist” Howard Zinn.........

He journeyed with Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan, later of Catonsville IX glory, on a rescue mission to Hanoi in February 1968.  They secured the first release of American prisoners of war who were shot down over North Vietnam.  

They were Air Force Major Norris Miller Overly, Air Force Captain John David Black and Navy Ensign David Paul Matheny (Howard Zinn On War, 49-51; Zinn Files memorandum to Hoover, February 16, 1968). This peace mission was coterminous with the epic Tet offensive that presaged the withdrawal and defeat of U.S. forces in 1973. 

Link (here) The People's Historian and the FBI Zinn Files by Peter N. Kirstein is professor of history at St. Xavier University.
Link (here) to Peter K. Kirstein's follow up post listing his disagreements with me. 

The Alamo Was Built By The Jesuits

At San Antonio, where I spent some time, there is much of interest. The first thing shown a stranger is the Alamo, which is an old ruin, built in 1718 by the Jesuit missionaries for converting and civilizing the Indians and used as a stronghold by the Texans in the siege of 1836 against the Mexicans. David Crockett, Daniel Boone, Robert Evans and William Travis, with 144 men, held the fort for ten days and nights against Santa Anna with 4,000 picked soldiers from the Mexican army, who at last scaled the walls and butchered the starving besieged.

Link (here) to read the travelogue.  
Painting entitled, "Dawn at the Alamo" 

A Final Raid To Annihilate The Missions

There were now but six missions standing, the rest having been utterly destroyed with fire and sword, and nothing left except a few fugitives in the woods. Father Silveyra, who had 7,000 Indians at San Xavier before the last "maloca," saved 500 of his flock ; Father Juan Suarez de Toledo 400 from the survivors of San Jose, and with these two groups a new mission was established near Loretto. At that moment the Cacique Tayoba brought information to the Jesuits that the Pomberos or "pigeon trappers" (here) were preparing a final raid to annihilate the missions, and almost simultaneously Father Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (personally baptized 100,000 Indians) received letters from the superior, Father Francisco Vázquez Trujillo, ordering him in all haste to prepare a flotilla of boats, and remove what remained of the missions to some place of safety, at a distance from the Mamelucos.

It was not without a deep feeling of regret that Father Ruiz de Montoya saw himself compelled to abandon the missions, some of which were in a very prosperous condition. Loretto, now in its -twenty-first year, possessed a stately church, fine schools, valuable herds of cattle, and such extensive cotton-fields that it supplied this product to all the other missions. San Ignacio was hardly inferior in its buildings and agriculture. No sooner was the superior's order known, than Father Montoya set his carpenters and other artisans to work for the accomplishment of the great task before him. He first constructed 700 " balsas," or rafts, each being made of two canoes tied together, with a platform across. The next thing was to get together as large as possible a supply of provisions, besides which the Jesuits saved the sacred vessels of the churches. When all the survivors of the missions were embarked they were found to number 12,000 souls, each raft carrying about twenty persons, except those laden with effects. So convinced were the Jesuits that they should never again return to Loretto and San Ignacio, that they exhumed the bones of Father Martín Javier Urtazu and two other priests, which they took with them in their flight.

Link (here) to read the full account. 
Link (here) to the engraving San Ignacio Mini

A Jesuit Father's Film On A Catholic Polish Resistance Fighter

A film about the Holocaust – produced by a Jesuit priest – finds itself on a possible path to the Academy Awards. The 37-minute documentary is called “The Labyrinth,” and 

tells the story of Marian Kolodziej, a Polish Catholic resistance fighter during World War II who survived more than five years in Auschwitz. 

Three years ago, Kolodziej’s work was discovered by Jesuit Father Ron Schmidt, who came to Auschwitz to produce a documentary on an annual interfaith conference held there.

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Link (here) to the full story at National Jesuit News

A Giant Fireball Which Vaporised Practically Everything, Except 8 Jesuits

August 6 is also an important date in world history: the fateful day on which the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in Japan. On that day, a Monday, at 8.15 in the morning, an American B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, dropped its bomb “Little Boy”, which fell to a predetermined detonation height of about 1,900 feet above the city. It exploded with a blinding flash, creating a giant fireball, which vaporised practically everything and everyone within a radius of about a mile of the point of impact. It is estimated that up to 80,000 people were directly killed by the blast, and by the end of the year, that figure had climbed considerably higher, due to injuries and the effects of radiation. Over two thirds of the city’s buildings were completely destroyed.

But in the midst of this terrible carnage, something quite remarkable happened: there was a small community of Jesuit Fathers living in a presbytery near the parish church, which was situated less than a mile away from detonation point, well within the radius of total devastation. And all eight members of this community escaped virtually unscathed from the effects of the bomb. Their presbytery remained standing, while the buildings all around, virtually as far as the eye could see, were flattened.

Fr Hubert Schiffer, a German Jesuit, was one of these survivors, aged 30 at the time of the explosion, and who lived to the age of 63 in good health. In later years he travelled to speak of his experience, and this is his testimony as recorded in 1976, when all eight of the Jesuits were still alive. On August 6 1945, after saying Mass, he had just sat down to breakfast when there was a bright flash of light. 

Link (here) to the full article at Great Britian's Catholic Herald.

Fr. Vincent Blehl, S.J. On Cardinal Newman

At Oxford he met the worst enemy of Christianity, Gnosticism , who was then a large number of theological views of Protestantism in general and the theologically liberal Anglicanism in particular,

"It is probably this very deep love for an authentic Christianity, which many popes brought to admire Newman. Thus arose the wish Pope Benedict XVI. that Cardinal Newman is a model that is known throughout Christendom ." 

One of the best authorities Newman , the Jesuit Vincent Blehl said, 29 May 1982 Osservatore Romano the conviction that the English Cardinal one of the greatest personalities of the entire Christian world , not just a part of it.

Link (here) to the full German language article.

Jesuit On Same-S@x Marriage

Several years ago I engaged in a friendly debate with a good friend, a Jesuit priest, about the persuasiveness of various arguments against same-sex marriage. 

Our email exchange found its way to other readers, who suggested that it should be made available to the general public. 

So it was that the exchange, reproduced here, was published in the July 2003 issue of Catholic World Report. The essential arguments have not changed. 

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Link (here) to the full article by Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture and read the persuasive arguments by Fr. Paul, a Jesuit. 

Jesuit On Deviant Islamic Sect

Founder of Ahmadiyah sect

Franz Magnis Suseno, a prominent sociologist and political analyst, said religious institutions might have the right to declare the Ahmadiyah sect as deviant, but its members still deserved to live in peace. 

“It’s the government’s utmost responsibility to provide protection to the attacked group,” 

the Jesuit priest said. “The president and his ministers related to this predicament have so far failed to do their job. The president has been very unclear about this situation. He has no bravery.”

Link (here) to Jakarta Globe

“Go back To Day One Of Your Arrival," Says Philippino Jesuit

Theresa "Gang" Badoy

Gravitating to media after college, Gang Badoy landed an ABS-CBN assignment to interview a hundred Filipinos in America for the Philippine Centennial Celebration in ’98. Exciting at first, eighteen interviews with Fil Ams considered successes saw her attention wandering to “ordinary Filipinos" struggling for survival. The network wasn’t interested in such stories. So she quit and lived on odd jobs until a lucky break at WTHR-NBC’s Eyewitness News in Indianapolis. Starting as an intern, she worked her way up to desk editor. That took care of her work visa. In six years she had a condo, a BMW and an Italian fiancé. But still restless, she woke up terrified one morning. “Is this it?" she asked.   

“Go back to Day One of your arrival," advised her long-standing best friend, the young Jesuit priest Joey Fermin. 

Gang returned to the first entry in her travel diary and read: “I’m leaving RP so I can come back braver." 

Link (here) to the full article at the Philippine GMA-NEWS.TV

Administration Is Seeking To Curtail Religous Freedom On Catholic Campuses

The CCU president also warned that regulation could result in “politicization of higher education” as various interests try to press for requirements adopting or repudiating certain curricula, teaching methods and policies.The proposed rules  

“almost guarantee that states will have to cope with noisy arguments over teaching methods, degree requirements and culture wars over textbooks, evolution versus Intelligent Design, phonics versus whole language, campus ROTC, climate change, family policy, abortion, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.,” he warned. 

While institutions already face such controversies, Armstrong acknowledged, the proposed rules weaken the “crucial” presumption in favor of each institution’s academic freedom and autonomy. Substantive regulation, in his view, adds an “explicitly political step” Armstrong asked for an extension of the comment time by 60 or 90 days to allow further study and response of the regulations. In a Tuesday phone interview, CNA spoke about the proposed rules with Cynthia Littlefield, director of federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU). She explained that the AJCU defends the interests of Jesuit institutions “to preserve the uniqueness of our mission and academic integrity and the way we operate it.” Commenting on the new Department of Education proposal, Littlefield said, “as innocent as they may appear,” they merit consideration because of their possible impact.

Link (here) to the full CNA

Link (here) to Fr. James Schall. S.J. article on the President's controversial "Blanked out IHS" speech at Georgetown.

An Ignatian Retreat

Ignatius House, a retreat center located on the Chattahoochee River in Sandy Springs, will offer a special retreat for young adults in their 20s and 30s this weekend, Aug. 6-8. Focused on the theme of “What next?’ the weekend retreat offers each person an opportunity to face his or her transitions and find answers through faith.“The young adult years are full of decisions, transitions and new beginnings that can seem daunting and insolating. It’s easy to forget that we each have a unique purpose, a calling to be connected with something more,” said Fr. Albert Louapre, SJ of Ignatius House. “’This special weekend retreat is a wonderful and welcome break for any young adult, no matter his or her background or faith.” 

Link (here)

G-Men And Sailors Meet At Fordham

During World War II, the United States Navy’s 10th Fleet helped coordinate the hunt for German submarines that had been threatening ships in the Atlantic Ocean. On Aug. 4, Capt. Daryl R. Hancock told security experts gathered at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus that the fleet, which was reactivated last January as “Fleet Cyber Command,” will play a similar role in protecting the nation’s online security.  

“The ocean, just like cyberspace, can be used for peaceful purposes. Industry uses it for trade, for instance. But there are also pirates out on the ocean, and the same thing is true on the Internet,” Hancock said. “So we’ve got to be able to defend our networks in cyberspace.” 

Hancock spoke at the end of the second day of the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS), a four-day event co-sponsored by the FBI.

Link (here) to the Fordham press release.

Jesuit Set To Publish Book On The Life Of Jesus By Pope Benedict XVI

The English version of Pope Benedict XVI’s second volume of “Jesus of Nazareth” is scheduled for release in spring 2011, according to his publisher, Ignatius Press. The second volume of “Jesus of Nazareth” takes up where the first volume left off  and is expected to address controversial questions such as: Who was responsible for Jesus’ death? Did Jesus establish the Church to carry on his work? 

How did he view his suffering and death? How should we? And, most importantly, did Jesus really rise from the dead? “We are eagerly awaiting Volume II because it will contain the Holy Father’s reflections on the central mysteries of our faith: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection,” says Ignatius Press Founder and Editor, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio. 

Father Fessio is a former student of Pope Benedict.

Link (here) to read the post at the Orlando Sentinel.

There Are 230 Jesuits Living In The Oregon Province

Twenty members of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province will celebrate jubilees as ordained priests or as Jesuits at a Mass, Saturday, Aug. 14, at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Those marking 60 years as Jesuits include Father Jack Morris, a former Jesuit Volunteer Corps director, African missionary and western Oregon parish priest. He is now doing some writing from his residence at the Jesuit community in Southeast Portland. With 25 years as a Jesuit is Father J.K. Adams, English teacher at Jesuit High School in Portland and superior of its Jesuit community. Every year Oregon Province Jesuits gather in summer for ordinations to the priesthood, to honor jubilarians and celebrate first vows, and for discussion and fellowship.There are 230 Jesuits living in the Oregon Province which is comprised of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. 

Link (here) to the Catholic Sentinel

Active On The Board Of The Jesuit Refugee Service

Stephen D. Cashin,

Mr. Cashin is founder and CEO of Pan African Capital Group, LLC, managing pools of capital for investment in the African markets and providing advice to US and African corporations as well as individual investors in African markets and companies. Investments target the financial services, technology, and manufacturing fields with target investment size between one and five million dollars. Mr. Cashin was founder and Managing Director of Modern Africa Fund Managers, LLC in Washington DC, prior to which he opened the Equator Bank office in Nairobi, Kenya where he managed relationships throughout East Africa. Mr. Cashin serves on the boards of Databank in Ghana, the Investment Bank of Liberia, and Discoverytel. 

In addition, he is active on the boards of non-profit organizations focusing on Africa such as Africare, the African Wildlife Foundation, and the Jesuit Refugee service.  

Mr. Cashin is also an active member of the Corporate Council on Africa. Mr. Cashin began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1979 in Tanzania. He graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and has his MBA from Boston College.

Link (here) 

Pipp Jesuit

Wally Pipp

The Rev. Tom Pipp, S.J. doesn't have a phobia about taking vacations, although it would be understandable if he did. After all, his grandfather was Wally Pipp, the first baseman for the New York Yankees who took the day off on June 2, 1925, and never got his job back. His fill-in, a youngster named Lou Gehrig, went on to play 2,130 consecutive games, and Wally Pipp went on to become the answer to a trivia question and be turned into a phrase -- "to be Pipped" -- that's still common today. 

Pipp, who recently arrived in St. Paul to set up a regional novitiate for Jesuit priests, said his grandfather never took any of it personally. "There was not even the slightest indication of bitterness," he said. The elder Pipp certainly had plenty of reason to feel bitter. 

He was a star in his own right during the 11 years he played in New York. He was the first Yankee to win the American League home-run title, doing so in back-to-back years, 1916 and 1917, and earning the nickname "Walloping Wallie."

Link (here) to the full article at The Star-Tribune

Bank In Malta Was Founded By A Jesuit

APS Bank was set up in 1910 as the Cassa di Risparmio dell’ Appostolato della Preghiera by a 

small group of people led by Jesuit Fr Michael Vella. Right from the start its main aim was to assist workers to save, and throughout its long history this objective has remained unchanged. 

Over time the bank kept itself up to date and attractive to the market without losing sight of the requirements and well being of the local community.

Link (here) 

Women In Hijabs

Thursday’s rally began in Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn with about 30 people. But the crowd grew quickly as local groups like Vamos Unidos from the Bronx, and DRUM, a Southeast Asian group based in Jackson Heights, Queens, gathered their ranks and found additional support among grandmothers dressed in skirts and sneakers, church groups, women in hijabs, and a former Arizona border patrol agent. Many carried signs, including one that read, “Ningun ser humano es ilegal.” (No human is illegal.) Few found comfort in the preliminary injunction that was issued on behalf of the Obama administration, which challenged Arizona’s law.  

“Everyone understands that’s just a temporary measure,” said the Rev. Mark Hallinan of the Society of Jesus. As he tried to explain the need for a better system to regulate the flow of workers into the country, the crowd around him seemed to emphasize his point. 

They carried signs reading: “La lucha sigue! Sigue!” (The fight continues!)
Link (here) to the New York Times blog.
Photo of the Brooklyn War Memorial at Cadman Plaza

Irish Jesuit Interviewed On Vatican Radio

St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. The youngest son of a Basque nobleman, Ignatius was born in 1491 and served as a soldier before he underwent a dramatic conversion experience after being wounded in the leg by a cannonball. 

His meditations, prayers and visions eventually led him to the decision to form the Society of Jesus along with several companions. 

We spoke to Father Brian Grogan, an Irish Jesuit priest and professor who works and writes on Ignatian spirituality. He spoke to us about how the Spirituality of Saint Ignatius is useful especially for laypeople.

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Link (here) to read the original piece at the Vatican Radio and listen to the interview with Fr. Brian Grogan, S.J.