Cardinal Archbishop of Mexico City, Norberto Rivera Carrera, "Affront To Christian Values"

Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera

According to an open letter published on May 25 by the Jesuit provincial superiors (see English translation following article), the Miguel Agustín Pro Juarez Center for Human Rights (PRODH), is “a constant engagement in favor of the right to life of all” which “merits our support.”  The letter also claims that the PRODH’s center’s then-director,  

“is a religious with an excellent reputation with the Church” whose “expertise is recognized in the Church in Mexico.” The superiors add that Fr. Arriaga “acts in conformity with the directives which are given to him by his Jesuit superiors.”  

However, the Cardinal Archbishop of Mexico City, Norberto Rivera Carrera, had already expressed a very different view of the organization, in a letter to the Canadian bishops which was published following the Jesuit communique.  PRODH

“does NOT represent the sentiments of the Church and has been characterized by its support and encouragement of groups and activities that are an affront to Christian values,” the Cardinal wrote, 

according to a translation of part of his letter published by the Toronto Catholic Register. “With respect to the theme of defence of life, the organization has supported pro-abortion groups and promoted the purported woman’s right over her body, against unborn life,” the Cardinal added. When LifeSiteNews asked the Jesuit superior of Francophone Canada, Jean-Marc Biron, to discuss the proof gathered by this news agency of PRODH’s pro-abortion activities, Brion’s press secretary responded by saying that “we are not going to grant you an interview either on or off the record."

Link (here) to read the full article at Lifesite

Bellarmine On The Virtue Of Patience

"that virtues like patience is not only one of the greatest virtues but is positively the most necessary for us. True patience has the property of increasing and preserving all other virtues. 

On account of the difficulties we meet with in the practice of virtue, none can flourish without patience, 

but when other virtues are accompanied by this one, all difficulties vanish, for patience renders crooked paths straight and rough paths smooth." 

Link (here) to read this quote and more about the Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.

Colombiere On Confidence In God

Men may deprive me of worldly goods and of honors; sickness may take from me my strength and the means of serving Thee; I may even lose Thy grace by sin: but my trust shall never leave me; I will preserve it to the last moment of my life, and the powers of hell shall seek in vain to wrest it from me. "In peace in the self -same I will sleep and I will rest." 

Link (here) to the full text of the prayer by Saint Claude de la Colombiere, S.J.

"I Don't Go To Church No More,"

St. Ignatius Mission Church in St. Ignatius, Montana

"It took me 40 years to separate the Catholic religion and belief in God," said Garry "Bob" Salois, who despite his palpable anger took off his cap when he entered St. Ignatius church. "I believe there's got to be a creator of all things. But if Jesus Christ and his bunch are a true religion, he's forsaken me a long time ago." Leland "Jimi" Hewankorn has worked to reclaim his tribal heritage, turning to traditional ways. "I don't go to church no more," he said. "I confess to Him only. I don't confess to a human being."

The men said they're waiting for something more valuable than money. "I got over being angry," Burke said. "But I want an apology. Not for myself, but the whole Indian race." Salois hopes the Rev. Patrick Lee, the leader of the Oregon Province, comes to St. Ignatius to apologize in person - although at the thought, his anger flashed anew. "I'd tell him, I don't accept your apologies. It's too damn late," he said. 

But a moment later, he added, "I'd go and see what kind of apology he gives. If it's a real one, I'll accept it. But if it's one of their old phonies, I'll spit in his face and go away." And Hewankorn wants to ask the old, unanswerable question. "Why? Why did you do that to us?"

Link (here) to the full Missoulian article.

A Prelude To WWII

The Moscow corespondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says that although, "Isvestia" accuses Church leaders of trying to sabotage the Soviet general election, it is difficult to understand how they could influence the elections at all, except by persuading people not to vote, since, broadly speaking, all candidates will run unopposed. 

Since the arrests of the archbishops and bishops charged with treason against the state, Joseph Stalin's campaign against the Church is being intensified. It is alleged that emissaries sent from Rome by The Society of Jesus to organize secret Jesuit groups to spy on and murder Soviet leaders.

The Bishop of Smolensk is been accused of administering strychnine to local party leaders. 

Link (here) to read the original article in the November 25, 1937 edition of the Sidney Morning Herald

A French Jesuit In The Middle Of The Sino-Japanese War

Baby during the invasion of Shanghai

A hundred thousand Chinese refugees are huddled in the narrow safety zone at Shanghai in charge of a Jesuit priest, Father Jacquinot (Fr. Robert Jacquinot de Besange, S.J.). They are in a dreadful plight, while hoards of hungry, wounded and smoke-blacked refugees clamor at the iron-barred gates for admission, and plead for bread and water.
 Link (here) to read the full article at The Age, published Nov 17th 1937. Link (here) to a book about Fr. Jacquinot entitled, "The Jacquinot Safe Zone"

Jesuit On Communists, Socialists, Moaists And Social Activists

Mamata Banerjee

The defeat of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in the last elections was "a clear verdict against oppression and underdevelopment for the past 34 years," said Fr. Irudaya Jothi, SJ, director of the Udayani Social Action Forum in Calcutta. "Now, we are waiting to see what the new government will do." On 13 May the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee, Minister of Railways, beat the Communist Party that had ruled the country since 1977. The result of great historical significance has created high expectations among the people, especially among the poor. "In 34 years, the Marxist government was able to avoid too many people dying of hunger and ignored the problems, to safeguard their interests," said the Jesuit. Everything was controlled by party cadres, from family problems to the government projects: "Social workers and activists were blocked and even branded Maoists." "The so called grassroots movement, with socialist ideology, lost everything about socialism and lost touch with people." This, for the priest, has paved the way for the "tsunami called Mamata."

Link (here) to  Speroforum to read the full article.

A New Chancellor For Santa Clara University.

Fr. William Rewak, S.J.

A priest blocked by the Vatican from becoming president of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley in 1997 over doctrinal concerns has been named chancellor of Santa Clara University.  

The Jesuit-run university announced in an April 26 news release that Fr. William Rewak, S.J., a previous president at SCU, had been named chancellor by university president Fr. Michael E. Engh, S.J.  In 1997, Fr. Rewak had been tapped as president of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, 

but the Holy See blocked his appointment, citing writings by Fr. Rewak that had appeared in SCU publications in the 1970s and 1980s on dissent from Church teaching, women’s ordination and clerical celibacy, among others. 

Link (here) to the full article at California Catholic Daily 

Fr. Edward Glynn, provincial superior for the Society of Jesus in Maryland, was barred from becoming president of the Jesuit-owned Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass, despite strong support from the school's faculty and boards. Other Jesuits barred in recent years from serving as administrators or members of pontifical faculties at Weston or Berkeley were Frs. Michael Buckley and David Hollenbach, both former theological advisers to U.S. bishops, and Fr. John Baldovin, a professor at Berkeley. 

Link (here)

Nunerical Irish Jesuit

Fr. Micheál Mac Gréil, sj

The report, Pluralism and Diversity in Ireland, compiled by Father Micheál Mac Gréil, a Jesuit priest and sociologist, revealed that antisemitic sentiment was strongest in the 18 to 25 age range, with 46 per cent of the population claiming that they would not be willing to accept a Jewish person into their family. The figure was higher than the "all ages" category, in which 40 per cent of Irish people said they would not want a Jew in their family. Only 48 per cent would accept an Israeli. Collectively, Israelis had one of the lowest "favourable" ratings among Irish people, ranking 44th out of 51 categories including homosexuals, alcoholics and
travellers. 

Link (here) to read the full article at the Jewish Chronicle

Political Figure

In some Vatican circles Bishop Oscar Romero is seen, unfairly I believe, as an overly "political" figure. But that is an odd charge given the life of our most recently beatified cleric: Blessed John Paul II supported the Solidarity movement in Poland, worked with world powers to end the cold war and regularly conferred with political leaders.  Still, the delay continues. In 2006, en route to Latin America, Pope Benedict told reporters, "Romero as a person merits beatification." But Vatican officials later removed that phrase from the official transcript, retaining only the pope's praise of the slain prelate as a "great witness to the faith." The haste to beatify John Paul II was deemed by the journalist Michael Walsh in The Tablet of London, "unseemly." Unseemly to me is the slowness of the beatification of Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Santo immediatamente!

Link (here) to the full post by Fr. James Martin, S.J. at the left-wing Huffington Post

Marxist Priest Visits Jesuit Universities

In 1983, Ernesto Cardenal became an international cause celebre when Pope John Paul II publicly admonished him during a visit to Managua. The photograph of the moment is unsettling. There is Cardenal, even then snowy-bearded, kneeling before the pope on the tarmac of the Managua airport. But rather than bestow blessings, the pope wags his finger at Cardenal, a rare gesture of condemnation. 

Cardenal’s defiance prompted a Vatican ban on him administering the sacraments, which he has made no attempt to overturn.  Cardenal’s appearances in the United States to promote his latest work were greeted with hostility among some conservative Catholics. 

Thousands of protest letters spurred by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, known by the acronym TFP, were sent to officials at Xavier University in Ohio and Loyola. “Inviting Fr. Cardenal to speak at a Catholic university is like welcoming a wolf into a hen house,” John Ritchie, TFP’s student action director, wrote in an e-mail. “It’s a scandal that Xavier University and Loyola University (Maryland) hosted this man. His radical Marxist views are not only flawed, but also detrimental to the faith and incompatible with the teaching of the Church.”

Link (here) to the full Washington Post article

Jesuit On The New Missal

To help Jesuits throughout the U.S. to prepare for the new translation of the Roman Missal, Jesuit Father John Baldovin, Professor of Historical & Liturgical Theology at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, was asked to give a presentation explaining the historical background of the Roman Missal, with a brief overview of the changes in this translation along with some ideas for faithful ministers of the church to engage this new translation responsibly and use it as well as possible.

His video presentation, The New Roman Missal: Challenge & Opportunity, appears (here) at Jesuit.org.

Controversial Jesuit Removed From PRODH In Mexico

Fr. Luis Arriga Valenzuela, S.J.

.....the provincial leaders of the Jesuit order in Canada and Mexico issued a statement defending Arriaga and PRODH on Wednesday of last week, Arriaga’s exit was announced only two days later on the PRODH website. “Luis Arriaga Valenzuela ends his term as director of the PRODH Center,” the site’s headline reads in Spanish, and added that the “new leader” is to be Jesuit priest José Rosario Marroquín Farrera. No mention was made of Arriaga’s next destination.  In the transition ceremony, Fr. Arriaga gave a speech defending his administration of PRODH, and openly endorsed his organization’s ongoing association with the pro-abortion All Rights for Everyone Network (Red Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos) which is also listed by "D&P" as one of its grant recipients. The network is openly pro-abortion, and includes as one of its members the group “Catholics for the Right to Decide.” Arriaga also revealed during the speech that PRODH has been a member of the coordinating committee of the organization for the past year. Fr. Arriaga’s exit marks the end of a 22 year career with PRODH. Since Arriaga rose to the leadership position of the organization in 2007, PRODH signed multiple pro-abortion “human rights” declarations, urging the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico in accordance with Mexico City’s abortion-on-demand law, which permits and even finances abortions for any reason during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. 

Link (here) to read the full article at Lifesite.

The Cathedral Of Notre Dame Was Bathed In Sunset.

When I first visited it, the Cathedral of Notre Dame was bathed in sunset. It was the festival of St. Michel during the summer of 1978, and symphony orchestras played under massive tents throughout the plazas of Paris. A Jesuit friend, Joe Devlin (Fr. Joseph Devlin, S.J.), and I walked through the city dumbstruck. The cathedral doors were open; organ music beckoned and Mass was about to begin. It was one of those miracles that thrill the faithful, when a concatenation of unexpected events makes one realize, “God is here.” The statue of Notre Dame de Paris shone serene. We sat opposite her in the north pseudotransept (near where Napoleon was crowned emperor), across from the south rose window, which, bathed by the sun, glowed in ruby, sapphire, amber and ultramarine colors. The two priests began the liturgy, a dark-haired junior and a white-maned senior celebrant. The younger priest welcomed the congregation in French, English, Italian and German. We were about to pray in the center of the European Catholic universe.

Link (here) to read the full article by Fr. Dennis McNally, S.J. at America the Jesuits magazine.

The Jesuits Sacred Heart Of Jesus Church In Havana Cuba

In 1907 the idea was born that the Jesuit fathers in Havana should have Sacred Heart of Jesus dedicated entirely to the exercise of their ministries. This aim emerged under the rectorship of P. Vicente Leza, at the old Belen High School, back when the principal duty of the school’s priests was to see to classes and the functioning of that educational center. The first stone was laid on August 7, 1914, and the building was inaugurated on May 3, 1923 after being solemnly consecrated the day before by Bishop Monsignor Pedro Gonzalez Estrada. The church and the residential annex were constructed in the Gothic style, whose idea and execution was led by H. Luis Gogorza, S.J. The altar, which is a true artistic marvel, was designed and constructed in Madrid by the Father Granda.

Link (here) to read the Havana Times there are plenty of great pictures at this link.

Jesuit’s ‘Centre Justice Et Foi’ Invites Gregory Baum To Speak

Gregory Baum

The Archdiocese of Montreal is currently advertising a fundraiser for a Jesuit think-tank that features a keynote address by one of Canada’s leading advocates for dissent against Church teaching. The ad is for a benefit evening on Monday, May 30th to support the work of the Jesuit’s ‘Centre justice et foi’ (Justice and Faith Centre), which distinguished itself in May 2010 by denouncing Cardinal Marc Ouellet after he proclaimed the Church’s respect for the life of the unborn even when they are conceived in rape. The event, which is meant to honour the Centre’s late founding director Fr. Julien Harvey, will feature a keynote address by Gregory Baum, who’s infamous for his long opposition to the Catholic Church on issues such as contraception, hOmosexuality and priestly celibacy. Baum, a former priest who married a divorced former nun without having sought laicization, is particularly notorious for helping rally opposition to Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, which reiterated the Church’s condemnation of contraception.  But since then, he was a prominent activist for same-s@x “marriage,” and was co-founder of the liberal Catholic New Times, which sought to undermine Catholic teaching from its inception in 1976.

Link (here) to Lifesite.

Leander Lee James On Jesuit Reverse Evangalization

Leander Lee James

"I'm just a little attorney in a small town. I had no idea I'd be swept into a case of this magnitude." James no longer considers himself Catholic – a change he says was already underway, but which the Jesuit case solidified. He says he still has faith though. To James, one of the most troubling parts of the case is that many of his clients – don't. 

"I have clients time and again tell me the same thing in the exact same words. 'I can't have faith anymore. I can't believe anymore.; And it's because they were taught this sense of belief in this man. And then he violates them. It eviscerates that belief, so they can't believe anymore. It's profoundly sad." 

James says he'll probably use some of the fees he'll get from the settlement to fix up his house – maybe repair some of the deer fences he's neglected. He also got a call not too long ago from the alumni office of Santa Clara University, his Jesuit alma mater. James says he'll probably give them a little money too.

Link (here) to KOUW to read the full story.

Former Jesuit Ken Ireland

..........the freedoms felt after John XXIII’s aggornamento were leading to all kinds of experimentation. 

Link (here) to read his post at his blog entitled Buddha, S.J.

Blogger Note: This post link is a little disturbing

Marquette University Professor Say Archbishop Betrays Church Teaching

Former Priest Dan Maguire

......in 2006, Archbishop Dolan (then of Milwaukee) corrected Dan Maguire for claiming that Catholics could support abortion and marriage between couples of the same sex. Maguire had sent two pamphlets titled The Moderate Roman Catholic Position on Contraception and Abortion and A Catholic Defense of Same-Sex Marriage to all 270 bishops in the United States. The USCCB agreed with Archbishop Dolan and corrected Maguire in 2007. [Note that I said "corrected." He was not excommunicated.] So how does Maguire react to the constructive dialogue between House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and Archbishop Timothy Dolan on how to help the poor while also addressing our debt crisis? Well. He claims that Archbishop Dolan ‘betrays Church teaching.’ Yes, I know. This seems rather awkward coming from the same theologian who has called on Pope Benedict XVI to resign last year. You see, Maguire thinks Dolan’s letter suffers from an ”outrage deficit.” The dissident theologian thinks Chairman Ryan should have received a letter full of anger and scorn from Archbishop Dolan.

Link (here) to Catholic Vote

My Name Is Louis

Hello everyone, My name is Louis Contaldi, I come from from Parsippany, NJ, currently a sophomore studying at the Jesuit Institution Loyola University of Maryland. I am a devout Catholic, I am personally against abortions, and am a Political Science/Philosophy double major. This video is in response to “Planned Parenthood Cheats Taxpayers with Imaginary Mammograms”.

Link (here)

Hell Files: Fr. Donald McGuire, S.J.

"If I had to make a Top Five list [of predator priests], Donald McGuire would be number one," Patrick Wall, a former Benedictine monk who performs investigations on behalf of abuse victims suing the Catholic Church. "He truly is the Hannibal Lecter of the clerical world. He did more psychological and physical damage to children than anyone else. And what makes it worse is that the Jesuits knew about it, and did nothing."  On Feb. 11, 2009, McGuire — an ailing 78-year-old who had already been stripped of priestly office — was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer. He had been tried and convicted in the Northern District of Illinois for transporting an adolescent boy across state lines in 2000 for the purpose of sexually abusing him  "I want any such person to know the system of justice and this judge personally finds it absolutely abhorrent," Pallmeyer said. McGuire is serving his sentence at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., and the Jesuits are facing a lawsuit from multiple victims, spread across the country, who claim the order's negligence enabled his crimes.

Link (here) to the San Francisco Weekly with a lengthy article. 
The term "Hell Files" comes from (here)

Richard Ho Lung Left The Jesuit Order And Moved Into The Slums And Ghettos Of Kingston,

What he had experienced changed everything – the poverty and want, violence and suffering on Jamaica moved Richard Ho Lung deeply. In 1981 this Jesuit priest and university professor resigned his post and his title. He had studied philosophy, English literature and theology and had taught at St. George’s College in the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica and at the Boston College in the United States. Born in Jamaica, he had been ordained to the priesthood in 1971. "I was preaching the Word of God but not living it", recalls Father Richard Ho Lung, during a visit to the headquarters of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Richard Ho Lung left the Jesuit Order and moved into the slums and ghettos of Kingston, the Jamaican capital. "I got to know the life of the poor and saw the Beatitudes of Jesus as my mission", recalls the now 72-year-old whose grandfather originally came from China. At first the people he met were surprised and astonished by him but very soon this priest, who devoted himself to the poor, elderly and sick, became highly regarded. Others were quickly drawn by his example and joined him. A small community of four men, both priests and laity, came into being. They called themselves the Brothers of the Poor, since they were accepted as brothers by the poor.

Link (here) to read the full article at Aid to the Church in Need

I Declare That The Church Has No Authority Whatsoever To Confer Priestly Ordination On Women

“No doctrine is understood as defined infallibly unless this is manifestly evident,” says Canon 749.3 of the church’s Code of Canon Law. Jesuit Fr. Ladislas Orsy, professor of law at Georgetown University here, cited that canon almost immediately when NCR asked him if Pope John Paul II’s 1994 teaching in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis “that the church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the church’s faithful” is infallible. Orsy, a leading canonist well-known for his theological expertise, acknowledged, however, that the question of which church doctrines are taught infallibly is “extremely complex.” Another leading Jesuit theologian, Fr. Francis Sullivan, said he thinks recent events have made it clear that the church is now presenting as infallible the teaching against women priests.

Link (here) to the ultra-leftist National Catholic Reporter.

Jesuit Sworn In As House Chaplian

Oregon's Father Patrick Conroy was sworn in Wednesday as House chaplain, making the 60-year-old priest the first Jesuit to hold the position and also the first candidate who needed to navigate around the Catholic church's recent history. "It’s clear this loyal servant of the faithful is uniquely suited to serve as chaplain of the people’s House," Speaker John Boehner said, noting that the chaplain "is the anchor of the House." "Leader Pelosi and I have gotten a chance to know Father Pat, and we’re honored that he has accepted our invitation to serve as chaplain," Boehner said. "We are blessed to have his guidance and his wisdom as we discharge our duties and fulfill our obligations to current and future generations of Americans.  Please join me in welcoming and congratulating the 60th chaplain of the House of Representatives, Father Pat Conroy.”

Link (here) to Oregon Live to read the full story.