In August 1949

Go (here) to read the full account of the exorcism by an unnamed Jesuit of a 14 year old Lutheran boy.

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.

Fairfields Muslim Chaplian

In ( Heba Youssef ) my few weeks here, I have been able to work with students and faculty, many who had questions about Islam. Despite some of the negative media portrayals surrounding Islam recently, I’ve noticed that people are still genuinely interested in learning about Islam from the proper resources. I have had a great experience here at Fairfield so far. I feel comfortable on campus and have been able to pray in the campus center without any problems at all. Everyone has just been so welcoming, I feel so very blessed. Alhamdulillah (Praise God). To learn more about the Muslim Student Association at Fairfield University, please visit Msafairfield.blogspot.com. Youssef is available every Wednesday in the lower level of Campus Ministry. She will later move to Bellarmine Hall, next to the Interfaith Prayer Room.
Link (here) to read the full article.

Link (here) to the controversial Muslim Student Union member at another institution with David Horowitz

Gifts Recieved

"It seems to me, in light of the divine Goodness, though others may think differently, that ingratitude is one of the things most worthy of detestation before our Creator and Lord, and before all creatures capable of his divine and everlasting glory, out of all the evils and sins which can be imagined. For it is a failure to recognize the good things, the graces, the gifts received. As such, it is the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins. On the contrary, recognition and gratitude for the good things and gifts received is greatly loved and esteemed both in heaven and on earth."

-St. Ignatius in a letter to Simon Rodrigues, March of 1542. 

 

Link (here) to read the full post at, Give Me Your Son, by blogger seminarian Patrick Dunn

BC Rubber

Enterprising undergraduates at Boston College, having learned from their elders that compassion is measured in latex, are distributing condoms to their fellow students. One of the leaders in this initiative, writing in the campus newspaper, The Heights, expresses dismay that some people see the condom giveaway as an affront to the character of the Catholic school.

Link (here) to read Diogenes full and frank commentary

The Party Of Food Stamps

"As a U.S. senator, Sen. Vitter knows that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for any federal benefit program -- welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Social Security," said Sue Weishar of the Jesuit Society Research Institute at Loyola University.

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Link (here) to Business Week

Formerly On The Track To The Jesuit Priesthood

Rep. Joseph Cao says that his greatest challenge in Congress came during the healthcare reform debate. As a moderate Republican, he was courted vigorously from both sides: conservatives and progressives from all across the country flooded his office with calls to encourage him to vote this way or that way.

Formerly on the track to the Jesuit priesthood and a devoutly religious man, Cao prayed constantly for guidance. The process leading to his votes included a grueling schedule of fourteen constituent town hall events.  

“That’s the nature of this job. It’s a pressure cooker. It was to be anticipated,” he shrugs. In the end, Cao was the only Republican to support the original House version of the healthcare reform bill, although he later rejected the final Senate version of the bill. Interestingly, his decision to vote against the president’s final healthcare reform bill came in the Oval Office with President Obama himself, whom he considers a friend. “He said that he didn’t want me to vote against my conscience, that we have to live with ourselves. And that if we were to vote against our conscience, there would be nothing left to defend,” Cao recalls.

Link (here) to read the full piece at  Frum Forum

"Deceive The Eye"

..........space artificially expands thanks to an 18th-century trompe l'oeil mural using a European treatment of perspective introduced by Jesuit missionaries.
Link (here) to the Wall Street Journal

American Jesuit's Process Of Canonization Continues

Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J.

Born on Nov. 4, 1904, Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J. entered the seminary and became the first American Byzantine Rite Jesuit priest in order to do missionary work in the former Soviet Union. Shortly after entering the Soviet Union from Poland under an assumed name in 1940, he was captured and accused of being a spy. 

After spending five years in the infamous Lubianka Gulag in Moscow, he was sent to Siberia for a time in hard labor. Throughout the ordeal, however, he continued to celebrate Mass and hear confessions of the faithful at considerable personal risk. Overall, he spent 23 years in the Soviet Union. 

When he was finally released in 1963 in a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Soviet Union, he returned to his native parish, St. Casimir's in Shenandoah, to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving. Ciszek spent the last 21 years of his life working with the American family, clergy and religious communities through counseling and retreat work. 

He wrote two books, "With God in Russia" and "He Leadeth Me," with co-author Rev. Daniel Flaherty, S.J. He died on Dec. 8, 1984, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and is buried at the Jesuit Novitiate in Wernersville. 

It was announced after the Mass that the prayer league, based adjacent to St. Casimir Church at 231 N. Jardin St., was donating $5,000 to help the Diocese of Allentown defray the expenses associated with the promotion of the cause of canonization.

Link (here) to the full in depth article at The Republican Herald.

Fr. Gerald Walling, S.J. On Becoming A Jesuit

Fr. Gerald Walling, S.J. in the"Blues Brothers" movie

I entered the Jesuits because God extended my life and gave me two big pushes. I had served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from January 1948 to January 1950 when my enlistment expired. My father urged me to reenlist but an inner voice told me not to. 

Five months later the Korean War broke out and my infantry battalion was sent to North Korea in the Allied push to the Yalu River. In October the battalion encountered the Chinese pouring across the Yalu. The fighting, at 25 below, was desperate. I wouldn't have survived. 

That same October back in Chicago I met a young woman whose charm, intelligence and spirituality overwhelmed me; I had never met anyone like her. But on a date in February, 1951, she stunned me by saying she was going to become a nun.

How could she take all that talent and vivacity, and pour it into a life of service of others? God showed me it was love. I began to think, if she'll give her life, why can't I? Since God had saved my life, why shouldn't I? 

The next month when Dr. Tom Kennedy, director of Psychological Services at Loyola University, asked me what I was going to do after graduating from Loyola that June, I said I was thinking about becoming a priest. What kind, he asked. "I guess diocesan." "How you ever thought about the Jesuits?" "Sure, but I don't think I have what it takes." "Yes, you do; I'll get you an appointment to see [Jesuit] Fr. Henderson next Tuesday."

Link (here) to read the full article.

More on Fr. Gerald Walling, S.J. (here) and (here)
Father Walling is professionally trained actor, click on the links provided to learn more about his acting career.

Jesuit In India And Mortal Sin

A Jesuit priest has sought anticipatory bail after police in Tamil Nadu registered a r@pe case against him. On Oct. 12, a former nun accused Father Rathinam Rajarathinam, principal of Jesuit-managed St. Joseph’s College in Trichy of r@ping her. She filed a complaint in the All Women Police Station that specializes in crimes against women. According to her case, the priest raped her in 2006 and in 2008 and continuously threatened her not to tell anyone. Father Rajarathinam, who belongs to the Jesuit Madurai province, has since resigned from his post.

Link (here) to read the details of the cases in the lengthy article.

Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. "I Like The Pope!"

Fr. Thomas J. Reese, S.J.

Lucia Annunziata, formerly President of RAI itself, interviewed US Jesuit Fr Thomas J. Reese. She introduced him as a priest who had resigned as Editor-in-chief of America Magazine when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope. Benedict XVI canonized six new saints: two Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole, a Canadian and an Australian to whom he entrusted the Synod for the Middle East. Annunziata, who had recently interviewed rebel theologian Hans Kung, introduced her guest as "hugely important”, “high calibre” and “immensely prestigious". She clearly expected Fr Reese to tip the bucket on the Pope. But her plan backfired. Not only did Fr Reese not attack the Pope, but he matter-of-factly validated every one of his doctrinal positions. His criticisms were limited to reflecting that the Holy Father should surround himself with people who are more expert with the media. Flustered, Annunziata broached one issue after another in an increasingly pleading tone: "Surely on this matter you must differ with the Pope?” and “You must be willing to at least admit that not everyone approves of the Pope these days?" Reese smilingly parried every lunge. Finally she played her trump card: "What about the little girl in Brazil who was raped by her stepfather? Do you support even the decision to excommunicate the family who took her to an abortion clinic?" But Reese laughed pleasantly and pointed out: "I'm not an enemy of the Pope. I think he's right on all of the issues you mentioned." And then the mortal blow: "I like the Pope!" 

Link (here) to the full article at Spero News.

The First

Max Voltage, 28, is a classically trained violinist since age 5 and has been coordinating performances since about the same age, recruiting neighborhood kids along with her brother to put on shows for parents and friends. When she was in college, Voltage was the president of the qu@er alliance at a Jesuit university and created the first dr@g show at a Catholic university in the United States. “I had never even been to a dr@g show before, but I rallied my theater friends, put together a boy band and made it happen,” recalls Voltage.

Prayer Of Simplicity

Ordinary prayer and acquired contemplation

First of all, a word as to ordinary prayer, which comprises these four degrees:

1. vocal prayer;
2. meditation, also called methodical prayer, or prayer of reflection, in which may be included meditative reading;
3. affective prayer;
4. prayer of simplicity, or of simple gaze.

Only the last two degrees (also called prayers of the heart) will be considered, as they border on the mystical states.

Mental prayer in which the affective acts are numerous, and which consists much more largely of them than of reflections and reasoning, is called affective. Prayer of simplicity is mental prayer in which, first, reasoning is largely replaced by intuition; second, affections and resolutions, though not absent, are only slightly varied and expressed in a few words. To say that the multiplicity of acts has entirely disappeared would be a harmful exaggeration, for they are only notably diminished. In both of these states, but especially in the second, there is one dominant thought or sentiment which recurs constantly and easily (although with little or no development) amid many other thoughts, beneficial or otherwise. This main thought is not continuous but keeps returning frequently and spontaneously. A like fact may be observed in the natural order. The mother who watches over the cradle of her child thinks lovingly of him and does so without reflection and amid interruptions. These prayers differ from meditation only as greater from lesser and are applied to the same subjects. Nevertheless the prayer of simplicity often has a tendency to simplify itself, even respect to its object. It leads one to think chiefly of God and of His presence, but in a confused manner. This particular state, which is nearer than others to the mystical states, is called the prayer of amorous attention to God. Those who bring the charge of idleness against these different states always have an exaggerated idea of them. The prayer of simplicity is not to meditation what inactive is to action, though it might appear to be at times, but what uniformity is to variety and intuition to reasoning.

A soul is known to be called to one of these degrees when it succeeds therein, and does so with ease, and when it derives profit from it. The call of God becomes even clearer if this soul have first, a persistent attraction to this kind of prayer; second, a want of facility and distaste for meditation. Three rules of conduct for those who show these signs are admitted by all authors:

• When, during prayer, one feels neither a relish nor facility for certain acts one should not force oneself to produce them, but be content with affective prayer or the prayer of simplicity (which, by hypothesis, can succeed); to do otherwise would be to thwart Divine action.
• If, on the contrary, during prayer, one feels the facility for certain acts, one should yield to this inclination instead of obstinately striving to remain immovable like the Quietists. Indeed, even the full use of our faculties is not superfluous in helping us to reach God.
• Outside of prayer, properly so called, one should profit on all occasions either to get instruction or to arouse the will and thus make up what prayer itself may lack.

Many texts relative to the prayer of simplicity are found in the works of St. Jane de Chantal, who, together with St. Francis of Sales, founded the Order of the Visitation. She complained of the opposition that many well-disposed minds offered to this kind of prayer. By ancient writers the prayer of simplicity is called acquired, active, or ordinary contemplation. St. Alphonsus Liguori, echoing his predecessors, defines it thus: "At the end of a certain time ordinary meditation produces what is called acquired contemplation, which consists in seeing at a simple glance the truths which could previously be discovered only through prolonged discourse"

Link (here) to the Catholic Encyclopedia

Link (here) to Prayer of Simplicity in the Ignatian classic, Graces of Interior Prayer
Saint Ignatius says, ' Non enim abundantia scientice satiat animam sed sentire et gustare res interne.' (here)  Loosely translates into English, "For it is not the abundance of knowledge but I feel that satisfy the soul, And taste the thing, internally"
 

Was?

Provincial Stephan Kiechle, S.J.

However, in his Suddeutsche Zeitung interview, Fr Kiechle said his order would only be in a position to offer “symbolic payments”, adding that he expected some victims would “inevitably be disappointed” with the compensation. “It remains small and fragmented, as a sign of our helplessness in the face of this suffering”, the Jesuit superior said. “But sometimes, the guilty parties are unreasonable, and sometimes they’ve disappeared, fallen ill or died. In these cases, we as an order must recognise our fault and take responsibility”. 

The priest, who took over as Jesuit leader on 1 September, called at a recent conference for the abolition of compulsory celibacy and for women to be considered for admission to the priesthood.

Link (here) to  Jonathan Luxmoore's blog

Can You Name That Jesuit Institution?

Can you name the Jesuit Colleges and Universities?
To play the game, go (here)

Father Stefan Filipowicz, a Jesuit priest from Chicago, came to celebrate a Polish Mass on Christmas and Easter in Atlanta. Link (here)

God The Father, Fr. Miguel Jose Herranz, S.J. And St. Candida Maria De Jesus

St Cándida María de Jesús

The Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus are awaiting this Sunday with eagerness. On that day, their founder will be canonized in St. Peter's. Blessed Cándida María de Jesús (1845-1912), a Spanish religious, born Juana Josefa Cipitria y Barriola, will be recognized along with five other blesseds.For the sisters the event "is a strong call to a more holy and dedicated life," and an occasion to renew "the dream of living every day according to the values of the Gospel and of being more centered on the person of Jesus Christ, as Mother Cándida was," Sister Anna Maria Cinco Castro, a member of this community and the postulator for the cause of canonization, told ZENIT. Juana Josefa was born May 31, 1845, in northeastern Spain. She always expressed special sensitivity for the poorest, for abandoned children and for prisoners. In 1868, at age 23, she met Jesuit Father Miguel José Herranz, who helped her respond to her call to found a congregation. Thus it was that in 1871, the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus was born in Salamanca together with five women and inspired in Ignatian spirituality.

Link (here) to read the full Zenit article

Georgetown, The President And MTV

MTV News hit the streets of the nation's capital on Tuesday and spoke to students at Georgetown University about how they've been impacted by the so-called Great Recession. They told us what they would ask the president, just as other young voters will do during "A Conversation With President Obama," Thursday's one-hour town hall event airing live and commercial-free on MTV,."Everyone's attitude about money has changed," said Georgia Shibley, 19, who said she's considering going to graduate school rather than trying to wade into the tight job market. It was a sentiment echoed by a number of her fellow students at the private Jesuit university.

Link (here) to MTV

Link (here) to the staged town hall set up

Jesuit Bishop In Vietnam

In a letter to Vietnamese Catholics following the congress, the bishops announced that Archbishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Ha Noi, 72, will remain president of the conference. Jesuit Bishop Cosma Hoang Van Dat of Bac Ninh was named secretary general, succeeding Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Ha Noi who stepped down for health problems.

Link (here) CathNews Asia

Glenn Beck Was Jesuit Educated

Glenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington to William and Mary Beck, who lived in Mountlake Terrace, Washington.^[7] The family later moved to Mount Vernon, Washington^[8] where they owned and operated City Bakery in the downtown area.^[9] He is descended from German immigrants who came to the United States in the 1800s.^[10] Beck was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Mount Vernon. At age 13, he won a contest that landed him his first broadcast job as a disc jockey for his hometown radio station, KBRC.^[11]

In 1977, William Beck filed for divorce against Mary due to her worsening alcoholism.^[12] Glenn and his older sister moved with their mother to Sumner, Washington, attending a (most likely Bellermine Prep) Jesuit school^[13] in Puyallup. 

On May 15, 1979, his mother drowned in Puget Sound, just west of Tacoma, Washington.^[13] A man who had taken her out in a small boat also drowned. A Tacoma police report stated that Mary Beck "appeared to be a classic drowning victim", but a Coast Guard investigator speculated that she could have intentionally jumped overboard.^[13] Beck has described his mother's death as a suicide in interviews during television and radio broadcasts

Link (here) his Wiki biography

Controversial Jesuit Moved Out At The University Of San Francisco

After three years at the post, Fr. Donal Godfrey, a priest well known for challenging Church teaching on hom@sexuality, is no longer serving as executive director of University Ministry at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco. Godfrey’s departure comes on the heels of the revelation that his long-time associate, Patrick Mulcahey, has been teaching and moderating workshops on the master/sl@ve and s@do-mas@chistic lifestyle. As recently as August 30, according to a cached webpage from the ministry’s site, Fr. Godfrey was still serving as executive director. Sometime between August 30 and September 15, Fr. Godfrey was replaced by Julia Dowd, a layperson. Fr. Godfrey is now listed as one of the ministry’s five associate directors. 

Link (here) to read the full article at Spero News

My Dad Was An AP Jesuit

Brian Dennehy

Brian Dennehy was raised in Red Hook until he was 12, when the family moved to Mineola, L.I.  "My father had gone to the seminary and took advantage of all the education before strategically announcing that he had no vocation and managed to land himself a job with The Associated Press," says Dennehy.

"He became what I like to call an AP Jesuit. 

One of those Irishmen who told me and my brothers, 'Take whatever job you want as long as it has a pension.'"

Link (here) to read the full article.

Two Destructive Jesuit Priests Facing Felony Jail Terms

Jesuit Father Bill Bichsel, 82, Jesuit Father Stephen Kelly, 61, Sacred Heart Sister Anne Montgomery, 83, Baltimorean Susan Crane, 65, and Lynne Greenwald, 61, entered their pleas Oct. 8 with Magistrate Judge Karen L. Strombom of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. They are charged with conspiracy, trespass, destruction of property on a naval installation and depradation of government property. Strombom set a Dec. 7 trial for the defendants, who call themselves the Disarm Now Plowshares. Each member of the group briefly told Strombom as part of their plea that they wanted to see the end of war, a reversal of the U.S. policy of preparing for nuclear war or a change in federal spending priorities toward an emphasis on education and health care. “My plea was for the children of this country and the world who need education and health care and food and housing, not weapons of mass destruction,” Sister Anne told Catholic News Service Oct. 11. 

 Father Kelly explained that his involvement in the protest was required by his Christian faith. “I said I’m pleading on behalf of the victims of the production and, God forbid, the use of nuclear weapons, of all the victims from Hiroshima, Nagasaki to the uranium mineworkers and the victims of the (federal) budget (priorities),” he told CNS. 

Greenwald, who is associated with the Tacoma Catholic Worker, called for “the end of all war, especially for the end of the threat of nuclear war.” Crane twice attempted to enter a motion of dismissal of all charges, but Strombom said such a motion was inappropriate at an arraignment. Crane subsequently filed the motion for dismissal with the clerk of courts following the arraignment. The motion cited several U.S. and international laws that describe the use of nuclear weapons as a war crime.  

If convicted, the five face prison terms of three to five years and fines of $50,000 to $250,000 on each charge. Strombom told the protesters that the court could sentence them to consecutive sentences if they are convicted of multiple charges. 

 The five were indicted Sept. 3 by a federal grand jury 10 months after the protest. They are accused of using bolt cutters to cut holes in three chain-link fences to enter the Naval Base Kitsap’s Bangor complex, 20 miles west of Seattle. 

The base is the West Coast home of the Trident nuclear-armed submarine and Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific, where more than 2,300 nuclear warheads are stored. Once inside, the five left a trail of blood, hammered on a roadway and fences, scattered sunflower seeds and unfurled a banner that read: “Disarm Now Plowshares, Trident: Illegal + Immoral.” 

 The government said the five posed a danger to national security. All five have been arrested, charged and jailed for their involvement in nonviolent protests at weapons facilities in the past.

Link (here) to the Catholic Review Online.

Jesuits Says, "Socialism Consists In The Nationalization Of Property"

In fact, as Jesuit philosopher Fr. Victor Cathrein has rightly pointed out: “We call Socialism a system of political economy, not as if it did not also lead to many political and social changes, 

but because the gist of socialism consists in the nationalization of property and in the public administration and distribution of all goods.” 

 Nevertheless, “The fundamental principles of socialism belong not to economical but to metaphysical science. Foremost among its tenets is the equality of man...”
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Link (here) to read the full article at Tradition, Family and Property