Friday, February 29, 2008

St. Francis Xavier, S.J. Life Set To Music

Francisco Javier - La Ruta de Oriente (Routes of the Orient)

This two-disc set is perhaps Jordi Savall 's most ambitious and handsome one yet! It is programmatic, following the life and eastern travels of Francis Xavier (1506-1552), the founder of the Catholic Church’s Xavarian order. Vocal and instrumental music from various periods in his life abound. There are lively dances like the opening rotundellus and melancholy sacred refrains with original instruments, like Dios Te Salve. Listening to these works, you realize how easily religious and secular culture comingled, sometimes within the same composition. At the end of the first disc, there is a virtuosic African drum piece and a riveting Indian raga, ostensibly of the type Xavier may have encountered in his travels. Perhaps to keep Xavier’s roots in mind, Savall has inserted a snatch of Gregorian chant between an Iberian villancico (folk song) and the Indian raga.

Link (here)

Convento De San Pedro Claver

I found this little blurb on vacation article to Cartagna Columbia


So rich is the city's historical legacy, in fact, that it is treated almost casually. The cathedral, for instance, still bears the scars of cannon fire from Drake's ships, while the Palacio de la Inquisición, once the seat of the Holy Office's Punishment Tribunal, now functions as a grisly museum of medieval religious torture. At the Convento de San Pedro Claver, named after a 17th-century monk canonised for his ministry to Colombia's slaves, tourists can visit the cell where the Jesuit saint lived and died.

Link (here)
St. Peter Claver, S.J. (here)

Italian Jesuits Not Quite In Synch With Holy Father

This from Father Z. at WDTPRS

SJ superior lines up against Pope Benedict and Summorum Pontificum.
CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:39 am
The provisions of Summorum Pontificum are meeting with resistance on the part of some diocesan bishops. However, the Motu Proprio also speaks of the role of religious major superiors. Some parishes are run not by diocesan priests, but by religious. While they are not entirely autonomous from the local bishop, they are very much influenced by the will of the superiors of the order or institute that take care of them. Some religious superiors are showing their real attitude toward the Holy Father, his provisions, the rights of the faithful and the Roman Rite.


On 23 December 2007 Holy Mass in the TLM was celebrated with great success and participation at a church, S. Stefano, held by the Jesuits at Sanremo, in Northern Italy. The Jesuits freaked out.
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Here is part of a press release from Una Voce in my translation.
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But, so much enthusiasm notwithstanding, or perhaps really because of it (if only a few people, maybe even old people, were interested in the old rite, no one would bother to block it) the Superior of the Jesuits in northern Italy, the vice-provincial Fr. Alberto Remondini, immediately went to check out the convent at Sanremo and, a few days before the next Mass was to be celebrated, he decreed, in accord with the Provincial of the Province of Italy of the Jesuits, Fr. Francesco Tata, that
"in all the churches in Italy cared for by the Company of Jesus, the Pope’s Motu Proprio cannot be applied and Masses in Latin cannot be celebrated, except for occasional events to be pastorally justified on a case by case basis"
(naturally what those "pastoral" exigencies are are not specified). "In any case, " Fr. Remondini continues, "in no case can Mass in Latin have fixed or periodical term, even were it be to be only monthly as in the case of Sanremo."

New Provincal For Maltese Jesuits

Fr Adolfo Nicolás, Jesuit Superior General, has nominated Fr Paul Pace sj as the new Provincial for the Maltese Jesuits.
Fr Paul Pace, S.J. was born in 1953, joined the Jesuits in 1977 and was ordained priest in 1983. He was University Chaplain and Lecturer in Moral Theology at the University of Malta, member of various Church and other Commissions, Superior and Provincial between 1996 and 2002, during which period he was also President of the Conference of Religious Major Superiors. He was also Director of the Jesuit Faith and Justice Centre and lately Director of Jesuit Refugee Service. Fr Pace will enter his office as Provincial on the 31st July 2008, Feast of St Ignatius Loyola. He succeeds Fr Paul Chetcuti S.J. Link (here)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Joseph Koczera, S.J. On "Mi-Carême"

In some quarters of the francophone world, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent is traditionally celebrated as "Mi-Carême," the symbolic middle point of the Lenten season. The most notable characteristic of communal celebrations of Mi-Carême is the relaxation of Lenten discipline: the day is typically marked by lots of eating, drinking, and festive merrymaking. The basic message of Mi-Carême is the following: we've made it halfway through Lent and Easter is in sight, so let us give thanks to God for his great mercy before recommitting ourselves to penance. Whether or not the average person approaches Mi-Carême with this exact attitude, the insight behind the celebration remains a good one. Read Joe's full post (here)

For 100 Years A Jesuit Winery

HISTORIC NOVITIATE WINERY
Each autumn from the 1888 to 1986, the novices of the California Province labored in the vineyards surrounding the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos, harvesting grapes for the Jesuit winery. At one time, they picked enough fruit to produce 150,000 gallons of wine each year. Although some wine was sold commercially, the majority of it, especially during Prohibition, was altar wine used for sacramental purposes. Ever-increasing competitive pressure in the marketplace led to a decision to close the winery in 1986. (here)
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Located in Los Gatos, Testarossa Vineyard is housed in a 19th century Jesuit-built winery. Founder Rob Jensen produces limited quantity wines that have received critical acclaim for their complexity, balance, and silky texture. Rob will share his history and philosophy while pouring a broad array of their single vineyard wines from some of the most highly acclaimed vineyard sites. (here)

Quote Of The Day: Mark Shea

Catholic journalist and blogger Mark Shea on his conversion from modern paganism to Catholicism

"Once, I went to a Catholic church with a friend on Good Friday — the weirdest possible day to encounter Catholics in their natural habitat."

Link (here)

New Provincial For The Detroit Province

St. Ignatius High School president appointed to Jesuit leadership position
Dick Russ

Father Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland since 2000, has been appointed leader of the Jesuits' Detroit Province. Kesicki's appointment was one of the first major decisions made by the newly-elected, worldwide leader of the Society of Jesus, Father Adolfo Nicholas, S.J. Before coming to Saint Ignatius, Kesicki, an Erie, Pa. native and John Carroll University graduate, taught at Jesuit schools in Detroit and served with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Uganda. He currently serves on the Board of Consultors to the Detroit Province's Jesuit provincial."It is with great sadness that I will say farewell to Saint Ignatius, but I am willing to serve the Jesuit Order in this noble work," said Kesicki, who will begin his new duties July 1. In selecting a school president, Father General Nicolás is utilizing a Jesuit with administrative experience to implement the new strategic directives of Jesuits in the United States. For the past five years, the U.S. Jesuits have planned a realignment process to reduce the number of provinces.

By streamlining their order, the Jesuits wish to place more Jesuit priests in schools and other ministries. Kesicki will work with other U.S. provincials in creating a consolidated province in the Midwest by 2020.


The current Provincial, Father Robert J. Scullin, S.J., said, "Our province has been blessed by the appointment of Fr. Kesicki as our new superior. He will lead us into an exciting new future of service to the church in the Midwestern United States." In Cleveland, the Jesuits run John Carroll University, Saint Ignatius High School, Walsh Jesuit High School, Gesu Parish and the Jesuit Retreat House in Parma. During his tenure at Saint Ignatius, Kesicki has led the "Ignatius Men Forever" capital campaign, now in its third year. Working with the school's Advancement Department, Kesicki has helped raise money for financial aid endowment, the teaching endowment, spiritual development and laying the groundwork to build the new Breen Center for the Performing Arts. The campaign is close to reaching the $30 million mark. In addition to his work on the campaign, Kesicki spearheaded physical changes on campus with the renovation of Wasmer Field, the athletic field that stretches along Lorain Avenue, and the construction of the new Rade Dining Hall and Wildcat Café & Marketplace.

He also expanded student service throughout Cleveland with the development of
the St. Joseph of Arimathea Pallbearer Society and Labre Ministry,


a program that reaches out to the city's homeless. He created the position of vice president of Ignatius Mission to place more responsibility of spiritual development in the hands of lay personnel. According to the school's news release, Kesicki placed a great deal of emphasis on the arts, the importance of creating a more diverse student population, and maintaining ties with alumni. "Tim is a personable leader who knows how to connect with people. He has an uncommon ability to relate to students and the faculty," said Peter Corrigan Jr., principal of Saint Ignatius High School." In fact, I have caught him on occasion leading the students in praying for a snow day," said Corrigan. "We have benefitted from Tim's leadership in many ways. He is, first and foremost, a pastor and preacher of great skill." The schools board of regents will be naming an interim president until a committee is formed to search for a new school president. Throughout its 121-year history, Saint Ignatius has had 24 presidents, all Jesuits. Fred DiSanto, chairman of the board of regents said, "I commend Fr. Kesicki for the fine job he has done as president of the school. I have every confidence that we will find a worthy successor."


Link (here)

The Shadowbrook Jesuit Seminary, Now A Pagan Religous Center

In 1922, the New England Province of the Society of Jesus purchased the Shadowbrook estate, which the Jesuits used as a seminary. The entire structure burned to the ground in a tragic fire in 1956, in which four of the Jesuits died. The Society then built the current brick structure on the site, maintaining their operation of the property until 1970, when they could no longer support it. The building stood empty for many years (13) until the New Age Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health purchased it in 1983.

Shadowbrook connections (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

Fr. William J. O' Halloran, S.J. "Rest In Peace"

In Memoriam: Rev. William J. O’Halloran, S.J.,
Special Assistant to the College President
Holy Cross is mourning Rev. William J. O’Halloran, S.J., special assistant to the College president, who died at Cape Cod Hospital, in Hyannis, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008, after an illness. He was 80 years old.

“The Holy Cross family lost a wonderful leader and friend with the passing of Fr. O’Halloran,”

said Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., the fourth Holy Cross president under whom he served. “He helped to shape the Holy Cross of today, a first-rate liberal arts college that remains faithful to its Jesuit and Catholic mission and tradition. He embodied the values of loyalty and care that are such an important part of our community life. Everyone — staff, faculty, students and alumni — treasured his warmth, attentiveness and good humor.” The son of the late Dorothy M. (Keegan) and Frank T. O’Halloran, he was born in Springfield, Mass., on Nov. 26, 1927. A graduate of LaSalle Academy in Providence, R.I., Fr. O’Halloran entered the Society of Jesus in 1945. He did his novitiate and juniorate studies in ascetical theology and the ancient classics at Shadowbrook Jesuit Seminary, in Lenox, Mass. Fr. O’Halloran earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, in philosophy, from Boston College and received his Ph.D., in psychology, from Fordham University.
Fr. O’Halloran was ordained to the priesthood in 1958, in Senlis, France, and took his final Jesuit vows in 1963 at Fordham University.
Arriving at Holy Cross in 1963 as an assistant professor in the psychology department, Fr. O’Halloran was appointed the first chair of the department the following year. He also served as rector of the Jesuit Community at the College for six years. In 1976, Fr. O’Halloran became the sixth president of LeMoyne College in Syracuse, serving in this position until 1981 when he returned to Holy Cross to serve as director of relations with corporations and foundations. In 1984, he was appointed vice president of the College. He served in this office until he became special assistant to the president in 1998. In addition, Fr. O’Halloran served as a trustee of Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, LeMoyne College, Spring Hill College, Xavier University, Wheeling College, and Cheverus High School. A member of the Advisory Committee of the New York State Senate Committee on Higher Education, he was a trustee of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities of New York. He was also the managing editor of the Catholic Psychological Record and a member of the Rhode Island Honor Society, Eastern Psychological Association, Massachusetts Psychological Association (Fellow), Academy of Religion and Health, Sigma Xi, American Psychological Association, Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society, and the Worcester Mental Health Planning committee.
A well-known presence on campus, Fr. O’Halloran frequently served as celebrant and homilist in St. Joseph Chapel
. He was responsible for writing the memorable citations for the College’s honorary degree recipients at commencement, as well as those for staff members honored at the annual employee recognition awards ceremony. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, March 4 at 10:30 a.m. in St. Joseph Chapel on the Holy Cross campus. Calling hours will be held on Monday, March 3, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Mary Chapel (lower level of St. Joseph Chapel). Interment will be in the College cemetery.
Link (here)

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Buckley: Jesuit Educated

William F. Buckley, Leading Conservative, Dies at 82
By Nancy Moran

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- William F. Buckley Jr., the syndicated columnist and intellectual whose studied mannerisms, verbal flourishes and polemics energized the American conservative movement for a half-century, has died. He was 82. Buckley died overnight in his study in Stamford, Connecticut, according to the National Review Online. His son, Christopher, told the New York Times that Buckley had suffered from diabetes and emphysema, although the exact cause of death was not known. Buckley was found at his desk and might have been working on a column, his son said. ``If he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it: at home, still devoted to the war of ideas,'' said Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of the Web site. His wife, New York socialite Patricia, died in April 2007. Buckley harnessed a belief in individual liberty, limited government and the defeat of communism into an organized voice of the right in the National Review, the biweekly opinion magazine he founded in 1955. He was also host of the Emmy Award-winning television program ``Firing Line'' for 33 years. ``I think it's a different country and world because of what he accomplished,'' William Rusher, publisher of National Review from 1957 to 1988, said in a phone interview today. Rebuke of Yale Buckley entered the political arena with the 1951 publication of ``God and Man at Yale,'' his first and best-known book. A rebuke of his alma mater for straying from its Christian roots, the book attacked the faculty as bent on secularism, collectivism and Keynesian economics over individualism and free- market capitalism. His libertarian ideals were shared by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who went on to win the Republican nomination for president over Nelson Rockefeller in 1964 but lost the election to incumbent Lyndon Johnson. A year later, Buckley ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New York on the Conservative Party ticket. Much of what Buckley advocated came to pass with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan to two terms as U.S. president, the fall of the Soviet Union and the Republican Party's retaking of Congress in 1994. Reagan's Tribute Reagan, on the National Review's 30th anniversary, called Buckley a ``clipboard-bearing Galahad, ready to take on any challengers in the critical battle of point and counterpoint. And, with grace and humor and passion, to raise a standard to which patriots and lovers of freedom could repair.'' At the White House today, President George W. Bush called Buckley ``one of the finest writers and thinkers'' in the U.S. ``He brought conservative thought into the political mainstream and helped lay the intellectual foundation for America's victory in the Cold War and for the conservative movement that continues to this day,'' Bush said in a statement. ``He will be remembered for his principled thought and beautiful writing as well as his personal warmth, wit and generous spirit.'' While Buckley drew a legion of followers, he remained independent of the movement he helped create. He favored legalizing illicit drugs at a time when the U.S. had declared a ``War on Drugs,'' and in a Feb. 24, 2006, column called for President Bush to acknowledge defeat in the war in Iraq. In the 1970s, he sided with President Jimmy Carter on his plan to hand the Panama Canal back to Panama. He also lamented opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act and, in a further criticism of the second President Bush, warned of the foreign-policy entanglements of so-called neoconservatives: ``The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to America some kind of geo-strategic responsibility for maximizing democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country.'' `On the Right' Born into a wealthy Irish-Catholic family, Buckley acquired an erudite ease with both the spoken and written word. His use of unusual words, coupled with a New England prep-school drawl, came across as haughty to some, while an outward charm and urbane civility underlay his style of pointed public debate. His column, ``On the Right,'' was syndicated nationally in 1962 and appeared in some 300 newspapers. In 1966, he began ``Firing Line,'' pitting liberals against conservatives, in which he played both host and interlocutor. When U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy repeatedly refused to appear on the show, Buckley quipped: ``Why does baloney reject the grinder?'' Final Article ``Firing Line'' guests included Goldwater, author Norman Mailer, former President George H.W. Bush and liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith. In his last article posted on the National Review Web site, dated Feb. 2, Buckley indulged in two favorite pastimes: jabbing Democrats and dissecting the use of the English language. ``Presidential candidates no longer even try to sound like the Lincoln-Douglas debates, yet it is not bad occasionally to subject them to such analysis, to learn what it is that is not being said,'' Buckley wrote, reviewing the Jan. 31 debate between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. ``The two performers in the debate struck the observant conservative as intelligent, resourceful and absolutely uninterested in the vector of political force,'' he wrote. Fluent in French and Spanish, Buckley's taste for the finer things in life extended to classical music and the wine he collected for his Stamford cellar. His greatest passion, sailing, was reflected in his ownership of five boats, four transoceanic trips and multiple races from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda. Spy Novels Buckley published more than 40 books, including ``McCarthy and His Enemies'' in 1954 and 11 spy novels featuring a James Bond-like protagonist, Blackford Oakes, partly inspired by his own service with the Central Intelligence Agency. He professed a ``cognate aversion to boredom,'' and learned to fly a plane, descended in a submarine to survey the Titanic's remains and took annual ski trips to Gstaad, Switzerland, and Alta, Utah, where he hit the slopes with Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. William Frank Buckley Jr. was born on Nov. 24, 1925, in New York, the sixth of 10 children. His father, a lawyer and oil baron, moved the family to Sharon, Connecticut, in 1923 after being expelled from Mexico City for his support of a revolution against President Alvaro Obregon. He lived in a large, white-columned home called ``Great Elm'' and spent leisurely summers riding horses and competing in sailing races. With five pianos and one organ in the house, the children grew into ``music addicts,'' Buckley wrote in his 2004 memoir, ``Miles Gone By.''
Boarding School

After early schooling in France and England, Buckley was sent in 1938 to St. John's, Beaumont, a Jesuit-run boarding school in Old Windsor, near London. He later wrote that the experience there fostered ``a deep and permanent involvement in Catholic Christianity.''

Buckley entered Yale in 1946 as a second lieutenant after serving two years stateside in the Army infantry. He became chairman of the Yale Daily News, joined the secretive Skull & Bones society and was a star debater. He studied political science, history and economics and graduated with honors. While at Yale he tutored Spanish, landing him a full-time job as an assistant professor after graduating in 1950. In July of that year, he married Vancouver native Patricia Taylor. CIA Stint Buckley served in the CIA in Mexico for nine months in 1951 before becoming an associate editor at the right-wing American Mercury magazine. His opposition to unions, international organizations such as the United Nations and the blurred partisan lines of Eisenhower-era ``progressivism'' helped to spawn the National Review four years later. ``It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it,'' read the publisher's statement in the first issue on Nov. 19, 1955. Buckley served as editor-in-chief of the Review for more than three decades, increasing readership from 18,000 in 1956 to 137,000 in 1990, when he stepped down. Nurtured Writers He surrounded himself with like-minded writers and editors, including Russell Kirk and James Burnham, as well as Yale mentor Willmoore Kendall and his sister Priscilla, who was managing editor from 1959 to 1985. Known for nurturing writing talent regardless of political leaning, Buckley counted among his proteges conservative columnists David Brooks and George Will, liberal writer Garry Wills and early contributors to the magazine Joan Didion and Arlene Croce. While his detractors came largely from the left, and included author Gore Vidal, Buckley was also criticized by supporters of ``Objectivist'' conservative Ayn Rand and the ultra-right John Birch Society. Rand, an atheist, was driven out of the conservative movement after her fictional ``Atlas Shrugged'' received a scathing review by Whittaker Chambers, a former communist and a contributor to the magazine. John Birch Society President John McManus, in his 2002 book ``William F. Buckley Jr., Pied Piper for the Establishment,'' said Buckley's focus on defeating communism made him interventionist and pro-government. During one of his most notable debates on ABC at the 1968 Democratic National Convention with Vidal, Buckley responded to being called a ``crypto-Nazi'' by saying, ``Now, listen you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddamn face. And you'll stay plastered.''
Buckley Versus Vidal A year later, both Buckley and Vidal wrote essays for Esquire magazine assailing each other. Vidal's lawsuit over Buckley's ``On Experiencing Gore Vidal'' was thrown out of court. Buckley's suit over Vidal's ``A Distasteful Encounter With William F. Buckley Jr.'' was settled in 1972 with an apology from the magazine and the payment of his legal costs. When Buckley ran for New York mayor in 1965, his main goal was to derail the candidacy of liberal Republican John Lindsay even if it meant sending votes to Democrat Abraham Beame. He wrote his own position papers to address a city plagued by the highest urban unemployment in the country, subway crime and a $256 million budget deficit. His proposals included adding to police ranks, ending school integration and relocating welfare recipients outside the city. Buckley's presence in the campaign was largely symbolic, reflected in his tongue-in-cheek approach to press conferences and public debates. When asked what he'd do if he won, Buckley gamely replied, ``Demand a recount.'' UN Delegate Buckley contributed articles to most major American literary and news publications, including the Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker and the New York Times, and was the recipient of 31 honorary degrees. He served as a delegate to the UN in 1973 and in 1991 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the first President Bush. For most of his career, he averaged 70 public-speaking engagements a year. In the late 1980s and early '90s, Buckley played solo harpsichord with six different ensembles, including the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Yale Symphony Orchestra. He continued writing columns for the National Review after handing over his stock to a board of trustees in 2004. In a March 2006 interview with Charlie Rose, Buckley warned that the conservative movement was suffering from a ``certain sleepiness'' in the absence of a threat such as communism and the Soviet Union. Terrorism, he said, while affecting the ``whole corpus of America,'' was not an enemy that divided Democrats and Republicans. He also is survived by his grandchildren, Caitlin and Conor.
Link (here)

Jesuit Found Important Map

Now showing: Map that gave America its name
By FRANK GREVE
McClatchy Newspapers

The Library of Congress paid $10 million in 2003 for this 8- by 4-foot map, which now is the centerpiece of its “Exploring the Early Americas” exhibition.
WASHINGTON

Five centuries ago, a maker of woodblock-print maps who lived in a French cathedral town chiseled out the letter “A” in an area of the map that’s now Argentina. “M” was his next letter, followed by E-R-I-C-A. Martin Waldseemuller, the cartographer, thought he was naming a continent-sized island in the western Atlantic “after the ship’s captain who discovered it,” Amerigo Vespucci. His misconception — on a 1507 map whose sole surviving copy cost the Library of Congress $10 million and is now on display there — is why America’s birth certificate bears the wrong name. Waldseemuller tried to erase his error in a 1513 atlas that called the region “Terra Incognita,” “Unknown Land,” and on a map published three years later that called it “Terra Nova,” or “New World.” But it was too late, Library of Congress map curator John Hessler said. By then, Waldseemuller’s original 8- by 4-foot world map probably wallpapered the studies of scores of scholars and royals, Hessler said. A book that Waldseemuller sold with the map, titled “Introduction to Cosmography,” circulated even more widely. In the book, Waldseemuller wrote: “Because it is well known that Europe and Asia were named after women, I can see no reason why anyone would have a good reason to object to calling this (new) part Amerige, the land of Amerigo, or America.” Asia was named after the wife of Prometheus, the god who gave fire to humans; Europe, after Europa, a mythical Phoenician noblewoman courted by Zeus. Crediting Vespucci over Christopher Columbus wasn’t unusual at the time, Hessler said, because Vespucci was getting more publicity. Columbus’ journals remained obscure, he said, while published accounts of Vespucci’s four purported voyages from 1497 to 1504 appeared in 1505 and 1507. “There’s a saying among historians,” Hessler said, “that Columbus discovered America and Vespucci sold it.” Hessler theorized that the patron who sponsored Waldseemuller’s cartography at Saint-Die, France, 40 miles southwest of Strasbourg, may have had ties to Vespucci’s backers in Portugal and perhaps Florence.

Historians considered the 1507 map extinct until Jesuit researcher Josef Fisher discovered a mint-condition copy in 1901 while working in the castle library of Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
It’s the world’s most valuable map by far, said William Reese, the owner of William Reese Co. of New Haven, Conn., a leading dealer of antiquarian maps.




Link (here)

Josef Fisher, S.J. and the Vinland Map (here)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Jesuit: "Fire Bomber"

Demon Decades

A look back at DePaul's history with Laura Bollin

by Laura Bollin Community Editor


Daniel Berrigan:
the rebel priest

Daniel Berrigan, who recently donated his entire personal library to DePaul’s Special Collections and Archives, was an unusual kind of priest. He burned draft files, wound up on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted and was subequently sent to prison for his activism. Berrigan was born in the small town of Virginia, Minn. in 1921. He was ordained as a priest 31 years later, in 1952. In the 1950s, Berrigan and his brother Phillip were very active in the civil rights movement. In the 1960s, their attention turned to Vietnam. In early 1968, Berrigan traveled with Howard Zinn, an author and historian, to Vietnam to witness the release of three American prisoners of war. Berrigan wrote a book about his experience, made up of diary entries and poems, called "Night Flight to Hanoi." The experience let Berrigan see the horrors of war for himself, and inspired him to do more to protest the war.
Berrigan’s brother and three other men destroyed conscription files by pouring blood over them.
Berrigan followed in his brother’s footsteps by joining with eight other men and burning the draft files of the Catonsville Draft Board, in Catonsville, Md. in May 1968.
Berrigan didn’t just pour gasoline on the files and strike a match; he burned the files using napalm, the same substance used to burn the jungle and villages during the Vietnam War.
In a highly publicized trial, Berrigan was sentenced to three years in prison for his actions. Believing that what he did was an act of civil disobedience, not a crime that deserved time in prison, he fled on the day he was supposed to report to prison. While he tried to escape the FBI, he gave speeches protesting the war for four months. He was apprehended, and began his three-year sentence in August of 1970. During his prison sentence, Daniel wrote poems, letters and essays about the war.
After his release in 1972, Daniel moved to France and lived with Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk whom he met when Hanh took a trip to the United States in 1966
to inspire Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to speak out against the war. During that time, the two men spoke often about social and religious topics, and recorded their conversations. The resulting book was called "The Raft is Not the Shore." Berrigan also recorded sermons about non-violence, a compilation of which is now called Berrigan Raps.
Berrigan now resides in a Jesuit community in New York.
He has written over 50 books, volumes of poetry and a one-act play. He continues to protest war and injustice, and because of that, continues to get arrested. He had a close friend in University Ministry at DePaul in 1999, and therefore decided to donate his entire personal library, over 700 volumes, to the archives. This includes some of the poetry and letters he authored. He continues to donate new material every year. To see the Berrigan collection, or learn more about him, visit the Special Collections and Archives, Room 314 in the Richardson Library. The collection will be on display through fall quarter 2008.

This link has been changed
Link (here)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Castro Vs. Batista

I am absolutly over the introduction line to any article with "Fidel Castro, Jesuit educated"! as its attention grabber. Any literary introduction should start like this, "Fidel Castro, cold-blooded murder, totalitarian, hedonist, commie-rat, God-hater!" In this great article entitled, Fidel Batista! Fidel Castro Out-Thugs Fulgencio Batista by Larry Solomon . Solomon explores and refutes the leftist pro-Fidel crowd.
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Here is an excerpt.
But unlike today, Cuba's economy under Batista was powerful, both domestically and in exports, and it was becoming increasingly diversified. Under Castro, its economy is in tatters, nowhere more so than in the sugar industry that Castro once promoted so heavily.
Last summer, Castro announced a shut down of half of the country's sugar mills. "We had to act or face ruin," he explained. As he told NBC News just this week. "It cost us more to produce sugar than what we could sell it for."
But if Batista bested Castro in virtually every broad socio-economic indicator, he paled in comparison when it came to controlling either the electoral process or the populace. Castro executed thousands of political opponents after he came to power, imprisoned tens of thousands and caused hundreds of thousands to flee to exile.
Where Batista won a disputed election, a Castro election leaves no room for dispute: Castro allows no opponents, no opposing viewpoints to appear in the press, and, because that might not be enough, his political machine ensures a good turnout by keeping tabs on who votes and who doesn't: In last Sunday's national election, Castro managed a 90%-plus "yes" vote, not quite as impressive as Saddam Hussein's 100% but, among dictators, respectable enough.
Those who revile Batista often point to a decadent economy that relied on mafia-run casinos, prostitution and other demeaning jobs servicing tourists. Tourism was important under Batista - Havana was an east-coast alternative to Las Vegas, complete with the sex and gaming, and the same mafia owners - but never as important as tourism has become today.
Cuba's once diversified economy is gone and Castro is now putting all of his hopes in attracting tourists. To do this, Castro's Cuba now permits prostitution, it winks at sex tourism - tourist guide books even include sections on the country's once-taboo gay and bisexual scenes - and, as under Batista, the country unabashedly invests heavily in tourism.
Earlier this year, Castro inaugurated a US$100-million resort on the island's northeastern coast, broadcast nationwide, to underscore the importance the government places on the new five-hotel complex of 944 rooms able to house 1,500 tourists. Tourism is now Cuba's No. 1 source of foreign income, with 1.6 million visitors generating about US$2-billion last year. More tourists come from Canada than from other important sources of foreign exchange, chiefly Germany, Britain, Italy, France, and Switzerland. Castro, like Batista, is eyeing one other important tourist market. "Our friends from the north are not in this list," Castro said with a grin, referring to Americans that can't travel to Cuba due to U.S. government regulations.
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More on Fidel (here) , (here) and (here)
Fidel and Jesuits (here) , (here) and (here)
Marxist -Leninist "Liberation Theologian" Ernesto Cardenal and Fidel (here) and (here)
Ernesto Cardenals brother Fernado "Airport Jesuit" Cardenal, S.J. (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Blog Watch: de Brantigny at "Le Fleur de Lys Too"

The Jesuit Relations
The Catholic Church keeps extensive records. It is theoretically possible for a Catholic to trace his of her family through Baptismal records. Unfortunately in countries devastated by conflict as was France or religious persecution as in England many of the records have been lost but the theory exists none the less. There is in existence one of the most valuable pieces of primary source material from the French colonial period of Canada. Written by Priests of the Jesuit Order between 1610 and 1791 these "Relations" describe in detail the unspoiled wilderness and people that inhabited it in the lands that would become Canada and much of the United States. It is impressive reading. It is offered online and I present links to it here in English...and here in French...de Brantigny

This an impressive blog, unique in it's concept and execution. Divine Right of Kings is not out of style either at "Le Fleur de Lys too" some of my favorite post are; (here) , (here) and (here)

French Jesuits: The First In Vietnam

The first Frenchmen to penetrate this beautiful and tragic country had been Jesuit missionaries arriving in the 16th century. Their missions were established in Cochin China, the name for the southernmost province of Vietnam. Despite periods of savage persecution and suppression, the Christian communities continued to grow. In later years, the missionaries were followed by French traders who attempted, with varying success, to establish trading posts along the coast. They, too, encountered periods of hostility—and were sometimes expelled completely. In 1858, a French military expedition was sent to Cochin China to protect the Roman Catholic missionaries and their converts. Once established there militarily, the French did not leave. Five years later they spread their control to neighbouring Cambodia. With the French controlling Cochin China and the Black Flags controlling Tonkin, only the central province, Annam, retained any freedom.
Link to an interesting and unique blog titled War and Game read the full post Steadfast Were The Entruders (here)

Fr. Alexandre de Rhodes, S.J. facinating reading, facinating priest (here)

Jesuit Makes Statement In Phillipines That Carries Weight

1986! 2001! 2008?
By Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
02/24/2008
MANILA, Philippines - Why have I not joined the clamor for the resignation of President Macapagal-Arroyo? The reason is not because I am of the same mind as the Assumption schoolmates of the President. Nor is the reason because I do not find Jun Lozada credible, even if he is a self-confessed sinner. I do. Neither is the reason because I believe Gen. Avelino Razon or Sec. Eduardo Ermita or Ignacio Bunye and other apologists of the President. I find that difficult to do. My simple reason is that I do not see her voluntarily relinquishing her office. President Ferdinand Marcos did not voluntarily leave office. He was ousted from office. Joseph Estrada did not voluntarily surrender his office. He was pressured out of it. Resignation is a voluntary act. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will not resign. One clear lesson I am sure she has learned from the experience of Marcos and Estrada is that for her to leave office now would mean jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Out of office she loses her immunity from suit and she becomes fair game. I do not see her wanting to go into exile in Hawaii or to settle in her own Tanay.


Read the full article (here)

Jesuit Educated Journalist Still Impacted By A Jesuit 40 Years Later

Jim Dooley in an editorial entitled, World Class Education?
Just as I was about to throw in the towel, I remembered an observation that an old Jesuit priest named Donceel made about 40 years ago in a classroom I happened to be in: he said that an educated person is somebody you sit talking with in a plane flying between San Francisco and New York and when you disembark you don't know what the man does for a living. The remark assumes a lot of things that the old priest evidently believed he could assume. At least he brought the question home to where it makes some sense. He may have been one of the last people to have gotten one of them world class educations.
Link (here)

"Bella" Movie Producer Is Jesuit Educated And Former Seminarian

Matt Malek
A former seminarian from the Archdiocese of Detroit, Malek grew up in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, and attended the University of Detroit Jesuit. Malek also attended Villanova University on a soccer scholarship, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in philosophy. Asked to be one of Villanova’s candidates for the Rhodes scholarship, Malek declined, having decided to enter Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. After a year of studies, he was appointed to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. After withdrawing from the seminary, Malek was asked to start and direct a non-profit organization in Hollywood called Holy Wood of the Cross; he is now chairman of the board. Malek caught the producing bug from his soon-to-be-partners at Origin Entertainment in December 2004. He executive produced the high concept sci-fi thriller Black Box, scheduled for winter release. Malek founded a talent management company in December 2005 and soon merged the company into Origin Entertainment. His pool of up-and - coming actors, writers and directors – including writers Barbara Nicolosi and Charlie Carner – forms the core of the Origin Management Group. To help provide the widest possible audience for Origin films, Malek helped found and finance The Maximus Group, a full-service marketing and PR firm specializing in reaching out to the specifically Catholic-Christian market. Malek’s first completed film, Bella, won the People’s Choice award at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. Malek is scheduled as producer on Origin’s upcoming children’s fantasy adventure, Lucky & Plumpton.
Link to Maleks bio at Origin Entertainment (here)

Jesuit Priest Stands Up To Marxist Dictator In Venezuela

Colombia rebels get foothold in Venezuela
DANGEROUS TERRITORY: Father Acacio Belandria of El Nula, Venezuela, holds a pastoral letter he wrote to government officials last year warning of the increased presence of Colombian rebels in his rural parish. He did not receive a response. Border residents accuse the foreigners of extortion and killings. Hugo Chavez denies giving the leftist guerrillas free rein.

By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times 02- 24-08
EL NULA, VENEZUELA -- Father Acacio Belandria says openly what others in this run-down town in southwestern Venezuela are afraid to: Colombian rebels are all over the place.

The 78-year-old Jesuit priest says his parishioners are increasingly complaining of extortion, kidnapping threats and killings by the leftist guerrillas, and that Venezuelan armed forces and President Hugo Chavez are either unable or unwilling to stop them.

The rebels' "presence is active and interventionist," the priest said as he sat in the spartan rectory of San Camilo Roman Catholic Church, about 20 miles from the Colombian border. "The question I ask myself, and what people in the countryside are asking, is, why can't or won't the government defend its sovereignty? The rebels used to come here just to rest and recuperate," he said. "Now they have made this their territory." The presence of Colombian "irregulars" on the Venezuelan side of the border has been a fact of life for more than a century, as civil conflicts in Colombia have pushed those groups to seek refuge in the mountains and jungles that separate the two countries. Their presence has grown in recent years, government, business and military sources agree. They point to the aggressive military action taken by conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to deny rebel groups sanctuary in the border zone.

But Colombian and U.S. government officials also are convinced that the leftist Chavez tolerates the rebels in Venezuelan territory for political purposes. Corrupt Venezuelan authorities also are suspected of being involved in drug trafficking activities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the largest Colombian rebel group.

This month, a Colombian engineer named Jorge Andres Sierra, who was released after 20 months in captivity by the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN, told a radio reporter in Bogota that his captors held him in Venezuela for part of that time. Guerrillas described Venezuela to him as a "friendly territory" with which they had a "nonaggression pact," Sierra said. Relations between the neighboring countries have soured in recent months, with Chavez accusing Uribe of being a U.S. puppet and Uribe responding that Chavez is trying to legitimize terrorism by cozying up with FARC rebels.

Residents in other communities along the frontier are making similar complaints about rebel activities. In neighboring Tachira state, gubernatorial candidate and Chavez opponent Leomagno Flores said 68 residents were being held for ransom by Colombian rebels operating on the Venezuelan side of the border and that Chavez was doing nothing to stem the wave of kidnappings.

"I blame the government's ideological complacency," Flores said. "There has been a political decision at the national level to facilitate the relocation here of Colombian armed groups." In San Cristobal, a Tachira city of more than half a million people, businessmen and farmers routinely pay armed Colombians "vaccinations," or bribes, to avoid being killed or kidnapped, said one prominent businessman who was a kidnapping victim in the late 1990s. He spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.Farther north, in Zulia state, Mayor Alfonso Marquez of Machiques said groups of suspected FARC rebels in civilian clothes openly buy supplies at stores and go unchallenged by the authorities. Land belonging to indigenous groups has been taken over by the insurgents, he maintained.

The president of Venezuela's cattlemen's association, Genaro Mendez, said this month that 34 members were kidnapped in January alone by Colombian rebels in border states. He called on Chavez to "recognize the problem." The tenor of discontent has risen as Chavez, a strident critic of President Bush, has expressed admiration for Colombian rebels and their leaders; his beliefs that the FARC and the ELN should be treated as "belligerents," not terrorists; and his contention that parts of Venezuela's southern and western borders run up not against Colombia, as any modern map would indicate, but with territory belonging to the FARC.

In an interview, retired Venezuelan Adm. Mario Ivan Carratu said that Chavez declared himself "neutral" in the Colombian conflict soon after taking office in 1999. But he charged that subsequent events show a "clienteleist" attitude by the Chavez government toward rebel groups, citing the detentions of two Colombian rebel leaders with false government-issued identification in recent years. Carratu suspects Chavez government officials gave them to the rebel leadersResponding to the rising criticism, Chavez this month denied on his Sunday afternoon TV program, "Alo Presidente," that he harbored Colombian rebels. "It's a lie; we want peace. It is [Colombia] that supports paramilitarism." In an interview Tuesday, Chavez advisor and former campaign manager Alberto Muller Rojas said right-wing paramilitary groups as well as leftist rebels have spilled over from Colombia's civil conflict for decades. "To expect us to control a 1,400-mile border with 70,000 troops, when the United States can't control its border with Mexico with 20 times that number, is not just unrealistic, it's stupid," said Muller, a retired general. Former Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Baduel, a onetime confidant who has broken with Chavez, said that he didn't know whether Chavez actively supported the Colombian rebels, but that the Venezuelan leader's "irresponsible and unscrupulous" statements about the FARC had created "confusion and discomfort" in the military. Venezuelan armed forces "wonder how they are supposed to carry out their constitutional responsibility to preserve Venezuelan sovereignty and the integrity of our borders if they detect the presence of these elements," he said. In El Nula, Father Belandria veered away from making any political commentary. He simply said rebels were more active than at any time since he arrived to take over this forgotten parish eight years ago.

"The rebels live and move clandestinely but are very present in the countryside," he said. "There is no court or prosecutor here, so the rebels serve that judicial function, intervening in family problems, settling property and business disputes." They recruit Venezuelan youths, whom they "seduce with promises," and check on what schoolteachers are telling the children, Belandria said.

Rebels extort a "war tax" on farmers and business owners, typically demanding a cow or $20 a month. Those who don't pay are killed, said Belandria, who estimated that there was a killing a month in his parish, with the victims usually local people who hadn't paid up. "The level of violence is very strong. The rebel groups fight among themselves over ideology and turf," Belandria said. "Every day there are more dead. So people are selling everything they own and leaving."


Link (here)
Photo credit of children being recruited into narcoterrorism armed by FARC (here)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Mother Angelica Heads Back To France: "Go Repair My House"

In late August of 2007, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, set out to re-found their original monastery in Troyes, France. Eight sisters from our monasteries in the United States and India answered the call to come and help rebuild our 'little portion' of Notre Dame des Anges. We are most grateful to Bishop Marc Stenger for all that he has done to help us re-establish our community here. We hope you will enjoy seeing what's been happening in the last few months through this under-construction page. We will try to keep this updated until our monastery website is completed.
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Link to Poor Clares in France site (here)
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Yes, Americans are now sending back missionaries of a sort to Europe. The sisters in France now, represent the rebuilding of their order, where their order was established. People need to remember that Mother Angelica founded EWTN, in the heart of the deep South, in a diocese that is located in a place that is 2% Catholic, out of a "studio" built by cement blocks intended to be a garage. Not a very hopeful begining where one would expect success. They also need to remember that while she built EWTN from that humble begining, at the same time the USCCB was attempting to create a Catholic network beamed by sattelite to places that had a sattelite dish - a very hopeful begining, with their money and clout, where one would expect success. They utterly and unequivicobly failed - no two ways about it. She has been an unqualified success. No word just yet as to the future of EWTN en français... but I would expect it to happen sooner rather than later. I know it strains my charity a bit, but every time dissidents wince at the mention of Mother A's name, I just curl my toes.

Catholic Church In The US On The Rise, Over A Half A Million New Members In Past Year

the newly published top 25 largest churches list that reported membership increases include The Catholic Church with a 0.87 percent increase; the Southern Baptist Convention with a 0.22 percent increase; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church with a 0.21 percent rise; and the Assemblies of God with a 0.19 percent growth. The greatest losses in membership were reported by The Episcopal Church, which dropped 4.15 percent in members, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which decreased by 2.36 percent. Both denominations are currently wracked by theological differences and the issue of homosexuality.

List of the top 25 Churches in the US
1. The Catholic Church – 67,515,016
2. Southern Baptist Convention – 16,306,246
3. The United Methodist Church – 7,995,456
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – 5,779,316
5. The Church of God in Christ – 5,499,875
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. – 5,000,000
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – 4,774,203
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. – 3,500,000
9. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – 3,025,740
10. Assemblies of God – 2,836,174
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church – 2,500,000
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America – 2,500,000
13. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. – 2,500,000
14. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) – 2,417,997
15. Episcopal Church – 2,154,572
16. Churches of Christ – 1,639,495
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America – 1,500,000
18. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. – 1,500,000
19. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church – 1,443,405
20. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. – 1,371,278
21. United Church of Christ – 1,218,541
22. Baptist Bible Fellowship International – 1,200,000
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ – 1,071,616
24. The Orthodox Church in America – 1,064,000
25. Jehovah’s Witnesses – 1,069,530

Link (here)

Jesuit To Preach Mission At Parish

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church will present a series of talks on the deep spirituality found in four spiritual disciplines within the Church over the next four months. The public is invited to join parishioners at St. Elizabeth Seton in an exploration of Franciscan, Benedictine, Dominican and Ignatian spiritualities. The prime time evening talks will be presented by committed men and women representing these traditions, sharing their faith journey. “Ignatian Spirituality” will be the topic Thursday, April 17, with Father Tom Widner, S.J., a Jesuit and Rector and Vice President for Mission and Identity at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis.

Link (here)

Jesuit Mission In Old Mexico, Now Arizona

Twenty miles north of the Mexico border you'll find Tumacácori National Historic Park, a Jesuit mission to the Pima Indians founded by Spanish Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino in 1691 and the location a bloody O'odham Indian uprising in 1751.
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Read the blog post (here) Some nice pictures also.
Kino was born Eusebio Francesco Chini on August 10, 1645 in Segno, today frazione of Taio, a village in the Val di Non in the Bishopric of Trent now in present-day Italy. After recuperating from a serious illness, Kino joined the Society of Jesus on November 20, 1665. Although he wanted to go to the Orient, he was ordered to establish a mission on the northern frontier of New Spain (today's northern Sonora and southern Arizona). Father Kino departed Spain in 1681 with that purpose in mind. He led the Atondo expedition to lower California. After a drought in 1685, Kino was forced back to Mexico City.
In addition to his pastoral activities as a missionary, Eusebio Kino also practiced other crafts, and was an expert astronomer, mathematician and cartographer, who drew the first accurate maps of Pimería Alta, the Gulf of California and Baja California. Father Kino enjoyed making model ships out of wood.

Former Jesuit Is Now A Former Priest

Vatican defrocks convicted priest Donald McGuire
By Karoun Demirjian
Tribune reporter
February 23, 2008

A Jesuit priest convicted of molesting students at a Chicago-area Catholic school in the 1960s was officially defrocked Friday.
Donald J. McGuire has been permanently removed from all clerical functions, said a statement from Rev. Edward Schmidt, the head of the Chicago order of the Society of Jesus to which McGuire belonged.
"We are outraged and saddened that any abuse ever took place," Schmidt said. "[McGuire] has terribly abused the trust [the victims], and we, put in him. And the church, by the action taken today, has demonstrated that same belief." McGuire, a popular priest whose accolades included being a spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa, was convicted in 2006 of molesting two students from Loyola Academy in Wilmette in the 1960s. He also has been accused of molesting others on various occasions from the 1960s through 2002.
Though they welcomed news of McGuire's removal from the priesthood, attorneys and advocates for the victims said it was more symbolic than substantive.
"In the scheme of things, it's little consolation to those kids and families whose lives and souls have been ruined and betrayed by the leadership as well as McGuire," said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer who has represented five of the priest's accusers. "It's a beginning, but it's just so little, so late." Defrocking has been advocated by bishops in recent years as a means of punishing clergy found to have abused children, but it's not a simple procedure. Priests who do not voluntarily leave the cloth -- as McGuire did not -- must be forced out by official order from the Vatican. McGuire, 77, lives in Oak Lawn and travels frequently to Cleveland for medical treatment. A lawyer for McGuire said he was saddened by the news of his dismissal.
Link (here)

Friday, February 22, 2008

America Magazine Is Into Domains

America Magazine owns the rights to 339 individual and unique domain names. For $208.00 dollars we can find out what they are? Check it out (here) and (here)

Former Jesuit Under Investigation In Maine And Massachusetts

Rev. Maurice Lebel, who has been in Maine for the past 22 years and is now retired, was previously a Jesuit priest serving in the Fall River Diocese. From 1973 to 1976, he was rector of the Jesuit community at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River, and from 1976 to 1986, he was a counselor for the diocese's Catholic Social Services, first at its Fall River headquarters, and then at its Attleboro office.

The allegation was first reported to church officials in Boston in March 2007 by a Massachusetts resident who claims to have been abused in the early 1980s at the ages of 15 to 17.

Investigations were launched by the Portland diocese, where Lebel was assigned at the time, and by law enforcement in Massachusetts, where Lebel had lived and worked during the time the alleged abuse took place. Based on preliminary evidence, Lebel was later restricted from ministry. According to the Portland diocese, civil authorities had completed enough of their investigation to allow the public release of information in December, and the Fall River Diocese was then notified. No information has been released on the exact dates or locations of the alleged abuse, other than it occurred in the early 1980s in Massachusetts.

After serving in the Fall River Diocese until 1986, Lebel was transferred to Maine by his religious order, the Society of Jesus. In 1991, he left his religious order and became a diocesan priest in Portland,

then served at various parishes until he was temporarily removed from ministry last year because of the allegation.


Link to the full story (here)

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Diogenes On Jesuit Translations

lost in translation
Posted by: Diogenes - Today 2:32 PM ET USA
Pope Benedict delivered a stern, no-nonsense message to Jesuit leaders on February 21. The CWN coverage of the Pope's talk was not terribly different from the accounts carried here and here and even here. If you read Italian, or if the Vatican eventually posts a translation, you can find the full text here, and judge for yourself. The Holy Father's intention was unmistakable. Leaders of the Society of Jesus have done their best to downplay the tension between the Jesuit order and the Vatican.
The new superior general suggested that the perception of a rift between the Jesuits and the Pope is a myth created by the mass media. Pope Benedict was fairly blunt in acknowledging that the problem is real.
You might think that when the Pope chooses to send a strong message, the Vatican press office would be careful to convey that message. But curiously, if you read the official summary and excerpts provided by the Vatican Information Service, the severity of the Pope's message doesn't come through to English-language readers.
Make of it what you will.
Link (here)

Fessio In Depth

Q: What will it take to get to a place where this idea is realized? What place do we need to get to? How can we see the fruits of the 'new springtime' that Pope John Paul the Great spoke of?
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A: Well, I've never been a 'new springtime' enthusiast. The Church waxes and wanes and I think we're in a very wintery state right now. I do think that there are many signs of hope in the United States, but I do not see those signs of hope as strongly in Europe. I think Europe is under severe demographic pressure, and how it cannot become an Arabic/ Islamic state, I don't really know humanly speaking. This is not the case in the United States. We've got immigration coming in from the south, Christians and even Catholics. So, when it comes to the 'new springtime' I never got that optimistic. I prefer the view that Benedict expressed when he was Cardinal.
He sees in the near term future of the Church a committed minority willing to accept being marginalized and even disdained by the world to live and proclaim the Teaching of our Savior who came as a lamb among wolves and who himself was opposed by those he was trying to reach.
So, the future of world history, or even the city we live in is not in our hands. What we can try to do is be faithful ourselves to the truths that have been revealed to the Church of Christ and do this through radio, blogs, television, writing, through our friendships, and pray that God will make of that mustard seed something which will become a large tree. Right now we're trying to get that mustard seed in through the cracks of the sidewalk and asphalt and hope for a good rain to help to crack things open.
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Link to Sober Inebriation to read the full interview (here)

St. John Ogilvie, S.J. "Martyr"

Head of Barcelona FC donates statue to Glasgow church
A group of generous Spaniards, including the MD of Barcelona FC, has donated a statue of the Black Madonna to St Aloysius' Church in Glasgow. The statue - a copy of the original in Montserrat in Spain - has been blessed and placed on the Lady Altar of the church. The Black Madonna, or the Virgin of Montserrat to give it its full title, is a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Christ venerated at the Monastery of Santa María de Montserrat in the Montserrat Mountains in Catalonia. It is a Romanesque sculpture in wood from the late 12th century. In March 1522, Ignatius of Loyola - having recovered from his battle wounds - visited the Benedictine monastery and prayed before this image of Our Lady. Meanwhile, St Aloysius Church is also preparing for a special Mass for the Feast of St John Ogilvie on 10 March, who is Scotland's only Jesuit martyr and only post-reformation saint. At the 12.30pm Mass, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese (or someone nominated by him) will bless a plaque at the National Shrine to St John Ogilvie which is in the church. The Shrine was built in 1933, just a few years after his Beatification in 1929. John Ogilvie - originally from Banffshire in Scotland - entered the Society of Jesus in 1608 and was ordained a priest in Paris in 1610. He begged his superiors to send him back to Scotland to minister to the few remaining Catholics in the Glasgow area and eventually returned to Scotland in November 1613 disguised as a soldier. He preached in secret and celebrated Mass clandestinely in private homes. But within the year, he was betrayed and arrested in Glasgow and imprisoned in Paisley. Despite severe torture, he refused to disclose the names of local Catholics and was convicted of high treason. On 10 March 1615, aged 36 years, John Ogilvie was paraded through the streets of Glasgow and hanged at Glasgow Cross. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1976.
Link (here)

Quote Of The Day: Pope Benedict XVI

"the salvation of all men in Jesus Christ, sexual morality, marriage and the family should be ... clarified in the context of contemporary reality while staying in tune with the Magisterium (papal authority) to avoid sowing confusion and disarray among the people of God."
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Pope Benedict XVI to Superior General Adolfo Nicolas
Link (here)

These Are Your Orders

Remember 4th vow, Pope urges Jesuits
Vatican, Feb. 21, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) gave the world's Jesuits a pointed reminder of their oath of fidelity, during a February 21 audience with participants in the 35th general congregation of the Society of Jesus. Meeting with the Jesuit leaders as they concluded their general congregation-- at which they had elected a new superior general, Father Adolfo Nicolas-- the Holy Father stressed that
the Jesuit order today should act "in full fidelity to the original charism."
That original charism, the Pope continued, is marked by devotion and obedience to the Church and the Roman Pontiff; he reminded the Jesuit leaders of
St. Ignatius' demand that his followers should always work "with the Church and in the Church."
Preserving harmony with the Church, Pope Benedict continued, is a particularly important task today, at a time when there is a "confusion of messages" in society on many fundamental issues. He exhorted the Jesuits to seek "that harmony with the magisterium that avoids causing confusion and uncertainty among the People of God."
All members of the Society of Jesus, he said, should "adhere completely to the Word of God as well as to the magisterium’s charge of conserving the truth and unity of Catholic doctrine in its entirety."
"I well understand that this is a particularly delicate and troublesome issue for you and for many of your colleagues," the Pope told the Jesuit officials. Nevertheless he said that
the Jesuit order must tackle the challenge and "regain a fuller understanding of your distinctive 'fourth vow' of obedience to the Successor of Peter."
During their general congregation, the Pontiff noted, the Jesuits had discussed some of the most critical debates of the day, "such as the salvation of all in Christ, sexual morality, and marriage and the family." On these issues, he said, the Church needs the intellectual support of the Jesuit order, to protect Catholic teaching on points that are "increasingly under attack from secular culture." Pope Benedict expressed his confidence that the Jesuit order could become a powerful force for Catholic truth in today's world. The Society of Jesus, he said, is "a religious order which in the course of its 500-year history has been capable of challenging cultural historical adversities to bring the Gospel to all corners of the world."
The Pope encouraged the Jesuits to continue their work among the poor, but cautioned that this work should not be politicized.
He observed that "the option for the poor is not ideological but rather is born of the Gospel." And while fighting against injustice, he added, the Jesuits must remember that it is also necessary "to fight the deep roots of evil in the very heart of the human being, the sin that separates us from God."
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.
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