Fr. Jean-Baptiste de la Brosse, S.J.

Montagnais Indian winter encampment

The party sat in silence, listening for the bells, which on the stroke of midnight began to toll. The village was aroused, and the people hurried to the chapel, and there, before the altar, lay the old Jesuit, dead. They watched by the corpse until daylight, when the post officer ordered four men to take a canoe and go to Ile-aux-Condres. A fearful storm was raging in the Gulf, and ice floes almost choked the wide expanse of water. "Fear not," said the officer to the fishermen; "Father Labrosse will protect you." They launched the canoe, and great was their surprise to find that, while the tempest howled and the waves and the ice seethed like a caldron on each side of them, a peaceful channel was formed by some invisible hand for their craft. They reached Ile-aux-Coudres — over sixty miles, as the crow flies, from Tadousac — without accident. Father Cornpain was standing on the cliff, and, as they neared the shore, he cried out, 

"Father Labrosse is dead, and you have come to take me to Tadousac to bury him!" How did he know this? The night previous he was sitting alone in his house, reading his breviary, when suddenly the bell in the church (dedicated to St. Louis) began to toll. He ran down to the church, but the doors were locked, and when he opened them he found no one within, and still the passing bell was tolling. As he approached the altar, Father Compain heard a voice saying, "Father Labrosse is dead. 

 This bell announces his departure. "To-morrow do thou stand at the lower end of the island and await the arrival of a canoe from Tadousac. Return with it, and give him burial." And at all the mission posts where Father Labrosse had preached — Chicoutimi, I'lle Verte, Trois-Pistoles, Rirnouski, and along the Baie-des-Chaleurs — the bells, of their own accord, rang out the death of the old Jesuit at the same hour. And for many a year, whenever the Montagnais Indians of the Saguenay visited Tadousac, they made a pilgrimage to his grave, and whispered to the dead within through a hole in the slab of the vault, believing that he would lay their petitions before God.
Link (here) to The Atlantic Monthly

Former Jesuit John C. Dwyer Defends New York Governor

N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee

"There are norms of the church governing the sacraments, which Catholics are expected to observe," Bishop Howard Hubbard wrote in a brief statement. "However, it is unfair and imprudent to make a pastoral judgment about a particular situation without knowing all the facts."As a matter of pastoral practice we would not comment publicly on anything which should be addressed privately, regardless if the person is a public figure or a private citizen," Hubbard wrote in conclusion. John Dwyer, a former Jesuit who taught theology at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry, said Hubbard's statement was "the perfect response, really solid." Dwyer, who lives outside of Tannersville in the Catskills, said modern religious thought has come to the conclusion that communion should be denied only to those living in mortal sin -- a state that requires "a serious, grievous matter," sufficient reflection by the sinner, and the "full consent" of his will. "Cuomo comes from a day and age when living with your girlfriend isn't a serious, grievous matter ... or something that's seen as a serious violation of God's will," Dwyer said.

Link (here) to the full article.

Jesuit Soon To Be Released From Prison

Fr. James F. Talbot, S.J.

Last week, Jim Higgins received a call that brought his back. Father James F. Talbot — a Jesuit priest who molested him when he was a teenager — is about to get out of prison, he was told by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. The target release date is March 18. Talbot is asking to serve a three-year probation period in an out-of-state treatment facility. Talbot will be free in a way his victims never will be, said Higgins, 55, who now lives in Florida. “He gets to heave a big sigh of relief. The rest of us are stuck with it, ’’ he said. In the early 1970s, Higgins had a part-time job at the rectory of the Immaculate Conception Church in Boston’s South End, where Talbot worked. 

In 2003, Higgins was one of 14 men who were part of an approximately $5.2 million settlement of civil claims against Talbot. Most of the other plaintiffs were former students at Boston College High School, where Talbot taught history and economics and coached soccer and hockey from 1972 to 1980. 

His victims said the priest encouraged them to wrestle one-on-one with him, sometimes clad only in jockstraps, and then forcibly molested them. In 1980, Talbot was transferred to the Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine. According to records kept by bishopaccountability.org, Talbot was removed from ministry and sent to St. Luke’s Center in Maryland in 1998, when a former student at Cheverus accused him of sexual abuse. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to the rape and assault of two boys who were BC High students in the 1970s. He was sentenced to five to seven years in prison.

Link (here) to the full story

Partisan Jesuit Volunteers

......as I wrote in "Marked for life," is the effect on the volunteers. They become engaged, informed members of their community and country (one former Jesuit Volunteer became a Senator--Bob Casey of PA). But here's the rub: Being in contact with the poor day in and day out and living simply without much money leads volunteers to empathize with the poor, so these engaged citizens know just how important all the programs that serve the poor are.  There’s a sidebar to the print version of "Marked for life" that didn’t make it online. It compares former Jesuit volunteers to the general population of college graduates. Former volunteers tend to be more Democratic. The breakdown for volunteers is 7 percent Republican, 62 percent Democrat, and 19 percent Independent, while college grads in the General Social Survey were 33 percent Republican, 30 percent Democrat, and 37 percent independent. I'm sure the numbers are similiar for non-Catholic volunteer programs.

Link (here)  The US Catholic

Jesuit On Inspiration, Tortilla Chips, Salsa And Liturgy

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle’s Homeboy Industries, an outreach program for gang members in Los Angeles, recently partnered with Ralphs grocery store chain to sell Homeboy chips and salsa. The products were the hottest-selling snack item at the 256 Ralphs deli sections across Southern California in early February. Fr. Boyle said he was inspired by the late actor Paul Newman, whose “Newman’s Own” products funded nonprofit organizations. The products launched at Ralphs last month as part of an effort to revive Homeboy’s hard-hit finances.

Link (here) to National Jesuit News 

Fr. Boyle's electronic signature is found the What If We Said Wait website.
An excerpt from the website.

We are very concerned about the proposed new translations of the Roman Missal. We believe that simply imposing them on our people -- even after a program of preparation -- will have an adverse effect on their prayer and cause serious division in our communities. 
Link (here) to read more on the subject.

Pro Abortion Jesuit Called "Sharp Legal Mind" At America

Fr. Robert Drinan, S.J.  was  a sharp legal mind and a widely respected commentator on world affairs, a role that he honed in over 170 articles for America. Dating from 1946, when he was a Jesuit scholastic, Fr. Drinan's reviews and essays for the "Jesuit weekly" mark him as one of the magazine's most prolific contributers. Here we offer a selection of his writings.

Link (here) to America

Fr. Opprobrium, S.J.

Fr. Robert Drinan, S.J.

In the summer of 1992 a Jesuit graduate student at Harvard, Father Paul Mankowski, completed the background research for an article he planned to write on the relationship between the Society of Jesus and the congressional career of Father Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest who had compiled a consistent record of public support for legalized abortion. 

The original purpose of the article was to have been the exoneration of the former Superior General of the Jesuits, Father Pedro Arrupe. Father Mankowski intended to show that the Drinan candidacy was stage-managed from the US in such a way that Father Arrupe did not have the information he needed in order to make a prudent decision, 

and could thus be absolved from complicity in the scandal created when a Jesuit priest voted to support abortion. With the knowledge and consent of the archivist for the New England Province of the Society, Mankowski made photocopies of the correspondence and office memos pertinent to Drinan’s political career. 

He was anxious for the opinion of a professional historian in determining how the various documents could be used responsibly as supporting evidence for his essay, and provided me with a copy of the correspondence for that purpose. Further scrutiny of the papers convinced Mankowski that Arrupe's part in the affair did not exonerate him from blame, and he decided against going ahead with his original article out of reluctance to increase the opprobrium on the Society of Jesus, 

many of whose members had played an honorable, if ultimately futile, role in the political struggle against abortion. Now that Father Drinan has re-emerged as a political player in the abortion debate, that documentation has assumed a new timeliness. 

Link (here) to the full article entitled, The Strange Political Career of Father Drinan at Catholic Culture

From The Malicious Enemy Defend Me

“Within in your wounds, hide me,” we are reminded both of the Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus, because in the appearance of the Lord to Thomas, his sacred resurrected body bore the wounds of his crucifixion, whence it is fitting that this prayer was prayed during the elevation of the Body and Blood of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist. 

I remember being told in our catechism classes to pray the ejaculation, “My Lord and my God,” at the elevation of the Host and Chalice. In fact an indulgence was attached to the recitation of the prayer. I suggest that at the elevation of the Body and Blood of Christ during the institution narrative we might mentally pray the petitions, “Body of Christ, save me, Blood of Christ inebriate me.” 

The Body and Blood are lifted up for our prayerful adoration. The petitions seem a very appropriate response. We would be reaching back across the centuries to the liturgical and spiritual origins of this prayer.

Link (here) to a magnificent article entitled The “Anima Christi” Reconsidered by Fr. Everett A. Diederich, S.J.at The New Jesuit Review

Jesuit On The Vocations Destroyer

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J.

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. reduces the problem of the Enneagram to its foundation: "We humans cannot save ourselves, Salvation is a free gift of God's grace which no human can earn." Neither is he convinced that the Enneagram can be purged of its occult roots or ever be acceptable for Christian use. In his experience, everyone who shared their excitement with the Enneagram also practiced one or more of the following: Zen, transcendental meditation, numerology, tarot, or astrology. Mixing these practices with Christianity is really no different than Santerria, where voodoo is awkwardly combined with certain aspects of Catholicism. Pacwa is unequivocal in his warning: "No Jesuit from my class, except myself, who took the Enneagram teaching is still a Jesuit today. All have left the priesthood."

Link (here) to Catholic Culture to read the full article by Mary Jo Anderson

The Holy Father On The Great Jesuit Doctor Of The Church

St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.

At his weekly public audience on February 23, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the contributions of St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), and especially his work defending the integrity of the Church. A highly influential figure in the Church during the time of the Reformation, St. Robert Bellarmine defended Catholicism against attacks and encouraged genuine reform, the Pope said. “With great clarity and the example of his own life, he clearly teaches that there can be no true reform of the Church unless this is first preceded by personal reform and conversion of heart on our part.” The great theological works of St. Robert Bellarmine—who was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI—examined the nature of the institutional Church, the Pope observed. His work illustrated “the relationship between the interior richness of the Church and her visible exterior features.” While serving as a Vatican official, diplomat, and teacher, the Jesuit scholar did not neglect his own interior life, the Pope said. “His burden of office did not, in fact, prevent him from striving daily after sanctity through faithfulness to the requirements of his condition as religious, priest and bishop.” 

Link (here) to Catholic Culture

The Big Ten

The Jesuit-run University of San Francisco is among 14 Catholic colleges or universities in the U.S. hosting productions this year of the controversial play “The V@gina Monologues,” The Cardinal Newman Society reports.

Of the 14 Catholic schools identified by The Cardinal Newman Society, 10 are run by the Jesuits.

“Since CNS began protesting the Monologues in 2003, performances have dropped from a high of 32,” said a news item posted on the Newman Society’s website. “But on some Catholic campuses, the Monologues has become an annual display of defiance against traditional marriage and s@xual morality.”

“Catholic colleges that host this play -- some of them repeatedly -- should be ashamed of the obvious contradiction with their Catholic identity,” said Patrick J. Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “Most Catholic colleges have rejected the Monologues and found much better ways of seriously addressing women’s issues.”

According to The Cardinal Newman Society, 

“The Monologues favorably describes l@sbian activity, m@sturbation and the reduction of s@xuality to selfish pleasure. Promoted by the organization V-Day and performed to support the end to violence against women, often as a fundraiser for women’s shelters, the good intentions of the performers are undermined by the play’s obscene and demeaning content.”

“CNS informed Catholic college and university leaders that their institutions are listed as performing the Monologues, either at VDay.org or by another published source,” said the Society’s news item. “CNS alerted the institutions about the obscene nature of the play and asked college leaders to confirm whether or not the Monologues are indeed taking place.”

The Cardinal Newman Society based its list on listings on the website VDay.org or elsewhere on the Internet. In addition to the University of San Francisco, The Cardinal Newman identified the following Catholic colleges or universities as hosting The V@gina Monologues in 2011:

Bellarmine University
Boston College
College of Saint Rose
College of the Holy Cross
DePaul University
Fordham University
Georgetown University
John Carroll University
Loyola University Chicago
Marquette University
Saint Mary’s College (IN)
Seattle University
University of Detroit Mercy
Link (here) to California Catholic Daily

Fordham's Sara Kugal On The "Intrinsic Root" In Jesuit Teachings

"However, there has, for years, been reluctance to support the V-Day production because it contains a well-known monologue that appears to celebrate a s@xual encounter between an adult and a minor under the influence of alcohol. We have been informed by past show organizers that this monologue cannot be removed." "To say the play has no place on a Catholic campus is a perspective that completely fails to note its value to an academic setting and its intrinsic root in Jesuit teachings," Sara Kugel, FCRH '11, president of USG, said in response to such claims. 

"The concept behind The V@gina Monologues is to empower women to speak and share their experiences. [The] V@gina Monologues deals with uncomfortable topics, yes, I won't deny that because that is its purpose." "The play is supposed to leave the audience bothered, disturbed and enlightened," Kugel continued.  

"Isn't that exploration of truth, the acknowledgment of tragic aspects of the human experience, actions that we, as members of a Catholic university should promote rather than shrink away from? It is the acceptance and understanding of these truths that allow us, and further motivate us, to make the world a safer, more just place for all."

Link (here) to the Fordham Ram

On The Discernment Of Spirits

Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, OMV

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is Ignatian discernment of spirits. Born of Ignatius’ conversion experience, the rules have stood the test of time as one of his major contributions to the living of the Christian life. 

Unfortunately, despite their prominence in the history of the Church’s spirituality, the rules have never really received the attention they deserve. A book of fairly recent vintage should prove a major help in remedying this situation. 

The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living (Crossroad: New York, 2005) is that book. Written by Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., an experienced teacher and retreat-giver, it appeared five years ago and came bearing the endorsement of such authorities as Fr. William A. Barry, S.J. and Fr. Harvey D. Egan, S.J.

Link (here) to read the full book review by Fr. James Swetnam, S.J. at the New Jesuit Review

Blessed Bernardo Francisco De Hoyos, S.J. And "The Great Promise" Of The Sacred Heart

Blessed Bernardo Francisco De Hoyos, S.J.

In September 1731 Bernardo was sent to the College of St Ambrose in Valladolid to begin his course in theology. Soon after his arrival he visited the chapel. At the end of April 1733, Bernardo received a letter from his friend, Fr Augustine Cadaveraz in Bilbao, requesting him to translate from Latin the chapter relating the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi in Fr Joseph de Gallifet’s book On Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1726).3 On 3 May, Bernardo took the book from the house library to his room and immediately began to read it. It threw open to Bernardo, for the first time, the unexplored vistas of the Sacred Heart. For all his earlier visions of the Sacred Heart, it was only now that he became completely aware of the Divine Heart. He felt so enthused that he knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and offered to work at diffusing this devotion. For two days, the idea that this offering was more binding than he had first thought grew and grew. The third day, again before the Blessed Sacrament, the Saviour confided that He had picked him to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart.

On 4 May 1733 Bernardo received this decisive mission from Jesus: “I wish for you to spread the Devotion to My Sacred Heart throughout all of Spain.” From then on, Bernardo did not live for anything else. On 14 May he obtained what is known as the “Great Promise” from the Sacred Heart of Jesus: “This will always be my place of rest. I will make my home here – the place where I have desired and chosen to be. I will reign in Spain with more veneration than in other places.” 

Bernardo connsecrated himself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on 12 June 1733, using the same formula written by St Claude La Columbière fifty years earlier. The College of St Ambrose, now a Basilica was established as the National Shrine of the Great Promise in 1941.

“Bernardo was the first among Spanish Jesuits to grasp intuitively the transcendent nature of the cult of the Sacred Heart as means of personal sanctification and effective apostolic tool. For him the cult of the Sacred Heart is in substance the cult of the love of Jesus, Incarnate Word, Redeemer, which reveals in itself the love of the Most Holy Trinity loving us with a heart of flesh in virtue of the hypostatic union, and presenting the heart as a symbol of this love to animate us to imitate him and love him in return.” 

On the occasion of the beatification, Fr Adolfo Nicolás, Superior General of the Society of Jesus noted: "Bernardo de Hoyos's passion for the Heart of Jesus faithfully corresponds to the devotion that St Ignatius felt for Jesus poor and humble, before whom he asks that our affections be moved in order to accompany Him in each step of His life: ‘As companions with him on mission, his way is our way, so that in what we do in the world there must always be a transparency to God’ (GC35, D2, nn 14, 10).” Bernardo’s last words before he died were: "Oh, how good it is to dwell in the Heart of Jesus!" 

Link (here) to the full biography of Blessed Bernardo Francisco De Hoya, S.J.

Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J. On The Holy Face

Several years ago Paul Badde, the Rome and Vatican correspondent for Die Welt, one of Germany’s leading newspapers, was on his way to San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy to report on the new church being built in memory of St Padre Pio. Having heard from Father Heinrich Pfeiffer, a Jesuit professor at the Gregorian University in Rome, about a unique image of Jesus in the town of Manoppello near Pescara, Badde decided, since it was on the way, to make a visit to the shrine in Manoppello where the image is kept. This book began to take shape from that moment. Following in the tradition of Catholic pilgrimage authors such as Dante and Chaucer, Badde draws us along on his journey to meet the people who lead him to deeper knowledge of this sensational image which had been nearly forgotten for centuries. Badde’s wife Ellen plays a crucial role as helper and advisor, at critical moments, as to where he should go or with whom he should speak. The dialogues between Badde and Sister Blandina, a Trappistine nun, lead to the discovery that the fabric of the “Holy Face” is marine byssus, the most precious material of the ancient world, a “silk from the sea” made from the hairs of a Mediterranean sea mollusk. His discussions with Father Pfeiffer shed light on how the image, known since the 11th century as “the Veronica,” was taken from the Vatican during the construction of the new St. Peter’s Basilica in the 16th and 17th centuries only to reappear in Manoppello, where it has remained since that time.

Link (here) to read the full story

Superior General Adolfo Nicolas: There Is But One Safety For Us: " Sentire Cum Ecclesia,"

Church of St. Ignatius, Singapore

Jesuits of the Asia-Pacific region gathered recently to discern and discuss the situation and challenges facing the congregation. The congregation’s Superior General, Jesuit Fr Adolfo Nicolas spoke at the Jan 23-28 meeting of the Major Superiors of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific in Singapore at Kingsmead Hall at the Church of St Ignatius. The challenges facing the Jesuits include preserving the congregation’s “Jesuit, Christian and prophetic identity” of their works and institutions while staying “fit and relevant”, communicating clearly without an excessive use of Ignatian terms, and collaborating more closely with the Church expressed as “Sentire cum Ecclesia” that is part of the charism of the Jesuits.

Link (here) to the full story

Fr. John D Saint John, S.J. On His Encounters With St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Go (here) to read the supernatural  story of the World War II 
Jesuit military chaplain Fr. John D. Saint John, S.J. and St. Pio of Pietrelcina

With The Economy In The Tank Loyola New Orleans Raises Tution Three Time The Inflation Rate

The Loyola New Orleans 2011-2012 school year will bring an undergraduate class of 850 students, and a 5.9 percent tuition increase and 6 percent room and board increase. 

Currently, on-campus Loyola students pay an estimated $ 42,002 and off-campus students pay an estimated $31,754, according to Loyola Admissions. 

During the spring convocation speech, the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., brought up the plans to raise tuition and the expected benefits reaped from the allocation of incoming revenue. "Next year's budget would result in a surplus of $660,000," he said. "I directed Jay Calamia to set up a Plant Fund to address ongoing maintenance issues and we will transfer $560,000 to the fund at the end of next year." The remaining $100,000 will be surplus for next year's budget allocation, said Wildes.

Link (here) to the Maroon.

The Jesuits of Nebraska

Chimney Rock, Nebraska

When Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore was appointed as administrator, his authority ceasing in 1815. From that time the bishop of New Orleans ruled until 1827, when it came under the jurisdiction of St. Louis. In 1850, Rome established the "Vicariate Apostolic of the Territory East of the Rocky Mountains." This vicariate included all territory west of the Missouri river to the Rocky mountains, and from the southern boundary of Kansas to the British possessions. Rt. Rev. John B. Miege, S. J., was appointed vicar apostolic.

In 1857 Kansas was cut off, and the remaining part was erected into the Vicariate of Nebraska. This vicariate was gradually trimmed down until 1885, when, comprising Nebraska and Wyoming, the Diocese of Omaha was erected. Two years later, in 1887, took place the establishment of the present Diocese of Lincoln. Its history is no less interesting. If Coronado's Expedition entered the present state of Nebraska, it must have been somewhere within the limits of the Lincoln diocese. However, the first authentic records we have of Catholic priests ministering within the present borders of Nebraska, and of the Lincoln diocese, are those of the Jesuit Indian missionaries. Many of the early traders and trappers who dwelt in these regions had been baptized as Catholics, but, being far removed from churches and priests, they retained only the name and some traditions.

The Jesuit Fathers, Peter John De Smet and Christian Hoecken, visited and baptized among the Indians living along the Missouri river. Father De Smet, in a letter dated December 16, 1839, writes, "A few days ago I also baptized two young Omahaw's, from 18 to 20 vears old. One of them was the son of Aurora and Nelson as missions.  Opetanga (the great dog) Chief of his tribe, and nephew to the famous Blackbird."' In 1840 Father De Smet accompanied Captain Drips and the American Fur Co.'s caravan up the Little Blue river, through the present Jefferson, Thayer, Nuckolls, Clay, Adams, and Kearney counties, to the Platte river, thence along the south shore to where Julesburg, Col., now is, crossed the river there, and proceeded through Wyoming to Oregon. He saw Chimney Rock on May 31, 1840. He returned in the fall along the Missouri river from Ft. Benton. He passed through Nebraska again in 1841, with Fathers Point, Mengarini, and three lay brothers. On these journeys Father De Smet met several tribes of Indians, but it is not known, at present, whether he baptized any of them.

Link (here) to the book entitled History of Nebraska

Jesuit Missionary On Seeing A Wagon Train

Father De Smet tells of the great government wagon trains he met on the Oregon Trail in 1858: 

 

"Each train consisted of twenty-six wagons, each wagon drawn by six yoke of oxen. The trains made a line fifty miles long. Each wagon is marked with a name as in the case of ships, and these names served to furnish amusement to the passers-by. Such names as The Constitution, The President, The Great Republic, The King of Bavaria, Louis Napoleon, Dan O'Connell, Old Kentuck, were daubed in great letters on each side of the carriage. On the plains the wagoneer assumes the style of Captain, being placed in command of his wagon and twelve oxen. The master wagoneer is admiral of this little land fleet of 26 captains and 312 oxen. At a distance the white awnings of the wagons have the effect of a fleet of vessels with all canvas spread."

Link (here) to the Overland Trails of Nebraska

Fr. Cornelius A Lapide, S.J. "There Is But One Sacrifice Of Christ"

In the words of the Jesuit commentator, Fr. Cornelius a Lapide, on Heb: vii., 27: "There is but one sacrifice of Christ which is an expiation, redemption and satisfaction for all sins, viz: the Sacrifice of the Cross. By it Christ offered a price sufficient for the guilt and debt of all sins which ever had been, or thenceforth should be, committed. 

But the Mass is a sacrifice not of redemption and satisfaction, but for the application of the redemption and satisfaction of Christ finished upon the cross. For in the Mass we offer no price for sin, but we apply to ourselves the price and ransom paid upon the cross. 

We apply this by Baptism, by the other Sacraments and by good works."

 

Link (here) to the original Anglican text

As Old As The Belief In The Hypostatic Union

The special and formal devotion to the Heart of Jesus, which is now so popular in the Church, owes its origin to a French Visitation nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Her biographers relate that our Lord Himself appeared to her and declared that this worship was most acceptable to Him; and her director, the famous Jesuit, Father Claude de la Colombiere, preached the devotion at the Court of St. James's, and zealously propagated it elsewhere. The most popular book in defence of the new devotion was that of Father Joseph de Gallifet, S. J., "De Cultu SS. Cordis Jesu in variis Christiani orbis partibus jam propagato." It was published with a dedication to Benedict XIII. and with the approval of Lambertini (afterwards Benedict XIV.); the French translation appeared in 1745, at Lyons. On February 6, 1765,1 Clement XIII. permitted several churches to celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart, which was extended in 1866 to the whole Church. It is generally kept on the Friday (in the U. S. as other countries) after the Octave of Corpus Christi. In England, Italy, France, Netherlands, Germany, Spam and Portugal, indeed throughout the Catholic world, the devotion and the feast found a ready and enthusiastic acceptance. However, the worship of the Sacred Heart encountered keen opposition, particularly from the Jansemsts. They who practised it were nicknamed "Cardiol a tree" or "Cordicolse," and charged with Nestorianism, as if they worshipped a divided Christ, and gave to the created humanity of Christ worship which belonged to God alone. The Jansenist objections were censured as injurious to the Apostolic See—which had approved the devotion, and bestowed numerous indulgences in its favour—by Pius VI. in his condemnation of the Jansenist synod of Pistoia. This condemnation was issued in the bull "Auctorem fidei," bearing date August 28, 1794. A further approval of the devotion was The Congregation of Rites had refused to sanction the feast in 1697 and 1729.implied in the beatification of Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1864. The bull "Auctorem fidei" contains the following explanation of the principle on which the devotion rests, an explanation which is at once authoritative and clear. The faithful worship with supreme adoration the physical Heart of Christ, considered "not as mere flesh, but as united to the Divinity." They adore it as "the Heart of the Person of the Word to which it is inseparably united." It is of course absurd to speak of this principle as novel; it is as old as the belief in the hypostatic union, and it was solemnly defined in 431 at the Council of Ephesus. 

All the members of Christ united to the rest of His sacred humanity and to the eternal Word are the object of divine worship. If it be asked further, why the heart is selected as the object of special adoration, the answer is, that the real and physical heart is a natural symbol of Christ's exceeding charity, and of his interior life. 

Just as the Church in the middle age3 turned with singular devotion to the Five Wounds as the symbol of Christ's Passion, so in these later days she bids us have recourse to his Sacred Heart, mindful of the love wherewith he loved us "even to the end." Nothing could be made of the fact, if it were a fact, that the devotion actually began with Blessed Margaret Mary, for though the doctrine of the Church cannot change, she may, and does from time to time, introduce new forms of devotion. But the special devotion to the Heart of our Saviour is as old at least as the twelfth century, while early in the sixteenth the Carthusian Lansperg recommended pious Christians to assist their devotion by using a figure of the Sacred Heart.

Link (here) the Catholic Dictionary

Go (here) to the Protestant Dictionary view of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Abortion And Boston College

Boston College is coming under criticism from a Catholic educational watchdog group for an event it is planning honoring a pro-abortion Catholic priest. On March 7, the Boston College Law School is scheduled to hold an event honoring the late, virulently pro-abortion priest Father Robert Drinan. The Cardinal Newman Society has written to the president of Boston College, Father William Leahy, urging him to cancel the event and to develop speaker policies which will prevent such scandals in the future.

Link (here)

The Persuasive Eloquence Of St. Francis Xavier,

THE JESUITS AND THE EDUCATED CLASSES AMONG THE HINDUS.

A correspondent from India writes us an account of the work done by the Jesuit Fathers in behalf of the educated classes among the Hindus. The Rev. F. Bartoli, S.J., professor at the College of St. Aloysius in Mangalore, recently gave a series of lectures on the evidences of natural religion.

The syllabus before us is quite elaborate, and contains among other special topics the following: The Primitive Religion of Mankind—God a Personal Being—Origin of the Universe —The Nature of Man—Man's Final Destiny—Divine Providence. The philosophical manner in which these subjects are treated gives evidence of the high intellectual capacity of the people to whom they are addressed.

To the ordinary inquirer it may appear singular that the almost uninterrupted missionary labors of about three hundred years should not have produced any better results than are shown by the religious census of the country. Of 277,290,736 inhabitants only 1,925,992 are Catholics; that is to say a proportion of one to one hundred and forty-five. This compares rather unfavorably with the wondrous strides made by the Church in the early days of Christian Europe and America.

But there is a reason for this difference which may be found in the local conditions of India. Here the vagaries of Mahometanism have enthralled the imaginative minds of the people; untrammeled speculative philosophy, pantheism, such doctrines as the transmigration of souls have completely charmed and, in a manner, benumbed the Hindu mind, so that it is difficult to gain access for the light of the Gospel.

Father Bartoli has met this difficulty in a practical way. After having studied the favorite theories of the Hindus he has invited the better educated amongst them to hear the other side. This has given him an opportunity of setting before them the contradictions and fallacies of their pagan philosophy, and of placing before them in the proper light the teachings of right reason under the guidance of revelation. These lectures cannot fail to advance the gradual awakening to religious enthusiasm in India, and to give it a right direction. 

It is to be hoped that the example of the learned Jesuit may find able followers, whose intelligent efforts may happily recall the times when the persuasive eloquence of St. Francis Xavier, of the Blessed Aquaviva and of the saintly Robert De Nobili led numerous souls into the one fold of the True Shepherd.

At present there are 2,395 priests, of whom 1,599 are natives, administering to the spiritual needs of Catholics in India and Ceylon. One-third of this number, however, are working in the Archdiocese of Goa, where there is one priest to about 400 Catholics. The ecclesiastical seminaries number 32 with 926 students. The religious communities, especially of women, are rapidly growing, and with them the number of schools. The outlook is especially cheering in Ceylon, where the proportion of Catholics to the general population is one to seventeen (in India it is one to one hundred and forty-five). The Catholic schools in Ceylon are attended by 28,000 children. In the Archdiocese of Colombo the proportion of Catholics is still greater, that is, one to six, with a corresponding strength in Catholic activity.
Link (here) to read the original at The American Ecclesiastical Review

Private University On The Hill Is Impenetrable

Seattle University Ariel View

Seattle University deserves commendation for taking a page from the successful Harlem Children's Zone and broadening a partnership with Bailey Gatzert Elementary to a Youth Initiative spanning 100 blocks. For many residents in the Central Area, the private university on the hill is impenetrable. Many do not envision their children could attend the school or their community use the campus. Seattle U is smart to seek to change that misperception. In addition to the tutoring and after-school programs university students have supplied Gatzert for 20 years, parents and neighbors can look to Seattle U for a broad range of assistance, including health-care assistance from the nursing program and legal aid from the law school. Seattle U's timing is perfect. The community around the university faces youth violence and incarceration rates among the highest in the city. A third of the families live in poverty; more than 90 percent of the elementary school's children qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch.

Link (here) to the full article at The Seattle Times

Laudes Divinæ

These "Divine Praises" are often recited after Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and before the Holy Eucharist is returned to the tabernacle. They were composed by the 18th century Jesuit Luigi Felici in reparation for blasphemy and profanity.

The Divine Praises

Blessed be God.

Blessed be His Holy Name.

Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.

Blessed be the name of Jesus.

Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the paraclete.

Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.

Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.

Blessed be her glorious Assumption.

Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.

Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.

Blessed be God in His angels and in His Saints.

May the heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.

Link (here) to the Canterbury Tales

The Bankrupt Oregon Province

Fr. James E. Poole, S.J.

Lawyers representing a group of people who accuse Jesuit priests of s@xual abuse filed 37 lawsuits Thursday in the bankruptcy involving the region's Jesuits, asking for about $3.1 million. The lawsuits, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland, claim that the regional order paid out money to various entities before declaring bankruptcy two years ago and that that money should actually be part of the order's assets. 

Some of money went towards training priests and other funds were spent on faculty and student tuition at a time when abuse victims were seeking millions in dollars in damages against the order, said James Stang, a lawyer representing a creditor's committee that brought the lawsuits. 

Stang said the suits do not contend that the Jesuits were trying to protect their assets from abuse claims. "I don't think this is a hiding issue," he said. "It's not illegal. This is what Jesuits do. They support education. That's a fine thing to do, when you're not insolvent." The region's Jesuits, a Roman Catholic order formally known as the Oregon Province of Society of Jesus, filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 17, 2009 in the face of s@x-abuse lawsuits brought against Jesuit priests. Between 2001 and early 2009, the order settled more than 200 legal claims, paying out $25 million. 

Link (here) to the full story at Oregon Live
Go (here) to read the public record about the 40 plus Jesuits whose activities led to the bankruptcy. Fr. James Poole, S.J. is one of the Jesuits. Read more  (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here) and (here) 

Fr. Saju George "The Dancing Jesuit"

A picture of Fr. Saju George, S.J.  

however this 6 minute video is

....umh......well...

you decide (here)

Jesuit Ordination In Nepal

An ordination ceremony for three priests in Nepal’s remotest parish, has given villagers there a chance to celebrate and an early opportunity to meet their new spiritual advisors. 

The three Indian-born priests, a diocesan and two Jesuits were ordained in Jesuit-run Maheshpur parish, 600 kilometers east of Kathmandu, 

on February 12 by Nepal’s apostolic vicar Jesuit Bishop Anthony Sharma.

Link (here) to CathNews

Jesuit To Lead Seminary

Father John Horn, S.J. has been named the next rector and president of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Shrewsbury, Mo., seminary of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, effective July 1. Fr. Horn is the co-founder of the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) at Creighton University in Omaha and has more than 30 years of experience in Catholic education, spiritual direction, pastoral ministry and administration.

Link (here) Jesuit.org 
From the blog entitled St. Louis Catholic
Father Horn is very serious about the authentic spiritual life of the seminary. He is not an academic nor a experienced pastoral but understands the human soul and its relationship with God. Father Horn desires to be a son of Ignatius.

Link (here) to read Fr. Andrew's full commentary 

Jesuit Mathematician

Fr.Christopher Clavius, S.J.

Fr. Christopher Clavius, S.J. whose talents in geometry made him regarded as a second Euclid, was, when young, entered in a College of Jesuits at Bamberg. After he had been tried in various branches of learning, 

he was on the point of being dismissed as a hopeless blockhead, till one of the fathers thought he would make a trial of him in geometry ; 

which hit his genius so luckily, that he afterwards became one of the greatest mathematicians of the age.

Link (here)

Jesuit Butte

Priest Butte, Montana

Priest Butte near Choteau on the Choteau-Fairfield highway is topped with three crosses and named for the three Jesuits Fr. A. Hoecken and  Imoda and Br. Magri— who founded a Jesuit Mission among the Blackfeet Tribe in 1859. The Jesuits focused on learning the language and religious conversion. The mission moved outside of Cascade after a hostile reaction from Native Americans.

Link (here) to read the full article at the Great Falls Tribune

A Jesuit Joke

At a conference about religious obedience, the Jesuit representative is asked, "Your Order places great emphasis on the vow of obedience. How do you ensure that Jesuits remain faithful to this vow?" He replies, "It's simple. Our superiors first ask us what we want to do, and then they mission us to do it. Thus, we never have any problems with obedience." Another conference participant then a sks the Jesuit, "But aren't there some members of your Order who don't know what they want to do? What do you do with them?" The Jesuit replies, "We make them the superiors!"

Link (here) to a whole site full of Jesuit Jokes

Poured Out For The Many

I am not terribly enthusiastic about this so-called ' reform'. It seems to me more a kind of ' set back' and, in places, confusing. Some of the new translations appear crudely archaic, in an attempt to render the original Latin word order. The Nicene creed now reads: " One in being with the Father.. by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary". The proposed new translation reads: " consubstantial with the Father.. by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary." We can expect a new slew of archaic words such as vouchsafe and deign. I also strongly oppose the shift in the new words of consecration which now say that Jesus' blood is shed for all men and women. In the new translation it will say:" The blood which is shed for the many". This new translation does, of course, capture the scriptural words used for the last supper when Jesus said to his disciples: " This is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins." ( Matthew 26:26).

Link (here) to the Fr. John Coleman, S.J. full editorial at America.

Go (here) to read more on the subject and find out which Jesuits signed a petition along with Fr. Coleman against the new Missal translation at What if we said wait?

Jesuit Brother No Longer Missing in India

Brother Mariadoss Antonimuthu, S.J.

A Jesuit Brother who went missing from Tamil Nadu a month ago was found in Orissa Feb. 15. Brother Mariadoss Antonimuthu, 65, came to St. Vincent Pro-Cathedral in Bhubaneswar looking for a priest. Father Joseph Kalathil, vicar general of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese and the parish priest who met the Brother, informed a nearby Jesuit house since he mentioned some local Jesuits’ names. “He had an overgrown beard and was shabbily dressed. He looked sick and asked me if there was a house of the Missionaries of Charity,” Father Kalathil told ucanews.com. Jesuit Father P. Tony, who took the Brother to Loyola Bhavan, said the senior Jesuit can remember only certain things. “He is safe and taken for medical check-up in Loyola Hospital” in the city, Father Tony told ucanews.com. The Brother, who was working with Pathai Illam, a Jesuit-run organization helping the rural poor in Chennai, went missing on Jan. 17. The police in Tamil Nadu had launched statewide search after him.

Link (here)

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J. From Segno, Italy.

Alberto Chini is president of the Associazione Culturale Padre Eusebio F. Chini, or the Cultural Association of Father Eusebio F. Chini. Chini was Kino's birth name. From his home in Segno, Alberto Chini answered questions through e-mail. His writing was translated by Alvillar and Sister Rina Cappellazzo, the Tucson Catholic Diocese's vicar for religious. "Segno today is a town of approximately 700 inhabitants who remember with pride their illustrious one," Chini wrote. "In (Kino's) honor in 1991, on occasion of the installation of the statue on horseback donated by the Historical Society of Tucson, the Piazza was renamed to carry his name today." On June 16, Segno residents will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Tucson's donating the equestrian statue. Chini said the festivities will be "in recognition of the community of Tucson, who have actively seen Father Eusebio's work and whose memory is indelible in their hearts." Chini said while they know Father Kino attended a Jesuit university in nearby Trento, they know little of his childhood. "We know he was an only son of four children of Francesco a Margherita," he wrote. Times were difficult, and Kino learned to "live within limited means." This, Chini wrote, appears to have prepared Father Kino for a life of poverty. 

Padre Kino is credited with bringing Christianity here without using the military approach. He peacefully founded 21 missions in the Pimería Alta, or the land of the upper Pimas, in what is now northern Sonora and Southern Arizona, in the late 1600s and early 1700s. The missions include those at San Xavier, Tumacácori and Guevavi. Kino - whose likeness sits on horseback at 15th Street and Kino Parkway and in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, as well as in Segno - introduced cattle and new crops to the region. 

In 1700, he laid the foundation for a mission at the village of Bac, on the Santa Cruz River near modern Tucson, to be named after his patron saint, St. Francis Xavier. It was never built. Construction on the chuch we know as the "White Dove of the Desert" began in 1783 and was completed in 1797. Kino was 65 when he died in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora. His bones remain on display in the courtyard of the mission church that he established there.

A local organization, the Kino Heritage Society, is dedicated to educating the public about Kino and is working to have him canonized. Raul Ramirez, secretary of the society, said Kino is at step one toward Catholic sainthood, which is being recognized as a servant of God. "This year, he can likely move to the second step, become venerable, which means that we can pray to him for intercession," he said. 

Alvillar's passion for Father Kino and his legacy are what led her to the ancestors of the famous Jesuit missionary. She and her husband hope to visit Segno again this fall. "You can go up to the well where his mother drew the water and you can walk the streets where he walked," she said in explaining her passion for the small village. "Knowing (the Chinis) helps you understand where you are today. It helps put it all in perspective. It makes history come alive." Alberto Chini said hospitality between Tucsonans and Segno residents is well reciprocated. "We have received a magnificent acceptance and in particular from Gloria," Chini wrote. "We have been able to see with how much affection Father Kino is remembered, his figure is breathed in the air of Tucson."

Link (here) to read the full article at The Arizona Daily Star