St. Peter Claver, S.J. And Our Lady of Monserrat

The monastery of Montserrat

It is a custom in the Society to send the novices on a pilgrimage to some place of devotion, in memory of that which the founder St. Ignatius, at the beginning of his conversion, made to our Lady of Monserrat. They always go on foot, live on alms, and lodge as much as possible in the hospitals. The pilgrimage assigned to young Peter Claver must have pleased him much, for it was no other than Monserrat itself. He and his two companions set out with their superior's blessing, their staffs their only provision for the journey. The fatigues of the way caused no diminution of his prayer and austerities. On arriving at a resting place, his first care was to repair to the church with his companions, to adore our Lord in the sacrament of His love Besides the days appointed by the superior, he received permission to communicate on several other days. After spending some time in prayer, he begged alms from door to door; and what ever he might receive his piety was always satisfied with it. If it was inconsiderable, he was delighted, because his love of poverty and suffering made it precious; if it was abundant, he was equally delighted, because it enabled him to relieve the poor. Thus all turns to the good and profit of a soul that loves God. When the three young novices came to a place where they were to stop, they collected the children in some public street or square, and conducted them in procession to the church, singing prayers and canticles. It was an edifying sight, and attracted great crowds. The novices by turns catechized, and made moving exhortations on the duties of a Christian. Young Claver's zeal and powerful words produced a sensible impression on all present. The fire with which the Holy Ghost inflamed his heart passed into the hearts of his auditors; and the usual fruit of his discourse was a lively sorrow for sin, and a sincere love of God.

As soon as they came in sight of Monserrat, Claver prostrated himself to pay respect to the Mother of God, whose sanctuary is there. Rough as was the path, up the holy mountain, love made it sweet and easy to him; nor could the beauty of the surrounding scenery divert his mind for a moment from the sight of the celestial beauties which occupied it. 

But who could describe the transports of his heart on beholding that venerable image, which represents the majestic beauty of the Queen of Heaven, whom he had always tenderly loved as a mother! He spent three whole days in this holy place, as much moved by the charity, as he was edified by the example, of the worthy sons of St Benedict, to whom the monastery belongs. To derive the principal fruit which the novices proposed to themselves as the result of their pilgrimage, they made their confession with lively marks of contrition, and then received with most tender devotion the Body of our Lord. Claver spent all his spare time before the miraculous image of the virgin, and he would willingly have remained there all his life. To no one did he ever relate all the favors he there received from the Queen of Saints; but whenever, in after life, he recalled this pilgrimage to mind, he shed such sweet tears, that it was easy to judge of the delight his soul had tasted.

Link (here)

San Francisco Archbishop On St. Peter Claver, S.J. And The Humana Vitea Wars

Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone

The 56-year-old is a native of San Diego and grew up in a strong, inter-dependent Italian-American family, with his paternal grandparents living next door and his maternal grandparents a few miles away. During his childhood he was in constant contact with his grandparents, who spoke the old Sicilian dialect with his parents, as well as with his entire extended family on both sides. They didn’t keep every feature of life from the old country; as he says, “our generation lost the old Sicilian (Calabro-Sicilian) language”. But the family remained loyal to the traditional pieties of Sicilian Catholicism. St Joseph was the focal point of their devotions. On the feast day of Jesus’s foster father they set up an altar in their home with his statue and three loaves of bread to represent the Holy Family, which included a braided loaf of bread for Our Lady. They would stage a drama of the Holy Family coming into the home, with a young girl as Mary, an older man as Joseph and, on several occasions, the young Salvatore was in role as Jesus. The archbishop says there was never a time when he struggled with his faith or did not believe in God. He did, however, feel the stirrings of a vocation, while also feeling drawn to being a husband and father. “My main challenge in seminary was interior, in discerning if this was really my call,” he explains. “When I entered the seminary at the age of 19, in 1975, I felt strongly inclined in that direction but was not yet absolutely convinced that God was calling me to be a priest. It was when I gave my life totally to God, I felt a burden was lifted from my shoulders, and had the confirmation of my vocation to the priesthood."

At seminary he developed a keen attachment to St Peter Claver, S.J. a favourite saint whose courageous ministry to African-Americans and radical holiness has inspired him throughout his 30 years of priesthood. Now, as a member of the Church hierarchy, he continues to pray to the patron saint of slaves, for “commitment to the Church’s mission and for graces to help the poor and marginalised”.

As Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone was a seminarian in the 1970s, the obvious question is whether he inclined more to the spirit of rebellion of that time or if he held true to the Church’s time-honoured teachings. “I’m quite a law-abiding type who doesn’t have a problem with authority,” he says, “but more than that, the Church’s teachings are completely rational and made sense to me.” It was the time of the Humanae Vitae wars: did he have any problems with any of the details in the most resisted encyclical of the age? No, in fact, in 1978 he and some fellow seminarians travelled from San Diego to San Francisco so that they could attend a symposium held by the archdiocese in honour of the 10th anniversary of Humanae Vitae.

Link (here) to The Catholic Herald

Forged Jesuit, "It Only Takes A Minute And Half To Become A Jesuit Priest"

Mark Landis dressed as a Jesuit

Most art forgers do it for the money and some have made millions replicating famous masterpieces. But 58-year-old Mark Landis, a soft spoken Louisiana native, is not your typical copy cat. The highly prolific, skilled painter, has been forging well known works of art for 30 years, with the sole purpose of donating these "originals" to museums around the country. Dressed as a businessman, or in more recent years, as a Jesuit priest, Landis has approached over 50 museums, 20 States, offering them coveted paintings for their collections. Sometimes the works will be donated in a relative's name, like his mother, other times he will offer the work simply to be philanthropic. He would never take money for the work, not even a tax deduction. Mr. Landis would often go under his own name, or Father Scott, speaking with museum heads around the country. Several accepted the works and some were even hung among their permanent collections. However many were discovered quite quickly as inauthentic. Last week, the Avant Diaries released a video inviting viewers in to the strange world of Mr. Landis where the artist explains, "About all I've got is an ability to draw or paint…Sure it's not real, but if something's attractive or beautiful that's what counts."

Link (here) to watch the documentary video

Casting Call At Georgetown

Georgetown University’s Law Students for Reproductive Justice held auditions for the vile play Vagina Monologues last week, according to the university’s law school website. The auditions took place in the Gewirz Student Center on campus. The obscene play distorts human sexuality by placing sinful activity in a favorable light, including lesbian activity and masturbation. It seems to take delight in reducing sexuality to the satiation of selfish pleasure and even declares a lesbian rape of a teenage girl her “salvation” which raised her into “a kind of heaven.”

Link (here) to The Cardinal Newman Society

Jesuit On The Wave Of Energy

Fr. Ladislas Orsy, S.J.

A 91-year-old Jesuit who served as an expert at the Second Vatican Council said, "I'm just beginning to understand the depth and breadth of the council" and its teachings. Jesuit Father Ladislas Orsy, a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, told an audience in Rome Jan. 24 that while every ecumenical council in church history led to debate -- and sometimes even schism -- it always has taken more than 50 years for a council's teachings and reforms to take root in the Christian community. "Granted we may see a great deal of confusion today; granted we may even see a denial of the council or we may even hear a way of explaining away the council," Father Orsy said during a speech that was part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity celebrations at Rome's Centro Pro Unione. Vatican II can be examined as a historical event, and theologians can use a variety of scholarly tools to propose different interpretations of its teachings, but one thing Catholics cannot deny is the church's teaching that the Holy Spirit is active in its ecumenical councils, he said. Father Orsy asked his audience, "Are you surprised that there is a bit of disarray today in the Roman Catholic Church when this happened in the case of Nicea, dealing with the very foundation of our faith?" 

The Council of Nicea in 325 affirmed the divinity of Christ. Nicea's deliberations led to debate and division, he said, but over the centuries "this wave of energy" of the Holy Spirit "quietly took possession of the church and the confusion sorted itself out." 

Today, he said, mainline Christians, while divided on a variety of issues, profess the basic tenets of their faith using the Nicean creed. "Just looking at what happened after Nicea," he said, "it is not farfetched" to think that the work the Holy Spirit began at the Second Vatican Council continues in the church and "maybe, shall we say, 100 years from now," people will recognize how deeply it impacted the church. The Jesuit said he hoped to live a "few more years" so he could try to understand more about where the Holy Spirit is leading the church through the teachings of Vatican II and the continuing process of that teaching taking root in the lives of Catholics. In his talk, Father Orsy looked particularly at "Dignitatis Humanae," Vatican II's declaration on human dignity and religious freedom. The Jesuit canon lawyer said the document, approved on the last day of the council, takes the visions of the church, the world and the human person expressed in the other Vatican II documents and applies them to "real-life situations."

Link (here) to read the rest of the story to CNS

All Judgment Laid Aside

 

TO HAVE THE TRUE SENTIMENT  

WHICH WE OUGHT TO HAVE IN THE CHURCH MILITANT

Let the following Rules be observed.

First Rule. 

The first: All judgment laid aside, we ought to have our mind ready and prompt to obey, in all, the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, which is our holy Mother the Church Hierarchical. 

Second Rule. 

The second: To praise confession to a Priest, and the reception of the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar once in the year, and much more each month, and much better from week to week, with the conditions required and due. 

Third Rule. 

The third: To praise the hearing of Mass often, likewise⁴⁰ hymns, psalms, and long prayers, in the church and out of it; likewise the hours set at the time fixed for each Divine Office and for all prayer and all Canonical Hours.

Fourth Rule. 

The fourth: To praise much Religious Orders, virginity and continence, and not so much marriage as any of these. 

Fifth Rule. 

The fifth: To praise vows of Religion, of obedience, of poverty, of chastity and of other perfections of supererogation. And it is to be noted that as the vow is about the things which approach to Evangelical perfection, a vow ought not to be made in the things which withdraw from it, such as to be a merchant, or to be married, etc. 

Sixth Rule. 

To praise relics of the Saints, giving veneration to them and praying to the Saints; and to praise Stations, pilgrimages, Indulgences, pardons, Cruzadas, and candles lighted in the churches. 

Seventh Rule. 

To praise Constitutions about fasts and abstinence, as of Lent, Ember Days, Vigils, Friday and Saturday; likewise penances, not only interior, but also exterior. 

Eighth Rule. 

To praise the ornaments and the buildings of churches; likewise images, and to venerate them according to what they represent. 

Ninth Rule. 

Finally, to praise all precepts of the Church, keeping the mind prompt to find reasons in their defence and in no manner against them. 

Tenth Rule. 

We ought to be more prompt to find good and praise as well the Constitutions and recommendations as the ways of our Superiors. Because, although some are not or have not been such, to speak against them, whether preaching in public or discoursing before the common people, would rather give rise to fault-finding and scandal than profit; and so the people would be incensed against their Superiors, whether temporal or spiritual. So that, as it does harm to speak evil to the common people of Superiors in their absence, so it can make profit to speak of the evil ways to the persons themselves who can remedy them. 

Eleventh Rule. 

To praise positive and scholastic learning. Because, as it is more proper to the Positive Doctors, as St. Jerome, St. Augustine and St. Gregory, etc., to move the heart to love and serve God our Lord in everything; so it is more proper to the Scholastics, as St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, and to the Master of the Sentences, etc., to define or explain for our times⁴¹ the things necessary for eternal salvation; and to combat and explain better all errors and all fallacies. For the Scholastic Doctors, as they are more modern, not only help themselves with the true understanding of the Sacred Scripture and of the Positive and holy Doctors, but also, they being enlightened and clarified by the Divine virtue, help themselves by the Councils, Canons and Constitutions of our holy Mother the Church. 

Twelfth Rule. 

We ought to be on our guard in making comparison of those of us who are alive to the blessed passed away, because error is committed not a little in this; that is to say, in saying, this one knows more than St. Augustine; he is another, or greater than, St. Francis; he is another St. Paul in goodness, holiness, etc. 

Thirteenth Rule. 

To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it, believing that between Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride, there is the same Spirit which governs and directs us for the salvation of our souls. Because by the same Spirit and our Lord Who gave the ten Commandments, our holy Mother the Church is directed and governed. 

Fourteenth Rule.

Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things. 

Fifteenth Rule. 

We ought not, by way of custom, to speak much of predestination; but if in some way and at some times one speaks, let him so speak that the common people may not come into any error, as sometimes happens, saying: Whether I have to be saved or condemned is already determined, and no other thing can now be, through my doing well or ill; and with this, growing lazy, they become negligent in the works which lead to the salvation and the spiritual ⁴² profit of their souls. 

Sixteenth Rule. 

In the same way, we must be on our guard that by talking much and with much insistence of faith, without any distinction and explanation, occasion be not given to the people to be lazy and slothful in works, whether before faith is formed in charity or after. 

Seventeenth Rule. 

Likewise, we ought not to speak so much with insistence on grace that the poison of discarding liberty be engendered. So that of faith and grace one can speak as much as is possible with the Divine help for the greater praise of His Divine Majesty, but not in such way, nor in such manners, especially in our so dangerous times, that works and free will receive any harm, or be held for nothing. 

Eighteenth Rule. 

Although serving God our Lord much out of pure love is to be esteemed above all; we ought to praise much the fear of His Divine Majesty, because not only filial fear is a thing pious and most holy, but even servile fear—when the man reaches nothing else better or more useful—helps much to get out of mortal sin. And when he is out, he easily comes to filial fear, which is all acceptable and grateful to God our Lord: as being at one with the Divine Love. 

Link (here) to CCEL

A Friend Of Charles Dawson

Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

was a friend of Charles Dawson, a Jesuit, a paleontologist, and a theologian. 

 He participated in the discovery of Peking man and Piltdown man. 

He is popular for his theological theories 

which are considered heretical by the Catholic church. 

Link (here)

Martin's Conscience And Obedience

One can say that in a perfect world justice and fidelity would always be one, but we see in some cases they are not: the person's conscience does not allow him (or her) to live out the vow of obedience and so he speaks out; or the person's vow of obedience does not allow him to speak out so he remains silent.  Remember that an informed conscience is the ultimate arbiter in the moral life, and one should never violate one's conscience, where, as the Second Vatican Council taught, we hear the echo of God's voice. 

Link (here) to the full article by the New York Province Jesuit, Fr. James Martin at America 
St. Ignatius of Loyola the founder of the Society of Jesus on conscience and obedience (here)

Aloysius Jin Luxian SJ, Bishop Of Shanghai

He’s had more comebacks the Deng Xiao Ping. Deng famously was deposed twice only to bounce back a third time and reshape modern China. Aloysius Jin Luxian SJ, bishop of Shanghai, has been knocked about and pushed over by life, the Catholic Church in China and at the Vatican, by the Jesuits and the Communist Party on so many occasions you could expect him to be punch drunk by now. As recently as last year, his patiently prepared succession plan for leadership of the Shanghai diocese came to an abrupt halt in a single speech. His successor, Bishop Ma Daqin, earned the hostility of the Communist Party and removal from office in a single short speech shortly after his episcopal ordination. So with Ma sidelined and Aloysius Jin’s succession plans thwarted, it was back to the drawing board in Shanghai. But reversals, challenges, conflicts, misunderstandings and opposition are the staples of Jin’s long life, the outline of which is contained in his memoirs published in Chinese in 2008 with the English translation becoming available in late 2012. The worst thing he says about anyone in his memoirs is that they are or were naïve. And he says it of himself frequently enough through the account of his own life as it takes its, at times, tortured path. But what is endearing about his account is the way the almost fresh-faced innocence of the young man still survives in the 90-something’s record of how his long life – including 27 years in various forms of imprisonment – has unfolded. Surprise, wonderment and gratitude flow with the pages.

Link (here) to  UCANEWS

James V. Schall, S.J.

Thus, Schall reaches eighty-five, not in the world’s greatest shape, but still breathing. His hearing is now magnified by electronic contraptions to a degree that makes him wonder how much he wants to hear. But he is still vain enough to admit that he does not want to miss anything. He was asked by his students to give “A Final Lecture at Georgetown,” which he did and called it “A Final Gladness.” It can be found on Youtube. It sums up many years of doing something that he always loved doing.

Link (here) to The Catholic Thing for the full article

Fiat Ladetur

The Disclade Carmelites of Port Tobacco

Dear Sister in Xt                                              Georgetown College,                        

March 30th 1830.

I received yesterday your letter informing me on the outside, of the death of your venerable, and beloved Mother Clare Joseph Dickenson & in the inside of her long painful agony. Both are awful & distressing things, but fiat laudetur .... & as Sister Angela imparts news, it must be good, 

for indeed there can be no better death than agonizing with Christ—I immediately gave information to all as you requested—& today we all have said our Masses, & BTM their beads for her happy repose. 

You lose a great deal in her, it is true; but her love will be greater in heaven towards Mt. Carmel—You need not fear but that God will supply her vacancy. Even when he took Elias, Carmel did not sink lower. Please to offer my comforting condolence to all the Sisters distressed no doubt on account of the loss of so virtuous a Mother, but I hope that their sorrow will be short, & meritorious—And Father Francis will help to comfort you since he gained the race—or, I do not know, perhaps he lost it—

Remember me in your holy prayers.

Respectfully yours

Fr. Francis Dzierozynski, S. J.

He Raised The Baby From The Dead

Father Necktou was the Jesuit Provincial in the South West of France for many years. The priests who knew him regarded him as a Saint and Prophet. He prophesied the suppression of the Jesuit Order well before its occurrence in 1773. After the suppression occurred as he predicted, he lived as a secular priest in Poitiers. His public reputation for holiness during this period induced a young grieving mother whose baby had just died to bring it in hope to Father Necktou. It was attested by several witnesses that he raised the baby from the dead and returned it to its mother. He died in 1777 roughly 20 years before the French Revolution.

Link (here)

Fr. John C. Ford, S.J. And Gaudium Et Spes

Fr. John Cuthbert Ford, S.J.

The Role of  Fr. John C. Ford, S.J. and Germain Grisez 

in Helping Pope Paul VI Write Humanae Vitae 4

Father Ford and Germain Grisez had been friends since 1964, when Grisez wrote his first book, Contraception and the Natural Law. Grisez sent the manuscript to Father Ford, who made good suggestions for strengthening the work, and Grisez then sent it to the Bruce Publishing Company in Milwaukee where I was at that time working as an editor.

Pope Paul VI early in 1964 directed that bishops around the world prepare a confidential inquiry about developments regarding contraception in their territories, and about their own views. Cardinal Patrick A. O’Boyle of Washington, D.C., then president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, asked Ford to help prepare the report for the United States. On June 6 Ford, acting with O’Boyle’s authority, had the first of several private audiences with Paul VI. Paul was certain of the truth of the Church’s teaching on contraception and was also encouraged by the response he received from bishops throughout the world affirming that teaching.

But some advisers had suggested to him that Janssens’ claim that the new anovulant pill was not truly contraceptive because it did not interfere with the physical performance of the marital act might be true. As I noted earlier, there was only one magisterial statement on this matter, Pius XII’s in the final address of his pontificate in September 1958, a month before he died. Paul VI thus thought that a thorough study was needed to make sure that the Church would not ask more of faithful Catholic married couples than God did. He also thought that the Council was not the place to consider this matter and he therefore decided to enlarge the Papal Commission for the study on population, family, and births. He did this on June 23, 1964, but did not spell out his mandate although he called attention to Pius XII’s judgment.

In October, Paul VI appointed Ford to this Commission. Grisez congratulated him, and over the following months the two had telephone conversations about developments. But Ford, respecting the confidentiality of the Commission’s proceedings, did not share any of its documents or discuss his own work.

But John R. Cavanagh, a Washington, D.C. psychiatrist also appointed to the Commission, was less concerned about confidentiality. In the summer of 1965 he discussed the Commission’s initial meeting at length with Grisez and others, and shared the official English translation of the Report on the Fourth Session of the Commission Set Up by the Holy See to Study the Problems of Population, Family, and Birth-rate with Grisez. After studying it, Grisez called Ford, and the two then freely discussed the Commission’s work.

De Riedmatten, the Commission’s Secretary General, skillfully managed the opening meeting of the enlarged Commission. He invited John T. Noonan, Jr., whose soon-to-be published book was a massive argument for the view that the teaching could change, to summarize his thesis favoring change. Instead of focusing on the question of the birth control pill or even on the truth of the Church’s constant and firm teaching, de Riedmatten urged that the Commission decide whether the teaching was “reformable” or “irreformable.” Twelve of the nineteen members of the theological section thought it could be changed. The other members of the Commission—physicians, demographers and sociologists, married couples, and pastoral workers—sat in on almost all the discussions of the theological section. Cavanagh said that as a result he and other non-theologians on the Committee began to think, for the first time in their lives, that the Church might approve using contraceptives.

Ford was surprised to find the theologians so predisposed to change. In discussing Noonan’s book with Grisez, Ford raised questions about its historical accuracy, and Grisez’s research greatly impressed Ford who tried but failed to get Grisez appointed to the Pontifical Commission. Ford when in the US lived in the Jesuit residence near the Catholic University, where he had been teaching and had resigned his professorship to work at the Council. Grisez often visited him at his residence and helped him prepare to see Pope Paul again.

Early in November Ford requested an audience with the Pope and was soon called to Rome. The section on marriage in the penultimate draft of Vatican II’s The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) was not clear about contraception. Because he wanted the Council to reaffirm the teaching of Casti Connubii, Pope Paul put Bishop Carlo Colombo, his personal theological advisor, to work drafting amendments. On November 22, the Pope, having called Ford in for a private audience, asked him to work with Colombo and told him to return the next day with the draft amendments.

When Ford returned, Paul VI told him not to leave Rome as he had planned. Ford and some of the other theologians from the Commission were appointed theological advisors to the conciliar subcommission that would deal with the amendments. The subcommission did not welcome the Pope’s initiative. Wishing to avoid open conflict as the Council drew to a close, Paul VI allowed the subcommission to revise the amendments. The result was that the Council left “certain issues” about the morality of contraception to be resolved after the Commission on Population, Family, and Birth-rate completed its work. But at the Pope’s insistence, the celebrated footnote 14 in paragraph 51 was included in the final text of Gaudium et Spes; as I showed above, a careful reading of the text of GS, 51 and footnote 14 leads to the conclusion that the Council, which ended in December, 1967, taught that contraception is a gravely immoral act.
Link (here) to Christendom-Awake

A Jesuit Suggested Filumena

In 1802 an inscription, with the first and last letters destroyed, was found in the catacombs which stood thus, lumena pax tecum fi. 

A Jesuit suggested that Fi should be put at the beginning of the sentence instead of the end, and by this remarkable trick, produced Filumena. 

Thereupon a devout artizan, a priest, and a nun, were all severally visited by visions of a virgin martyr, who told them the story of Diocletian's love for her, of her refusal, and subsequent martyrdom; and explained that, having once been called Lumena, she was baptized Filumena, which she explained as a daughter of light! Some human remains near the stone being dignified as relics of St. Filomena, she was presented to Mugnano; and, on the way, not only worked many miracles on her adorers, but actually repaired her own skeleton, and made her hair grow. 

So many wonders are said to have been worked by this phantom saint, the mere produce of a blundered inscription, that a book, printed at Paris in the year 1847, calls her ' La Thaumaturge du igme Steele,' and she is by far the most fashionable patroness in the Romish Church.

 Filomena abounds in Rome, encouraged by the example of a little Filomena, whose mosquito net was every night removed by the saint, who herself kept off the gnats. She is making her way in Spain; and it will not be the fault of the author of La TJianmaturge if Philomene is not as common in France. The likeness to Philomela farther inspired Longfellow with the fancy of writing a poem on Florence Nightingale, as St. Philomena, whence it is possible that the antiquaries of New Zealand, in the twenty-ninth century, will imagine St. Philomena, or Philomela, to be the heroine of the Crimean war.*

Link (here) to History of Christian Names

Fr. Maurice De La Taille, S. J. Victory Over Death In The Supper

David built the altar small, it was enlarged later by Solomon (II Kings, XXIV, II foll.). Cyril develops the allegory, showing that not only was death destroyed at the moment when our Lord partook of the Supper, but, also, that on the very Eucharistic altar a sacrifice was offered by our Lord whereby death was overcome: for, He says, it was offered on an altar, which later as it were grew, until gradually the Eucharistic celebration was spread throughout the nations. The victory over death in the Supper is found in writers of the Middle Ages. The following is a chant in a prayer Oratio ad communionem (A. H. 51, 297), in an English manuscript prayer book of the eighth or ninth century:

"For thy all-powerful Flesh is food indeed;
And thy Blood, O Jesus, the true drink of the faithful
By this sacred mystery thou didst redeem us from death
That we may live in thee, O Lord, in faith and sobriety.
Deign therefore we beg of thee, that we may be
Partakers of this holy mystery, to the glory of thy name."

But at a much earlier date, we find in the most ancient of our anaphorae, what I believe to be the expression of the same idea; I refer to the passage which introduces the Supper narrative:

"And who when He was given over to His voluntary Passion, in order to overcome death, to break the ties of the devil, to trample hell underfoot, to illuminate the just, to come to the end, and to manifest His Resurrection, taking bread and giving thanks to thee, said: 'Take ye and eat, this is my body which shall be broken for you,'" 

etc. (Latin Verona Fragments, ed. Hauler, 1900, p. 106-107).

That is to say, the ends enumerated, though all reflect the Redemption, seem nevertheless to be referred to the actual consecration of the Eucharist, as the cause of it all. Christ, as it were, willed to celebrate the rite, in order to redeem us from death, from the power of the devil, from the pains of hell, and to restore us to light and life.
Link (here) to the full work by Fr. Maurice De La Taille, S. J. entitled, THE MYSTERY OF FAITH Regarding The Most August Sacrament And Sacrifice Of The Body And Blood Of Christ

Ultimately, S.J.

Speaking about philosophy, religion, life, and death, Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. said, 

"it is clear that human life is ultimately about meeting again."

Link (here)

Hobbit SJ

J.R.R. Tolkien course at Marquette University in Milwaukee is hugely popular with students. The university is one of the main repositories of Tolkien’s writings and drawings, including the manuscripts for “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.”  William Ready, director of Marquette’s libraries from 1956 to 1963, obtained the manuscripts through a London book dealer for less than $5,000. Marquette’s Tolkien collection numbers more than 10,000 pages of the author’s book manuscripts, typescripts and drawings. “It’s a fantastic course,” said senior Joe Kirchoff. “It’s a great way to look at something that’s such a creative work of genius in such a way you really come to understand the man behind it.” Taught for the first time this past fall, the course was part of the university’s celebration of the 75th anniversary of the publication of “The Hobbit,” which happened to coincide with the release of the film. On February 21, the last anniversary event — a roundtable discussion on the film — will be held at the university. While other schools offer Tolkien classes, Marquette students were able to see Tolkien’s revisions and maps at the school’s archive. “It’s the best class I’ve had in 27 years here for student preparation, interest and enthusiasm,” English professor Tim Machan told the Associated Press. “And I can throw out any topic and they will have read the material and they want to talk about the material.”

Link (here) to Jesuit.org to read the entire article

Schall, S.J., "Catholicism Is Not Just Another 'Religion'"

Here, I do not propose to “review” this last book of the trilogy. Previously I have commented on the first two volumes (see here and here and here and here). But I would like to reflect on the significance of the pope’s whole presentation of the life of Christ. It is a remarkable achievement. The work, no doubt, represents a lifetime of study and reflection, as well as of controversy and dialogue. This whole text was written by a man with the busiest kind of life. It attests to the results that can accrue when a disciplined man sets aside time to do a work that he considers important over and beyond what might be considered his “normal” business, though surely a pope telling us who Christ is must be the “normal” purpose of the Petrine office that he holds.

Had Benedict not bothered to write these volumes on Christ, no one would have noticed or thought that he was neglecting his duties either as Prefect of a Roman Congregation or as Pope. The volumes represent the product of scholarly abundance and of the love of a wisdom that needs to be expressed. 

First of all, these three volumes are eminently scholarly, yet readable and intelligible. Any one, believer or not, should certainly have them in his library. One does not have to be an academic to understand them. Indeed, one suspects that academics may be the last to grasp what the pope is doing here. He is, in a sense, bypassing the whole world of academia by going right through it.

Academics lose much of their aura of autonomy when one of the greatest of academics of any time time is also the pope who explains how things fit together, things that the same academics often wrote and taught did not so fit together. 

If we can say that there was such a thing as a “John Paul II Revolution,” it would be that for a quarter of a century one of the most dynamic, manly, intelligent, well-loved, and noble of men was in the Chair of Peter. John Paul II was seen perhaps by more human beings than any man who ever existed. He died in public, as if to say that it was all right to die, something that his successor, Benedict, well explained in Spe Salvi. John Paul was a figure transcending his office by clearly revealing what it was. No one could be indifferent to him; few wanted to be. He could be classified as a unique personality the likes of which would not come again.

Benedict is a different sort. John Paul himself was a major intellect, though that did not seem the most important thing about him. It does seem to be the most important thing about Benedict.

Cardinal von Schönborn once remarked that Aquinas was the only man in the history of the Church who was canonized only for thinking. Benedict falls in this tradition, along with Newman, whom Benedict beatified. claim that Catholicism cannot be “true” must stand the test of Benedict’s mind. 

And when anyone avoids it, he discovers that Benedict has already thought through the veracity of the claim that Catholicism is not true. We see this irony worked out again and again in the volumes of Jesus of Nazareth. We underestimate the importance of mind to Catholicism. Catholicism is not just another “religion.”

It is not, in fact, a natural religion at all. It is a religion, if we want to call it that, the content and origins of which are not human, though, through the Incarnation, it is fully human and stands for what the human, at its best, ought to be. 

Benedict did not write these volumes as official Catholic doctrine. He had something else in mind. He did publish them under both his name, Joseph Ratzinger, and as Pope Benedict XVI. He wanted to answer the question of what does a pope himself really hold and believe—and why. His answer was that he does hold and believe that Christ was the Son of God incarnate who did dwell among us in Palestine during the time of the early Roman empire. Now, why would Benedict hold this position? The answer is because this is what is handed down and what the faith teaches. But also it corresponds with the historical and philosophical evidence and facts. These volumes spell out this evidence. Benedict is aware of the long history of scholarship that has tried to argue for a view of Christ that would doubt His existence or that he was nothing but a man or that he was the product of the imagination of the early disciples. 

Link (here) to the read the full piece by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. at Catholic World Report

Regardless Whether It Is In The Hands Of Hitler Or A Jesuit Priest

"This war is not against Hitler or National Socialism but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless whether it is in the hands of Hitler 

or a Jesuit priest." 

Winston Churchill

Emrys Hughes author of, Winston Churchill: British Bulldog, His Career in War and Peace p. 145

Fr Saju George Moolamthuruthil S.J.  preforms the Hindu dance Bharatanatyam in a German Catholic church, watch the video (here)  at Catholic Church Conservation

Jesuit On Ratzinger And Quirinius

First, Ratzinger almost invariably takes the minority opinion concerning contentious historical questions.  He – very problematically in my opinion – glosses historical problems such as the dating of the census and the disagreement between Matthew and Luke about where Joseph and Mary are originally from.  After quickly glossing the issue, he concludes: “The two different strands of tradition agree on the fact that Bethlehem was Jesus’ birthplace.   If we abide by the sources, it is clear that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth.”   Yet it is not so simple.  If the census that purportedly took place ca. 6 BC did not actually take place, then there was no reason for Joseph to go to Bethlehem. 

And the scholarship of Alois Stoger that Ratzinger cites to support the idea that Quirinius may have briefly been in Syria in 6-7 BC, and that the census may have been initiated at that time only to be completed twelve years later, is far from convincing and quite a stretch of the historical record. 

Matthew is also clearly wrong in thinking that Jesus and Mary were from Bethlehem.  The other gospels are clear in their claim that Joseph and Mary were from Nazareth.  And so, if Matthew is wrong about his Bethlehem claim, and Luke is in position of faulty historical data, then can it be so easily claimed, “it is clear that Jesus was born in Bethlehem”?  Would it not be easier for Ratzinger to treat the faulty historical records that Matthew and Luke utilize in their infancy narratives in the same way he treats their appropriation of two different genealogies, viz., by claiming that the authors have “based themselves on traditions whose sources we cannot reconstruct.  It seems to me utterly futile to formulate hypotheses on this matter.  Neither evangelist is concerned so much with the individual names as with the symbolic structure within which Jesus’ place in history is set before us”?  Could not the sources that the evangelists were working with also have been flawed and beyond our reconstruction?  May they not too have been more interested in the “symbolic structure” of these sources than with the historicity of every detail?

This brings us to my second concern. Ratzinger’s offhand rejection of anything but “history” (and a rather Modern view of it, it seems to me) creates problems for his literary analysis.  

For example, he cites with approval Rene Laurentin’s observation that Luke structures his infancy narrative using the 490 days announced by Gabriel in the book of Daniel.  John the Baptist’s 6 months in the womb prior to Jesus, added to Jesus’ 9 months, combined with the 40 days until the Presentation in the Temple, total 490 days.  Very neat. 

But how might such a literary technique square with history?  Are we to believe that John the Baptist was actually historically 6 months older than Jesus and that this fact also just happens to fit neatly into the schema of 490 days? 

Scholars such as Luke Timothy Johnson and Raymond E. Brown also reject the infancy narratives as midrash, yet they are far more conscious than Ratzinger of the constructions at work in the narratives and the issues that these constructions raise for their historicity.

Link (here) to the full opinion piece by Jesuit Scholastic Nathan O'Holloran at Whomsoever Desires

Jesuit And A Cardinal

Dominican Republic’s cardinal on Friday said neither the Catholic church “nor anybody else” has to get involved on immigration issues, because it’s up to the government to decide on the matter. Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez made the statement when asked about the attitude of the Jesuit priest Rogelio Martinez, whose failed effort to get hundreds of undocumented Haitians across the border roiled Dominican Republic. Nonetheless Lopez noted that the priest’s conduct doesn’t merit a reprimand. “No one has to get into that; neither ambassadors nor priests, it’s up the State to dictate migratory policy,” the senior prelate said, warning that the situation with the Haitians seeking to enter the country irregularly could’ve led to fatal consequences. Speaking at the Marcelino Velez Hospital, the Cardinal stressed however, that Haitian and Dominican authorities should find a solution, to issue documents which regularize their status in Dominican territory.

Link (here) to Dominican Today

Through Every Age

"Christ yesterday and today

the beginning and the end

Alpha and Omega

all time belongs to Him

and all the ages.

To Him be glory and power

through every age for ever."  

Link (here) to Fr. Jack MD, S.J.

I Don’t Have Children Because I’m A Jesuit.

“I have seven niece and nephews.  Other kids are children of close friends of mine.  I don’t have children because I’m a Jesuit.  But I have a lot of friends who are young couples having children now and raising children.  The biggest difference between other careers and being a priest is that I give up a lot of controls of my own life.  I can’t decide where I work.  We have leaders in the Jesuit school help us decide where we should work.  We can not get married because we feel if we don’t have our own family to take care of we will be more available to work for other people.  Many times in my life I had the desire of having my own family.  Seeing these pictures must show you that I love kids.  That is why I enjoy visiting my friends and seeing pictures of the children.”

Link (here) to Fordham Observer to read the full piece about Fr. Vincent De Cola, S.J.

Bom Gesu

"All our savages, but especially the Hurons, profess to have a special esteem for the all-endearing mystery of the birth of our lord Jesus Christ. I have seen some notable proofs of this given by these latter; they themselves entreated the father, long before the feast-day, to make arrangements so as to celebrate it in the most solemn manner possible. They sent their children to seek for what could be used in constructing a grotto, in which they were to make a representation of the mystery; and I took pleasure in hearing a little girl who, having brought with much care a beautiful sort of grass, said that she had done it in the thought and hope that the little infant Jesus might be Laid upon that grass. Our good Christians made some more serious preparations, For they all confessed; and those to whom permission was given to receive Communion, did so very devoutly, at the midnight mass. The grotto, which was well fitted to inspire devotion, was Incessantly visited; and it rendered a very pleasing although rather protracted Service,— to draw from them the expression of their feelings as they themselves express them, when addressing the divine child."

Link (here) to the Jesuit and Allied Relations.

The Purpose Of The Order Was Now The Defense And Propagation Of The Faith.

After his death in 1556, Ignatiusof Loyola was regularly presented in contrast to Martin Luther, and the Jesuits themselves were the prime culprits for this portrayal. Viewed in the context of post Tridentine counterattacks, such a rendering is understandable. Moreover, the military metaphors that Ignatius himself used in much of his writing, while ultimately rooted in his previous chivalric fascinations, corresponded nicely to the image of Ignatius and the Jesuits as the shock troops of the Counter-Reformation. Of course such a view of the Jesuits has some truth to it. Jesuits participated at Trent (though in a more peripheral manner) and were instrumental in implementing the decrees of the Council. Robert Bellarmine was one of the most distinguished persons of the era with his attacks on Protestantism and his defense of Catholic theology. Toward the end of his life, Ignatius himself was more active in the fight against the Lutherans. He frequently communicated with Peter Canisius, who was on the frontlines of the conflict in Germany, about his growing awareness for this aspect of the Society's mission. In 1550, Ignatius revised the bull that established the Jesuits, stating that the purpose of the order was now the defense and propagation of the faith.

Link (here) to Ignatius Insight

In Order To Save God’s Life

Here's how the British author Frank Sheed put it in his book To Know Christ Jesus:

"There is anguish for us, twenty centuries later, in thinking of the slain babies and their parents. For the babies the agony was soon over; in the next world they would come to know the one they had died to save and for all eternity they would have that glory. For the parents, the pain would have lasted longer; but at death they too must have found that there was a special sense in which God was in their debt, as he had never been indebted to any. They and their children were the only ones who ever agonized in order to save God’s life."

The violent deaths of innocent children have not ended in what many think is a more civilized time.  Families are grieving in Connecticut because a man shot their children.  People speculate on the reasons, but the ultimate reason can be found in our culture. Blessed John Paul II called the culture of the contemporary world a "culture of death."  People are treated as objects and the "virtual reality" of our media and games encourages us to see them as such.  Fear still drives people, as it drove King Herod, to kill children who are seen as threats to our freedom, our life style, our happiness.  Growing and developing outside or inside the womb, children are viewed as property that can be discarded for convenience or in anger.  I am praying for the families of the Innocents of Connecticut today and offering Mass for an end to abortion.

Link (here) to the blog Offer It Up by Fr. James Kubicki, S.J.

Labarum

Whoever wishes to be a soldier for God under the standard of the cross and to serve the Lord alone and His Vicar on earth . . . bear in mind that he is part of a community founded principally for the advancement of souls in the Christian life and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith by the ministry of the word, by spiritual exercises, by works of charity, and expressly by the instruction in Christianity of children and the uneducated.

Link (here) to Ignatiusinsight

Kristin Wodarski On Her Boston College Experience

Boston College is the largest residential Jesuit institution in the world. Although the Jesuits have a reputation as progressive educators, being at a Jesuit institution does mean that there are things you cannot do here.

After New York University, with its University- recognized bo.ndage club, this was a different world for me. We don’t distribute condoms here. There are no sexual health workshops, and the role of LGBT allies on campus is still being defined by the administration.

It is discussed, though, and many administrators and RAs choose to display Safe Zone stickers on their doors. While some students here may support pro-choice, the campus is decidedly pro-life. The Vagina Monologues is performed on campus- sponsored by academic departments- and the conservative student newspaper challenged the morality and appropriateness of its presence. And yes, cohabitation on campus carries a judicial sanction.

Everything about how students conduct themselves, and what we administrators role model to our students, must be in line with the mission and philosophy of the Jesuit Catholic ideals. Is BC intolerant? Not at all. The students are accepting, and they want to learn from each other. There just aren’t that many individualists moving against the grain from this tight-knit community, making grand statements about who they are and what they stand for. The khaki-skirt, polo-shirt with the collar flipped up, ribbon in the hair BC student would have qualified as unique at NYU because she would have been the only one. Here, it’s what the campus looks like on any given day by casting a glance over the dining hall. The students are polished, and beautiful, but they look… the same.

This is not the Stepford Campus. We enjoy a growing diversity both ethnically and geographically, and BC students are interested in a variety of arenas, both academically and personally. I had a hackie-sac playing Colorado girl who never wore shoes. I had a good old Southern Gentleman who hung a confederate flag. But I didn’t have any individualists. I feel their absence, not only in my own opportunities to interact with them, but also through the way their absence affects the students I do have. My students now have fewer interactions with people who expose them to ideas and identities different from their own. There are fewer times when they have to practice tolerance about beliefs they may not agree with or even understand. They do not have to go out of their comfort zone as much as the NYU freshman who needs to learn what “transgender” means, or try to understand why a student would be participating in a vigil for Tibet.

Do we have LGBT students at BC? Sure we do, along with socialists, feminists, atheists, social justice activists, and vegans. But they are not as visible, or vocal, here, so the BC student community is not necessarily forced to learn about, or even interact with, such different populations.

I’m sorry for them, as I miss my beloved eccentrics who brought me much joy and satisfaction in my work at NYU. But more importantly, I am sorry for my students here who are growing up without the characters, without the individualists, as they are missing the opportunity to experience and be challenged by a world profoundly different from what walks the tree-lined paths of our Chestnut Hill campus

Link (here) to read the full article by former Boston College Resident Adviser Kristin Wodarski-Biggins

Fr. Alfonso Llano Escobar, S.J. Silenced By The Superior General For Writing This Article About The Holy Fathers New Book

The Infancy of Jesus. That’s the title of the third volume of the trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth by theologian Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI. It has been published in nine languages, including Spanish, and will be published in a first global edition of one million copies. With a series of articles in the press and interviews on radio and television, I would like to guide readers of this book by the Pope, which offers a special difficulty — the virginity of Mary — which will give theologians and the media a lot to talk about.

To begin with, the latter are wondering why the Pope is going back to a point that seems now passé, namely, Mary’s virginity. Answer: for three reasons, one of which is obvious, and that is that theologian Ratzinger set out to write a trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth. He had already taken care of Jesus’ public life and his Passion, death, and Resurrection. He lacked this third volume, already announced, about Jesus’ infancy. And now he does it, a subject that necessarily leads him to talk about Mary’s virginity. Second, because Jesus is the central figure in the Catholic faith, and it’s the Pope’s duty to preach Jesus whether it’s convenient or inconvenient, in good times and bad, as Saint Paul advises Timothy (2 Tim 4:2). Third, because the subject of Mary’s virginity is being revisited by some Catholic theologians and requires clarification.

Talking about Jesus isn’t easy, because he’s a mystery, the central mystery of the Catholic faith, which confesses that Jesus is true (son of) man and true (son of) God. This double reality implies a double birth. Saint Paul, in the letter to the Philippians tells us that Jesus was a common man (Phil 2:6-7). Saint Matthew, the same one who tells us about Jesus’ divine conception (1:26), presents Jesus as the son of Mary and Joseph (13:53 ff.) and with several brothers and sisters. It’s appropriate to clarify that, in the judgment of North American Catholic biblical scholar John Meier, who has studied the problem in depth, in the four Gospels it’s about real blood brothers of Jesus (A Marginal Jew, I, 341). It’s time to leave behind the fairy tale that they’re Jesus’ cousins. This assumption is argued to safeguard Mary’s corporal virginity. The Pope cites the work of this great biblical scholar several times in his trilogy, without contradicting his interpretation of the corporal non-virginity of Mary. 

So that the Pope’s position in this third volume can be understood, it’s useful to take into account that in theology there are two complementary ways to get to Jesus: a descending way, which is the one the Pope follows, and that the first four councils followed, which leans on John 1:14: “The Word became man”, a way that emphasizes Jesus’ divinity, as the Pope does; and the other way is ascending, which was the historical way, that starts with the man Jesus and ends with his exaltation as Son of God, according to which Mary had a big family. 

In sum: the reader of this work by Ratzinger will find the affirmation of Mary’s virginity. Given that the Pope follows the descending path in this work, he emphasizes his divinity, which gives rise to the theological virginity of Mary (Mt 1:26) and silences his humanity, whose origin isn’t virginal (Mt 13:53 ff). In other words: Mary conceived the Son of God virginally, in the theological sense, without the intervention of Joseph, as is narrated in Matthew 1:26, by the work of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, as mother of Jesus the man, just like us, she conceived him through an act of love with her legal spouse, Joseph, with whom she had four sons and several daughters (Mt 13:53 ff).

Let’s wait for the book and talk more knowledgeably.

Link (here) to read the whole story surrounding this article by Fr. Alfonso Llano Escobar, S.J.

Fr. Francis Duggan, A Degreed Jesuit

I graduated high school, went away to have some life experiences (the usual: marriage, deaths, Vietnam, drugs, divorce, etc.), and finally made it back into school. On the G.I.Bill, I enrolled at Santa Clara University, a Jesuit liberal arts school, and among other classes, I had to take "bonehead" English. Our class was taught by Fr. Francis Duggan, a degreed Jesuit who, I'm certain, had survived the Holy Inquisition and, depending on your point of view, may have even participated.

To open the class, he read John Keats' "Ode ona Grecian Urn" to us. He read it with us. We read it independently. Then he told us to write a paragraph describing the scene on the urn that Keats had described so poetically. My paragraph got an F! It had mechanical mistakes, of course, but Fr. Duggan noted that I rambled. He suggested that I hadn't said anything new, that I wasn't descriptive, and that I needed to hone and polish my phrases. 

I felt terrible. This was my first quarter in college, and I was tempted to chuck it all. Instead, I made an appointment to discuss my grade with him. Fr. Duggan had me rewrite the paragraph. He corrected it again. It earned a D. He told me to focus, refine, and rewrite it again. I did, and again he corrected it. This time, I earned a C-. And so on and on until—and this will sound like an exaggeration—I had rewritten that paragraph seven times. The paragraph finally received a B+, but what I had gained, besides an excellent grade, was some inkling of what it means to be a writer. Writing, like reading, is a process not a product, and it is a process of constant revision and refinement. Fr. Duggan didn't tell me not to rewrite the paragraph again (I probably could have gone on indefinitely); what he did say was that at some point a writer lets go and allows the piece to be "finished." I guess I still haven't let go of "We were twelve days out of Auckland, New Zealand, when it struck" but somewhere along the way, along with the detritus of failed marriages and career redirections, the manuscript of that story has been discarded. Interestingly, the final revision of "A Paragraph on `Ode on a Grecian Urn,'" is still among my papers. 

Link (here) to the National Writing Project

41 Members Of The House Of Representatives Are Jesuit Educated

Data compiled by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities counted nearly 10 percent of Congress as having attended Jesuit higher education institutions. That includes 11 senators and 41 members of the House, who collectively attended 14 different Jesuit schools. Georgetown University has the most alumni in Congress, with 21, followed by Boston College with seven and Fordham University with five, the College of the Holy Cross with four and Creighton University with three, the association reported. Loyola University Chicago, St. Peter’s University and University of Detroit Mercy each has two alumni in Congress. Loyola University Maryland, Marquette University, St. Joseph’s University, Santa Clara University, Wheeling Jesuit University and Xavier University each has one. Nine Jesuit alumni were elected in 2012, including Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who is the first Buddhist elected to the Senate (she served as a member of the House since 2007); and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a Baptist, who both hold advanced degrees from Georgetown.

Link (here) to The Catholic Sun

Fr. John Baumann, S.J. And Juanita Cordero

Fr. John Baumann, S.J. And woman priestess Juanita Cordero at the February, 2006 retreat of the West Coast Companeros. 

Link (here) to read the full story at A Shepherd's Voice

Percy of Newcastle On The Jesuit Missionary

Eustace Sutherland Campbell Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Newcastle

To the continental mind, however skeptical or hostile, this is obvious obvious alike to the Belgian freethinker confronted with Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier and to the Czech politician who meditates a new concordat with Rome. For in Europe a united and self-organised Church is still a ubiquitous power, a formidable factor in the political life of every state, and reason, which might find a dozen ready explanations of the existence of state churches or of scattered and ephemeral sects, is forced to seek a more potent motive to account for such continuity of existence and concentration of strength. But the English mind, confronted to-day with the reassertion by the Anglican Church of its independence from the State, the American mind disturbed by the rapid growth of the Roman Church in the United States, and the Protestant mind as a whole, influenced by the revived ideas of catholicity and reunion, must now be impressed by much the same considerations. We have here clearly no code of morality at the service of government, no mere sectarian fashions in doctrine, but a corporate consciousness persisting from century to century. 

The same course of reasoning may carry the investigator a little further. This conception must be something more than what is known as the "saving of souls' The Jesuit missionary among the Hurons might risk his life to "turn little Indians into little angels' to quote the words of one of them, by surreptitious baptism of dying infants ; he might be satisfied to win a convert at the torture-stake by the promise of the "French heaven"; but, both as a matter of reasonable deduction and of historical fact, it was no such restricted policy that had created the tremendous organization of his Order and inspired its Generals, or that gave to the New France of the seventeenth century the character that endures in the province of Quebec to-day.

 In our own times, the colonial administrator in Africa knows from experience that missionary teaching, even when deliberately confined to the plainest moralities and the simplest hopes of heaven, is inseparable, in the mind of the native learner, from ideas of corporate life and effort which distinguish it sharply from Mohammedan proselytism and, in some cases, still more sharply from the official view of the proper relations between Western civilization and backward races.

Link (here) to read the full piece by Lord Eustace Percy of Newcastle