Jesuit To Speak At Lecture

Theologian will speak May 23 in Bernardin lunch, lecture series

Saturday, April 26, 2008
VILLA MARIA, Pa. — The Rev. Howard Gray will explore the topic “The Life of the Spirit” at the annual Bernardin lunch and lecture series scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. May 23 at Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center. The center honors the memory of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and his Catholic Common Ground Project by offering this annual lecture on a current theme. Father Gray is a noted theologian, author and lecturer.

He was provincial for the Detroit Province from 1983-89 and executive director of the Detroit Province Spirituality Team from 1991-95. From 1977-83, Father Gray was an associate professor of spiritual theology at Weston School of Theology, where he also served as dean from 1982-83 and was an adjunct professor in Spiritual Theology at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif. During his time at Weston, he lectured occasionally at Boston College. He also has taught at Fordham and John Carroll universities, Loyola University of New Orleans and the University of Detroit Mercy. Father Gray is special assistant to the president of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

The $40 fee for the lecture includes registration and lunch. There is a student discount rate of $35. Registration deadline is Friday. Send registration fee to Cindy Wilpula P.O. Box 424 Villa Maria, Pa. 16155. For information, call (724) 964-8920, ext. 3241, or send e-mail to cwilpula@humilityofmary.org. The Diocese of Youngstown will grant two hours toward religious education credits for anyone who attends the Bernardin lecture. The certificates will be available that day.

Link (here)

Traditional Latin Rite Confirmations In Great Britian

Westminster bishop to confer Traditional Latin Rite confirmations

An excerpt.
Bishop George Stack, auxiliary bishop in Westminster, will administer Confirmations in the Traditional Latin Rite at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London W1 on Saturday, 15 November at 11.00 am at the request of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster.

This will be the fifth consecutive year that Westminster auxiliary bishops will have conferred Confirmation in the Traditional Rite. Last year in November 2007, a record 54 candidates received the sacrament at the hands of Bishop John Arnold – 50 children and 4 adults.

Also in November 2007, Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton became the first diocesan bishop of England and Wales to administer Traditional Rite Confirmations when he confirmed 7 candidates during a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church, Chesham Bois, Bucks on Sunday 18 November 2007. Bishop Doyle also celebrated Sunday Mass in the Traditional Rite on that occasion. John Medlin, General Manager of the Latin Mass Society, said, “There is no sign of slackening of demand for Traditional Rite Confirmations – in fact the opposite. The numbers are increasing every year and I expect this trend to continue after Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio. We hope it will not be long before bishops all over England and Wales respond to pastoral demand for Mass and the Sacraments in the Traditional Rite. Those attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite are very grateful to Cardinal Cormac and the Westminster auxiliary bishops for making provision for the Traditional Mass and Sacraments.”

Read the full press release (here) A Hat Tip to Fr, Ray Blake at St Mary Magdalene blog (here)

Jesuit Loves The Holy Father! But For How Long?

Impact of pope's visit goes beyond his six-day stay, say observers

04-25-2008 By Carol Zimmermann

Catholic News Service

When Pope Benedict XVI left New York April 20 after his six-day visit to the United States, Catholics were catching their breath from the whirlwind tour and many were trying to figure out what kind of impact the visit would leave in its wake. The trip -- anticipated since last November -- prompted a fair amount of guesswork about what the pontiff would and wouldn't say. Pope Benedict, not swayed by hearsay, frequently reiterated that the theme of the visit was "Christ Our Hope" and stressed his optimism that the visit would prompt "a time of spiritual renewal for all Americans." Whether he was addressing international or interreligious leaders, educators, priests and religious, bishops, youths or baseball stadiums full of Catholics, the pope stuck with that message of hope in Christ throughout his various stops. Overall reviews of the papal visit were positive and then some.

"In general, the visit was a terrific success. He hit a home run every time he went up to bat," said Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center in Washington.

Pre-trip speculation about whether Pope Benedict would address the clergy sex abuse crisis was put aside from the start when the pope spoke on the plane ride to Washington of being "deeply ashamed" about the scandal. He followed those comments with several other references to the abuse scandal and then a personal meeting with abuse victims.

The pope did "exactly what American Catholics needed and wanted to see" from the person with the highest authority in the church, Father Reese said, adding that the directness will have a positive impact on the church. "He took the issue seriously, knowing that apologizing once wasn't going to do it," the priest added.

Thomas Groome, director of the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College, called the pope's visit a "resounding success," where he "did and said all the right things." In an e-mail to Catholic News Service, Groome said Pope Benedict offered Catholics and other Christians of this country a "new apologetic" for their faith that he described as "one of persuasion rather than legislation," where he encouraged people to follow the "way of Jesus" to find freedom, truth and happiness. The pope also reached out to young people, making reference to them in homilies and meeting with them on the grounds of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., April 19. Mike Hayes, associate director of Paulist Young Adult Ministries in New York and managing editor of the Paulist online site BustedHalo.com, said the immediate impact of Pope Benedict's visit might not necessarily be a flood of new vocations despite encouragement in that direction. Instead, he said, more young people will be "interested in connecting with what it means to be Catholic in today's world." To those who wondered how Pope Benedict would fill Pope John Paul II's shoes, especially with youths and young adults, Hayes has this perspective: "Where (Pope) John Paul was a rock star, (Pope) Benedict might be the audiobook." Simply put, people came to be with Pope John Paul; they came to listen to Pope Benedict, he told CNS April 24. Pope Benedict is "very direct, telling people, 'This is where we need to be,'" Hayes said, noting that even though the pope is "not a sound-bite guy" his directness is "something that young people really connect with." And they weren't just thrilled to see him for the moment either, because, as Hayes pointed out, many young adults have read Pope Benedict's two encyclicals on hope and love and now, of course, they can read his various messages to the U.S. church. Reading material is certainly one thing Pope Benedict left behind with papal texts available online at: www.uspapalvisit.org, and in a special issue of Origins, the CNS documentary service.

As Father Reese pointed out, the pope's substantive speeches and homilies will "require reading and rereading."

The pope also left behind an improved image of himself among U.S. Catholics. Just two weeks before his arrival, only 18 percent of the general public and 37 percent of Catholics said they knew a lot about Pope Benedict. If the poll were redone now, Father Reese said, "the pope's approval rating should skyrocket."

Padre Pio Not Very Important To Anonymous Jesuit

Pilgrims flock to see Padre Pio, the saint whose piety overcame Vatican doubters.

Nearly a million have booked to view the saint and thousands more are expected to queue for hours.
Paul Bompard in Rome

An excerpt.

Padre Pio, who was born in 1887 and died in 1968, is Catholicism’s most widely and fervently worshipped saint.

During his lifetime he was believed to have borne the stigmata – the wounds of the crucified Jesus – on his body, to have performed many miracles of healing, to have had the capacity of being in two places at the same time (bi-location) and to have emitted a strong aroma of wild flowers.

He was made a saint by John Paul II in 2001. But the Catholic hierarchy has not always warmed to him and he was accused of fraud throughout his life. In the 1960s John XXIII called him “a cloth idol” and he was at one point investigated by the Holy Office of the Vatican, which suspected him of “abuse of popular gullibility”. For a time Padre Pio was even forbidden to say Mass in public.

A senior Jesuit academic, who preferred to remain anonymous, told The Times: “This is a very tactile form of spirituality. It is not pagan, but it is not very important to my faith.”

Nevertheless, any objections in Rome were swept aside by the force of his veneration by millions of believers. A survey in 2006 by the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana found that more Italians prayed to Padre Pio than to Jesus or the Virgin Mary.

Link (here)

This what the Summa Theologica has to say about the divine nature of saints (here)

Fr. Patrick Howell, S.J.Now Lead Jesuit At Seattle University

Key Jesuit leadership appointment announced
April 24, 2008
Pat Howell, S.J., named new rector of SU Jesuit community
Patrick Howell, S.J., has been named to the top religious post of rector to the Jesuit Community at Seattle University. Father Howell will continue his current responsibility as vice president of Mission and Ministry until his new role begins July 31. Fr. Howell will succeed Peter Ely, S.J., who will complete his term of service for the SU Jesuit community and will be taking a sabbatical to write a book. "I congratulate Fr. Howell in this appointment to service on behalf of the Society of Jesus," said SU President Stephen Sundborg, S.J.

"We Jesuits welcome him as our next religious superior, and we look forward to his continuing contribution to the mission of the university when he is rector." Appointed rector last week by the Very Rev. Father Adolfo Nicolas, S.J, superior general of the Society of Jesus in Rome, Fr. Howell's primary function for the six-year term will be to support and promote the Jesuit community's work at SU.

"The appointment came as a surprise, but as a great honor," Fr. Howell said. "We have a wonderful, energetic, deeply committed Jesuit community and I know they will buoy me up in this job." Fr. Howell entered the Society of Jesus in 1961 after earning his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Gonzaga University.

He received his masters degree in English literature from Boston College, studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, and earned a Doctorate in Ministry from Catholic University of America in 1985.

Prior to his role as vice president of Mission and Ministry at SU, Fr. Howell served as dean of the School of Theology and Ministry, and authored two books, Reducing the Storm to a Whisper: the Story of a Breakdown and A Spiritguide through Times of Darkness. His writings also appear regularly in a religion column for The Seattle Times.

Link (here)

An Irish Jesuit, For An Irish Leader

Good day at the Dáil

By

Shaun Connolly, Political Correspondent

04/24/2008

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An excerpt.

BERTIE AHERN began to let the past go yesterday as he said a softly spoken farewell to the Dáil he has dominated for more than a decade as part of his long goodbye from power. The journey will sweep him through the majestic setting of the US Congress next week before finally climaxing on May 6 when he meets the north’s first minister Ian Paisley at the site of the Battle of the Boyne. The deeply symbolic occasion will sear into the national consciousness the defining image of him as the bringer of peace, standing together with the enemy he tamed on the blood-soaked faultline of Irish history he helped soothe. Keen to avoid the Shakespearean drama of Charles Haughey’s sudden exit from the Dáil, Bertie chose a reflective quote from Jesuit writer Fr John Sullivan.

“Take life in installments. This day now, at least let this be a good day. Be always beginning, let the past go. Now let me do whatever I have the power to do,”

he told TDs as his final command to the Dáil as the Taoiseach was lost amid the chamber rising in unanimous applause. As befits this most pragmatic of men, the moment was executed without a trace of emotion from him. Apart from a lone Sinn Féin voice, the tributes that flowed towards Bertie were universally warm, but it was Mary Harney who touched on the enigma the man best.

Read the full article in the Irish Examiner (here)

Defiant GU Student

GU Won't Blindly Submit to Catholic Doctrine
By Adam Beck Apr 22 2008
Letter
In an interview within the lead story “A Papal Voyage, a Campus Question” (THE HOYA, Apr. 18, 2008, A1), Patrick Reilly, the president and founder of the Cardinal Newman Society, unnecessarily injected his disdain for sizable segments not only of the Georgetown campus community but of the Catholic community in general.

Reilly seemingly views a Catholic undergraduate education as a time for blind obedience to doctrine rather than an opportunity for the interaction of faith and reason, free thought and critical analysis of issues both religious and secular.

His view is the antithesis of what both a liberal arts education, even a Jesuit one, is supposed to be, but also of the inclusive nature of our campus. For example,

Reilly describes H*yas for Choice as “very much a problem” and describes its members as promoting the “killing of innocent children.” Using such language in no way furthers his argument, as it only serves to demean those of us who are both Catholic and pro-choice, a group to which many Catholics in the United States belong.

Reilly went on to denounce the forthcoming LGBTQ Resource Center, saying it should be frowned upon because it will celebrate sinful activity. Particularly given the events of the past school year that have furthered the need for such a center on campus, Reilly’s belief that Georgetown should not be supporting members of the LGBTQ community is insulting, harmful and incorrect.

People like Patrick Reilly are precisely what is wrong with the Church in current times. President DeGioia is right to stand up for the advancement of what he describes as “both academic freedom and ... the free exchange of ideas and opinions across all issues.”

Georgetown must continue to promote the free exchange of thought and critical analysis of issues. Thus far, particularly here at Georgetown, that resulted in a rejection of the views of those such as Reilly, based on both rationale and religious thought.

Link to the Hoya letter (here)
Adam Beck (COL ’10)April 21, 2008

Stonyhurst College A 400 Year Jesuit Tradition

Changes in the way Stonyhurst College is run
By Ben Briggs

A ROMAN Catholic college that admits pupils from all over the world has announced major changes to the way it is governed. Stonyhurst College, Hurst Green, near Clitheroe, is planning to establish a self-governing charity to own and manage the future development of the school. The decision has been reached after lengthy discussions between Roman Catholic religious order the Jesuit foundation - the Society of Jesus - and the Stonyhurst board of governors.

The Jesuit church has been involved in the running of the college for more than 400 years and will continue to have a say in the way it is run. Now though, instead of the college being run as a charitable arm of the Society of Jesus, it will be governed by a separate charitable trust which give the college greater financial flexibility. The charity is expected to come into operation within the next 12 months, once it has been approved by the Society of Jesus' offices in Rome.

A college spokesman said: "The announcement about governance at Stonyhurst is an important and exciting development in the way our schools will be governed and led in the future. Above all, the governors will work to safeguard and develop the Jesuit ethos of the school." The Society of Jesus will continue its 400 year involvement with Stonyhurst, one of the oldest Jesuit Colleges in the world. There will, for instance, be the same strong presence on the board of governors. "The main benefit of the new arrangements will be that the governors will have more financial autonomy to develop our schools to meet the needs of the 21st Century. That financial independence will be underpinned by an endowment from the Society of Jesus which will support us in staying true to the ideals that have guided us down the years."

Link (here)

Nancy P. And The True Believers

Looking at the Prisoners of Shangri-La
by Ed Kaitz
04/22/2008

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An excerpt.

“Socially engaged” Buddhism is a mirror image of “liberation theology” now raging through many Christian denominations and college campuses here in America.

This is why a Catholic defender of partial birth abortion rights like Nancy Pelosi can be invited to give a commencement speech at the Jesuit University of San Francisco. Progressive true believers at universities like this who have championed “diversity” over the years were in many cases simply out to overcome the “post-imperial guilt” associated with being European or Christian.

This is why historical European writers such as Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote about the crucial place that “small town America” had in preserving American democracy, rarely made it to the class reading list. This is also why Barack Obama will not be adversely affected by his recent patronizing remarks about this slice of American life: students have been hearing the same contempt since their schooling began.

Link to the full article at HumanEvents.com (here)

The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI: USA Tour 2008

Via and thanks to Catholic Culture for this excellent recap.
Well, ahem, probably the best course is to get myself out of trouble by giving you the complete list of Pope Benedict's statements while he was in the United States. Here they are, all in one place:
.
On the plane: I Go to the United States with Joy
To President Bush: Faith Sheds New Light on All Things
To the Bishops: The People of This Country Are Known for Their Great Vitality and Creativity
Homily at National's Stadium: Americans Have Always Been a People of Hope
To Catholic Educators: Freedom Is Not an Opting Out, it Is an Opting In
To Religious Leaders: A United Society Can Indeed Arise From a Plurality of Peoples
To Members of the Jewish Community: On the Feast of Pesah
To Other Religious Communities: Address at the Ecumenical Prayer Service
To UN Staff: Meeting with Staff of the United Nations
To the UN General Assembly: Human Rights Must Be Respected as an Expression of Justice
To the Disabled: Meeting with Young People Having Disabilities
To Young People and Seminarians: Meeting with Young People and Seminarians
Homily at St. Patrick's Cathedral: Votive Mass for the Universal Church
At Ground Zero: God of Peace, Bring Your Peace to Our Violent World
Homily at Yankee Stadium: Look to the Future with Hope
Farewell Address: Promote Peaceful Co-Existence among Nations
.
There's a treasure-trove of spiritual reading here. If you haven't already, I invite you to sample it.

Jeff Mirus President
Trinity Communications
www.CatholicCulture.org

Unhappy Campers! I Mean, Unhappy Catholics

Theology students extol pope's pastoral gifts but say change unlikely

By Chris Herlinger

Catholic News Service

An excerpt.
.

Jeremy Kirk, 30, a master of arts candidate at Union, plans to pursue a doctorate in Christian ethics focusing on the work of Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino, a Latin American liberation theologian. Kirk gave measured praise to Pope Benedict's pastoral outreach to those who survived clergy sexual abuse. "I see he's doing the right thing pastorally," said Kirk, whose social activism includes volunteering with the Catholic Worker Movement. "The apology (Pope) Benedict offered impressed me. But it would have been more powerful if every person involved in an institutional cover-up (of clergy sex abuse) would be ousted from office."

The pope remains a symbol of a hierarchy "that has failed the victims," Kirk said, adding that he believed media coverage of the pope's visit was focusing too much on Pope Benedict's pastoral image rather than on what Kirk said was the pope's potent political symbolism. "If the pope had gone to the nearest soup kitchen after arriving and (President) Bush had been the third person, rather than the first person, he had met, I'd be happier," said Kirk.

Catholic students are a minority at Union but one of the largest single denominational groups at the predominantly Protestant school. Although Union is still perhaps best-known for being the midcentury intellectual home of such leading Protestant theologians as Reinhold Niebuhr (American Socialist) and Paul Tillich, since the 1970s the school has been known as a leading center of study in the United States for black and feminist liberation theologies. The prominent black theologian James Cone, for example, has taught at Union for more than three decades. But Union also has had a long tradition of hosting well-known Catholics.

Liberation theologians such as Peruvian Dominican Father Gustavo Gutierrez have taught for short terms at Union, which has ties with Columbia University. Catholic scholars not associated with liberation theology, including the late biblical scholar Sulpician Father Raymond Brown, (troublesome, read link) have also been permanent faculty at Union.

Of the current five full-time Catholic faculty members at Union, three are women. Union's current Catholic faculty includes Jesuit Father Roger Haight, whose book, "Jesus Symbol of God," (contains grave doctrinal errors) was sharply criticized by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when it was headed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict. The Vatican has banned Father Haight from teaching at a Catholic institution.

Another Roman Catholic theologian who has had trouble with the Vatican is Paul F. Knitter, currently Union's Paul Tillich professor of theology, world religions and culture.

Kirk told Catholic News Service April 20 that Union was lucky to have scholars like Father Haight and Knitter on the faculty, adding that the student view of Pope Benedict at Union is colored in large part by the pope's relationship with them, with figures like Father Sobrino and by Pope Benedict's past criticism of liberation theology. For her part, Harris -- a Catholic who used to be Presbyterian --

said her concern about church reform, specifically the need to expand the eligibility for clergy to include noncelibate men and women, is coming out of real and "lived experience."

Catholic women at Union share a commissioning service as a tribute to their work and also as a formal recognition that they cannot be ordained as clergy within their church. Harris said she would like to be ordained if she could be, though she doubts that her ineligibility will change in her lifetime. Still, she added, "We never thought we'd see altar girls and now we do have altar girls."

Link (here)

Fr. James Martin, S.J. , "I Am Liberal"

The Jewish People, Joseph Ratzinger and Me
By Father James Martin

An excerpt.

Benedict’s trip has been a surprise for me. To be honest, I was one of those (many) liberal Catholics who was disappointed by his election. (At the time, I told someone that when Pope Benedict XVI first stepped onto the Vatican balcony after his election, I felt like jumping off of one!)

In his previous role as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, charged with serving as the church’s theological watchdog, it was his job to ensure doctrinal purity, especially among theologians.

During his many years in that position, he disciplined many good scholars and writers, even some of my friends, who were doing their best to advance Catholic theology.

Link to the full editorial (here)

Hat Tip to Karen Hall at Some Wear Clerics for some more reflection go (here)

Are You Too Young To Be A Jesuit?

Vocations in focus
21 April 2008
Conall O’Cuinn SJ has just returned from a three day Jesuit European Vocation Directors Meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. They addressed key issues such as: men joining too young; men joining too old (when formation becomes ineffective); the reticence in Jesuits to invite people to join; and the move to have lay colleagues as vocation promoters.

Twenty Jesuit Provinces were represented at the meeting, including Lebanon, Romania, and Malta.

Fr. Orlando Torres SJ, assistant to the General for formation, attended all of the sessions. [ For photos of the meeting, click here.]

Link (here)

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J. joined the "Society of Jesus" at 17, read more about him (here)

St. John Berchmans, S.J. joined the "Society of Jesus" at 17, read more about him (here)

Pope Benedict XVI Meet Avery Cardinal Dulles Privately

Benedict & Avery Dulles
How absolutely wonderful.The Pope is going to make a personal visit to Cardinal Avery Dulles in his bedroom while in Dunwoody seminary. It was not on his schedule. Cardinal Dulles is too ill to attend any of the events but no one deserves a private visit more. Dulles, who is 89, is one of the great converts and theologians of the 20th century and gave his final annual McGinley lecture at Fordham on April 1. When I met him last April, he was still able to walk with a cane. Now he is wheelchair bound.

Link to the full post at Intentional Disciples (here)

Quote Of The Day: The Jesuit

Today, it is good to pray for priests, but not only for priests. I went for confession today and I was asked to pray for religious Sisters and Brothers many of whom are struggling. The form of life called Religious Life is waning not because it is no longer relevant but because somewhere in our history, priests and religious have failed to remain faithful to Christ crucified but are instead infatuated with the spirit of the world. In our desperation to be relevant, we might have just made ourselves irrelevant.

The Jesuit in his blog Jesuit Homilies read his full post entitled Holy Thursday Year A

The Stirring Of The Holy Spirit At Boston College

A Posture for Prayer
April 19, 2008
Posted by Fr. Robert P. Imbelli
Those, who watched on television the Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, saw, from time to time, the large cross placed on the altar, between the Pope and the assembly. It is Benedict’s effort to introduce a spiritual “ad orientem” posture to the Eucharistic liturgy. Yesterday, at the request of a group of Boston College students, I celebrated Mass with them in the lower church of the parish where I reside.

For the first time since I was ordained, I prayed the Eucharistic prayer of the ordinary form of the Roman rite facing in the same direction as the congregation, with a standing cross in front of the altar.

When I asked the students afterwards what they had experienced by this new (both for them and for me) posture, they concurred with one student’s description. They were helped to experience being offered together with Christ to the Father. Twice this past year I have attended the extraordinary form of the Roman rite; and, although I was moved by it, I felt the lack of an audible praying of the Eucharistic prayer to be a limitation. I will need to ponder last evening’s experience further, and would welcome thoughts of others who have experienced a similar liturgical celebration.

Link (here)

Fr. Zulsdorf's comments (here)

Joe Garcia's Hat Tip (here)

Benedict XVI, "This Will Be A Time Of Purification For Each And Every Particular Church And Religious Community,"

Deal reached in Alaska abuse cases
Sunday, April 20, 2008

Attorneys for more than a hundred people who say they were victims of abuse involving Jesuits in Alaska reached a $50 million negotiated settlement.
Rob Adams
The 110 people, all Alaska Natives, said they were abused by 15 Jesuit priests, brothers or those supervised by Jesuits from about 1961 to 1987. The alleged abuse occurred in remote villages along the coast of Western Alaska and along the Yukon River. Officials at the Society of Jesus,

Oregon Province said Sunday that any settlement announcement would be premature since details had yet to be worked out. But copies of the "draft settlement documents" were leaked that confirms a settlement for $50,000,000 to be paid to the plaintiffs/claimants. The lawsuits also named the Diocese of Fairbanks, which owned and managed the churches in the villages where the Jesuit priests, brothers and volunteers were assigned, the victims' attorneys said.

The Fairbanks Diocese has not settled, and negotiations continue. In the past several years, many cases have been filed against the Jesuits in the Northwest, and the province has considered filing for voluntary bankruptcy. It is not clear how Sunday's announcement would affect any bankruptcy decision. Excluding the Sunday announcement, the Oregon Province — which includes Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Montana and Idaho — has spent about $16 million to settle claims with 61 victims against 41 priests since 2002.

In the Washington state, there have been several settlements, including those involving the Revs. Michael Toulouse and Englebert Axer, both former professors at Seattle University, and against the Rev. John Leary, former president of Gonzaga University. All three men are deceased.

The victims' attorneys said the $50 million settlement is the largest against a religious order in the recent Catholic Church abuse cases.

Link to original article (here)

Link to the Holy Fathers comments (here)

Link to the Boston abuse scandal (here)

University Of Scranton Presents Awards

Two will receive Pedro Arrupe Award The directors of two of the preeminent Jesuit ministries in the United States will be honored with the University of Scranton’s annual Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Award for distinguished contributions to Ignatian mission and ministries. The awards to Suzanne Geaney, executive director of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, and the Rev. Kenneth Gavin, S.J., national director of the Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, will be presented at a university assembly on Wednesday at noon in the DeNaples Center Theater as part of ongoing celebrations of the university’s 120th anniversary of its founding in 1888.

Link (here)

In My Day

Omaha Observes Earth Day
Thousands think green during Elmwood Park celebration
Apr 19, 2008
Thousands descended on Elmwood Park Saturday for Omaha's 17th annual Earth Day observance, featuring speakers, music, food, freebies and an education on how we can all take steps to protect the environment.

Teacher Mike Mansour won this year's green award for designing a Web site with his class at Jesuit Middle School with tips on how to go green.

Things like making copies on double-sided paper and turning off computer monitors when not in use. Mansour's family practices what they preach.

"In our house we recycle and we have the light bulbs that are better for the
earth, just those little things,"

says Kari Mansour. "You know, I've got a little daughter right now and so I want the world to be a good place for her and I want it to be a good place for me,” says Mike. If you want to read more tips from Mike Mansour's class, log on to greenmonkeyschools.com.

Link (here)
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In my day, my mother told me to shut the lights off with the follow up zinger, "We are not made out of money, shut the lights off!" In my day, attending a Catholic middle school we collected recycled newspapers because the school used it as a fund raiser. The class with the most newspapers collected won a free ice cream. We were bribed with a frozen Heath Bar Crunch. In my day, we car-pooled to school because our parents went to work. In my day every one raised their air conditioners to 77 and wore an extra sweater in the winter because Jimmy Carter said so. In my day no one even new what an Earth Day was, these things were just common sense.

3,000 Catholic Clergy And Nuns Errupted In Applause

Pope laments abuse scandal in Mass with priests
Daniel Burke/Religion News Service

April 19, 2008
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An excerpt.

a top Vatican official traveling with Benedict hinted to reporters that the church was considering revising how it handles accusations of sexual abuse by extending its statute of limitations on when victims may come forward. Clergy said they welcomed the pope's repeated attention to the scandal's scars, even if they had not anticipated that the issue would be such a prominent theme of the trip.

"I was happy to hear his solidarity with all of the good priests and religious, the vast majority of whom had nothing to do with the crisis," said the Rev. James Martin

, the associate editor of America magazine, a Jesuit weekly. Benedict was greeted at the doors of the massive Gothic cathedral by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as trumpets sounded and some 3,000 Catholic clergy and nuns erupted in applause.

Link (here)

Talk About Missing The Boat

Hans Küng tells why Jesuit college rejected young Wojtyla
Banned Swiss theologian Hans Küng has told the ABC that Pope John Paul II failed to gain admittance to Rome´s Gregorian University in his student days because he lacked a strong background in modern exegesis and theology. Küng, who turns 76 tomorrow, is emeritus professor of theology at Tübingen University in Germany. His right to teach at Catholic universities was revoked by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1979. He was speaking to Stephen Crittenden on yesterday´s Religion Report on ABC Radio National. He said:

"In the period when I was at the Gregorian, Karol Wojtyla was studying in Rome, and I think it was important to mention that he was certainly intelligent enough to enter the Pontifical Gregorian University of the Jesuits, but he obviously did not have the prerequisites in the plan of studies." Küng said

Wojtyla´s studies had focused on the neo-scholastic theology of St Thomas Aquinas. He was admitted to the Dominicans´ Angelicum University after ordination in 1946.

"I think it’s a fact that Karol Wojtyla does not know enough modern exegesis, history of dogmas, modern theology," he said. "He has a very traditional neo-scholastic training, but I think that these are his limits, and I do not see why we cannot speak openly about that." Küng,

who was a theological adviser to the Second Vatican Council alongside his then colleague Joseph Ratzinger, has recently published the first volume of his autobiography. Reminiscences of his contemporary Wojtyla will appear in the second volume.
SOURCE Hans Kueng on the death of Cardinal Koenig (ABC Religion Report 17/3/04)
Link (here)

Some Interesting French And German Jesuit Practices In The 1960's

Doing God in the land of Mammon

By Christopher Howse
19/04/2008

An excerpt.

Modernity is a question that has interested Pope Benedict deeply. Just because he was 81 last Wednesday and wears funny clothes does not mean he is unaware of the way the world wags. In a fascinating new book about his ideas, Ratzinger's Faith (Oxford, £12.99), Tracey Rowland gives an instructive incident from 40 years ago to illustrate his perspective on the current age.

In 1968, the year of student demos - at his own university at Tübingen as much as at the Sorbonne - he was not shocked by bolshie intellectuals on the streets. What disturbed him was that on the barricades, Jesuit and Dominican priests were giving out Holy Communion to anyone, whether they shared the faith of the Church or not.

This might sound odd or unimportant, from an ordinary, secular point of view. But Pope Benedict, or Joseph Ratzinger as he was then, had developed a clear view of the Eucharist as literally embodying the Church. In other words, the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ is made what it is by the presence of God in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. This was an insight he derived from St Augustine, the fourth-century North African bishop.

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Photo is of President Bill Clinton receiving the Eucharist

Theologians Create Truth?

Simply repeating old formulas will not work. The pedagogy of teachers lecturing and students memorizing does not work anymore. . . . It is the job of theologians to come up with new ways to explain the Gospel message. This requires hard work, creativity and freedom to experiment. Vatican attempts to cut off discussion of certain topics have not been helpful. It is better to let the theologians debate and criticize each other until the truth emerges.

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-- Thomas J. Reese, Jesuit priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center.

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Jesuit On 1960's Church Design For Indian Catholic Church

Tribal art, Mughal architecture in Jharkhand church
Bright fibreglass windows, arches shaped like onion domes and a statue of Jesus Christ bearing resemblance to tribal art are some of the unique features of a church in Jharkhand
Dumka (Jharkhand):

The Mount Carmel Church in Murugini village of Dumka district is a blend of Santhal tribal art and Mughal architecture. Subrata Ganguly of Church Art, a Kolkata-based designing agency that helped build the church, said a number of new interior décor concepts were implemented in the church. "We have given a different design to the church atmosphere using husker at the bottom of the sanctuary section. This apart, we have moulded many other things like altar, podium, pulpit, statues and relief murals into typical tribal forms," Ganguly said. "Like the Santhal tribals, we have used flashy colours in the fibre glass windows and given a wooden finish to the Jesus statue that gives us an impression of tribal art. We have also designed the arches in the onion dome pattern, which is a very well-known form of Persian architecture," Ganguly added. The church was inaugurated Saturday after a three-year-long building process. A prayer hall used to earlier stand in its place. "We have promoted tribal themes through the interior decor of the church. The architecture of the church is a shift from the conventional European mode to the local mode. It was done to make local people feel more familiar with Christianity,"

Father Claudious Tauro, secretary of the Jesuit Santhal Society of Jharkhand, said. The building of the church in keeping with tribal art was part of 'inculturation', a practice that helps churches adopt a number of local traditions and practices to make it easier for people to relate to Christianity.

The Vatican approved the process in the 1960s when Rome embraced inter-faith dialogue and religious liberty. This allowed the use of local languages instead of Latin in church services all over the world. The total population of Dumka district is about 1.2 million, of which over 100,000 are Catholics. "We never feel that Christianity did not originate in India. We always feel the religion is as much ours as it is to other Christians in the Western world. We feel very linked to the religion as it has merged our Santhal themes with Christian rituals," said Sudhan Soren, a tribal of Tongra village.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service

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Jesuit Mission Trail And Martyrs Shrine

Trail explores southern shore of Georgian Bay
WAUBAUSHENE, Ont. - A newly paved 20-kilometre trail offers walkers and cyclists a way to explore historic areas along the south shore of Georgian Bay. The Tay Shore Trail runs from Waubaushene to the Wye River and the outskirts of Midland. It passes by Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons, which recreates a famous 17th-century Huron-Jesuit mission. Nearby is Martyrs' Shrine, a tribute to the French Jesuits who were martyred during the Huron-Iroquois wars. The completion of the trail in 2007 was "the culmination of over a decade's worth of effort by Tay Township council, staff and residents," said Tay Mayor Scott Warnock. An abandoned CN Rail corridor was secured for the multi-used trail. Free trail guidebooks can be picked up at municipal offices at 450 Park St. in Victoria Harbour and at libraries in Victoria Harbour and Waubaushene.
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