Fordham University Gives Soapbox to Atheist Poet

Poets Out Loud Opens Fall Season with a Feminist Twist

Fordham University’s Poets Out Loud series, which features readings by noted and emerging poets from around the country, launched its fall 2008 season on Sept. 15 with a reading by feminist poet and critic Alicia Ostriker.

Although known as one of the eminent poets of her generation, Ostriker told the audience that she was late in joining the feminist movement of the 1970s.

"I wanted to be a part of it, but I had children," she explained. "In that time, you either had babies or books, and I wanted both."

She added, "You don’t decide to become a feminist. If you do, you’re not a real one."

Link to the Fordham press release (here)

A quote by Alicia Ostriker

I am agnostic as regards heaven. I was raised a third-generation atheist socialist Jew. When my grandfather died, when I was nine, I prayed every night, “Dear God, in case you exist, please let my grandfather into heaven, even though he didn’t believe in you, because he was a good man.” But you can see that John Lennon has a point. Much more killing has been done by people who believed in heaven than by those who didn’t.

Link (here)

Jesuit University Professor On Abortion

The same debate is already playing out almost every day in the letters section of Scranton’s newspaper, said Jean Harris, a political scientist at the Jesuit -run University of Scranton. “It is a running debate between Catholics saying ‘abortion is the only issue’ and others saying ‘you have to look at the whole teaching of the church,’” she said.
Photo of the U of S campus

Link (here)

St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.

You will not find anything over at the vaunted America Magazine about St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J. even though he is a Doctor of the Church. So it is up to the Ignaciophiles to do the heavy lifting. This post was put together by St. Robert Bellarmine's number one fan John Michael

St. Bellarmine Feast Day

Learn more about the great Cardinal Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino click here to get over 40 post about about our beloved St. Bellarmine.

They range from quotes, bios and short stories.

Don't forget your free book written by St. Bellarmine! Just sign up on the right hand side to get one the greatest books every written about the passion of Christ.

Here are some of my favorite St. Bellarmine post.

• "St. Robert Bellarmine Caused Great Division..."

• "Saint Robert Bellarmine - Running Ulcer Miracle..."

• "Saint Robert Bellarmine Secret To His Pursuit of Holiness..."

• "Young Robert Bellarmine Was Dying..."

• "Men Are Like Frogs." Saint Robert Bellarmine

• A Litany To St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church

• St. Robert Bellarmine - The Call To The Priesthood

St. Robert Bellarmine, pray for us.

Jesuit And The Arts

Jesuit priest the Rev. Stephen Schloesser, "Mystic Masque: Semblance and Reality in Georges Rouault, 1871-1958," reintroduces a masterful painter whose portraits of conflicted souls express the spiritual yearnings of a troubled century.

Balancing scholarly and theological research, Schloesser firmly locates Rouault in the tumult of a Europe ravaged by class inequality, the Great Depression, Nazism, two world wars and Soviet totalitarianism. Trained in a symbolist salon by an artist who became a trusted mentor, Rouault forged a distinctive style that conveyed universal concerns about suffering, injustice and death in powerful painted allegories.

Schloesser hopes the show of 240 paintings, works on paper and stained glass, triggers a reappraisal of a giant whose critical reputation has been overshadowed by decades of pop, abstract and conceptual art.

"I really do hope the exhibit prompts a re-evaluation. I think, by chance, this show is coming at a time we can look at things he painted as landscapes, narratives and art that tell a story really different from what was attracting attention in the years after his death," he said.

Astonishing to look at and deeply felt, "Mystic Masque" brings together so many of Rouault's striking works viewers will wonder why lesser artists and self-referential movements eclipsed him in the public eye
Link (here)

Jesuit Taken Out Of Context

Jesuit scholar John Connery wrote of the history of abortion: "If anyone expects to find an explicit condemnation of abortion in the New Testament he will be disappointed. The silence of the New Testament regarding abortion surpasses even that of the Old Testament."

Link to what the leftist really thinks about Catholicism, trust me this a shocker. (here)

The Reality Of Evil And The Standard Of Satan

Just in case you do not believe that Satan exists, go (here).
The Two Standards of St. Ignatius by Fr. John Hardon, S.J. (here)

When Does Intellectual Freedom, Lead To Wrong Religous Conclusions

Catholic University to Honor Justice Breyer Who Wrote Majority Opinion Supporting Partial-Birth Abortion

NEW YORK, September 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a brash move defying the U.S Bishops' speakers policy, Fordham University's Stein Center for Law and Ethics announced that pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer is the 2008 recipient of the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize. Breyer infamously wrote the majority opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart, which struck down state laws banning the practice of partial-birth abortion.

The Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize is scheduled to be bestowed upon Justice Breyer at a dinner in New York on October 29, 2008.

Three weeks ago The Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick J. Reilly wrote to inform Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., President of Fordham University, of Justice Breyer's record. Reilly urged him to rescind the offer of the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize to Breyer. No response was given.

"This amounts to nothing less than Fordham University thumbing its nose at the US Bishops, whose opposition to such honors is clear," said Reilly.

Earlier this year The Cardinal Newman Society led a coalition of prominent Catholic organizations and released a statement in support of the US Bishops' speakers policy. In the 2004 statement, "Catholics in Political Life," the Bishops stated: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

In the 2000 decision Stenberg v. Carhart, Supreme Court Justice Breyer wrote in the majority opinion: "This Court, in the course of a generation, has determined and then redetermined that the Constitution offers basic protection to the woman's right to choose."

In contrast, New York Archbishop, Edward Cardinal Egan recently lambasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for defending the so-called "right to choose." Egan said: "Anyone who dares to defend that they [children in the womb] may be legitimately killed because another human being 'chooses' to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in his dissenting opinion in Stenberg, wrote: "I am optimistic enough to believe that, one day, Stenberg v. Carhart will be assigned its rightful place in the history of this Court's jurisprudence beside Korematsu and Dred Scott. The method of killing a human child . . . proscribed by this statute is so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion."

"The choice by Fordham University of Justice Breyer to receive this prestigious award," said Patrick Reilly, "is a far cry from an award established to recognize the 'positive contributions of the legal profession to American society.' Justice Breyer did not act objectively in Stenberg, but rather overstepped his authority and legislated from the bench."

"If Fordham truly aspires to follow its own mission statement and be 'Guided by its Catholic and Jesuit traditions,' then it must rescind the offer of this award to Justice Breyer," said Reilly.

Contact:

Edward Cardinal Egan of New York
1011 First Ave
New York,
NY 10022
Phone: 212-371-1000

and

Fordham University
Stephen Freedman, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President/Chief Academic Officer
svpcao@fordham.edu
718.817.3040 (p)
718.817.3050 (f)

Link (here)

Link to GJBJ previous post (here)

Jesuit Steel Of India

Apart from having a component of business ethics as part of the curriculum, various student communities are involved in social initiatives—some of which include putting together a clothes bank for distribution among the poor as remuneration for community welfare work and providing a marketing channel for the products of tribal craftsmen in India and abroad.

XLRI was founded by Quinn Enright, a Jesuit priest, in 1949. “Tata Steel officials requested Father Enright to open an institute to train the local trade union leaders and help them bargain better with the management on behalf of the workers, and that is how XLRI came into being,” says Sharad Sarin, a professor of strategic management at XLRI since 1972. XLRI, in fact, stands for Xavier Labour Relations Institute, but now the institute goes by just the acronym.

Over the years, XLRI has earned a stellar reputation. In 1953, a two-year day programme in industrial relations and welfare—rechristened PM&IR in 1985—started at the institute. The two-year full-time business management programme was launched as early as 1968.

Link (here)

An Engraving Of Ignatius

Link to picture and many more like it (here)

Jesuit And The Saints

St.Mary of Egypt

Miniature Stories of the Saints
by Rev. Daniel A. Lord, S.J.

(here)

Saint Agatha
the Pure Virgin

Saint Angela
Friend of Girls

Saint Barbara
the Brave Martyr

Saint Brigid
of Ireland

Saint Catherine of Siena
the Dominican

Saint Clotilde
Queen of France

Saint Colette
the Franciscan

Saint Mary of Egypt
who had been a Sinner

Saint Ursula
and her Companions

NIHIL OBSTAT ARTHUR J. SCANLAN S.T.D. CENSOR LIBRORUM
IMPRIMATUR FRANCIS J. SPELLMAN, D.D. ARCHBISHOP, NEW YORK


Hat Tip to

Carmelite spirituality and the practice of mental prayer

Jesuit On Monsters

"Where Monsters do Live"

Thought this description of a wild band of horsemen in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian sounded a bit like the Society of Jesus:

For although each man among them was discrete unto himself, conjoined they made a thing that had not been before and in that communal soul were wastes hardly reckonable more than those whited regions on old maps where monsters do live and where there is nothing other of the known world save conjectural winds.

Nathan O'Halloran, SJ

Jesuitica From The Philippine Jesuits

Jesuit churches

Il Ges? of Rome

Sant' Ignazio of Rome

Jesuits and Science

Jesuit universities

Jesuits in Arts

Nadal's Illustrations on the Gospels
Ignatian Engravings

Jesuit Book Illustrations
Theater

Jesuit symbols

Jesuits in stamps

Jesuits in the eyes of the adversaries

Curiosities

Link (here)

Hunter Biden Goes From Jesuit Volunteer To High Paid Jesuit Lobbiest And Back Again

"Hunter Biden could've gone anywhere after college but chose the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and the inner city, gave up a big job in corporate America to work in public service for the Clinton Administration, and has represented colleges, universities, and hospitals," Wade said. "I'd put his character up against the attack dogs of the McCain campaign any day and come out a winner."

Link (here)

Photo of Joe Biden on a presidential campaign stop in Iowa with son Hunter looking on. (here)

Hunter Biden the $80,000.00 Jesuit lobbyist (here)

Spanish Jesuit Defends The Blessed Mother

The visions of Bernadette are not in doubt, and have long been approved by Rome. However the Pope has asked Monsignor Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, a Spanish Jesuit and secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - which Benedict himself headed as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - to draw up new guidelines for bishops around the world on the recognition of reported apparitions by the Virgin Mary.

Vatican official said the Pope wanted to avoid "excesses and abuses". He believes bishops should resist being swayed by the emotional reaction of believers and be guided instead by strictly applied "scientific, psychological and theological criteria".

Link (here)

New Jesuit Priests Con-Celebrate Mass

Fr. Mossa, S.J. and his blog Diary of a Rookie Priest record with an awesome picture of the event in a post entitled, New School Year New Priests.

Italian Jesuit On The Devil, Comedy And The Holy Father

Comedian Sabina Guzzanti 'insulted Pope' in poofter devils gag

By Richard Owen in Rome
An excerpt.

An Italian comedienne faces prosecution for insulting the Pope, an offence that carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

Sabina Guzzanti, noted for her sharp satirical wit and lampoons of the powerful, is accused of "offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person" of Pope Benedict XVI at a rally in Rome in July at which opposition leaders accused Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister and media tycoon, of passing ad personam laws to protect his own interests and avoid prosecution for alleged corruption.

Speakers at the rally on Piazza Navona also protested against excessive interference by the Vatican and the Catholic Church in Italian affairs, from abortion to gay rights. Ms Guzzanti, noted for her satirical impersonations of Mr Berlusconi, told the crowd that within 20 years Italian teachers would be vetted and chosen by the Vatican.

She added: "But then within twenty years the Pope will be where he ought to be, in Hell, tormented by great big poofter devils — and very active ones, not passive ones." Giovanni Ferrara, the Rome prosecutor, said that he had asked Angelino Alfano, the Minister of Justice, for permission to proceed with a prosecution.

Father Bartolomeo Sorge, a Jesuit scholar, told La Repubblica that the move to prosecute Ms Guzzanzi was incomprehensible. "I cannot understand it," he said. "We Christians put up with many insults, it is part of being a Christian, as is forgiveness. I feel sure the Pope has already forgiven those who insulted him on Piazza Navona".
Link (here)

18th Century Jesuit Superior General Luigi Aloysius Centurioni

See this picture of Luigi Aloysius Centurioni and a painting or picture of all of
the Society of Jesus' Superior Generals (here)

Abortion Legacy Of Fr. Drinan

This is from the blog Vivificant the post is entitled, The late Jesuit Father Robert Drinan: the priest who absolved pro-abortion politicians.

An excerpt.
Fr. Drinan scandalized the Catholic world when he supported President Clinton's veto of the Partial Abortion bill, arguing that the brutal "dilation and extraction" method is sometimes medically necessary. Fr. Drinan went so far as to demand "that Congress include an exception to allow the use of the partial-birth procedure if a doctor deemed it necessary to preserve the "health" of the mother--a vague phrase which pro-lifers long ago realized could be used to justify practically any abortion."

The largest anti-abortion organization in the US, the National Right to Life Committee, has documented Drinan's virtually perfect pro-abortion voting record and the way in which his votes were used by other legislators to justify their own support of the practice. A fundraising letter mailed during Fr. Drinan's last congressional run by the National Abortion Rights Action League, denounced the pro-life movement in the strongest terms and cited Drinan as a friend whose re-election to Congress was essential to the abortion cause. Catholic World News has reprinted a detailed exposé written by Mr. James Hitchcock in 1996, back then a historian at St. Louis University, and a founder of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, in which he examined the thread of obfuscation, disingenuousness, and purposeful misunderstanding that enabled Fr. Drinan to tenuously justify his partisan election run and his dissent from his superiors.

Photo of Nancy Pelosi and Fr. Drinan, about says it all. (here)

Link to the full post (here)

Jesuits And The Blessed Mother Are Key To Western Civilization

The idea originated with Cardinal Jozef Glemp during the celebration of Our Lady Queen of Czestochowa at Jasna Gora in Southern Poland on August 15. Later on, other Polish Church official supported this concept and assisted in writing the official proposal for the European Episcopate.

The proposal will be sent to European Episcopate Community Commission by the end of September. If the Episcopate Commission will accept the Polish Bishops’ idea, they will recommend appointing Holy Mary as the Patron of the European Union to Pope Benedict XVI.

The image of Our Lady of Piotrków Trybunalski, painted by an unknown Italia artist in the 16th century, was in 1580 donated to the Royal Tribunal, established in Piotrków Trybunalski by Polish King Stefan Batory. It is located in the Jesuit Church which is at the same time a shrine of Our Lady of Piotrków. The shrine is a widely recognized place of prayer for those in power. Fr Lemiesz disclosed that efforts are being taken to make Our Lady of Piotrków Trybunalski the patron of Polish parliamentarians.

The image will be transported from Warsaw back to Piotrków Trybunalski, where in September Metropolitan of Cracow Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz is to celebrate a Holy Mass of thanksgiving for the gift of the coronation.

The main problem is whether this issue has any chance to do well, due to the idea could cause great debate amongst the European deputies.

Picture is of the famous Jesuit Church
Link (here)

Controversial Judge Has Jesuit Conections And Kennedy Family Connection

Head of bishops' panel criticizes clerics
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff
September 8, 2008

The Illinois Supreme Court justice who headed a board chosen by the Catholic bishops to assist them with preventing clergy sexual abuse accuses one of the nation's top Catholic prelates of dishonesty and sharply criticizes a second in Kerry Kennedy's new book, "Being Catholic Now," which is being released tomorrow.

The two cardinals named by Justice Anne M. Burke, Francis E. George of Chicago and Edward M. Egan of New York, both issued statements to the Globe rejecting the criticism. Burke, who was interim chair of the National Review Board for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for two years, details the scope of her concern about the American bishops in an interview with Kennedy, a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, in her book.

She says the board "started having problems with individual cardinals and bishops who thought we were too aggressive," and that "bishops got away with concealing crime," and "just when you think these bishops are getting it, they turn around and do something that in any other enterprise would result in their own dismissal."

She also alleges that, after Frank Keating, former governor of Oklahoma, was forced to resign as board chairman because he compared the bishops to the Mafia, the bishops declined to make her the permanent chairwoman because "there was no way they were going to appoint a woman to the position of chair."

Burke's strongest criticism is aimed at George, who is now the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. She says the cardinal withheld from her the fact that he was housing in his residence a priest accused of abuse in Delaware. She says she was "furious at his casual attitude" and that "the cardinal wasn't honest with me. Perhaps he was not honest with himself."

Link to the article (here)

Justice Burke's lecture at Loyola Chicago (here) and is a commencement speaker at Loyola Chicago Law School (here)

Justice Burke receives honorary degree at Holy Cross (here)

Justice Burke advocates extremist Catholic organizations Call to Action and Voice of the Faithful (here)

The eminent Jesuit Avery Cardinal Dulles disagrement with Justice Burke (here)

I Thought He Was Talking About Proponents Of Liberation Theology

Damian Thompson the world famous English blogger "hits it out of the park" with this one. (Sorry Damian, but I must use American metaphors). His editorial is entitled, Another Glimpse of Future Church, his blog is called Holy Smoke.

Traditionalists sometimes complain that the modern Catholic Church turns priests and laity into social workers. If only. As the Holy Smoke contributor called On The Side Of The Angels (OTSOTA) explains, the functionaries of "Futurechurch" prefer not to dirty their hands with the tasks undertaken by social workers.

I'm going to embarrass OTSOTA again by quoting from his latest post. I've just read it out here in the Catholic Herald offices and we all agree that he's hit the nail on the head:

"Social work is not the aim – it's called "pastorally enabling", which is basically a load of committees, workshops, heartfelt group sharings and "icebreaking". [The Futurechurch enthusiasts] don't do anything, but spend a long time mutually admiring each other and their personal talents/capabilities and how much they are "growing in the spirit" by being affirmed and nurtured within this collective.

Once they get bored with each other's company, they convince themselves it's now time to be pedagogically ministerial - which is newspeak for going back to their parishes and spending months of abject tedium initiating a local pastoral enablement team.

Let's make this quite clear: their remit does not include visiting the elderly of the parish, or visiting the lapsed, or administering Communion to the housebound, or visiting prisons, hospitals, schools etc. They might have a few odd expeditions to "interesting" local government-initiated centres: an arts and crafts centre for ex-offenders, an HIV/AIDS hostel to have a nice chat with those near death...

These professional clergy and laity don't want to do ANY of the dirty work - they wish merely to be initiators, enablers, co-ordinators, members of the procedural committees, composers of the mission statements etc.

Now some young men love all this - but invariably the type who do would make the worst possible priests, and soon reveal their colours once placed in charge of a parish."

One thing OTSOTA doesn't point out, however, is the irony that these Tablet-reading zealots tend to be long in the tooth, and therefore have less of a future than the young traditionalists who are beginning to appear in the pews. So there is hope after all.

Faith Of A Centurion

Fr. Jessel "J Boy" Gerard Gonzales, S.J. is from the Philippines, he throws his whole heart into his blog Faith of Centurion. Father also is involved in Catholic evangelization through television and posts his homilies online.

This what Fr. Jessel has to say about himself and his blog.

Faith is reasonable and practical. This blog is not for the lethargic and the lifeless. It is for those who thrive on activity; on movement and energy. It is for those who love to take on challenges. It is for the courageous. For the risk-takers. Those whose hearts burn, and enkindles other fires.

Those who are not afraid to take the plunge or to make the leap of faith. Those who walk their talk. Virgil said, "Fortune favors the bold" but I say, "Faith favors the bold."

The homilies, photos and prayers are not just to be read: they are to provoke and inform, to be jumping boards for further reflection.

Go to Faith of a Centurion (here)

Filipino Jesuit And Filipino Politics

FR. INTENGAN’S LEGACY

By Erick San Juan

An excerpt.

What could be a better way than to leave a legacy and a valid reason for some catholic priests, mostly Jesuits and a handful of Jesuit-trained laity, in the guise of upholding moral theology, to be so obsessed about driving a wedge between the government and the governed? This highly intriguing question could not simply escape the minds of most concerned Filipino patriots, owing to Jesuit Fr. Romeo “Archie” Intengan’s utterances and actuations that, in more ways than one, makes the Philippine government appear like it is a mere appendage of the Roman Catholic Church. With what we see, we now find credence on some observations that Fr. Intengan may have been betraying his priestly vows to serve God above all; and be and remain as an instrument of peace. Certainly, spousal of a formula of enforced disappearances and extra judicial killings of legitimate dissenters and non-combatants are not, and never shall they ever be the moral and ethical justification of his bid for a life of bliss, because they perpetrate nothing other than a never-ending armed conflict. If this remains unchecked, Intengan could be the most sinister and most treacherous of all “wolves in sheep’s vest.” He may be abusing the trust and confidence which Filipinos traditionally accord to the clergy.

Link (here) to the full post entitled Fr. Intengan’s Legacy at the blog Erick San Juan

A Jesuit And His Golf Clubs

Beer filling charity's tap: Trust donating profit from sales of Pabst and its other brands, but ethical concerns raised

September 08, 2008

John LoSchiavo, S.J. has been a fixture at the University of San Francisco for decades, serving as its president from 1977 to 1991 before taking the chancellor's post. Meanwhile, Giraudo's wife, Suzanne Giraudo, works at California Pacific Medical Center's Kalmanovitz Child Development Center. Giraudo said neither LoSchiavo's or his wife's relationship with grantees poses any ethical issues. The Kalmanovitz foundation made multiyear pledges to both the University of San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center before either he or LoSchiavo joined the foundation's board, Giraudo said. As for personal benefits, he said neither his wife nor LoSchiavo get any from grants made by the foundation. LoSchiavo "is a Jesuit priest who's taken a vow of poverty," Giraudo said. "Anything he gets has to go to the Jesuit community of San Francisco." He owns "a set of golf clubs" and that's about it, Giraudo said.

Link (here)

Prima Primaria: For The Poor Souls In Purgatory

Purgatorial Societies

Pious associations or confraternities in the Catholic Church, which have as their purpose to assist in every possible way the poor souls in purgatory. The Catholic doctrine concerning purgatory, the condition of the poor souls after death, the communion of saints, and the satisfactory value of our good works form the basis of these associations, although they were called into life by pure Christian charity for one's neighbour which reaches beyond the grave. This brotherly love was the distinguishing mark of Christ's Church from the very beginning; the first Christian communities and the whole Church of the early centuries down to the time of the catacombs was one grand purgatorial society. The clearest evidence for this is supplied by the prayers for the dead in the oldest liturgies and breviary prayers, and by the earliest Christian inscriptions.

An excerpt from New Advent (here)

A Jesuit Ministry

The Sodality of Our Lady (also known as the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary (in Latin, Congregationes seu sodalitates B. Mariæ Virginis) is a Roman Catholic Marian Society founded in 1563 in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus. On December 5, 1584, Pope Gregory XIII issued the Papal Bull "Omnipotentis Dei" commending this Sodality, enriching it with indulgences and establishing it as the Prima Primaria, that is, a mother Sodality which can communicate to other Sodalities affiliated with it the privileges and indulgences possessed by itself.
An excerpt from Wikipedia (here)

History of the Prima Primaria: Sodality of the Annunciation and Sts. Peter and Paul (here)

A book by Fr. Elder Mullan, S.J.