Relationship between Pope Francis, SJ, and the Jesuit Superior General?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DavidFilmer
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DavidFilmer

Guest
In my lifetime, Pope Francis is the first Pope who is a member of a Religious Order. This brings up questions that I had previously not thought of.

How does the Pope’s Jesuitness work with regard to his Religious Superior (for Pope Francis, I presume his Religious Superior would be Fr. Adolfo Pachón, SJ, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus).

Wouldn’t a Jesuit need to obtain the consent of his Religious Superior to even accept the nomination to the Papacy (and especially if you are a Jesuit, who traditionally eschew leadership roles)? Kinda hard to obtain such consent when you’re locked in the Sistine Chapel and all proceedings are held under strict secrecy. I suppose that Fr. Pachón could have given provisional assent in advance, but what if the Conclave had named a more obscure candidate whose Superior did not think to make such arrangements?

Now that Francis is Pope, what is the nature of his relationship with Fr. Pachón?
 
This was answered the other day on the radio. In the rare instance when a Jesuit becomes an bishop, as Pope Benedict did when he first became an auxillary bishop in Argentina, his vow of obedience to he Jesuit superior is abrogated.

So with Pope Francis there was no need to get permission from his superior to become Pope since that was already taken care of when he became Bishop many years ago. I don’t know how it would be handled if someone who was a Jesuit priest was somehow elected to the papacy.

However, if a person is elected who is not present in the conclave, he must be summoned in order for him to be asked if he accepts. It would make sense that a Jesuit priest would need to get permission from his superior in order to respond to such a summons.
 
I’ve never read so much as a paragraph of Cannon Law independently (that is, unless it was quoted in the Cathechism, or the like), so I’m not in a position to cite the specific authority–however, here is my (humble) understanding of how it works, from a layman’s perspective:

The religious orders are not bound by or subordinate to the bishops; however, they are subordinate to the Pope. It is the Pope who ‘authorized’ the orders to exist in the first place; without the Pope’s recognition, they would not be a Catholic religious order. Hence even members’ oathes of loyalty and obedience to the Superior of their respective orders, are subordinate to their allegiance to the Pope. Therefore when a member of an order is elected to the office of Pope–their superior would automatically become their subordinate, by virtue of the respective offices held by each (i.e.–the Pope vis a vis ‘Superior’ of a religious order).

An educated guess would futher suggest that the recognition of the order ab initio, would carry with it, an express caveat (probably stated in the Cannon Law), expressly contemplating such a situation. But that’s admittedly just conjecture. The part above is based on my understanding of the relationship between religious orders and the Vatican.
 
Can. 705 A religious raised to the episcopate remains a member of his institute but is subject only to the Roman Pontiff by virtue of the vow of obedience and is not bound by obligations which he himself prudently judges cannot be reconciled with his condition.
 
Verbum said:
Can. 705 A religious raised to the episcopate remains a member of his institute but is subject only to the Roman Pontiff by virtue of the vow of obedience and is not bound by obligations which he himself prudently judges cannot be reconciled with his condition.
Click to expand...
Yes, thank you, that is very clear. It would be somewhat muddled if the Conclave nominated a Religious priest or brother (friar, monk, etc); such a person would be summoned to the Conclave and be asked to accept his nomination, upon which he would be immediately ordained Bishop and become the Pope.

It remains somewhat unclear if such a person could accept the nomination if he were not already a Bishop, without the assent of his Religious Superior.
 
Verbum said:
Can. 705 A religious raised to the episcopate remains a member of his institute but is subject only to the Roman Pontiff by virtue of the vow of obedience and is not bound by obligations which he himself prudently judges cannot be reconciled with his condition.
Click to expand...
Yet he will still live out his vow of obedience as a Jesuit.

Obedience is done in imitation of Christ who prayed, “Not my will but thy will be done” in the garden.

***To obey is to commit oneself to the state of being a servant as Christ was, and thus to make a total offering of oneself. … Obedience is not given merely to hierarchical superiors, but is an attitude of the soul which spontaneously expresses itself to everyone whom the religious meets. It implies that they are willing to put their own desires aside, even so far as to prefer another’s wishes. **
  • Andre Louf, The Cistercian Way*
Obviously he is the Pope and he has to govern. But he will live out the evangelical coucil of obedience in many ways, preferring the will of others to his own will whenever prudent.

-Tim-
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top