Ridgerunner:
A thought about Jesuits. I have known many Jesuits over the years, some are so pious and conservative as to make the Holy Father look Protestant. Other Jesuits can’t even really be called Catholic, or even Christian for that matter. The Order should reform, but barring that, it should split. These priests and brothers (yes, there are Jesuit brothers) should not be unevenly yoked,
Likewise, I have for years looked forward to a schism in the Church. The schism will be based on fidelity to doctrine, either you are obedient to Rome or you are not. My vision of this schism is that the Catholics who reject fidelity to Rome will just wander off and become Episcapalian or something.
I agree that the Jesuits, as an order, have declined massively. I went to a Jesuit college and a Jesuit graduate school. When I started, most Jesuits were quite faithful to the Church and to the Pope, at least to all appearances. One of my professors was a close friend and collaborator with Cathkolic philosopher Jacques Maritain. By the time I got out of grad school, many had left and many had become radicalized. It has been downhill ever since.
Having said that, much later, one of my daugters became quite good friends with Fr. Schall, formerly at Georgetown, a very orthodox writer, and widely read columnist, and a good priest. Another became good friends with a very faithful Jesuit who wrote (just a few years ago) one of the best books on St. Thomas Aquinas I have ever read. My son became personally acquainted with a Jesuit in St. Louis, with whom he keeps up contact.
One very odd thing. Some Jesuit schools are really pretty faithful still. Some are far from it. I’m not sure how that happens. It might have more to do with the student body than anything else. Possibly they assign the more orthodox priests to the schools where more orthodox students might be expected to attend.
But as an order, the Jesuits have been in disarray for a long time. I don’t know what will happen. The order was once very important to the Church and, if it returned to orthodoxy as an institution, it could be again.
I’m not yet persuaded that there will be an “official” schism, notwithstanding that there is presently a “de facto” schism within the Church. Many, many of the dissidents were raised Catholic and it is my belief that many will return to fidelity as they age and are forced to consider their own mortality. Those who have departed from fidelity for, e.g., what they view as political expediency or personal aggrandizement, and justify themselves with the “seamless garment” (which is really “Liberation Theology Lite” argument will, I think, be the more likely to return. Some, I am sure, feel the burden of some past sin (abortion, divorce and remarriage) and, I trust, will ultimately cast it off. Others, I fear, have adopted some version of Liberation Theology in order to avoid confronting deep commitment to their own Luciferian pride or simple unbelief. For those, the return might be substantially more difficult. One hopes, of course, for the return of all.
As to many wandering off to become Episcopalians or something, I might make these observations (which aren’t really mine, but were Chesterton’s). By and large, when Catholics leave the Church, they don’t become anything in particular, they mostly become nothing in particular. He also said that the Catholic Church is for saints and sinners. For the merely respectable, the Anglican church will do.
I think, then, that, again, the real issue is sinfulness and whether we bury our consciences in denial. I remember having an argument of a sort with a Catholic who had a big problem with Humanae Vitae, and simply insisted that the Church is wrong when it comes to birth control because she couldn’t see how she could live her life without it. My observation to her was that it’s really much easier mentally to simply admit that one sinned, might sin again, but, at least for the moment, intends to at least try in the future to do differently. The lady actually accepted what I said (or said she did). One of the problems of our age, I think, is that pride is affirmed at every turn, whereas humility of mind and soul is not. That, in combination with our resolute denial when it comes to mortality, is deadly. That combination, I think, tends to encourage people to remain “buried” in their sinfulness.
I recall reading once that it was quite common in the Renaissance for people to sin on a scale even we moderns might find breathtaking. But they also repented and often reformed with equal gusto. “The Church for Saints and Sinners”. But the first step is admitting to our sinfulness; something we moderns do not much like to do.
