What happened to the Jesuits?

  • Thread starter Thread starter whosebob
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

whosebob

Guest
JMJ + OBT​

It is not uncommon to hear, in traditional-Catholic circles, that the Jesuit order has, as a whole, shifted towards the “liberal” end of the Catholic spectrum in the last 60+ years, with many individual Jesuits seemingly mired deep in heterodoxy, if not heresy (e.g. Fr. Roger Haight, SJ). There are obvious exceptions to this, e.g. Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ; Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ; and Fr. John Hardon, SJ.

Does anyone here know of a book or article or essay that takes a “big picture” look at the direction the Jesuits have taken in recent decades, and the related controversies that have surrounded not a few Jesuit theologians?

Thanks for your help.

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

IC XC NIKA
 
Here is an old joke that says:

What is similar about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?

Well, they were both founded by Spaniards, St. Dominic for the Dominicans, and St. Ignatius of Loyola for the Jesuits. They were also both founded to combat heresy: the Dominicans to fight the Albigensians, and the Jesuits to fight the Protestants.

What is different about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?

Well, have you met any Albigensians lately?
 
I don’t know of their recent history, but I know it’s not the first time the Society of Jesus has had “trouble”. They were formally suppressed by the Papacy in the late 18th Century, and rehabilitated in the early 19th. It was mostly due to political considerations rather than theological problems, but it definately happened.

The Society has been a bit of a black horse many times in history. It seems that when they’re not busy converting new peoples and setting up new missions, they tend to get themselves into some kind of hot water 😛
 
I don’t know of the Jesuits there in the U.S., but those here in the Philippines are very much in conformity with the Church.
 
But isn’t that somewhat true of most of the orders in present times? Look at the Maryknoll priests and the other order (the ones who are well known for their multimedia work and who’s name escapes me at the moment). I’m glad you pointed out that there are still some pretty solid priests in the S.J. order like Fr. Pacwa and Fr. Fessio.
 
40.png
Milliardo:
I don’t know of the Jesuits there in the U.S., but those here in the Philippines are very much in conformity with the Church.
Click to expand...
I think Jesuits are okay, but I was suprised that they are teaching **Theology of Liberation ** to their students in their curriculum for one semester in Ateneo de Manila University. Isn’t it the RCC banned liberation theology? If so where is their OBEDIENCE to the Pope here?
 
40.png
Pythagoras:
I think Jesuits are okay, but I was suprised that they are teaching **Theology of Liberation ** to their students in their curriculum for one semester in Ateneo de Manila University. Isn’t it the RCC banned liberation theology? If so where is their OBEDIENCE to the Pope here?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I’ll look up into it; I’m not from Ateneo in any way, so I wouldn’t know about that. All I know is that the Jesuits I know are solidly behind the Magisterium.
 
40.png
Milliardo:
Thanks for the info. I’ll look up into it; I’m not from Ateneo in any way, so I wouldn’t know about that. All I know is that the Jesuits I know are solidly behind the Magisterium.
Click to expand...
No problem bro, I was just suprised that my cousins who studied there bragg about their Theology of Liberation subject. You could see it in the curriculum of their courses. I think it is in their 4th year. It has an immersion project where they would spend a week I think living with the poor people.I am from another college where my professor taught about the evils that liberation theology caused to the RCC. That’s why I was suprised that of all Orders of RCC, it is the Jesuits who are stubborn and tend to glorify Theology of Liberation. They should follow the Church’s position and stop teaching liberation theology
 
Regretably the chaos of the 60’s had a very bad effect on the Jesuits and they went from being the Marine Corps of the Catholic church to a Boy Scout Troop.
 
from Ignatius Press (ignatius.com)

the Reformed Jesuits by Joseph Becker, detailed history os internal changes in US Jesuits after V2 and roots in cultural changes.

A Danger to the State by Philip Trower - epic novel about the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 and the political intrigues behind it.

When Jesuits were Giants by Cornelius Buckely, bio of Louis-Marie Ruillan, Jesuit missionary to Indians in US in 1800s
 
40.png
Pythagoras:
I think Jesuits are okay, but I was suprised that they are teaching **Theology of Liberation ** to their students in their curriculum for one semester in Ateneo de Manila University. Isn’t it the RCC banned liberation theology? If so where is their OBEDIENCE to the Pope here?
Click to expand...
Down with Ateneo. De La Salle ALL THE WAY!!
 
Fidei Defensor:
Down with Ateneo. De La Salle ALL THE WAY!!
Click to expand...
Animo La Salle? 😃 (for those who don’t get it: La Salle (run by the La Salle brothers; am not exactly sure what the name of the order is and Ateneo, run by the Jesuits, have this rivalry that’s been going on for years. Oh yeah, did I mention that both are Catholic universities? :)).
 
40.png
Pythagoras:
I think Jesuits are okay, but I was suprised that they are teaching **Theology of Liberation ** to their students in their curriculum for one semester in Ateneo de Manila University. Isn’t it the RCC banned liberation theology? If so where is their OBEDIENCE to the Pope here?
Click to expand...
Who says the Catholic Church has banned the teaching of Liberation Theology?
 
okay, ban must be a more harsh word, but indeed liberation theology has been suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church. Liberation Theology laid to waste Latin America, making it a hell on earth. Conservative Latin Catholic Bishops denounced liberation theology as a Marxist perversion of the faith, claiming that it advocated a conflict between the “popular church” and the “hierarchical church.” It is unfortunate that Marxist-Leninist forces have used the church as a political weapon against private ownership and the capitalism system of production, infiltrating the religious community with ideas that are more communist than Christian.”

The late Pope John Paul II opposed and suppressed “liberation theology,” which emphasized left-leaning politics. His subsequent appointments of bishops helped move Brazil and other Latin nations away from political activism

Ratzinger also had his eyes out for priests and theologians who strayed over the party line. In the mid 1980s, he cracked down on ''liberation theology" among the poor in Latin America, saying it was too much allied with Marxists.

I remember the late Archibishop Romero who is a liberation theology follower who cancelled **ALL MASSES ** in the churches in his jurisdiction so that the people can focus more on his anti-government sermon in the Cathedral.
 
joey(name removed by moderator):
But isn’t that somewhat true of most of the orders in present times? Look at the Maryknoll priests and the other order (the ones who are well known for their multimedia work and who’s name escapes me at the moment). I’m glad you pointed out that there are still some pretty solid priests in the S.J. order like Fr. Pacwa and Fr. Fessio.
Click to expand...
They are getting better! A lot of it depends on which province the Jesuit in question comes from. Some provinces are far more conservative than others. At the school where I teach, the Jesuits run the gamut from left to right – but many of the younger ones are increasingly orthodox in their theology.

Just my personal observations . . .
 
whosebob said:

JMJ + OBT​

It is not uncommon to hear, in traditional-Catholic circles, that the Jesuit order has, as a whole, shifted towards the “liberal” end of the Catholic spectrum in the last 60+ years, with many individual Jesuits seemingly mired deep in heterodoxy, if not heresy (e.g. Fr. Roger Haight, SJ). There are obvious exceptions to this, e.g. Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ; Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ; and Fr. John Hardon, SJ.

Does anyone here know of a book or article or essay that takes a “big picture” look at the direction the Jesuits have taken in recent decades, and the related controversies that have surrounded not a few Jesuit theologians?

Thanks for your help.

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

IC XC NIKA
Click to expand...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/images/spacer.gif
Are the Jesuits Catholic?
A review of “Passionate Uncertainty.”
Click to expand...
THE TRAJECTORY of the decline is not hard to trace, and the Jesuit story, though more dramatic, differs little from that of other progressive religious orders in the decades following the Second Vatican Council. Liberalism had been seen to foster tolerance and mutual respect in pluralist secular communities. Yet, being purely negative in content and procedural in application, it proved lethal when imported into an intentional association like the Society of Jesus, one both doctrinally exclusivist and rigidly hierarchical. Almost overnight the pope’s light infantry became a battalion in which every man decided for himself which war he was fighting. The result was an institutional nightmare: confusion and cowardice at the top; despair, rage, and disillusionment in the ranks. American Jesuits went from 8,400 members in 1965 to 3,500 today. Entering novices declined from a peak one-year total of 409 to a low of 38. Worse, the number of priests who jump ship each year roughly equals the number of entering novices; the number of Jesuits who die annually is twice as high as either.
Click to expand...
weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/295pzsns.asp?pg=2
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top