Jesuits need a reminder of their identity, Vatican official says
Print Friendly VersionBy JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Since the opening of their 35th General Congregation on January 7, the Jesuits gathered in Rome have been at pains to minimize perceptions of a rift with the Vatican or with Pope Benedict XVI. The new Jesuit General, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, offered a memorable image, suggesting that the relationship between the Jesuits and the papacy is like a marriage – there may be occasional tensions, but they’re rooted in a deep bond of love.
In a sign, however, that this marriage may still need some counseling, the Vatican’s top official for religious life released an interview today to L’Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, suggesting that the Jesuits could benefit from a reminder of their traditional tie to church authority.
Specifically, the Vatican official said his concerns are based on information from Western Europe, North America and India.
The comments came from Slovenian Cardinal Franc Rodé, who delivered the homily at the opening Mass of the General Congregation. On that occasion, Rodé, a member of the Vincentian order, spoke of “sadness and anxiety” with regard to some aspects of Jesuit life today.
“I see a growing distancing from the hierarchy,” he told the Jesuits on Jan. 7. “The Ignatian spirituality of apostolic service ‘under the Roman Pontiff’ does not allow for this separation.”
Rodé urged the Jesuits to “think with the church.”
At the time, some wondered to what extent Rodé was speaking for himself or reflecting a broader climate of Vatican opinion. In today’s interview, Rodé asserts that he showed his text in advance to "superior authority," likely a reference to Pope Benedict XVI.
Rodé’s comments in L’Avvenire thus appear to suggest two conclusions:
• First, Rodé has confirmed the substance of his Jan. 7 homily;
• Second, his comments today suggest that subsequent developments in the General Congregation, including the election of Nicolás, have not entirely resolved those concerns.
The following are the two questions put to Rodé about the Jesuits and his responses, in an NCR translation from the Italian.
The former superior of the Jesuits, Fr. Kolvenbach, said: “Since the consecrated life is a gift, no religious family may consider itself indispensable or eternal.”
Rode: “Usually when people say ‘no one is indispensable,’ they’re thinking of someone else. With every religious congregation that has vitality, it’s good that it do everything possible to continue its mission and to perpetuate, with the help of grace, the charism that the Lord gave to its founder. The duty of the Jesuits is to hand on the charism entrusted to them by St. Igantius Loyola, just as it’s the duty of the Salesians to continue the charism of St. John Bosco. If the charism of St. Ignatius or of Don Bosco were to be disappear, it would be a grave loss for the church.”
With regard to the Jesuits, the mass media saw your homily during the opening Mass of the General Congregation as fairly severe.
Rode: "As you know, the Jesuits are the lone order that, for the most delicate questions, historically have a direct rapport with the pope which is not mediated by the office I lead. In any event, I was asked to preside at the Eucharistic celebration for the opening of the General Congregation. I based my homily on information I received above all from Western Europe, North America and also from India. I asked advice from eminent representatives of the Society, and I did not fail to submit my text in advance to the superior authority. It was important to underscore the fidelity of the Society of Jesus to the church, and concretely to the pope. St. Ignatius desired that the Jesuits go into combat under the standards of the Cross and the Roman Pontiff: this is their identity. If, in particular situations, it has not received sufficient emphasis, I believe it’s opportune to recall it."
Very interesting:
Very interesting: "St.Ignatius desired that the Jesuits go into battle under the standard of the cross and the Roman Pontiff....". These words of Cardinal Franc Rode, referred to as the vatican's top official for religious life, express and signify a militaristic, crusading perspectife reminiscent of the "medieval model of church". John Allan Jr. speaks constantly of "identity" as the primary contemporary trend within the Church and the "herald" of Benedict's "reign". Identity as slavish conformity to hierarchy: militant in strategy, military in structure and leadership, military in unquestioning loyalty of the officor corps to the political, military, in the agressive subserviency of the "troops" to the discipline and the system, military in the recognition that collateral damage is inevitable.
This severe interpretation of Rode's words and the attribution to the Ratzinger/Benedict reigns might be harsh if not for their context in a not so veiled warning to Fr.Nicolo and the Jesuits, his emphasis that his words were cleared with "superior authority", sourced by his international listening posts and his unquestioned direction to the Jesuit congregation to loyalty to "the hierarchical church".
The contrast with the quote attributed to the new Jesuit Superior ("General") is striking. Fr. Nicolo likens the relationship of the Order with the Pope as "...like a marriage...but they're rooted in a deep sort of love". Card. Rode seems to have laid out the implications of Nicolo's unfortunate choice of comparisons: if the relationship is like the love in a marriage, than that love is primarily defined as control and that there should be no question as to which party is the male.
When will these people read
When will these people read Philippians 2 and understand that the hierarchy and power that the Vatican worries about are not sacrosanct or even blessed? Also for this homilist to even think that firing a shot across the Jesuit bow will have any effect at all is incredible. It is interesting to see how the Holy Spirit gets around the sociological impedimenta that we place in the way. For the Jesuits: Veni Creator Spiritus and keep up the great work.
Bill Burrows The comments of
Bill Burrows
The comments of both Rodé and Nicolás capture elements in a dialectic relationship. The cardinal's homily reveals, I believe, the desire of the Roman hierarchy to have the pre-eminent group of Catholic religious-order intellectuals fall behind the papal program for renewal. The superior general's remarks reveal his realization that he heads an order made up of men whose sense of "sentire cum ecclesia" has been augmented in recent years by their contacts with grass roots churches that are animated by the power of the Spirit. I think that what's called for is a dialogue that at this moment seems difficult to imagine, given the byzantine ways of a Rome where I once studied and love. The church's Roman bureacracies need badly to find ways to really talk with the sort of Jesuits I have met around the world and who embody both a love for the world church and embeddedness in local churches. These Jesuits have the training, the experience, and the spirituality to speak effectively for the richness of what occurs in local churches. At another level, I suspect such grassroots Jesuits and the churches they are embedded in could benefit from sitting down in informal, friendly settings where frank, off-the-record exchanges could take place. They might see that some Vatican officials are really concerned with nurturing bonds of unity in the world church. In the position I hold at a publishing company whose authors were singled out for criticism on numerous occasions, I once had the opportunity to sit down with a cardinal in one of the most high-profile and powerful congregations in Rome. The contact was mediated by a priest who was a member in the order to which I once belonged and who had an influential position in a project administered by the cardinal. When we parted, after ninety minutes of conversation that was at first tense and frank, then marked by a spirit of dialogue, the cardinal and I parted with a much deeper sense of the realities of each other's positions and personhood. That was a one-off event. If the church as a whole, on the one hand, and Father Nicolás and the Jesuits, on the other hand, are to succeed, they need to find ways to have lots of such exchanges. And so do the members of the Curia, from the sotto-segretarii and their assistants right up to the top of the various offices. Concrete methods must be found to nurture real conversations between real people with different responsibilities for the Body of Christ. The rigidities of today's patterns need to be broken, and conversations are the best way to do so. International religious orders like the Jesuits, the Society of the Divine Word, the Salesians, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the Marist Missionary Sisters, and the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit have a wealth of experience and peronal histories that could deepen Roman authorities' grasp of the church. Add to their experience, conversations with laity from around the world, Roman offices would have channels of dialogue much broader than that provided by bishops who are approaching them for financial assistance, authority to do this or that, or decisions necessary to resolve problems.