Monday, October 15, 2018

Jesuits: the Order of (Grave) Disorder

The book review at this link is about a book followup to Malachi Martin's The Jesuits, in which Martin described the beginning of the end of the Society of Jesus.  The line of demarcation was 1965, at the 31st General Convention.

The book, Passionate Uncertainty, picks up during the last years of the reign of St John Paul II.  Some snips from the review...

...One early reviewer of Passionate Uncertainty (himself a member of the Jesuit nomenklatura) glanced briefly at the indicators of decline given by McDonough and Bianchi—but concluded cheerfully, “The overall portrait is one of men content in their vocations, who have drawn closer to the person of Jesus while leaving an earlier Almighty God figure behind.”...

That particular phrasing fits hand-in-glove with what we've heard from Pp. Francis, who happens to be a Jesuit.  In the late 19th century, 'scholars' differentiated between the 'historical Jesus' and the 'Jesus of the Gospels.'  That difference has migrated to the above separation of the 'person of Jesus' from 'Almighty God.'  The implications of statements from Pp. Francis are along the same lines.  He would separate the 'God of mercy' from 'Almighty God', too.  (We'll see what Almighty God thinks about that in the near future when we meet Him face-to-face.)

You will not be surprised to know that half of today's US Jesuits are queers; and the other half is not totally "rigorous" about celibacy.  You should keep your wives, daughters, and sons at a safe distance.

...The recently published Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits is a quirky yet convincing depiction of the collapse of the renegade Society of Jesus: papists who hate the pope, evangelists who have lost the faith. Deprived of their reason for existence as Jesuits, they respond either by putting an end to their existence as Jesuits (deserters outnumber active members in the United States) or by indulging a willed imbecility in which the explosively divisive questions are never permitted to surface....

The review is worth reading--there's plenty more information there.  You don't really have to read the book; all you need to know is made manifest by James Martin, SJ, if you can stomach him.

3 comments:

  1. Ardella Crawford10/15/2018 11:08 AM

    Wisconsin Dad, would you be willing to share the Clint Eastwood meme (Latin) that appears in the sidebar to the right of your blog. I would love to have it! Please email to ardella.crawford@gmail.com, if so.

    You have good taste. :-) (this is a comment on your description of yourself)

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  2. Ardella, simply copy/paste the Eastwood meme!

    Thanks. And thanks.

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  3. It is sad to see how the mighty Jesuit Order has fallen. In my contacts with Jesuits in the 50s and early 60s I saw none of what is now evident. Back then there were more John Hardons than James Martins. The warnings were about Rahner and de Chardin - and an emerging Joseph Fuchs.

    That men who were so well-educated can rationalize their aberrant behavior is indicative of something – Perverted teaching? Willful ignorance? Lost faith? Whatever produced this, it certainly describes the term ‘Jesuitical’ - and that is a sad reflection on St. Ignatius’ heirs.

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