Some Wear Clerics

ST. ANDREW BOBOLA, MARTYR

Shamelessly lifted from Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit -- for the Greater Glory of God.

May 16th

Andrew Bobola is a Polish-born martyr. He was born in Sandormir, Poland, in 1591 to a noble family. He was ordained a Jesuit in 1622 and three years later became a parish priest in Vilna, Lithuania, where he had studed. He had also served as superior of the Jesuit community. He worked with the sick and during a plague outbreak, but he is best known as a successful missionary to the Orthodox. He did this for almost 20 years, preaching along the roads and bringing whole villages to Catholicism. However, he was captured after mass on May 10, 1657 by the Cossacks and brutally tortured. Six days later, he was beheaded and died a martyr, refusing to denounce his Catholic faith. His tomb was opened in 1808 and his body was found incorrupt. He is now entombed in a Jesuit church in Krakow, Poland. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1938.

Link (here)

"What Lola wants, Lola gets."

In exchanging emails with the lovely and gracious Karen, I was explaining where my rummaging for the works of Fr. Miceli had taken me, and she replied that I "really need to post that."

Thus, because her orders are like commands, here it is, verbatim:

"So I'm brushing up on Fr. Miceli, who seems to make Fr. Undercover Jesuit seem diffident and timid in comparison. (If Fr. Undercover Jesuit is combatively orthodox, then Fr. Miceli was pugnaciously orthodox) In doing so, I ran across this snippet from Roger McCaffrey [of Roman Catholic Books, Inc.]:

One of the interesting facets of our Catholic publishing apostolate is the authors we publish. Generally, our books are a reflection of the English-speaking Catholic world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I'd guess half the books we publish are by Jesuits or by men who taught in Jesuit institutions. The number of books these writers represent is probably two-thirds of our list if you include students from Jesuit schools. It is a tangible illustration of the all-pervasive influence of the Jesuits in Britain and America. Yet for centuries the Jesuits rarely accepted positions of Church authority. The papacy? Out of the question for a Jesuit. The point is that real influence in the Church is on individual souls, and that comes as much from learned men of faith as it does from edicts from on high.

If you want to know why the Usual Suspects don't command much sway beyond the cocktail parties of the Advanced People of Today -- i.e., the typical Obama donor base -- there it is in a nutshell."

AMDG,

-J.

The late Fr. Vincent Miceli, SJ

One of my favorite sayings is: "The actual proves the possible."

Some of our friends on the opposite side of the nave make it a (rather frequent) point to say the ruling junta of SWC pines away for a "Society [of Jesus] that never existed." It is then the coelacanth that is Fr. Vincent Miceli, SJ swims by impertinently.

Fr. Miceli can be said to have been...uh...provocative. In the heyday of his writings, the immediately post-Conciliar period, he took to task the novel notions of the day and skewered them, it seems, with no small glee. In skimming through his works -- and the volume of (mostly his) articles and books, is pretty staggering -- the mind reels at what today's climate would make of him. I have a pretty good notion what he'd make of today's climate.

After all, this is the man who once told Fr. Fessio (I know! Fessio!) and I'm paraphrasing here: "...you were a liberal then, you are a liberal now, and you always will be a liberal." So you can imagine what sort of a specimen we're dealing with. The best description of his type is what An Undercover Jesuit once described as "combatively orthodox." Or, put another way, he was not a man who called a spade a spade; instead, he called it a #$%&ing shovel. The title Women Priests & Other Fantasies perfectly encapsulates him and his way of expressing his views.

Father reserved the bulk of his considerable rhetorical ordnance for the lamentable things brought about in the name of the Second Vatican Council. In the latest item I've discovered, Fr. Miceli trains his sights on those, who, themselves have drawn daggers against celibacy. The item is a book review and here is the money quote:

Priestly celibacy, then, is a total self-donation to Christ. This total self-donation, this dwelling in his temple, this sealing off of the sensual sphere and dying to oneself for the love of Christ, far from emasculating or neutralizing the celibate as a person, actually develops him into a saint, into one who has grown up to the perfect manhood of Christ. The triumph of celibacy is a holy anticipation of eternity "where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, but all are like the angels of God," those perfect heralds of his Word and doers of his Will. Celibacy can never be understood by mere reason; it can only be understood by the man of faith. For only the man of faith sees it as the expression of ultimate love for Christ, as a burning desire to imitate Christ's total self-donation as man and God to men when he emptied himself to become their Saviour and servant. When the priest takes his vow of celibacy he testifies that this earthly existence is only a status viae a temporary trial and that the real, truly valid life of divine fulfilment lies in eternity, the status termini.

Go read!

AMDG,

-J.

Abp. Prendergast, again

Wow.

It's not every day you hear of an Archbishop or a Jesuit* give a rousing defense of Humanæ Vitæ. But that's precisely what His Excellency, Terrence T. Prendergast, SJ of Ottawa has just done. Dig these money quotes:

The Archbishop of the Canadian capital city of Ottawa addressed the convocation of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barrys Bay Ontario last week, leaving attendees awestruck.  The speech focused on Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanæ Vitæ. Faithful Catholics leaving the event told LifeSiteNews.com “I’ve been waiting 35 years to hear that from a Canadian bishop.”

and

“In the midst of the chaos caused by the sexual revolution and the arrival of the birth control pill, many Catholics felt unsure of the Church’s position on artificial contraception,” said Archbishop Prendergast. “The Church responded to this urgent need for clear teaching and sound pastoral guidance when Pope Paul VI released his encyclical, Humanæ Vitæ (Of Human Life) in 1968.”

and

Moreover, [Abp. Prendergast] said that obedience to Humanæ Vitæ’s teaching fell not only on married couples but also the clergy. “For the clergy,” he said, “this same obedience and submission of will and intellect requires preaching about the moral evil of contraception and how it violates God’s plan for marriage, human happiness, and the dignity each person.”

Go read the whole thing now.

AMDG,

-J.

* Never mind a Jesuit Archbishop; this is clearly a guy who's got the goods.

"See? I told you."

Over at zenit.org, Fr. Fessio weighs in on the Papal Visit.

Good stuff.

-J.

P.S. For a neat clip of Fr. Fessio from Meet The Press, click here.

Cdl. Bergoglio to educators

Seeing as how Abp. Prendergast had his two cents to add, it's only fair we give Cdl. Bergoglio equal time. Here is his homily (remarks?) at the Mass for Educators on April 23, 2008.

AMDG,

-J.

P.S. As usual, emphasis and comments and translation are all mine. Stay tuned for these because between the flu and the complexity of this homily (and its translation) it's taken a while.

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Beloved educators: 

Like every year, I address you to encourage you in this great task, to which you have been called, for which you have been assembled.  My words as a shepherd are intended to accompany you, to encourage you in your everyday doings, and to fortify every bud of life projected to grow [during] this year 2008, already beginning. 

Educating is one of the most passion activating arts in life, and requires [from us] a constant expansion of [our] horizons, a starting anew and to put ourselves on the path of of renewal. Furthermore, the needs of a rapid and changing world question us every day. One must conquer exhaustion, surpass discomforts, save our strength against the wear [and tear] of work. We need the balm of hope [in order] to continue; and [we need] the anointing of wisdom to restore us in [the good] news that takes the best from our tradition, and for us to know how to recognize those things that must be changed, and those things which deserve to be criticized or abandoned. 

Time makes us humble, but also wise, if we open ourselves to the gift of integrating the past, present and future in a common service to our small ones. I also expect that these [of mine] words meet that standard.

I- THE ROAD IS TAKEN BY WALKING

Homo viator

Humanity has always viewed life as a road; and man as a traveler who, when he is born, is set in motion and, throughout his existence, he finds people or situations that put him back on the road (at times with a mission, at other times through a crisis).  In the Bible this reality is constant:  Abraham is called to stay on the road "without knowing where went"; the people of God is put on the road to be freed from the Egyptians. Thus also in the history or the mythology of other people:  Aeneas, before the destruction of Troy, surpasses the temptation to remain to rebuild the city and, taking his father literally [the Argentinism translates as "to slippers." No, I don't know either.], undertakes the ascent of a mountain whose summit becomes the founding of Rome. Other mythological stories show this "human road" as the return home, to the ancestral place.  Thus is the case of Ulysses or what was expressed so poetically by Hölderlin in his Ode on the return home.  Tolkien, in contemporary literature, takes up [this theme] again with Bilbao and Frodo [being] the image of the man who is called to walk; its heroes knowing, acting, walking, along the drama that unfolds between good and evil. The "man on the road" involves a dimension of hope; "to enter" in hope. In every history and human mythology is underlined the fact that man is not [meant] to be quiet, stagnant, but "on the move", called or "vocado" -- from which we derived the term vocation -- and when does not he enter into this dynamic then he is annulled as the person, or becomes corrupted. Moreover, by being put on the road, man himself gives root to an interior anxiety that prompts the man to "to get out of himself," to experience an "exodus of himself." There is something [both] without and within us that calls us to take to the road. To leave, to walk, to carry out, to accept the elements and to renounce comfort…this is the road. 

Walking, then, is a way of "entering" into a living hope. Just like Truth, Hope is something in which we should learn to reside, a gift that moves us to walk, and that, beyond each discouragement as a result of so much evil in the world, invites us to believe each day will bring [us] the necessary bread for our subsistence. 

Walking in hope means to have certainty the Father will give us whatever is necessary. It is confidence in the gift [to reach] beyond every calamity or misfortune. Jesus, in the prayer of the Our Father, expresses this fundamental confidence, which finds its representation in the lilies of the field and in the birds of the sky.  Walking and waiting thus become, in a way, synonymous. We walk because we hope. Being on the road brings us the visible image of the man that has learned to wait within his heart. Walking, without stopping or straying, is the tangible fruit of the hope.  Not for nothing does the Pope invite us, in his last encyclical Spe Salvi, to place again before us the question ¿What can we expect? and this, according to Benedict, "makes necessary a self-criticism of the modern age in its dialogue with Christianity and with its concept of hope. In this dialogue, Christians, in the context of their knowledge and experiences, have to learn again in what their hope really consists, what they have to offer to the world and what is, on the contrary, what cannot be offered." (cf.  22).

Temptation is an invitation to stop marching, to un-wait. How not to fall, when already so, so many utopias have fallen in this postmodern start to a century of yet more war and inequality? The temptation is grave, and its very real possibility is known by everyone who, bravely, has overturned his heart and undertaken to act determinedly in the search of truth or justice. Only this person knows how arduous and deeply problematic is his yearning and [only this person] knows the sadly sweet and persistent siren song of discouragement, which invites us to a cowardly hiding from our historic responsibility. Every educator, quite often, feels he must face, each day, a double disavowal: that of a society which does not support nor provides the [appropriate] socio-hierarchical status –- denying him, many times for lack of supplies or by squandering the efforts built in the classroom, the real possibility of educating -- and that of some parents who do not accord the due respect or recognition to his fundamental task –- depriving him of authority before the children -- every educator, I repeat, is particularly tempted to despair. 

Therefore I invite you again, dear educators, as I did in the year 2000, to remain firm in the hope to which have been called in the educational task, so fundamental and formative. At the time, I reminded of the pre-eminence and urgency of the theme. I invited you to reflect on Hope, "but not on a 'Hope Lite' or lifeless, separated from the drama of human existence." "Let us interrogate Hope" –- I said -- "from our deepest problems which vex us and which comprise our daily struggles [be it] in our educational tasks, our interpersonal contacts and in our innermost nature." Today, eight years later, I am still more convinced that, "the small hope", the one that contributes to our "sense and substance to our commitments and undertakings to face the responsibility to educate the younger generations, and of assume even that which we carry with difficulty, as if it were a cross".

II- WITH THE RESTLESS HEART

In the everyday pedagogical experience we verify the "little ones are restless."  This expression contains various meanings. In a more superficial way we take it to mean something related to discipline: the children make a mess and then we think about measures to confine the vital spontaneity of the students. One must put limits, we all agree, but not so much that it becomes an impediment to development of that another disquiet that puts us on the road, drowning out Hope. 

To discipline is a medium, a remedy necessary to the service of an integral education, but it cannot become a mutilation of desire, as St. Augustine understood it, not as tendency to possess, but like the one that "makes space." Desire is contrasted to need. The latter ceases upon the lack being filled; desire –- on the other hand -- is indicative of the presence of a positive good and always increases, is effected, puts people in movement to "more." The desire for the truth proceeds "from encounter to encounter," to discipline should not clip the wings of imagination, of healthy fantasy or of creativity.  I posit the question:  How integrate discipline with interior disquiet?  How to do it so the discipline [will] be a constructive limit of the road upon which a child must travel and not a wall that annuls it or an aspect of education that will neuter him?  We want children "quiet" a behavorist educator might say… but "I want them 'restless' in their desire, in their questions," might reply a humanist.  A "restless" child in this latter sense is a child sensitive to the stimuli of the world and of society, one who is open to the crises to which life makes him submit, one who rebels against limits but, on the other hand, demands them and accepts them (not without pain) if they are just.  One not conformist with cultural clichés as proposed by a mundane society; a child who wants to learn, to discuss…and thus we would go on and on. 

Beloved educators, so that discipline may acquire the seal of liberty it is necessary for an educator to learn how to read disquiet as a language, from the search that [starts out as] physical movement, to the can-never-be quiet, passing to [phase] of ceaseless questioning, until [reaching] that of an adolescent who questions all and replies [to all], restless for another answer.

This pedagogical fact makes us return to the original issue: a man on the move, hopeful and kneading his destiny, and the drama of the quiet man, already "installed." It is interesting to think this word derives from the Latin "stabulum," stable, place where there are animals.The worldly systems look for ways "to calm" the man, to anesthesize the desire for him to place himself on the road, with the lure of of possession and consumption; a consumption permanently open to the latest new features that seem indispensable and, this way, alienates him from the possibility of recognizing and being guided by the most primal desires of the heart. It arrests our attention the great amount of "alibis" that inhibit the inner anxiousness from starting up, offering [us] an apparent peace. The Christian tradition, from the first centuries, describes these "alibi" as states of the soul that deprive of freedom, which enslave, and are [thus] named "capital sins": gluttony, lust, avarice, wrath, envy, despair, sloth, vanity, pride. These are traps of the soul which prevent him from walking towards the horizons of freedom, which they submit to the heart and offer him a certain quietist well-being [and] calm or, sometimes, of controllable disquiet. When these "alibi" take root in the heart they remove freedom, they make for conformism or entanglement in superficial, problematic existencialisms. They are stops to an inner search. Such auxiliary "alibis," which are repeated and multiply in so persistent a way, certainly are an excuse, a refuge that hides another thing: the fear of freedom, the fear to persevere along the path. In this reality of the "alibi" it calls to our attention how, throughout history (and also at the moment) fundamentalisms are multiplied. At the bottom of this are systems of well-assembled thought and conduct, that serve as a refuge. The fundamentalism is organized by the rigidity of a unique thought, in which the person is left protected against destabilizing consideration (and crises) in exchange for a certain existencial quietism. The fundamentalism does not admit shades or reframings simply because it is scared, and -- concretely -- it is scared of the truth. Whoever takes refuge in fundamentalism is a person who is scared to put himself on the road to look for the truth. He "has" the truth, has acquired it and instrumentalized it like a defense, because he gets to live [as if] any questioning is an aggression against his person.

Our relation with the truth is not static because the Supreme Truth is infinite and more can always be known, we always have to enter [deeper] into it. To the Christians, St. Peter the Apostle asks to us that we know how "to give reason" for our hope; it is that the Truth in which we walk throughout our existence must be open to the dialogue, to the acceptance of the difficulties that, regarding it, others may have or are raised by circumstances. The truth always is "reasonable" although I may not be, and the challenge consists of staying open to the point of view of the other, and not make ours an immovable totality. Dialogue does not mean relativism but that is a "logos" that shares, is reason at the service of love, together to construct an ever more liberating reality. In this enriching circle, the dialogue reveals the truth, and truth is nourished by dialogue. Kind listening, respectful silence, sincere empathy, an authentic openness to [what may seem] strange and foreign, are essential virtues to develop and to transmit in today's world. God Himself invites us to dialogue, calls us and summons us through the Word, which abandoned every nest and hideout [i.e. "every nook and cranny" of comfort] by becoming man.

Three interrelated dimensions appear here; one a dialogue dimension between a person and God -- that we Christians call prayer -- another one with people and circumstances and the third, the dialogue we have with we ourselves. Through these three dimensions the truth grows, consolidates and expands over time. To enter into this process implies to not be scared to seek the truth.

Faced with so many hideouts, and social and cultural refuges which shelter and paralyze the search for the Truth and camouflage the fear of looking for the truth in the "modus vivendi," one asks: How [do we] teach our students not to fear the search for the truth? How to educate them in the freedom, sometimes painful, in the path of a humanity that looks for the Truth and, entrust to them from there, to continue walking, to continue seeking it? How to form free men and women for the road of life, who do not finish caught up in a thousand and the one forms of paralyzing conformisms, or captivated by preachers of closed thoughts, exclusive thoughts, proper to a fundamentalism? How to get our "unquiet" and undisciplined children to end up being "anxious" in the search? How to help them to enter into hope and, mainly, to remain in hope?

III THE TRUTH WILL MAKE THEM FREE

And it is here where we must ask ourselves: What do we understand by "truth?" To look for the truth is different than finding formulations one can posess and manage at will. On this path of search all, one's whole personality, one's whole the existence is exerted; it is a path that fundamentally requires humility. In being convinced that one is not [truly] self-sufficient and that it is dehumanizing to use others to achieve that sufficiency, the search for the truth undertakes a laborious, some times artisanal, path of the humble heart that does not accept to satiate its thirst with stagnant waters. The "possession" of the truth in a fundamentalist sense lacks humility: it tries to impose itself on others in a way that, in [and of] itself, is autodefensive. The search for truth does not appease an awakening thirst. A conscience of "wise ignorance" is re-commencing continuously along the way. "Wise ignorance" that, with the experience of life, will become "scholarly." We can affirm at this point without fear that truth is not something to have, not to be possessed...it is to be found. In order to be yearned for, to be desired, it must stop being that which can be had. Truth is opened, is reveales to whom -- at the same time -- is opened to it. Truth, indeed, in its Greek meaning -- aletheia -- has to do with that which is manifest, which is revealed, becomes obvious by its miraculous and free appearance. The Hebrew meaning, on the contrary, with its word "emet," unites the sense of the true with the sense of the certain, the firm, which neither deceives nor defrauds. The truth, then, has that double component, is the manifestation of the essence of things and people, who when opening their innermost selves give us the certainty of their truth, a reliable evidence that it invites us to believe in them. This certainty is humble, because simply "it lets be" the other one in his manifestation, and it does not make us submit to demands or impositions. This is the first justice which we owe others and ourselves, to accept the truth of what we are, to speak the truth of what we think. And, in addition, it is an act of love. Nothing is built upon on the silencing or the negation of the truth. Our painful political history has often attempted this silencing. The use of verbal euphemisms often has anesthesized us or induced stupor in teh face of this. But already it is time to return to a brotherhood, to re-bond with a truth that must prophetically be proclaimed with an authentically restored justice. Justice only dawns when a name has been given, to those facts in which we have deceived ourselves and betrayed ourselves in our historical destiny. And in doing so we bequeath one of the main services of responsibility towards the next generation.

Let us consider that to the truth is not found alone. Next to her are kindness and the beauty. Or rather, the Truth is good and beautiful. "A truth not absolutely good always hides an untrue kindness" said an Argentine thinker. I insist the three go together and is not possible to look for them nor to find them one without the others. A reality very different from the mere "possession of the truth" desired by the [various] fundamentalisms: it is there where formulations by themselves are given worth, empty of kindness and beauty, which might even be imposed on others with aggressiveness and violence, doing damage and conspiring against life itself. How to make our students look for and find Truth in Kindness and Beauty? How to establish hope on the virtue that knowledge of truth brings us, knowing that there are truths which summon the whole man, not only his intellect? How to teach to perceive the beauty, to make authentically aesthetic experiences, those which signify landmarks and making sense of our life? How to teach to receive the kindness which being showers without fear and to discover the love [found]in its gratitude?

The encyclopedist illusion can, still, play a trick on us, when we confuse the search for Truth with the effort "to [merely] know things." Mere information barely scratches the surface of things and of the soul. This is similar to that "alibi" the first Christians described like the operative part of sloth: much movement on the surface which does neither moves nor affects the depth of thought. In this encyclopedist illusion is the functionalist dimension of action that, instead of transforming structures, is satisfied to in [just] ordering them. It is the fantasy of simple organizational charts. I recall the repeated history of our educational reforms which are never aimed [at changing] the essential and consequently, nothing changes. Reality, from this perspective, at the most, suffers from being ordered. Kindness and beauty are then only expressed in the design of functionality. The underlying gnostic balance is fascinating, sometimes it is only a conceptual balance, at other times, it is also a formal [balance]. Encyclopedism thinks it is enough with constructing and explaining contents, concepts and disciplines, it is false worship to consider these to be sufficient in their unfolding and [which in their] autointerpretation, fall into the naivete of dreaming about an aseptic hermeneutic. And this [hermeneutic] does not exist. The "content" of a concept is [valid only] in [its] intimate relation with the expression that contains it, with the "container." Already there is a hermeneutic here.

As well as truth, kindness and beauty go together and our encounter with them always will be insufficient and superficial, the same it happens in the education process: the single contents are not enough but they are to be assimilated, along with values and habits next to the glare of certain experiences. In the dialogue of "educating the content" [that dialogue] shines and thus summons or transmits a value, which finally creates a habit. For that reason, to walk in the search of the truth supposes a relational harmony of contents, habits, valuations, perceptions, that go beyond the mere desire "to collect data" or, if we shift the central focus, beyond the absolutization of a single value or a reduction to habit (in these last cases diverse forms of aestheticisms or behaviorisms could take place).

Beauty - not like that which ispretty it or is simply attractive, but like what in his sensible figure gives us a wonderful depth in its mystery, here provides a matchless service to us. When shining in beauty, truth gives, in this light, its logical clarity to us. The good that appears as beautiful brings with itself evidence of its duty [to itself] fulfilled. How many abstract rationalisms, and extrinsicist moralisms would see here the possibility of their cure if only they were open to think of reality first as beautiful, and only then good and true! I do not get tired warning about that which I already mentioned: the three go together, and to separate them has only brought as a consequence a lack of unity between contents, attitudes and procedures in which we often lose ourselves.

IV WITNESSES OF THE TRUTH

To educate in the search of the truth, then, demands a effort of harmonization between contents, habits, and values; a framework that grows and conditions together, giving form to life itself. In order to obtain such harmony information or explanation is not enough. That which is merely descriptive or explanatory does not say everything there is to something, by itself it vanishes. It is necessary to offer, to show, a vital synthesis between them...And that is only done by testimony. We enter, therefore, into one of the deepest and most beautiful dimensions of the educator: the testimonial [dimension]. Testimony is what anoints the educator as "master" and makes him a traveling companion in the search for truth. Witness, with its example, defies us, animates us, accompanies us; lets us walk, be mistaken and even repeat our error, [all in order for us] to grow.

To educate in the search of the truth will demand of you, beloved educators, that attitude about which I spoke above: "to know how to give reason," but not only with concepts [or] contents, but with habits and values made real. He will be masterful who can uphold, with his own living, those words of his. This somewhat aesthetic dimension of the transmission of the truth -- aesthetic and not superficially aestheticist -- transforms the teacher into a living icon of the truth which teaches. Here beauty and truth converge. Everything becomes interesting, attractive, and at long las we hear the sound of the bells which wake up the healthy "restlessness" in the heart of children.

The paradigmatic case of the teacher-witness is Jesus Himself. He is the "faithful Witness" par excellence (Rev. 1:5; 3:14), the one who came to the world to give testimony of the truth (Jn 18:37). He gives testimony of which "He has seen and heard" while next to the Father (Jn 3:11-32). And He gives testimony of that which He himself is (Jn 8:13). His confession in front of Pilate is a "supreme testimony" (1 Tim 6:13) that shows the divine plan of salvation. This testimony of Jesus, which we are to accept to not make a liar out of God (1 Jn 5:9), turns Him into the authorized teacher to teach to us about God (Mt 7.29). It is here where Jesus gives himself (Jn 13, 13-14), and is subsequently given, the title of "Rabbi", teacher (Jn 3:2; Mt 8:19, etc.). For that reason, for example, He can say to us with authority: "you, then, pray thus..." (Mt 6:9), this way and not that way.

It is notable and wonderful, to discover how all the education [we receive from] Jesus never divides [anything into] contents and perceptions, nor values and habits. Like a good teacher, Jesus speaks to the whole man and His words never are merely explanatory. He does not come to bring a new version of the law, or a novel explanation [of it] to us -- no matter how brilliant this might have been. No, the absolutely novel thing of the intent of Jesus is that He is Himself the Word, the Logos of the Father, just as John attests in his Prologue. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and for that reason only He gives back to man the unity lost because of sin, and restores [man's] integrity. Let us look at an example. When Jesus wants to us to transmit His intimate attitude in prayer, the filial attitude, he describes it thus: "Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."(Mt 7:7-8).

In the Biblical world, far from the abstractions of ancient Greece, man was constituted by three concrete and dynamic aspects: the heart, source of one's deep psychic [no, not THAT kind of psychic] life, that refers to all the scope of human desire, and the intimacy of man where he makes his free decisions -- often united in purpose with the eyes; the tongue, which is the organ that "marks" the mouth, but also and most importantly means human language, all of the realm of thought, with its possibilities for truth and lies, often united in Scripture with the ears; and the hands, that synthesize in their concreteness all the gestures of human action, [be they] functional or symbolic, often [mentioned]together with the feet, representing the direction of the human action. Man appears expressed in an unitarian manner, in three aspects that always mention the whole man, and that from their concreteness are implied and which make reference mutually. We can synthesize the triad thus: Heart-eyes (all of human desires); Tongue-ears (all of "orthodoxy," speech and the human logos); and Hands-feet (all of the realm of "orthopraxy," as the significant action by which man looks to transform the world). Let us return now to the abovementioned text. There the whole man is alluded to by Jesus, and invited to enter in totality to dialogue with God. "Ask" is a reference to the realm of speaking, that is to say, orthodoxy; "Seek" speaks of the heart, the one that is opened or not in order to seek; "knock" deals with the hands that knock on the door, of human action that in his general orthopraxis always tends towards a sense of meaning. The invitation is to ask the Father with all our being, to pray with all our person, uniting all our desires, thoughts, actions, [in a manner] akin to the confidence of a boy to his father who will give him all that is necessary to him. Only when we reach this [level of] integration, [does] our prayer become authentic, and fulfills the will of the Master: that our whole self, without reserve, give itself [over] in prayer. That nothing within man be left out of the encounter with God, that our deepest desires be united with the requests of our lips, and that all our acts aim in that same direction. What wisdom of the Master, Who with [such] a simple phrase is able to give a whole image of man as God, his Father, thought him! Here there is no space for empty contents, distorted values or bad habits. Everything shines in the simplicity of His Person, who is One with what He says, who carries His testimony to the extreme, loving to us until death, and with that self-giving seals the sign of authenticity His life. And the Father will authenticate this word in the resurrection on the third day. Of this we are witnesses, and there is our hope, the one that we wish to announce to the world for its salvation.

The educator, as a companion in this search, offers a frame that, without removing freedom, clears away fear and encourages along the way. He also, like Jesus, must unite the truth he teaches, regardless of the environment in which he moves, with the testimony of his life, in intimate relation to the knowledge he teaches. Only this way can the disciple can learn to listen, ponder, value, respond... to learn the difficult science and wisdom of the dialogue. To engage in a dialog is for the travellers [on the road, seeking Truth]. Those who are quiet do not engage in a dialog. To engage in a dialog is a thing [only] for the brave. engage in a dialog is a thing [only] for the magnanimous. In dialogue one confronts but without aggression, one proposes but does not impose. To engage in a dialog is to share the road in search of the truth. It is to enter a crucible of time that purifies, illuminates, sapientializes. How many failures and wars by lack of dialogue, for failing to look together for the truth! Dialogue brings closeness. One thing is a simple interview and [quite] another to go on the road together. What is of an educator is that he goes on the road with the educatee, and along this way proximity and nearness are forged. This is another fundamental dimension in the search for the truth: not to fear the proximity, so different of a courteous distance or of promiscuity. Distance deforms our pupils because it turns us myopic in our perception of reality. Only nearness can carry that objectivity which opens to a greater and better understanding. In the [exercise of] personal care proximity is nearness: the person who is alongside us becomes "our fellow" and [that nearness] demands that we become "his fellow." The educator whoch teaches to not be scared in search for the truth is, truly, a Master, a witness of how the road is walked, a traveling companion, someone near, somebody who becomes "a fellow."

On this road for the search for the truth it is necessary to guard against thinking that everything is a shot at the infinite, an incessant walk and that "it is all road." It is not so. We are dealing with a search that progresses in stages, that consolidates in encounters that, in one way or another, become milestones along the route. The experience of encountering the truth along the way is both total and partial at the same time. Partially because we still must continue walking; total, because in all authentically human and divine realities, the whole is in each part. That is the reason for that dual feeling of "unfinished fullness" that characterizes all encounters. Tasting an encounter is one of the aspects of this search for the truth, one that harmonizes contents, habits, values, experiences. Accepting the incomplete aspect of same makes one mature, and expands the within hope us towards the eternal thing. The brilliance of the encounter produces the "Metaphysical stupor" proper of the human and divine revelation.

Several times I talked about the fear of getting started on the search for the truth. We may ask "Why fear?" Simply because fear is one of the primary feelings that occur in the experience of the abandoning yourself. To leave oneself, to put oneself on the road, implies a sort of insecurity, and that brings [about] fear. From there it's natural to cling to those existential places of stagnation, those comforting and deceptive "alibis," to not forge ahead. Some mystics speak of settling down in [one's] lodgings and not to continue along the way. It gives a certain amount of fear to continue walking, and the fear deafens one's restlessness, stops the march of hope.

Some months ago, the Pope could not speak in a University because an infinitessimally small group of professors and students so imposed it violently. This made think me about something a 2nd century author says to Herod about his violence: You work thus "quia timor you necat in corde" (because the fear in your heart kills you). All harsh closedness, aggression, violence constitute an external scaffolding that supports a fear within the soul. It is an alibi. Are our children intolerant? Have we educated them to open themselves to sharing the road of life with a Christian identity that knows to unload the weight of intolerance? A true challenge is posited: to educate [them] so that they do not fear, to educate them to be open to dialogue, to look for the truth.

But this way will not be easy to journey nor will be free of stumbling blocks; the fear of the other, the xenophobia of that which is different, is the main enemy of dialogue. Everything he says could be used against him, since it stems from suspicion of its intentions, turning relationships into something uncertain, threatening. How to engage in a dialog in a world where we are afraid of the others? How to exorcise fear and to allow the passage to a trust that not naive, but lucid and open? How to educate in dialogue when we have a loaded cultural language of unconscious and segregating discriminations? There are many ways to be a fundamentalist, although we do not subscribe to sects or ideologies of a closed type.

I invite you to reflect together and to become one in the idea that only he who teaches with passion can hope that his students learn with pleasure. Only someone who is dazzled by beauty can prompt his students to contemplation. Only someone who believes in the truth that teaches can request truthful interpretations. Only who lives in the good -- that is justice, patience, respect in the differences in the educational task -- can aspire to mold the hearts of those who have been trusted him. The encounter with beauty, good, truth, fulfill and produce a certain ecstasy in oneself. What fascinates us, expropriates and snatches [us out of ourselves]. The truth thus found, or rather that leaves to encounter us, makes us free.

V TO WALK IN HOPE

In order not to fall in abstractions and to be able to attend to that truth that it will inexorably direct to us to freedom, we must find "the lost drachma," the hidden treasure that allows to release the ray of light in the face of so much pain of this world, in the face of so many open wounds, in the face of the clumsy deformation of the truth that comes to us from the hand of fundamentalisms, individualistic liberalisms or nihilisms that are often beastly and indifferent.

For this reason I seek, and I invite you to seek with me, again, He that is absent and as necessary as bread and wine, He that makes us recommence each morning with a new breath, and that allows us to glimpse that life is beautiful, yes, beautiful in spite of everything-- of so much horror and so much evil -- and that it is worth the trouble to be lived. I look for that hope that will unite us again as a people, and which under the guidance of its star it will once again push to us to walk.

It is to you, dear educators, whom I invite in an urgent and renewed way to turn your face towards "youthful hope," that small virtue that seems to drag us forwards, in its humble persistence and its acting almost like a "nothing" to its big sisters, faith and charity. This small hope advances between its two older sisters and is not taken into account. But it is the only one that is ever beginning, because it is untiring like a child, like those students who we meet day to day untiring like hope.

To educate is, in itself, an act of hope, not just because we educate to construct a future, wagering on it, but because the very deed of educating is crossed by [hope]. Teachers ought to remember, always, the enormous contribution they make to society in this sense -- in giving us, in their everyday tasks with our children, adolescent and young Argentines -- this fundamental indication, this redemptive and salvific signal, one of hope, with which, every day, they distribute the bread of the truth, inviting us all to continue the march, to retake to the road.

Precisely this image, the one of the road, was the password that allowed us to enter to us in the field of desired beauty disinterestedly, of the gift of kindness, and the symphonic character of a truth that only blooms in dialogue. The humility that is given to us in the knowledge we are travellers, to understand ourselves as such, releases us of all fundamentalisms and all attempts making truth a weapon to self-validate or to defend ourselves. Dear educators, in this paschal time I wish for you the restlessness, image of the desire that moves the whole existence of man, is opened and expanded in that hope that does not defraud. And that, as educators you are transformed into authentic witnesses, neighbors in your fellowship to all, especially to the most left behind, to those who suffer most. Mary, Mother and Educator of Jesus, deign to be for us the Star of Hope, so that we may leave behind all division and despair.

May God want that as teachers, we may be able to fulfill our task in the spirit of that which was expressed by St. John: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life: 2 For the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us"(I Jn 1:1-2). Here reappears the previously enunciated triad of seeing, hearing, touching. It is that the educational task requires us whole, so high is its dignity. Perhaps then in the education of our little ones we may obtain that they, when faced with the Truth can exclaim like Job: "before I knew you from hearing, but now I have seen you with my own eyes." That will be the best satisfaction we will have as educators.

In the Easter of the Lord of 2008

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ

Archbishop of Buenos Aires

Fr. Kenneth Baker SJ's H&PR editorial

Since I am still too flu-ridden to do much of anything useful, I'm copying and pasting Father's May 2008 editorial (as the links thereto tend to go dead over time) in H&PR. I promise to get going on something more weighty in due course.

AMDG,

-J.

---------------------------------------------------------------

St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars and patron of diocesan priests, is reported to have said that, if the priest really understood what he was doing during the Mass when he consecrates bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, he would die on the spot. I assume that he is referring here to the statement in the Bible that no one can see God and live.

The Catholic priest, as preacher of the Word and minister of the sacraments, acts and speaks in the visible world of time and space but, since his sacramental words are effective, he causes things to happen in the world of the spirit that cannot be seen with human eyes.

When the priest says “This is my body,” and “I absolve you from your sins,” and “I baptize you,” things change in the real world. Bread becomes the Body of Christ, mortal sins are forgiven and grace rushes in, a child of sinful Adam becomes a child of God and heir of heaven.

No other words uttered by human beings have this same power and effectiveness as the sacramental words of the ordained priest. Every day people say many things, but the words themselves are a movement of air and molecules and nothing happens in the real world.

The reason for this is that the properly ordained priest is an instrument of Christ—Christ works in and through him in order to communicate his life of grace to individual men and women. Sometimes priests actually experience the power of Christ flowing through them as they absolve a sinner or confect the Eucharist at Mass.

I believe it was St. Augustine who said that a sacrament is a visible sign of invisible grace. Since the sacraments were established by Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, they cause what they signify by reason of the divine power of Christ operating through them.

Thus the priest is a living instrument of Christ, since it is Jesus Christ himself who, by his divine power operating through the priest, changes wine into his own Blood, and makes a “new creature” out of the person who is baptized. We have here something like a new incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Divine or sanctifying grace, which is invisible and communicated to us through the Word and the sacraments administered by the priest, is the most important reality in this world. It is the most important reality because it is a participation in the life of God, which means eternal existence with God in a state of blessedness and joy for all eternity for those who die in the state of grace. Everything in this earth changes and passes away, but the grace of God endures forever.

Since the priest has been chosen by God for the lofty role of being his ambassador on earth, and since God works through him in his preaching and in his sacramental ministry, the priest does something no one else can do. Because in some way the salvation of others depends on him, he should treasure the gift of the priesthood, thank God for being chosen, and strive to imitate the meek and humble Christ who works through him.

No other vocation on this earth can compare with that of the priest, who daily acts in a visible way with visible things like bread and wine and water and oil but whose significant effect is spiritual and therefore invisible.

It is a great honor to be called to be a priest, but it also involves a great responsibility. The priest should be aware of his great powers and dignity and at the same time thank God for his gifts and pray constantly to be worthy of his calling to be a minister of both the visible and the invisible.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Fr. Brian van Hove, SJ sets us straight on the truth and myth of the Inquisition(s). Money quote:

Based on thirty years of new research and a transformed view of the Inquisition, Henry Kamen's account sweeps away old misconceptions and revolutionizes Inquisition studies. He accepts that there is little evidence for the alleged Jewishness of the conversos who were the Inquisition's first victims, and he gives a new assessment of the significance and consequences of the expulsion of the Jews. He presents a major revision of the impact of blood purity prejudices in Spanish society, revises the figures given for the execution of heretics by the tribunal and assesses Spanish persecution in the context of executions in neighboring countries. He offers a completely new picture of the notorious system of censorship, now seen to be much less effective than often presented. And he reveals the role of efficient foreign propaganda in the creation of the diabolic image of the Inquisition.

Go read!

AMDG,

-J.

The Eagle Has Landed. Or Flown. Or Both.

On Monday I turned it the Official Second Draft of "Vows."  It then went out to all the AMC execs, including the brand spanking new head of programming.

I will be praying hard until I hear something. You are invited to join me.

You will be among the first to know. Right after my agent and my spiritual director.

One of my liberal Jesuit friends, who read the script and liked it a lot (as did one of my orthodox Jesuits friends -- this is me almost refraining from typing "so kiss my orthodox hate-mongering butt") wrote something to me in an e-mail that is too perfect to keep to myself:

You've labored hard and well. If this project is meant to go forward, then may God pave the way.  If it is not meant to go forward, then may the way be blocked.  May God's holy will be done, for the Great Glory of God.  You want that.  I want that.  And certainly that is God's desire.

Amen.

A.M.D.G.

(*Bi-locating at Some Have Hats.)

Speaking of Fr. Schall (again)

Fr. Schall does a brief commentary on Chesterton's Orthodoxy.

Go. Read.

-J.

Fr. Paul McNellis, S.J.

A reader let me know about Fr. Paul McNellis, S.J. who was a Green Beret in Vietnam, an AP freelancer there, refugee worker on the Cambodian frontier during the Killing Fields, Jesuit priest, and philosophy professor at Boston College. He is also totally faithful to the Church and yesterday he was award the Mary Kaye Waldron Award at BC which is the highest honor students can bestow on a teacher.

Here is a video tribute his students have made to honor him.

Jesuit to English Dictionary

I'm working on the 675th revision of the second draft of "Vows."  The 671st has already gone to the network, but it was followed quickly by a note telling them not to read it, because ... well, think of it like this. You know how when you buy a Mac, by the time you get it to your car it is already obsolete?  That's kind of how it is with drafts of anything I write. 

But the script really, really (all the really's in the world) has to go in tonight and I can't pick it up again until they are ready to give me notes because I now have to turn 100% of my attention to the other script, which is going pretty well, thanks for asking.

Anyway...

I was googling a Jesuit term just now, because I wanted to stick it into some dialogue and I wanted to make sure I was using it correctly.  Well, I happened upon a California Province page of Jesuit terminology.  (General Jesuit terminology. I am not aware of any that is specifically Californian.)  For the three and a half people who are as entertained by stuff like this as I am, here is the page.

-KH

Pope & Cdl. Dulles

For more detail about the meeting between Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ & Pope Benedict XVI, click here.

AMDG,

-J.

Once more, with feeling.

His Excellency, Abp. Terrence T. Predergast, SJ is at it again.

Following is his Pastoral Letter on Catholic Education (I'll be doing the emphasis/comments bit in an ongoing way, so stay tuned):

PASTORAL LETTER ON CATHOLIC EDUCATION
Catholic Education Week
April 27- May 3, 2008

Introduction

This letter is a statement of my deep personal appreciation for the contribution that Catholic education makes to the lives of so many of our young people. For over 150 years, there has been a great tradition of quality Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Ottawa. It is my firm hope and conviction that we enjoy and celebrate another 150 years.

Importance of Religious Education and Family Life Education

Catholic education provides a special way of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the lives of more than 68,300 students currently in our French and English Catholic schools. There are so many unique opportunities for our young people to grow in their humanity. I will outline only a few.

From the day that the child enters kindergarten until graduation in grade 12, every student is provided with instruction in faith as a required part of a Catholic education.

Faith seeks understanding. Every day, our students are challenged to explore, question and appreciate the richness of our Catholic faith tradition expressed through the religious education programmes of the Canadian Bishops. Educational guidance in human life, love and sexuality is provided through the Fully Alive programme of the Ontario Bishops.

Faith is a response to a loving God given in freedom, from the deepest parts of our humanity. An education in faith provides young people with a religious and spiritual framework that will be available to them for the rest of their lives.

Gospel Values Part of School Life

Catholic education goes far beyond instruction since gospel values are embedded in every aspect of life and culture in a Catholic school. Many people say that they sense something different when they enter a Catholic school. The Gospel of life and love is an everyday reality. We see it in the way that staff and students treat each other with genuine respect. When things do not go well, there are opportunities for forgiveness, healing and redemption.

Catholic education is a profound expression of hope and love. Hope inspires a commitment to the growth of all students whatever their unique needs. Love is lived in respect, compassion and kindness. Love is most vividly expressed when we see our Catholic schools honouring the presence of special needs children, welcoming the children who are new to our country, respecting every person, no matter their faith tradition.

Catholic schools provide a rich and meaningful experience of Christian community, an education of the heart and soul.

Faith in Action

If you were to visit a Catholic school, you would see that:

• Prayer is an integral part of every school day.
• Grade 2 students are provided with instruction that will prepare them for the sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation.
• Special needs children are welcomed, involved and befriended.
• High school students undertake a variety of social justice projects that lead them to a special appreciation of the poor and marginalized in society.
• Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation are celebrated in meaningful ways.
• Visits from parish priests give students a personal connection to their parishes.
• Teachers gather to engage in prayer and discussion that build their adult faith.
• High school chaplaincy leaders provide ongoing support for a wide variety of faith initiatives.

Excellence of Catholic Education

Catholic teachers are dedicated to providing the best possible instruction in all subject areas. Catholic schools are their own unique manifestations of Christian community, whose primary purpose is to education children in faith and in all other subject areas.

Since each and every child is created and loved by God, each with a unique giftedness and purpose, Catholic teachers are deeply committed to providing the best quality education.

The full human potential of each and every child can only be fully realized through an education that incorporates the spiritual into all aspects of school life.

The Ontario Context

We must never take the sacred gift of our Catholic schools for granted. Many parents have chosen Catholic education for the reasons that I have highlighted above. Public schools provided quality education but have no mandate to integrate religion or spirituality into the process. For Catholic schools, addressing the spiritual development of the child is a requirement, one that is taken on with joy and commitment.

Furthermore, Catholic schools provide a faith-based moral framework to deal with a wide spectrum of life issues including relationships, sexuality, poverty, peace and justice. This framework is integrated into all areas of study.

The future of Catholic schools depends on our appreciation of the distinctiveness of Catholic education, and on our willingness to stand and defend Catholic education should that time come.

Words of Thanks and Blessing

I wish to express my deepest thanks to parents who entrust their children to Catholic schools. Be assured that they are being provided with a quality education that responds to all their needs, including an education in faith, morality and justice.

My deepest thanks also go to the teachers, administrators and staff of our schools: May God continue to bless all your work. You help to bring love, hope and faith into the world, honouring the sacred dignity of all persons, building our Church community and a more just world.

To our students: we call you to a richer and deeper life that you will live through your encounter with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in your families, schools and parishes. Through a Catholic education, we trust that you will become a responsible citizen, a reflective and creative thinker, a caring family member, a discerning believer formed in the Catholic faith community.

A Catholic education will help you to make decisions with an informed moral conscience in the light of gospel values. We hope that you will become the best persons that you can possibly be, living life to the fullest, blessed by our loving God.

May God continue to bless all of our parents, all of our children, all the teachers and school staff, the administrators and trustees of our Catholic schools. May God bless them with faith, hope and love as we journey together in Jesus Christ.

This year Catholic Education Week coincides with the 350^th anniversary of the first Catholic school founded by St. Marguerite Bourgeoys in Montreal on April 30, 1658 and the anniversary of the consecration of Catholic schooling to Mary under her title of Our Lady of Schools. May our Blessed Mother continue to intercede with her Son for the well-being of Catholic education and the flourishing of our Catholic schools.

Ain't through with him

The ruling junta of SWC is particularly devoted to Fr. Willie Doyle, SJ. Over at my other blog, I posted the entirety of his essay on vocations (I didn't do so here, in the interest of brevity; offer up the delay for souls in Purgatory) but I wanted to share the most crucial bit over here.

Here is Father on Signs of a Vocation (emphasis mine) and please keep in mind any unfavorable compare 'n' contrast notions that pop into your own sweet head are, ahem, entirely your own:

The following is a list of some of the ordinary indications of a vocation, taken principally from the works of Father Gautrelet, S.J., and the Retreat Manual. No one need expect to have all these marks, but if some of them at least are not perceived, the person may safely say he has no vocation:

1. A desire to have a religious vocation, together with the conviction that God is calling you. This desire is generally most strongly felt when the soul is calm, after Holy Communion, and in time of retreat.

2. A growing attraction for prayer and holy things in general, together with a longing for a hidden life and a desire to be more closely united to God.

3. To have a hatred of the world, a conviction of its hollowness and insufficiency to satisfy the soul. This feeling is generally strongest in the midst of worldly amusement.

4. A fear of sin, into which it is easy to fall, and a longing to escape from the dangers and temptations of the world.

5. It is sometimes the sign of a vocation when a person fears that God may call them; when he prays not to have it and cannot banish the thought from his mind. If the vocation is sound, it will soon give place to an attraction, through Father Lehmkulhl says: “One need not have a natural inclination for the religious life; on the contrary, a divine vocation is compatible with a natural repugnance for the state.”

6. To have zeal for souls. To realize something of the value of an immortal soul, and to desire to co-operate in their salvation.

7. To desire to devote our whole life to obtain the conversion of one dear to us.

8. To desire to atone for our own sins or those of others, and to fly from the temptations which we feel too weak to resist.

9. An attraction for the state of virginity.

10. The happiness which the thought of religious life brings, its spiritual helps, its peace, merit and reward.

11. A longing to sacrifice oneself and abandon all for the love of Jesus Christ, and to suffer for His sake.

12. A willingness in one not having any dowry, or much education, to be received in any capacity, is a proof of a real vocation.

New and Improved SWC

As you can see, SWC has a new banner.  (Hey, Joe: Surprise!!!)  Like all the other banners, this one was created by the uber talented Ryan at Sonitus Sanctus.

(Next Ryan needs to create an ad for his website that we can put up on the sidebar as a symbol of undying gratitude.)

I love the new banner. I also loved the old banner, but its weary motif worked better during the winter. Or maybe, like Jim Martin, I'm shedding a layer of cynicism!

Coincidence?

This morning, knowing that today was the day I was going to turn in my second draft of "Vows," I looked at all the statues of saints on my desk and wondered if today was a a feast day for anyone who might be connected to the Jesuits in some way. I decided to google and find out.

Then I got busy making final changes to the script and searching for typos and I forgot all about it.  Then, about fifteen minutes after I'd shipped the script off to AMC, I got an IM from John Brown, SJ.  He was writing to wish me a happy feast day of Our Lady, Mother of the Society of Jesus.

How do you like that one?

(*Bi-locating at Some Have Hats)

Stephen Colbert and Fr. Jim Martin, SJ

I love it when these two get together. 

I only have one major quibble with Fr. Martin's recent comments on the Pope.  It is this: he keeps saying the Pope has changed.  I don't think the Pope has changed at all.  I think he has put on a different hat, one that requires different job skills and a different tone.  The way I understand it is the difference in my own personality when I am a showrunner and when I am just running the writing staff.

I have discovered, to no one's greater surprise than my own, that I become just as Pit Bull-ish when defending Fr. Martin (which I've done a lot of in the last couple of weeks) as I am when I am defending my favorite orthodox Jesuit. That could just be "Karen in Fighting Mode," but I don't think so. Because I am also as emotional about defending Jim Martin as I am about defending my orthodox Jesuit friends. Like I said, this came as a surprise to me.  But I like it.

So there. I am an inclusive moral high-horse ranter.

Watch the video.

(*Bi-locating at Some Have Hats.)

To add to your library...

It seems Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ will have something to do after his tenure as University President is over.

Look.

AMDG,

-J.

Friends in the Lord

I want to post the photo of me, Joe and Mary Jo, but I have to get her approval first.  Stay tuned.