Word: jesuitic
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Sometimes," says one Jesuit Biblical scholar, "I look at my group and think no more conservative group could be found anywhere. Then I look at the other orders and I think, no, I'm sorry, but we're still ahead." What keeps the Jesuits ahead is, in large measure, the fire and zeal of younger members of the society, who have plenty of ideas of what ought to be done. Many would like to see the society abandon all but a handful of its best universities-such as Fordham and Georgetown-and send its top professors to jobs...
...proposals have been put forward by Jesuit echelons for consideration by their society's 31st General Congregation. Among the principal suggestions for reform are: 1) election of the general for six, seven or twelve years rather than life; 2) shortening the normal 15-year training period before ordination; and 3) providing more authority for the provincials (area chiefs) and more democracy within their provinces. Also to be considered are elimination of the elite Jesuit "professed," who take a fourth vow of personal loyalty to the Pope in addition to the standard vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and revamping...
Behind the Times. The volume and scope of the reform proposals suggest that the Jesuits, traditionally the church's intellectual avantgarde, may have fallen a bit behind the times. Some members of the society freely admit it. "It's not that we've lost luster," says one prominent U.S. Jesuit theologian, "but others have made advances." The Jesuits can still boast proudly of having some of the church's brightest intellectual luminaries, ranging from such heady European theologians as Karl Rahner of Germany and France's Henri de Lubac to California's James Arenz...
...Jesuit renewal is overdue, part of the blame rests with Pope Pius XII, who squashed any overhaul at a 1957 General Congregation by warning the delegates against "the prideful spirit of 'free investigation.' " Another proximate cause was Father General Janssens, an ascetic and kindly Belgian who, for much of his term as "Black Pope," was too ill to handle the volume of clerical business that the Jesuit constitution demanded of him. Janssens, says one veteran German Jesuit, was "a noble spirit but not necessarily a great leader...
Already many U.S. seminaries are sending their students to nearby secular institutions for classes, adapting the curriculum to conform more to university standards of a liberal arts or science education. Carrying on the Jesuit tradition of scholarship, dozens of young scholastics are earning doctorates in space sciences, working side by side with laymen at research centers. "When the astronauts land on the moon," says Jesuit Scholastic Don Merrifield, who works at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, "there will be a Jesuit scientist among the entourage that follows...