Word: jesuits
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...Society of Jesus, goes an old Jesuit joke, is "a monarchy limited only by the incompetence of its superiors and the insubordination of their subjects...
...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...
...Marx himself admitted, Communism is the "profane realization" of the "human base of Christendom," said Garaudy. "In 1965 we can ask, 'Do not the most advanced Christians begin to walk on the same road as we do?' " . Some of the Catholic scholars were doubtful. Asked Jesuit Rahner: "What guarantees can Communism give that when it comes to power it will not persecute the church as it has done in the past?" Physiologist Hans Schaefer of Heidelberg noted that there seemed to be more signs of change in Catholicism than in Communism. "In most of the speeches one hears...