Douglas Todd: Pope Francis raises the profile of Jesuits
The
Catholic order, of which former Cardinal Bergoglio is a member, works in social justice, education and scholastic pursuits
Pope Francis attends his weekly audience in St. Peter's square on April 3, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis delivered his catechism to a crowd of approximately 30,000 pilgrims packed into St Peter's Square.
Photograph by: Franco Origlia , Getty Images
The most famous Jesuit in the world now is Pope Francis.
The Argentine cardinal is a longtime member of the Jesuit order, which was founded by the passionate 16th-century Spanish knight and mystic, Ignatius of Loyola.
Before Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected pope in March, however, many Jesuits had already made impressive marks around the world, especially on the so-called "frontiers."
In Canada, many Jesuit stories revolve around the early French missionary Jean de Brébeuf, whose name remains etched on schools, churches, sculptures and buildings throughout Eastern Canada.
Today hundreds of Canadian Jesuits follow in Brébeuf's footsteps: operating schools and colleges, supporting aboriginals, striving for justice, working in far-flung Third World countries, offering retreats and equating protection of the ecosystem with reverence for God.
Aside from men like Brébeuf, many people in the West were introduced to Jesuit history through the powerful, haunting and tragic 1986 movie, "The Mission", which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
In the movie, Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons portray astoundingly brave real-life Jesuits who worked in the 1600s with South American aboriginals to create ideal Christian communities in the jungle - all the while fighting off savage Spanish slave traders.
One of the world's most famous 20th-century Jesuits is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an adventurous theologian who studied paleontology [in China].
Like many Jesuits, Teilhard de Chardin was an intellectual and scientist. He developed a school of evolutionary Christianity that continues to grow in renown in the 21st century.
As a result of his visionary cosmological thinking, however, Teilhard de Chardin was criticized by the Vatican in the 1950s. Such official sanctions have happened more than once to Jesuits.
The Jesuits have long been associated with radical secretive actions, thinking and idealism.
Indeed, the perceived impudence of the Jesuits led to Pope Pius VII in 1773 "abolishing" the order, among the Catholic Church's largest. It took 40 years for another pope to restore them.
There are now about 20,000 Jesuits serving in more than 112 countries. Canada has about 300 Jesuit priests and scholastics (students working on becoming priests), which is considerably lower than in earlier decades.
Yet, while most Jesuits live out their vows of "chastity, poverty and obedience" in relative quiet, there has been no shortage of Jesuits ready to shake things up in the past century.
They include Father Daniel Berrigan, who frequently went to jail for protesting the Vietnam War. American Jesuit John Dear today continues that tradition of outspoken peace activism.
Other well-known Jesuits include 20th-century theologians Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthazar, the latter of whom deeply influenced Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.
The English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was also a Jesuit. So were celebrated authors Malachi Martin and spiritual teacher Anthony de Mello (whose work was criticized by then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger).
The Argentine cardinal is a longtime member of the Jesuit order, which was founded by the passionate 16th-century Spanish knight and mystic, Ignatius of Loyola.
Before Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected pope in March, however, many Jesuits had already made impressive marks around the world, especially on the so-called "frontiers."
In Canada, many Jesuit stories revolve around the early French missionary Jean de Brébeuf, whose name remains etched on schools, churches, sculptures and buildings throughout Eastern Canada.
Today hundreds of Canadian Jesuits follow in Brébeuf's footsteps: operating schools and colleges, supporting aboriginals, striving for justice, working in far-flung Third World countries, offering retreats and equating protection of the ecosystem with reverence for God.
Aside from men like Brébeuf, many people in the West were introduced to Jesuit history through the powerful, haunting and tragic 1986 movie, "The Mission", which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
In the movie, Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons portray astoundingly brave real-life Jesuits who worked in the 1600s with South American aboriginals to create ideal Christian communities in the jungle - all the while fighting off savage Spanish slave traders.
One of the world's most famous 20th-century Jesuits is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an adventurous theologian who studied paleontology [in China].
Like many Jesuits, Teilhard de Chardin was an intellectual and scientist. He developed a school of evolutionary Christianity that continues to grow in renown in the 21st century.
As a result of his visionary cosmological thinking, however, Teilhard de Chardin was criticized by the Vatican in the 1950s. Such official sanctions have happened more than once to Jesuits.
The Jesuits have long been associated with radical secretive actions, thinking and idealism.
Indeed, the perceived impudence of the Jesuits led to Pope Pius VII in 1773 "abolishing" the order, among the Catholic Church's largest. It took 40 years for another pope to restore them.
There are now about 20,000 Jesuits serving in more than 112 countries. Canada has about 300 Jesuit priests and scholastics (students working on becoming priests), which is considerably lower than in earlier decades.
Yet, while most Jesuits live out their vows of "chastity, poverty and obedience" in relative quiet, there has been no shortage of Jesuits ready to shake things up in the past century.
They include Father Daniel Berrigan, who frequently went to jail for protesting the Vietnam War. American Jesuit John Dear today continues that tradition of outspoken peace activism.
Other well-known Jesuits include 20th-century theologians Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthazar, the latter of whom deeply influenced Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.
The English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was also a Jesuit. So were celebrated authors Malachi Martin and spiritual teacher Anthony de Mello (whose work was criticized by then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger).
The most influential 20thcentury Canadian Jesuit was theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-84).
The pioneering thinker is still studied at seminaries and universities throughout the world. Lonergan taught the "radical unintelligibility" of God, expounded on the fruitful relationship between science and religion and developed a sweeping view of a "new political economy."
In Canada, though, perhaps the most famous Jesuit of all remains Brébeuf, who in the 1600s taught the Christian gospel of love while sharing in the hardship of the Huron.
Brébeuf and other Jesuit missionaries were eventually captured by the Iroquois, who were engaged in a drawn-out war with the Huron. The missionaries were tortured with boiling water, fire, scalping and other mutilations.
The ensuing stories of Bré-beuf and other Jesuit "martyrs" in Canada - which emphasized their courage, love and devotion - became legendary in Europe at the time.
At Vancouver's Corpus Christi College, Jesuit teacher John O'Brien talks about the epiphany he had years ago while visiting the Brébeuf shrine in Midland, Ont.
Visited by thousands of people each year, visitors to the shrine are able to see a documentary about Brébeuf and the other martyrs.
The film stirred O'Brien's emotions. And his profound curiosity.
"What was it that compelled these men? They came to the New World to face mosquitoes and sub-zero temperatures. Why?"
The film experience made O'Brien look into becoming a Jesuit. Even though he had to struggle with the idea of giving up a married life, something called him to "follow the spirit of love and sacrifice that those men embodied."
Now 36, O'Brien has already served as a Jesuit scholastic among the urban poor in Venezuela and Jamaica, where in 2010 he and his colleagues were caught up in a bloody government crackdown, which included martial law.
O'Brien, who grew up in a Catholic family in the remote northern B.C. town of McBride, believes Pope Francis is raising the profile of the Jesuits and their global work on behalf of the disenfranchised.
"I suspect that under Pope Francis there will be an ongoing emphasis on economic justice ... Being from the global south, he will give added credibility, and hopefully, visibility to the church's social teaching on this."
As a cardinal, Bergoglio was not, however, considered among the more radical Jesuits. He made the contentious decision to hold dual membership in a more conservative group, called Communion and Liberation.
And Bergoglio was also accused in the 1980s of allegedly abandoning two left-wing Jesuit priests, followers of Liberation Theology, who were threatened by Argentina's former right-wing dictator, a devout Catholic named Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla.
But recent accounts suggest Bergoglio did all he could to support the endangered Jesuits during Argentina's horrendous era of junta-sanctioned murder and "disappearances."
What else will the rise of Pope Francis do for the Jesuits? O'Brien believes it will create an even stronger surge of interest in the spiritual practices of Ignatius of Loyola.
"We already
can't keep up with the demand for retreats and spiritual direction. And I
think this is only going to increase thanks to the presence and person
of Pope Francis," says O'Brien.The pioneering thinker is still studied at seminaries and universities throughout the world. Lonergan taught the "radical unintelligibility" of God, expounded on the fruitful relationship between science and religion and developed a sweeping view of a "new political economy."
In Canada, though, perhaps the most famous Jesuit of all remains Brébeuf, who in the 1600s taught the Christian gospel of love while sharing in the hardship of the Huron.
Brébeuf and other Jesuit missionaries were eventually captured by the Iroquois, who were engaged in a drawn-out war with the Huron. The missionaries were tortured with boiling water, fire, scalping and other mutilations.
The ensuing stories of Bré-beuf and other Jesuit "martyrs" in Canada - which emphasized their courage, love and devotion - became legendary in Europe at the time.
At Vancouver's Corpus Christi College, Jesuit teacher John O'Brien talks about the epiphany he had years ago while visiting the Brébeuf shrine in Midland, Ont.
Visited by thousands of people each year, visitors to the shrine are able to see a documentary about Brébeuf and the other martyrs.
The film stirred O'Brien's emotions. And his profound curiosity.
"What was it that compelled these men? They came to the New World to face mosquitoes and sub-zero temperatures. Why?"
The film experience made O'Brien look into becoming a Jesuit. Even though he had to struggle with the idea of giving up a married life, something called him to "follow the spirit of love and sacrifice that those men embodied."
Now 36, O'Brien has already served as a Jesuit scholastic among the urban poor in Venezuela and Jamaica, where in 2010 he and his colleagues were caught up in a bloody government crackdown, which included martial law.
O'Brien, who grew up in a Catholic family in the remote northern B.C. town of McBride, believes Pope Francis is raising the profile of the Jesuits and their global work on behalf of the disenfranchised.
"I suspect that under Pope Francis there will be an ongoing emphasis on economic justice ... Being from the global south, he will give added credibility, and hopefully, visibility to the church's social teaching on this."
As a cardinal, Bergoglio was not, however, considered among the more radical Jesuits. He made the contentious decision to hold dual membership in a more conservative group, called Communion and Liberation.
And Bergoglio was also accused in the 1980s of allegedly abandoning two left-wing Jesuit priests, followers of Liberation Theology, who were threatened by Argentina's former right-wing dictator, a devout Catholic named Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla.
But recent accounts suggest Bergoglio did all he could to support the endangered Jesuits during Argentina's horrendous era of junta-sanctioned murder and "disappearances."
What else will the rise of Pope Francis do for the Jesuits? O'Brien believes it will create an even stronger surge of interest in the spiritual practices of Ignatius of Loyola.
"Ignatian spirituality embraces finding God in the moments of everyday life."
As one of five Canadian Jesuits, of diverse ethnic origins, who have become part of the order's new "westward push" into B.C., O'Brien only last year moved into a shared residence near the University of B.C. campus. He and his colleagues had been invited to the city by Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller.
The new team of B.C.-based Canadian Jesuits will continue the work and teaching Jesuits have already become known for throughout Eastern Canada, including at Regis College in Toronto and The Ignatian Jesuit Centre near Guelph, Ont.
That Ignatian centre offers 40-day silent retreats for Catholics and Protestants, operates an organic farm and runs The Ecology Project, which teaches that the "ecological crisis is also a spiritual crisis" requiring lifestyle changes and corporate accountability.
Speaking four languages, O'Brien will join his fellow Jesuits in reaching out on many educational and service fronts to the ethnically diverse people of Metro Vancouver - and perhaps beyond.
With his vow of obedience to the Jesuits, O'Brien never knows where he'll end up. Like Ignatius and his forerunners, he always prepares himself to be "ready to go anywhere and do anything for the love of God."
dtodd@vancouversun.com
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