Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 4:38am

PopeWatch: Jesuits

 

PopeWatch has long thought that much that afflicts the Church can be summed up in one word:  Jesuits.  Sandro Magister gives us a case in point:

 

Incredible but true. In the eighth chapter of “Amoris Laetitia,” the most heated and controversial, the one in which Pope Francis seems to “open up” to remarriage while the previous spouse is still alive, there is no citation at all of the words of Jesus on marriage and divorce, presented primarily in chapter 19 of the Gospel according to Matthew:

«Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one’? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”»

It is an astonishing omission. Also striking are two other moments of silence from Francis, on the same question.

The first took place on October 4, 2015. It was the Sunday of the beginning of the second and final session of the synod on the family. And on that very day, in all the Catholic churches of the Latin rite, at Mass, the Gospel passage read was from Mark (10:2-9), parallel to the one in Matthew 19:2-12.

At the Angelus, the pope avoided any reference to that passage of the Gospel, in spite of its extraordinary pertinence to the questions discussed at the synod.

And the same thing happened last February 12, with another similar passage from the Gospel of Matthew (5:11-12) read at Mass in all the churches. This time as well, at the Angelus, Francis avoided citing and commenting on it.

Why such adamant silence from the pope on words of Jesus that are so unequivocal?

One clue toward a response is in the interview that the new superior general of the Society of Jesus, the Venezuelan Arturo Sosa Abascal, very close to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has given to the Swiss vaticanista Giuseppe Rusconi for the blog Rossoporpora and for the “Giornale del Popolo” of Lugano.

Here are the passages most relevant to the case. Any commentary would be superfluous.

*

Q: Cardinal Gerhard L. Műller, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, has said with regard to marriage that the words of Jesus are very clear and “no power in heaven and on earth, neither an angel nor the pope, neither a council nor a law of the bishops has the faculty to modify them.”

A: So then, there would have to be a lot of reflection on what Jesus really said. At that time, no one had a recorder to take down his words. What is known is that the words of Jesus must be contextualized, they are expressed in a language, in a specific setting, they are addressed to someone in particular.

Q: But if all the worlds of Jesus must be examined and brought back to their historical context, they do not have an absolute value.

A: Over the last century in the Church there has been a great blossoming of studies that seek to understand exactly what Jesus meant to say… That is not relativism, but attests that the word is relative, the Gospel is written by human beings, it is accepted by the Church which is made up of human persons… So it is true that no one can change the word of Jesus, but one must know what it was!

Q: Is it also possible to question the statement in Matthew 19:3-6: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder”?

A: I go along with what Pope Francis says. One does not bring into doubt, one brings into discernment. . .

Q: But discernment is evaluation, it is choosing among different options. There is no longer an obligation to follow just one interpretation. . .

A: No, the obligation is still there, but to follow the result of discernment.

Q: However, the final decision is based on a judgment relative to different hypotheses. So it also takes into consideration the hypothesis that the phrase “let man not put asunder…” is not exactly as it appears. In short, it brings the word of Jesus into doubt.

A: Not the word of Jesus, but the word of Jesus as we have interpreted it. Discernment does not select among different hypotheses but listens to the Holy Spirit, who – as Jesus has promised – helps us to understand the signs of God’s presence in human history.

Q: But discern how?

A: Pope Francis does discernment following St. Ignatius, like the whole Society of Jesus: one has to seek and find, St. Ignatius said, the will of God. It is not a frivolous search. Discernment leads to a decision: one must not only evaluate, but decide.

Q: And who must decide?

A: The Church has always reiterated the priority of personal conscience.

Q: So if conscience, after discernment, tells me that I can receive communion even if the norm does not provide for it…

A: The Church has developed over the centuries, it is not a piece of reinforced concrete. It was born, it has learned, it has changed. This is why the ecumenical councils are held, to try to bring developments of doctrine into focus. Doctrine is a word that I don’t like very much, it brings with it the image of the hardness of stone. Instead the human reality is much more nuanced, it is never black or white, it is in continual development.

Q: I seem to understand that for you there is a priority for the practice of the discernment of doctrine.

A: Yes, but doctrine is part of discernment. True discernment cannot dispense with doctrine.

Q: But it can reach conclusions different from doctrine.

A: That is so, because doctrine does not replace discernment, nor does it the Holy Spirit.

 

Go here to read the rest.  In the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola, their is a meditation on the standards of Christ and Satan.  It would seem that most modern Jesuits have a bad case of standard confusion.

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Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 4:56am

Sophistry and rationalization. Pure unadulterated male bovine manure.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 5:24am

Incredible.

While reading Abascal’s answers I can’t help but recall these words; “Let your speach be yea yea; or no no, and that which is over and above these is evil.” Matthew 5:37 – Douay-Rheams version.

This is not good. ( A. Yes, but doctrine is part of discernment. True discernment cannot dispense with doctrine.)

Maybe it’s me. I read double speak here. It’s as if Hillary Clinton is giving the answers.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 6:06am

Fr Abascal’s replies suggest that he is unfamiliar with the literature on the subject, which is really the hoary Biblical Question.

Much of the argument over the Biblical Question, when the development of biblical criticism at last forced Catholics to confront the development of dogma and the historical nature of consciousness and dogmatic expression was thrashed out threadbare over a century ago.

It is voluminously documented in the writings of Maurice Blondel (Histoire et dogme 1904), Alfred Loisy (L’Evangile et l’église 1902), Lucien Laberthonnière (Positivisme et catholicisme 1911) and Edouard Le Roy (Dogme et critique) and the correspondence between them (they were indefatigable letter-writers) and in the columns of periodicals such as La quinzaine and Annales de philosophie chrétienne.

It is difficult today to appreciate the separation, up until then, of theology from history as a factor for understanding this conflict; it resulted in a lack of historical consciousness which at its extremes, and even among theologians, approached a mythic mentality. It drove men like Mgr Duchesne and Loisy to the opposite extreme of a ruthless historicism, leaving to theologians the task of reconciling doctrines with facts.

In his letter of 18 August 1898 to Baron von Hügel, Blondel seemed to recognize the complementarity of his method of immanence with historical study. “The success which is so necessary and—with time—so certain of your biblical criticism seems to me intimately bound to the progress of the apologetic method of immanence, which alone, it seems to me, includes the freedom of evolution and the fixity of orientation in the life of humanity.”

In his opposition to Loisy, Blondel insists on searching for the “real history” beneath its historical and written record. His philosophy of action allows him to see “tradition,” grounded in the actual lives of Christians, as the continuous link in the development of dogma. And, inversely, this living tradition of the life of faith reaching to the present allows the Christian historian, in faith, to recognize the integral supernatural reality of the originating events of Christianity.

What they all shared, in opposition to Protetant Biblical scholars was the belief that the “Church is the continuation of the gospel; Christian development is not exterior to or alien to the gospel.” (Loisy to Blondel, 11 February 1903).

Phillip
Phillip
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 7:07am

“That is so, because doctrine does not replace discernment, nor does it the Holy Spirit. ”

Oh good. My discernment (and of course counsel of the Spirit) is that I can shack up with that hot neighbor of mine, not pay my taxes, give depressed wages to my employees and generally hate anyone who is not like me.

Its about time I say.

Jerry
Jerry
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 8:03am

As I said recently to RCIA students, “Pope Francis, is a Jesuit. Jesuits play loose with the liturgy, and the Magisterium can be most annoying to them”. And I am a graduate of Gonzaga University.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 9:46am

I feel your pain, Jerry: 12 years of Jesuit education myself including BA St Louis U (’79) and MA Santa Clara U (’85), but there were still Jesuits with a reasoning brain in their head and a deeply spiritual life formed on Christ in the Gospels (Did the Sp. Exercises of S.I ever talk about “interpreting” the Scriptures? Yeah, yeah, “discernment”, but that was discerning if one was following the Standard of Christ or the Standard of the Devil (#136-147)—a lost cause for Jesuits who entered after 1970, it appears).


In conclusion, I feel your pain.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 10:01am

I think Giuseppe Rusconi clearly had Abascal on the ropes by his relentless serious of logical questions.

I diagramed the discussion Abascal’s side of the argument, a series of retreats before Rusconi’s unrelenting advances, like this:
• Abascal: premise: “historical context” of Scriptures (SS)
• Abascal: Ok then: “discernment” of SS real meaning
• Abascal: Ok then: SS need to be “interpreted”
• Abascal: Ok then: Personal conscience has priority over SS
• Abascal: OK then: SS’ Doctrine has always changed
• Abascal: OK then: Discernment is higher than Doctrine.

In the end, Abascal gave it up when he averred:
” ..Reality is much more nuanced, it is never black or white, it is in continual development.”

Just cant make out anything here, for all the grey fog lying about. I guess Philip is right about the “hot neighbor” option.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 10:09am

Then, I guess S. Dominic was all wrong when he chose black and white as the symbols of his order, because he asserted that by reasoning, one could successively distinguish good from evil until it eventually became as clear as black from white.

Mary De Voe
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 10:40am

A valid Sacrament of Matrimony cannot be rationalized away, because Jesus Christ is the witness. Pope Francis is the Vicar of Christ. If Pope Francis rationalizes Jesus Christ’s witness away, Pope Francis will cease to be the Vicar of Christ.

David Spaulding
David Spaulding
Thursday, February 23, AD 2017 12:57pm

This is a serious question: In what way is this not moral relativism?

Perhaps I misunderstand the concept or what is being said.

It sounds to me like Abascal is saying “there is an objective Truth for each of us and it is up to us to discern that Truth for ourselves. If we do so, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are objectively in the right.”

If that is correct, then the Roman Catholic Church is wrong and our sola scriptura Christian brethren are right: “read the Bible. Pray on it. God will tell you what to do.”

What am I missing?

Mary De Voe
Friday, February 24, AD 2017 12:18am

I am glad that Phillip made the comment. Had I, a woman, made the comment I would be drinking water with ashes in it and running around the temple three times to prove it was only humor. Gosh, I am tired and still running.
I recently watch QUO VADIS by Henryk Sienkiewicz. In the film, Marcus seizes the cross from the wall, breaks the cross and throws the cross on the floor, saying: “I will not share my wife with anyone.” Some men cannot share. Some men become abusive because they need another person to stroke their inferiority complex.
Keep up the good work. Gosh, I’m still running.
If one of the spouses refuses to consent to an annulment, the marriage stays intact. So, how can one spouse in the Sacrament of Penance seek and procure an annulment without the consent of the absent party to the marriage? If we look at the issue from heaven we see that God is not giving consent to annul valid marriage through the Sacrament of Penance. If the person persists in his studborn refusal to accept the Word of God on his marriage, he may go to hell and still be married.

Clara
Clara
Friday, February 24, AD 2017 6:17am

Fr. Abascal’s words are so convoluted! He says it is not reletavism, then in the same sentence says it is relative. Sheish!! This guy is so confused, and wants to spread his confusion. The words of Jesus are very clear! But, one must have eyes to see and ears to hear. This guys eyes and ears are blind and deaf!

When I converted to become Catholic, I had the experience of seeing and hearing differently. I had read the book of John Ch 6 twice ( at least, maybe more) and never understood that Jesus was talking about the Eucharist. Then during my conversion, the next time I read it, it was SO obvious Jesus was talking about the Eucharist, I couldn’t read it any other way.

Fr. Abascal seems obsessed with the Holy Spirit and discernment, but I think he is lacking the Holy Spirit to help him understand the obvious words of Jesus. His eyes and ears are blocked to the truth of Jesus.

We have priests teaching against the obvious words of Jesus Christ. God help us!! Mother Mary, help us!

Mary De Voe
Friday, February 24, AD 2017 7:56am

Clara: I must add to your wonderful comment. To receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist unworthily is condemnation. Isn’t there enough condemnation in the world?

Patricia Parente
Friday, February 24, AD 2017 6:01pm

The Jesuits that traveled the Great Lakes were my favorite Saints. But my opinion of Jesuits today was formed by Malachi Martin.

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