Jesuits

One of the orders of Roman Catholic priests, designated by their having "S.J." after their names. They were founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in 1534, and were known as the Pope's private army. They swore unbending allegiance to the pope; however, they were historically connected with many political intrigues in the Church, causing one pope to disband the order. They were reinstated later, and are now the intelligentsia of the Roman Catholic Church. Their involvement with politics has caused their General (termed the Black Pope) to be regarded by some as the power behind the Papacy.

While there is historic reason to believe this may have once been true, recently both Paul VI and John Paul II have asserted their absolute authority over the leadership of the Jesuits.

March 9, 1973 - an article by Himli Toros entitled JESUITS REAFFIRM PAPAL OBEDIENCE. "Rome. The Jesuits have concluded a three month gathering that left Pope Paul VI still in firm command of the order known as his `private army.' . . . The order also accepted a papal order that all decisions voted by the congregation be submitted to him for his approval."

INSIGHT, April 20, 1987, contained a book review of THE JESUITS by Malachy Martin. This book was sub-titled "The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church."

Martin, himself an ex-Jesuit who was laicized in 1964, contends that the Jesuits were, for centuries, the embodiment of all that Catholicism was and was meant to be. But with the assumption to the Father Generalship of Pedro de Arrupe y Gondra in 1965, the Jesuits embarked on a crash course of decadence that poisoned not just the order but the entire Roman Catholic Church. The gall that spoiled the sparkling Jesuit brew was, very simply, Modernism.

To be a Modernist is to adapt. And adaptation is no less, according to Martin, than a "direct, murderous stab at the heart of Roman Catholicism," a "quick and subtle poison" that, once entering the Church, would leave its body "an eviscerated ruin."

Martin believes the entire Renaissance was merely "Lucifer's latest ploy, his modern version of `I will not serve.'" The Renaissance, in which man turned his attention toward himself and the material world, rang the death knell for Roman Catholicism: because of the Renaissance, "the Roman Catholic Church was no longer able to speak to her people as she had done for thousands of years."

According to Martin, the glory of the Jesuits was that they "rejected out of hand the Renaissance preoccupation with the grandeur of self" and remained directed to just two things, "the warfare between God and Lucifer for each individual, and the Pope's need for devoted servants."

The trouble with the Jesuits now, Martin asserts, is that they have lost all this. They have no qualms opposing papal teachings on such matters as ordination of women, liberation theology, homosexuality, celibacy.

Martin lays full blame for the church's decline on ex-Jesuit General Arrupe. "It is safe to say," proclaims Martin, "that one man can be pointed out as summarily responsible for this complete turn around of the Society of Jesus - Pedro Arrupe."

As this book would have it, the pope himself is a pretty small mover and shaker compared to these men. It was the Jesuits who, throughout history, were the "torch-bearers of Church attitudes regarding the pope and the Papacy" and "the vanguard and standard bearers of the way in which Catholics should conduct their lives and think about the world."

Martin feels the Jesuits were the best, and "the corruption of the best is the worst."

SECULAR JOURNALS

From NEWSWEEK, 11/9/81. "REINING IN THE JESUITS. Jesuits have long been known as the soldiers of the Pope; while other religious orders vow only poverty, chastity and obedience, they alone pledge to go wherever and whenever the Pope might send them to save souls. But the Society of Jesus, the church's largest, most prestigious clan, is also its intellectual cream, and the priests' independent spirit and worldliness have often brought them into conflict with the Vatican. Now the antagonism between the society and St. Peter's has flared anew: in an unprecedented action that stunned Jesuits, John Paul II bypassed the elected superior general and announced that his personal delegate, 79-year-old Italian conservative Paolo Dezza, would this week become de facto head of the order.

"The appointment of Dezza...resulted from John Paul's growing impatience with the order and, especially, (Rev. Pedro) Arrupe (the previous general). Two years ago the Pope censured the priests for their `regrettable deficiencies' and `secularizing tendencies.' He found one tendency particularly unforgivable. `Even when Jesuits were denounced for having girlfriends - or boyfriends - Arrupe took no action,' complains one priest sympathetic to the Pope...

"Perhaps more important, some Jesuits appeared to be neglecting the classroom, their traditional bailwick, to join in leftist politics - a practice that the pastoral-minded Pope has consistently discouraged... Father Fernando Cardenal, who played a crucial role in the overthrow of Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza, is still a minister in the Sandanista government.

"The Pope's ploy outraged liberal Jesuits, many of them Arrupe loyalists who resented John Paul's treatment of their ailing black pope....John Paul is willing to wait for as long as it takes the whiter Pope to checkmate the black pope and his wayward knights."