Habemus Papam Nigrum

Earlier today their was a dip in global
internet bandwidth as thousands
of Catholic bloggers clogged the web googling to find out about the new
Jesuit Father General is Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, SJ.

Karen Hall, lover of all things Jesuit, is cautiously pessimistic.
 Karen had also previously linked to a picture Fr. Z had
posted of a room full of Jesuits at their meeting wearing civies and
referring to the search for the one guy wearing clerics as “Find
Fr.
Waldo S.J.”

Fr. Adolfo Nicolas was wearing clerics
when elected though.  This makes me wonder if men being
nominated as Father General if they wear clerics under their civilian
clothes.  Kind of like Superman wearing his blue tights and
cape under his suit.  This would make sense since for too many
Jesuits their Jesuit identity is in fact a secret identity.  
I knew it was too much to hope for an equivalent of a Fr. Fessio, Fr.
Pacwa or the theological acumen of Cardinal Dulles or any number of
Jesuits around the world who would be recognized as Jesuits by Saint
Ignatius.

Well that is enough Jesuit bashing and
with Karen I am cautiously pessimistic and the new Jesuit General needs
are prayers and we certainly hope he heeds to the message that the Pope
delivered to them.

As is usually the case American Papist has a good roundup.

*I stole “Habemus Papam Nigrum”
from  Zadok
the Roman.

I can’t say that John Allen Jr. report
makes me less pessimistic in his post titled New
Jesuit leader a progressive shaped by Asia.  . In
the article where prophetic is tossed about multiple times, in response
to the Pope’s letter:

While
Nicols will certainly not lead the Jesuits in any direct challenge to
those points, observers say, his election is nevertheless a choice for
a “forward thinking” outlook, as well as for a sensibility to the
realities of Catholicism outside the West.

Does anybody really think that if St.
Francis Xavier had taken to the “sensibility to the
realities of Catholicism outside the West” that they would have found
Japanese Catholics later on who kept to their Catholicism for two
hundred years without a priest?  His missionary work had to be
diminished by a fervent persecution whereas liberal Catholicism can be
wiped out  by a light breeze.  It is traditional
Christianity that is growing by leaps and bounds in China and not
liberal Christianity more concerned with stepping on cultural toes than
preaching the Gospel.  I lived in Japan for a couple of years
and it seems so odd to me that in a culture that seems to adapt to and
mix in so much from western culture (often in quite odd ways) is
impregnable to the Gospel truth without the watering down of most
cultural adaptation (not that sometimes their are not valid cultural
adaptations).

Father Nicolas taught theology at the Sophia
University in Tokyo.
 This university might be familiar to some in St. Blogs who
have experienced the multiple posting attacks of Fr. Joseph S. O’Leary
(Who identified himself in comment boxes as “Spirit of Vatican II”) and
who has called prominent Catholics and not so prominent Catholics such
as myself neo-Caths.  While Fr. O’Leary is not a Jesuit it
might be interesting to see if he surfaces on his
blog and says anything about his fellow professor.
 Obviously you can’t judge a university or others on the staff
by one professor such as the case of Boston College and Peter Kreeft.