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 Nicolás 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).
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I too have had heated discussions with Fr. O'Leary before ("Spirit of Vatican II"). It was one of the first times I encountered ordained Catholic priest who was really a Universalist.
Hey, thanks for telling me the news! I am surprised and overjoyed that the Jesuits have elected the serene, intelligent, erudite, wise and holy Fr Nicolas as their leader.
By the way, I am not sure what a Universalist is, but I do not think I am one.
His order must now pay the highest amount lodged against an order for sex abuse.....50 million dollars. It was in last week's Newsweek and once again makes spreading the gospel an inverse experience.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/93626
If this new leader does not make these things impossible, he is doing what with his life then? 12 Jesuits and 3 lay volunteers from 1959 to 1986 molested 110 Eskimo children and possibly another 22 who killed themselves.
I don't understand how these priests escape with their lives.
In any event, if he cannot stop this... then shut them down.
When you sink to the lowest point, any direction is better than no direction and some may actually lead upwards a touch. So in this case I think some cautious optimism is not out of place.