PROVOST? YES. PRIEST? NO.

Loyola-Chicago has appointed Christine Wiseman, J.D. to be provost of the university. Of courts the press release speaks highly of Ms Wiseman and describes her new job thusly:

As chief academic officer, the Provost oversees teaching, learning, research, and academic services; formulates general academic policies for the University; and promotes quality in undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies. Academics and research are administered by the Division of Academic Affairs, which provides leadership and strategic direction to the University's academic departments, schools, and programs in support of Loyola's mission.

In order to do all that she has to be smarter than many of the 20,000 Jesuit priests roaming the world, John McLaughlin, for instance.

Despite her skills, she could never become a priest because she’s a woman. There’s no simple explanation of why this should be so. Defenders of banning women quickly descend into mumbo jumbo.

----- o -----

BANKRUPT

SFWILIE’S BLOG reacts to San Diego Diocese’ decision to seek bankruptcy protection rather than go to trial over a case of priest sex abuse.

One motive cited by plaintiff attorneys is that a trial would force the disclosure of secret Church documents possibly containing evidence of serious criminality as well as the expected evidence of embarrassing venality.

Brom: What Seventh Commandment? analyzes the bankruptcy move in terms of the seventh commandment. Bishop Brom says boldly that victim compensation cannot be allowed to cripple the mission of the Diocese.

----- o -----

JESUITS TO PAY $5M FOR SEX?

According to the plaintiff in this story, two Jesuits molested her and she wants a cool five mil. This seems like a lot to ask the faithful to pay for their priests to have sex.

While I don’t necessarily advocate or condemn commercial sexual interactions, there is such a thing as prostitution, there is also unfortunately child prostitution.

I point this out only to say that it's possible to determine the fair market value of various sex acts. My guess is if you take all the Church's victim pay-outs and divide them by the fair market value of the sex acts involved you’ll find that the Church is paying way too much for it’s priest’s sexual activities.

This might seem like a strange way to analyze the situation, but, come on, we're all grown ups here.

It would be cheaper for the laity, who support these shenanigans, to set up priest accounts with local pimps and brothels. I mean, just from a resource stewardship point of view.

----- o -----

MORE MEN IN SILK

I’m so upset about San Diego Diocese’ decision to seek the protection of civil bankruptcy laws instead of compensating the victims of institutionally protected pedophile priests, I can barely type.

While I’m calming myself down, take a look at another ecclesiastical piece in SFWILLIE’S BLOG, about the priest-snitch for the commie secret police who the Pope tried to make the head of the Polish Church. Commie snitch, Hitler Youth, no biggie.

Not only was he a snitch, the fucker lied about it. And continues to minimize it.

----- o -----

WEALTHY WITH GRACE

Rich and powerful people send their kids to Jesuit schools. One reason for this is that the Jesuits offer, or used to offer, a classical education. Latin, Greek, math, science, rhetoric, oh, and a religion class as well.

Another reason the rich and powerful like the Jesuits is the rich-man-eye-of-the-needle issue.

When Jesus said, “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into heaven”, He didn’t mean “impossible” just difficult, sort of like building a ship in a bottle.

Anyway, if there were a way for a rich man to get into heaven, the Jesuits would be the ones to figure it out.

The Jesuit slogan AMDG, (to the greater glory of God), has the practical translation, as we repeat like a broken record, “It’s all good.”

So, how does the camel squeeze through?

There it is, in Wikipedia. It’s called “detachment.”

Detachment
Where Francis of Assisi's concept of poverty emphasized the spiritual benefits of simplicity and dependency, Ignatius emphasized detachment, or "indifference." For Ignatius, whether one was rich or poor, healthy or sick, in an assignment one enjoyed or one didn't, was comfortable in a culture or not, etc., should be a matter of spiritual indifference—a modern phrasing might put it as serene acceptance. Hence, a Jesuit (or one following Ignatian spirituality), placed in a comfortable, wealthy neighborhood should continue to live the Gospel life without anxiety or possessiveness, and if plucked instantly from that situation to be placed in a poor area and subjected to hardships should simply cheerfully accept that as well,without a sense of loss or being deprived.

As the Church Lady would say, “How conveeeeenient.”

While the quote refers mostly to life inside the Jesuits, the attitude translates to civilian life. Rich people can simply pretend not to notice that they’re stinking rich, they’re too focused on spirituality. They’re “detached.”

And if you’re poor, well, that’s your “assignment.”

So it’s perfectly natural that Gordon Getty, one-time richest man in America (now approx. #150) sits on the Board of Trustees of my alma mater, St Ignatius High School (now “college prep”).

And perfectly natural that the President of the Board of Trustees of S.I. (fro many years) happened also to be president of Wells Fargo Bank. Paul Hazan, we must assume, didn’t claw his way to the top of the second largest bank in California. He was just sort of assigned to be CEO, you know, by God.

We’re all just Ignatians on our spiritual quest.

Notes on San Francisco’s St Ignatius High: S.I. grad Gordon Getty is the lifetime sponsor of Gavin Newsom, current Mayor of San Francisco. The source of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s seven-figure net worth is her husband, Paul, another S.I. grad.

----- o -----

CAPTION CONTEST #1

The intersection of Christ’s mission and military missions is a touchy subject, as the photo below shows. Sfwillie suggests a caption, but we know our visitors are more clever than that.

Best caption (in comments below) wins a twenty dollar donation, from Jesuit Watch, to the charity of your choice.

Sfwillie’s caption:

Bush: Reverend, I’m down to Laura, Barney, and Jesus.
Minister: Make that “Laura and Barney.”

----- o -----

SEX LAWS

Yesterday, a Bishop was quoted using the Anna Nicole tragedy as an object lesson to advocate for more restrictive marriage and sex laws.

Check out my view of this, The Vulture Wore Silk, on sfwillie’s blog.

Along the same line, view a perspective on gay adoption, Kinderen voor Kinderen, also on sfwillie’s blog.

----- o -----

DO IT RIGHT

The first assignment I received as a Freshman at St Ignatius High School was to read a pamphlet called “Do It Right.”

I was a pretty obedient kid, but I barely skimmed it. There were more interesting textbooks to open, and I figured I already knew about “Do It Right.”

Only lately do I realize that Do It Right was an explanation of AMDG (ad majoram dei gloriam—to the greater glory of God). Apparently an Ignatian ideal is that any action, if not sinful, can glorify God if it’s done well and with devotion.

The practical upshot was that we had to write AMDG at the top of every paper.

I notice in the most recent Genesis that SI’s football team has the magic letters on its uniforms, ugh.

So, I’m thinking that the AMDG thing must have applied during World War II. There were certainly many Jesuit trained scientists and technicians at Los Alamos working on the Manhattan Project.

These Jesuit trained workers, like all their colleagues were anxious to perfect an atom bomb which the United States could drop on a Japanese population center. The Jesuit alumni had the added incentive of glorifying God in the process.

So, when Little Boy’s outer casing was complete reps of the various shops were allowed to write messages in a small area near the tail fins. Some messages were obscene, or racist, others were sentimental. But what stood out were the three or four AMDGs.

Chances are that the AMDGs were written by lower level employees since most studies show a negative correlation between IQ and religiosity.

This quote from Wikipedia cites a survey published in Nature.

A 1998 survey by Larson and Witham of the 517 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences showed that 72.2% of the members expressed "personal disbelief" in a personal God while 20.8 expressed "doubt or agnosticism" and only 7.0% expressed "personal belief".

And Enola Gay’s crew was also dedicated to doing the job right. It could be that one of the crew was Jesuit trained and that it was AMDG all the way.

Approaching target. AMDG.
Bomb doors open. AMDG.
Blinding flash. AMDG.
Shock wave disintegration. AMDG.
Heat wave incineration. AMDG.
Mushroom cloud. AMDG.

It’s all good.

----- o -----

MR SLIMEBALL, S.J.

It was already a strange situation when the phone rang, I was home alone and I wasn’t masturbating—I don’t know what the problem was.

I was thirteen, in the eighth grade, and was waiting, like most parochial eighth graders, to hear if I’d been accepted into a Catholic High School.

There were three Catholic high schools for boys in San Francisco. Admission, presumably restricted to Catholics, was based on the results of academic tests. A boy could apply to only one of the schools so the test was presumably make-or-break.

There was a period of a couple months between the testing day and the mailing of acceptance/rejection letters, all very dramatic.

My brother was already at Saint Ignatius, midway through his sophomore year. I had close to zero doubt that I, too, would be accepted. I was the smartest, measured by various test results, boy in my class, in my grade. If somehow the great Willie didn’t get into SI, no one from my school would, and that was just an impossibility.

The phone call was from Mr Zampisi, S.J.[name slightly changed] I’d heard of him. He was a Jesuit “scholastic,” doing his three year teaching stint as part of the long preparation to become a Jesuit priest. These “Misters” dressed like priests, and lived with the priests, but weren’t yet priests. A wag friend called them “Jesuettes."

I knew the name Zampisi because my brother was in the SI band, and Mr Zampisi was the faculty coordinator for the band.

After intros etc, (I remember his voice was very high pitched) here’s what he had to say: “I see you have some interest in music [from my application], and I need some horn players. If you’d agree to play horn in the band, I could make sure that you get admitted. And you could get started on the horn over the summer."

With this coming so out of the blue, I’m surprised how quickly I replied, which was to tell him I didn’t want to be in the band and that I’d take my chances with my test results. Looking back, this was pretty spunky.

Of course I was admitted. Mr Zampisi, S.J. certainly already knew I would be admitted. He wanted me to be beholden to him, and what I was getting in return was his non-existent influence to get me admitted, plus the burden of having participated in a backroom sort of deal.

This was basically a little swindle that Zampisi tried to pull off. On a kid.

Welcome to Saint Ignatius High School.

[This article was previously posted in sfwillie's blog.]

----- o -----

ST LOUIS LAUGH-FEST

As long as I can remember, the Catholic Church has been trying to snag tax dollars to further it’s goal of universal membership and the elimination of all other religions.

Wisely, our forefathers blocked such shenanigans with the First Amendment. That doesn’t keep the church from trying, as in this amusing controversy.

Of course SLU lawyers snort the same mumbojumbo as all the other piglets squirming for a taxpayer teat.

It’s just a little undignified to hear them deny that they are Jesuit, or Catholic, or Christian.

It makes me think of the denial of so-called Peter.

Publicly denying Christ proved no impediment to Peter’s rise to power. I should remember this when I take umbrage at former Nazis becoming pope.

There was a high school massacre a while back where the kid-perp shot up a pre-class Christian prayer group. Reports had him asking one girl, “Are you a Christian?” When she said, “Yes,” he shot her dead.

She was a true martyr. Or just dumb? Where would the church be today if Simon-Peter had been as brave as that young girl?

----- o -----

BC2: GOOD NEWS FOR ALL

According to Baltimore Catechism #2 salvation is available to everyone. This is important for framing Jahweh as an egalitarian. Predestination and the “select” and all that junk is just ruling class shittiness and I salute RCism for rejecting it.

I’m a gay anti-religionist. Tribal religions, as Deepak Chopra says, are vestigial. Like appendices in humans, they serve no useful purpose and can only cause trouble.

I specifically reject the pope and his pomp. No man is infallible whether sitting on the toilet or sitting on his cathedra. Jesus didn’t wear silk.

I find Catholic theology to be nonsense.

Yet, I am completely qualified to enter into the presence of God (actually I’m already there), and to enjoy life everlasting in heaven. How can this be, when membership in the Catholic Church is a necessary condition of salvation? BC2 #168 is my get-out-of-jail-free card.

168. How can persons who are not members of the Catholic Church be saved?

Persons who are not members of the Catholic Church can be saved if, through no fault of their own, they do not know that the Catholic Church is the true Church, but they love God and try to do His will, for in this way they are connected with the Church by desire.

I meet the three criteria:

1) I do not know that the Catholic Church is the true Church. And it’s not my fault. I have spent much honest effort examining the issue and have determined that in fact the Catholic Church is NOT the true Church. This conclusion is as real and true for me as the opposite conclusion is for loyal RCs. 2) I love God, which I have determined to be mineral existence. 3) I always try to seek the greatest happiness for myself and others, based on my faith in mineral existence.

It seems like it’s easier for a non-Catholic to achieve salvation than for a practicing Catholic. We non-Catholics just have to sort of love God and try to do good. It’s almost like a sliding scale.

Believing Catholics have all sorts of commandments and rules that act as hurdles to salvation. For instance, it’s a mortal sin for a Catholic to miss Sunday mass just because he’d rather sleep in or go shopping. For me, not a problem.

Or sex. I truly believe that being gay is ok. I truly believe that gay sex is a great context in which we can know love and serve God. So I can have all the sex I want, of course treating everyone ethically, whereas Catholic gay people have to refrain from gay sex altogether in order to get into heaven.

This loophole is available to all current Catholics. Do you really “know” that the Catholic Church is the true Church? If not, you’re free to leave.

What a great God!

----- o -----

SEEK SEX VICTIMS OF BRADLEY S.J. (cont'd)

After posting the links to the Bradley S.J. outreach story, this blog emailed the communications director of the Maryland Province requesting a picture of Rev Bradley. We thought this could be helpful to our visitors.

It’s possible that some victims might remember the face but not the name. Effective outreach, like wanted posters in the Post office, would include a face shot.

I’ll persist in my efforts.

----- o -----

VIUNGRA

According to the Baltimore Catechism #2, the Sixth Commandment requires that we be pure in thought and deed blah blah.

Then BC2 addresses the obvious question, it’s admirable they don’t duck it—how exactly do we go about resisting temptation?

258. What are the chief means of preserving the virtue of chastity?
The chief means of preserving the virtue of chastity are to avoid carefully all unnecessary dangers, to seek God's help through prayer, frequent confession, Holy Communion, and assistance at Holy Mass, and to have a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

This all sounds like good(?) advice, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. You want a fourteen year old boy alone in the shower with a roaring erection to, what, consider his devotion to the Blessed Virgin?

No, and it’s not just teenage boys, we could all use some additional assistance. Maybe science can help.

The Church approves the use of Viagra to promote licit marriage acts. Why can’t we have a pill that suppresses the desire for illicit sex acts?

There are crude versions referred to as chemical castration in use today on sex offenders. But for various reasons they’re unsatisfactory

We need a major research effort to produce something that’s cheap, with no side effects, and that’s easy to deliver. Once developed it has a target population of most of the human race.

Frequent sex fantasies and impulses are bothersome, not only for maintaining purity of thought and deed, but just for getting stuff done. This applies to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

VIUNGRA could be the answer. The opposite of Viagra, it would suppress sexual desire and response. I’d be surprised if Jesuit chemists somewhere aren’t already working on it.

Priests and nuns could take it daily. Single people, unless they’re actively looking for a marriage partner could take it. Parents could add it to their kids’ food.

Even married couples could use it. Abstinence is the only sure form of birth control, even within a marriage. Catholic married couples could avoid the whole Vatican-roulette hassle by taking Viungra and forgetting about sex altogether.

By liberating the energy consumed in illicit sex acts, plus the energy consumed by the suppression of frequent sex impulses, we’d expect to see legions of chaste Catholics racing around frantically doing the will of the Lord.

----- o -----

FATHER DEADBEAT, S.J.

It’s refreshing to be reminded that not all priestly vow-breaking involves young boys.

A recent report casts Rev. James Jacobson, S.J., and by extension the Company itself, as a deadbeat dad, refusing to support the children he fathered.

Apparently “the Reverend” was bringing Jesus to the beautiful artistic Yupik people in the Yukon. Below see some of their masks and couture. The masks, even with such heavy juju, couldn’t fend off the Jesuits.

Heck, they’re only aborigines.

ABORIGINIES, n.
Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize.
Ambrose Bierce, Devil’s Dictionary

Paternity is not in question. The issue is who will pay and how much. The Society decided that in this case Jesus wanted them to act like any other civil litigant. Just because you’re Catholic doesn’t mean you can’t pull all the legal tricks at your disposal.

The story in the Seattle Times says that DNA tests determined that Jacobson was the father of two boys (at least). The costly tests would have been done only if Jacobson had denied paternity.

The deadbeat Rev Jacobson pleads poverty. The deadbeat Jesuit Order says, Not our responsibility.

However it works out, I’m sure it’s AMDG.

----- o -----

Discussion Topic: HOLY LAND?

Special attachment of Christians to geographic places, such as Bethlehem and Jerusalem, denies the omnipresence of God. It is impossible for God to be more present in one place than in another. To say that one place is holier than another is pagan fetishism. It is heresy.

----- o -----

FIRST JESUIT MARTYR

In the age of exploration and imperialism, the Portuguese had their avaricious eyes on India. The Jesuits wanted to come in behind the Portuguese military and try to claim the spiritual territory of India for the Society of Jesus.

Here's the story from the Jesuit Family Album.

S.G. Anthony Criminali, S.J. (Italian: 1520-1549) became the very first martyr of the Society of Jesus, dying in India at the age of 29. He had been assigned to work along the fishery coast of India near Malabar by the mission superior, Francis Xavier. Contrary to the advice of Anthony, the Portuguese governor had established a tollgate to collect fees from the Hindu pilgrims. The infuriated Hindus broke through the barrier. The Portuguese fled, leaving the small Christian village to absorb the furious Hindu hatred of Christianity. Anthony along with all the other Christians was clubbed and beheaded. (Ban, JLx, Som, Tan, Tyl)

So the Portuguese governor of an area on the Indian coast decides to tax the local populace by putting a toll gate on the road they take to a sacred ritual site.

The locals get pissed off and kill all the Europeans. Apparently the brave Portuguese soldiers left the clergy and civilians defenseless rather than risk their own necks with an angry mob.

So Father Criminali was killed, not because he was a Christian, but because he sided with the Portuguese who tried to extort the local population.

It was just a minor setback for European imperialism. To call this guy a martyr shows a lack of all seriousness.

The blurb says he advised against the tollgate. The blurb doesn’t tell us why.

Has either Pope apologized for European imperialism yet? They certainly aren’t thinking it was AMDG!

----- o -----

SEX DISCRIMINATION

Mr Ryan Duns S.J. has a blog that’s up for Blog of the Year in the Catholic Blog Awards. In a recent post he attacks a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for reporting parish closings and consolidations from the viewpoint of a consumer of religious services (weddings, baptisms, masses, etc.). She’s complaining that services are being reduced.

She has the audacity to assert that allowing female and married priests would solve the priest-shortage component of the problem. She also has the audacity to state what Christianity means to her. View the full post here.

What stood out, in Mr Duns' response was this statement, supposedly explaining why Catholicism is different from the Elks club.

The assumption of this blog is that the Jesuits represent the highest level of intellect among the RC clergy. This quote gives me pause. (He starts out referring to the article and its female author.)

The tone of her conclusion about the simplicity of Jesus' message reduces Christianity to little more than collection of do-gooders: so why am I a Christian when I could be in the Elk's Club or a Shriner?

It's because that in Jesus I have met God most fully. In my confession of Jesus as the Christ of God, I am called to live out this confession in the world. This draws me into communion with others, women and men who pray with and for me, who also confess with me that Jesus is Lord. We don't gather together, do good things, and then break bread and *WHAMO* there's Jesus. We are part of a much larger and still-unfolding story of a pilgrim people nourished by Christ's own body and blood, who derive strength and sustenance from it, and continue in their labors to help bring about God's Kingdom. The Eucharist is the source and the end-point of our labors. Nourished on his own body and in response to the love I have known, I go out into the world where I struggle to "feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Love one another as I have loved you." And I fail. And I return again to the table of the Lord. And I try again. And again.

If this isn’t nonsense, I don’t know what is.

You might be able to convince gullible students that the incoherence of this statement indicates a kind of mysticism. We’re supposed to believe that there is something really important that Mr Duns is struggling to tell us about.

(This goes along with the supposed inarticulateness of God. There's stuff that God wants us to know but He's not very good at expressing Himself, so He needs really smart people (Jesuits) to help.)

One thing about the statement is clear, that Mr Duns is definitely struggling.

By way of contrast, the following is a coherent statement of liberal Catholic moral theology. Whether or not you agree with it, it’s clearly written, and intellectually competent. This was posted on Pendagon.

Liz
Feb 14th, 2007 at 8:48 pm

As a feminist raised in a large (I was sixth of eight kids) Catholic family and educated in Catholic schools for more than 18 years (most of those jesuit), this post reminded me of some of the wonderful priests, brothers and nuns I’ve known over the years and made me nostalgic for a religious community I left behind. While I no longer consider myself Catholic, most of my family still actively practice, and they are generally very liberal people (so they would most likely be considered cafeteria catholics). Both my upbringing and my education helped to instill what I consider liberal values….the importance of social justice (with an emphasis on protecting the “least” among us), a respect for life (which for me personally never really included “potential life”), tolerance, a desire for knowledge and understanding and/or education (however you want to look at it), and compassion, among other things. Of course it wasn’t all rosy and beautiful, The Vatican made itself felt….which is why I no longer consider myself a Catholic. That said, I am often dismayed these days about how it seems that right wing Catholics have managed to hijack the spotlight and convince people that they speak for or represent all Catholics. I know many practicing Catholics who are appalled by the bigotry and small mindedness of Donahue. So, thank you for the post recalling Father Cobos and reminding me of the wonderful teachers I encountered over the years.

Why bring this up? The Church won’t let Liz, who is smart, be a priest, because she’s a woman.

On the other hand, the Jesuits will pour tens of thousands of dollars into Mr Duns’ training, at some point declare him a priest, and turn him loose on unsuspecting young people.

So the Church’s policy is that a not so bright man makes a better priest than a really smart woman.

Then we hear crap about “Excellence.”

Scherzo: Another commenter, on the same page as Liz, had this to say:

Hank
Feb 14th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

I had known a nice priest, but it
turned out he was a pedophile.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Remeber, judge not, lest ye not be judged.
Remember, Jesus loved the
sinners.

Either Hank has an excellent deadpan, or… scary!

----- o -----

CELIBACY MATH

With the vow of chastity a priest forswears sex. All sex.

Within Roman Catholic moral theology, there are two kinds of sexual activities, licit and illicit.

LICIT SEX

There’s only one licit sex act, the “marriage act,” which is penis in vagina ejaculation. (Obviously, gay sex is not included.)

But not all penis in vagina ejaculation is licit. The marriage act is licit only if the participants are married and if there are no artificial barriers to conception employed.

Acts leading up to and following a licit marriage act, (e.g. foreplay) are also licit.

Example:

During a brief moment of privacy Person X and Person Y kiss
passionately and squeeze each other’s buttocks.

In most cases this would be considered illicit. However, if persons X and Y were a married couple, and if they intended to use the sexual arousal to heighten a later licit marriage act, then this would qualify as foreplay, and would be licit.

ILLICIT SEX

All acts aimed at achieving sexual pleasure that are not licit as defined above are illicit.

Priests talk about celibacy as giving up the pleasures of marriage. The usual rationale is time management—not enough time for a family and for a religious career. They talk about giving up only the licit sex.

It is assumed, that as Catholics, they have already “given up” all illicit sex.

So, a Catholic man whose sexual impulses are directed exclusively at other men has no desire for licit sex. His only desires are for illicit sex. For him, the vow of chastity is no sacrifice at all.

For gay men, the value of Step C in the chart above is zero. Therefore the value of Step D (vow of celibacy) is also zero.

The same math applies to men whose sexual impulses are directed exclusively at children.

The same math applies to men who are so geeky and awkward and emotionally twisted that the social expectation that they will “get married” feels like a huge unwanted burden. For them, too, the vow of celibacy, rather than a sacrifice, provides relief.

So we’ve identified three types of men for whom the vow of celibacy is insignificant: gays, pedophiles, emotionally immature.

I think this explains why such people are over-represented among Catholic priests.

----- o -----

JESUITS DISSED IN DRUG HOLOCAUST

My guess is that Patrick Hilger, author of this excellent essay on illegal drugs, is a young man. His explication is so clear. It seems he doesn’t apprehend that organized, nefarious forces are in charge of the international so called war on drugs.

Coca leaves were used for hundreds of years in Latin American countries until it was banned by the western societies.

When the Spanish Jesuits brotherhood saw that coca leaves made the Indians strong (the Incas in this case) they banned it.

The employment of addictive drugs and of drug laws by the ruling class to tax and control serfdom is a horrendous crime and the consequences, in numbers of deaths and lives ruined, qualifies the crime as a holocaust.

So young Patrick thinks the Jebbies took coca away from the Incas in order to make them more subservient.

BTW: There’s been some ado about the pope apologizing for the Nazi/Jewish holocaust. I wonder if the pope/Jesuits will ever apologize for their role in European imperialism. Or was that all AMDG?

----- o -----

LEGACY CEBU: BOLJOON CHURCH

According to blog Cebu Heritage, Boljoon Church, built by Jesuits, is among the Philippines’ best preserved Spanish-era churches. Click here for the story.

----- o -----

Ann Arbor News: MARRIAGE? WHAT MARRIAGE?

Here’s a story about a divorced Catholic woman who found her calling though Ignation spirituality. Her calling was to minister to other divorced women.

You have to read to the bottom to find the solution to the problem of what to do with one's sexuality when remarriage is forbidden.

Apparently the Jesuits provided her answer, just pretend the marriage never happened, and get an annulment.

The Jesuits are so darn smart!

----- o -----

Rakuyōshū

1598 Japanese dictionery published by the Jesuits. The post from netrino-gr begins:

The {{nihongoRakuyōshū落葉集"Collection of Fallen Leaves"}} was a 1598 Japanese dictionary of kanji "Chinese characters" and compounds in three parts. The Jesuit Mission Press published it atNagasaki along with other early Japanese language reference works, such as the 1603 Nippo Jisho Japanese-Portuguese dictionary. The Rakuyōshū, also known as the Rakuyoshu or Rakuyôshû, is notable as the first dictionary to separate kanji readings between Chinese loanword on (音 "pronunciation") and native Japanese kun (訓 "meaning").

Full story here.

----- o -----

SEEK SEX VICTIMS OF REV H. CORNELL BRADLEY

Jesuits seek sex abuse victims of former priest. (Story here.)

Bradley may have done things in Baltimore and at Gonzaga High School in Washington.

Here's a related story from the Philidelphia Inquirer

----- o -----

PHOTOS OF MONTSERRAT

An important place in the life of Ignatius. Photos and story here.

----- o -----

JESUIT NAMED BISHOP OF NEPAL

Father Anthony Sharma, SJ, was appointed to be the first Bishop of Nepal. (Story here.)

According to Wikipedia the former King Gyanendra of Nepal had been a student of Father Sharma’s.

----- o -----

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sfwillie