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| January 8, 2003 |
India's President Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was advised by Kupholly Sitaramayah Sudarshan, head of the Indian Hindu national volunteer corps, not to address a January World Jesuit Alumni meeting in Calcutta because he said the order has taken an oath that "prescribes violent and barbaric means to decimate all those who don't follow the Roman Catholic religion.”
The volunteer corps clarified in a statement that it fears the president's presence there would legitimize the Jesuits' activities in India.
The volunteer corps is an umbrella organization for various Hindu groups trying to turn India into a theocratic Hindu nation.
Fr Lisbert D'Souza, Jesuit provincial of South Asia, accused the Hindu group of showing "scant regard for the truth."
Some 500 people from 12 countries are expected to attend the January 21-24 World Jesuit Alumni Congress in Calcutta, said its Indian coordinator, Fr Herman Castelino SJ.
The priest said that the Jesuits invited Kalam because he is an alumnus of Jesuit-run St. Joseph's College in Tiruchirappalli, southern India. The congress, he said, is not a meeting of Christians or Jesuits, but of former Jesuit students, "in this case most of them Hindus.” [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Fr Joseph M McShane SJ, former dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill and president of the University of Scranton, has been named as Fordham University’s next president. Fr McShane will succeed Fr Joseph A O’Hare SJ this summer.
Fr McShane also serves as a trustee of St Joseph’s Prep, Loyola University New Orleans, and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania, and he is a member of the executive committee of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. [Source: Fordham University]
Belgian Jesuit Fr Paul Mommaers, a professor of religion at Belgium's Antwerp and Louvain universities, has urged the church to "rediscover the riches of Christian mysticism" to appeal to people seeking a more spiritual experience of religion.
"We have the world's greatest mystics, and we should be looking at them again. Instead of distrusting today's fashion for spirituality, we should be placing a Christian stamp on it," he said.
He said Christian mystics had agreed that a "direct experience of God" meant keeping the "intermediaries" of Scripture and church life.
"Though most people assume the spirit is something separate from the body, this distinction isn't found in the New Testament, where St Paul says the spirit 'lives in us,'" continued the priest.
"It's popularly assumed mystics are masters of spirituality who've gone beyond faith and church teaching," he said. "But this isn't true--all great Christian mystics have trusted in Christ and accepted religious doctrine." [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) recently received special consultative status from the United Nations' Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations. The status gives JRS the right to address the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which deals with issues such as poverty, development, women, and refugees. "It's actually quite exceptional," said Fr Rick Ryscavage SJ, secretary for social and international ministries at the Jesuit Conference and regional director of JRS. "It's an important channel to get our issues to the General Assembly."
Previously, to present a paper or speak before the committee, JRS had to go through another Catholic agency that was recognized as an international agency.
The 2002 UN session began last month and will continue through the spring. JRS is in the process of developing a plan for the year and will be supporting the Holy See's agenda as well.
"This is very good timing for us to take part. It's going to be a handy tool for the Society," Fr Ryscavage said. [Source: National Jesuit News]
The expulsion of a Catholic bishop and of several Catholic priests from Russia is, in effect, an effort to "decapitate the Catholic communities present in Russia," wrote Fr Giovanni Marchesi SJ in the Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica.
The magazine said that while Vatican-Orthodox relations worsened after the February establishment of four Catholic dioceses, Russian government attempts to block foreign Catholic clergy from reentering the country are not that new.
In 1999 the Russians expelled Polish Jesuit Fr Stanislaw Opiela, who was secretary of the Russian bishops' conference. In the year preceding the Vatican's establishment of Russian dioceses, 24 Catholic and other Christian ministers had their visas revoked, "which demonstrates that the restrictive policy of the Russian state regarding non-Orthodox Christians began well before the erection of the four Catholic dioceses," it said.
"The serious and repeated acts" of withdrawing valid visas are violations of religious freedom," said Fr Marchesi.
The priest said that despite repeated attempts to get clear answers from the Russian government over the reason for the expulsions the replies simply have said they are not motivated by anti-Catholicism.
While the Russian government attempts to move closer to the West on a political and economic level, he said, "a new 'Iron Curtain' seems to have gone up between East and West" on a religious level. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Can faith and fortune mix? In Calgary, Max Oliva SJ saw the opportunity to become a "spiritual coach" or "corporate chaplain." He started interviewing local business owners about the role spirituality plays in their corporate lives.
Recent corporate scandals (Enron, WorldCom, and some Canadian banks) shook investor confidence and sent shockwaves through North American stock markets. As a result, Fr Oliva is being asked a lot about ethics. Once a month he offers a Commuter Retreat for small groups of business leaders, both Catholic and of other denominations, using key meditations from the Spiritual Exercises. Sensing a huge workload ahead of him, he's planning to team up with a Catholic management professor and a Lutheran international consultant to host business discussion groups.
"I hope to help people see how they can better integrate their faith with their work," says Fr Oliva. "This would have an effect not only on them individually, but also on the company they work for and ultimately on the community at large." [Source: Headlines]
St Thomas Aquinas College, the Jesuit university in Moscow, has published a Russian language version of “The Autobiography of St Ignatius Loyola,” the work of Andrej Koval, a professor at the college. This is thought to be the first Russian translation of the autobiography.
The Ediciones Mensajero of Bilbao, Spain, gave permission to publish the pictures by artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) on the life of Ignatius. Hence the book contains not only appropriate pictures on the life of Ignatius, but also a commentary by the translator, which will help the Russian reader to better understand the founder of the Jesuits.
Over the years there has been increased interest among Russians to know more about Jesuits and their founder. Very little literature on Jesuits exists in Russian, which is spoken by more than 250 million people. [Jesuits in Europe, #65, December 2002]
The Fondation Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is located at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. It has extensive resources on Teilhard in parallel sites in English and French. More than 50 years after his death this famous Jesuit priest and paleontologist continues to generate controversy within the Catholic Church. The Vatican itself seems to have stood back from the ongoing controversy and has had nothing official to say for over two decades now. Will this man, like Cardinal Newman and many other controversial figures, be "resurrected" and welcomed back among our most venerated? His influence outside the Church continues to grow. [Source: Church Resources]
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