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| August 31, 2003 |
The University of Texas's two-volume Gutenberg Bible has gone digital. Its 1,268 pages have been scanned and can now be viewed on the internet, making it easier for scholars and the public to browse.
About 200 Gutenberg Bibles were produced in the 1450s and only 48 copies still exist. This copy was in the hands of a Jesuit community by 1600, as the Jesuit seal is stamped into the current binding. For further information: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenberg/ [Source: Harry Ransom Center]
Fr James McCann SJ took over as executive director of the US bishops' Office to Aid the Church in Central and Eastern Europe in Washington earlier this summer. The first item on his agenda was to travel with his predecessor, Msgr R George Sarauskas, to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, and Belarus to view some of the programs the office has supported for the past 13 years.
Fr McCann said he was impressed by the size and scope of the programs supported by the US bishops, but he said the needs for the church in many of the countries his office supports remain great.
"The region is not the center of attention anymore, as most of the world's attention has turned elsewhere," he said, "but their needs are no less urgent or important as the region fades from the news." He said one of his first initiatives will be to tell the stories of "people who have benefited from our support."
The Office to Aid the Church in Central and Eastern Europe funds programs to help restore the church's pastoral capacity in the region. Initiatives include the formation of priests and religious, development of catechetical programs, and support for the church's charitable works.
Fr McCann's role will be to review grant proposals and to make recommendations to the bishops' committee overseeing his office. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Newly uncovered documents from the archives of two US diplomats provide strongest evidence of Pope Pius XII's vigorous opposition to Nazism, said historian Charles R Gallagher SJ, a Jesuit scholastic currently studying at Saint Louis University, in the September 1 issue of America magazine.
The clear anti-Nazi and anti-Hitler views of Cardinal Pacelli--elected Pius XII in March 1939--in the documents contrast sharply with the attempts of some recent historians to portray the World War II pope "as a Nazi sympathizer," Gallagher said.
In the article, Gallagher focused on two documents: a personal report Cardinal Pacelli gave to Joseph P Kennedy, then US ambassador to Britain, during an April 1938 meeting in Rome, and a 1939 report by Alfred W Klieforth, then US consul general in Cologne, Germany, following a meeting with the cardinal in Rome.
According to Klieforth's report, Cardinal Pacelli "opposed unilaterally every compromise with National Socialism. He regarded Hitler not only as an untrustworthy scoundrel but as a fundamentally wicked person. He did not believe Hitler capable of moderation, in spite of appearances, and he fully supported the German bishops in their anti-Nazi stand."
Gallagher wrote that the Pacelli report to Kennedy invited the ambassador to pass "these personal private views of mine on to your Friend"--a reference Gallagher called "a cryptic yet clear allusion to President Franklin D Roosevelt," whom Cardinal Pacelli had met during an extensive US visit 18 months earlier.
"In his report," Gallagher said, "Pacelli made clear that the Nazi program struck at the 'fundamental principle of the freedom of the practice of religion,' and indicated the emergence of a new Nazi 'Kulturkampf' [culture war] against the church ... Sounding beleaguered and perhaps a bit frightened, Pacelli expressed the view that the church 'at times felt powerless and isolated in its daily struggle against all sort of political excesses from the Bolsheviks to the new pagans arising among the young "Aryan" generations.' Nevertheless he assured Kennedy that any political compromise with the Nazi regime was 'out of the question.'" [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Beginning this fall, Loyola University Chicago is undertaking a university-wide initiative to bring the community together to reflect upon the important issues affecting the future of Catholicism.
The centerpiece of this initiative is the Chapel Series, a new program that features talks by nine distinguished Catholics who will address some of the pressing issues within the church today. The talks will be presented in a prayerful and reflective forum, and each speaker will select a passage from scripture with which to articulate his or her chosen topic.
"In this era of the quick 'sound bite,' there are very few occasions for a substantive, prayerful consideration of the challenges to faith in our contemporary society," said Fr Michael Garanzini SJ, university president.
"While there has been ample exposure of the flaws and failings of the Catholic Church, we are convinced that all of us need to be reminded of God's promises and called to renew our faithful commitment," Fr Garanzini said.
Scheduled to speak are: Fr Andrew Greeley, Donna Markham OP, Richard John Neuhaus, Peter Steinfels, David O'Brien, Michelle A Gonzalez, Katarina Schuth OSF, Claire Noonan, and Thomas Geoghegan.
For more information on the speakers or program, go to http://www.luc.edu/chapelseries/ . [Source: Loyola University Chicago]
Fr Romeo Intengan, Jesuit provincial in the Philippines, spoke at a gathering in August outside Manila about numerous armed conflicts in the world that "involve religion in a major way."
About 60 Catholics, Muslims, and Protestants from other countries joined nearly 100 participants from the Philippines to discuss "Seeking Peace and Development Through an Authentic Christian and Muslim Dialogue of Life in Asia."
Fr Intengan mentioned conflicts among Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Mideast; between Hindus and Muslims in India; between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan; and between Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka. He also referred to Muslim and Christian conflicts in Indonesia and the Philippines.
According to Fr Intengan, the start of the 21st century has seen religion as a prominent factor in armed conflicts. Though the world situation is adverse to peace, he said, it is important not to "succumb to discouragement and inaction. We should continue to do all we can to prevent these conflicts or seek equitable and lasting solutions to them, employing in a major way the abundant resources of our respective religious traditions."
The Jesuit proposed ways to help resolve such conflicts: educate one another on "each of our faiths"; appreciate the truth, goodness, and beauty of each other's religion; respect religious freedom and other human rights; and adopt common actions that address the roots of conflict and social violence such as poverty and corruption. [Source: CNS. Do not repost]
This site presents an extensive pictorial tour of places associated with St Ignatius Loyola. The creator of the site, California Jesuit Richard Blinn, sets out to construct in the mind of the browser an image of the saint using paintings, sketches, woodcuts, and drawings depicting people, places, and spaces associated with him. It's possible to 'read' the biography by moving through the site just looking at the images, although there is a background caption to each image.
JesuitUSA News is a service of Company Magazine. In addition to the print edition, almost all of the items in Company Magazine can be viewed via the World Wide Web at www.companymagazine.org or www.companysj.com. Any correspondence concerning this mailing list should be sent to the editor at news@companysj.com . The newsletter is available to all Jesuits, to those who work with them, or to those who are simply interested in what they are doing. Tell your friends; the price is right! If you are requesting addition to the list, please include your real name as well as your email address. If you are changing your address, please include YOUR NAME as well as both the NEW and the OLD email addresses.
The editors of this Newsletter are Richard VandeVelde SJ and Ms Rebecca Troha. They would both like to remind you of the following useful WWW links for items of Jesuit interest.
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