December 04, 2006

Salvadoran Convicted of Jesuit Massacre Arrested in California

A Salvadoran man convicted of taking part in the 1989 massacre of six Jesuits and two other people during that country's civil war was arrested in California in late October and faces deportation. Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, 43, was a sublieutenant with the Salvadoran army's counterinsurgency group during that country's bloody war against the FMLN, a leftist guerrilla group. He and eight other officers and soldiers were convicted of involvement in the 1989 killing of six Jesuit priests, their cook, and her teenage daughter at a San Salvador university. Jesuits had called for a peaceful, negotiated end to the war, and some considered them to be subversive. Guevara Cerritos served his prison sentence in El Salvador before being pardoned under a general amnesty in 1993.

Los Angeles special agent Robert Schoch said in a statement, "we will not allow the United States to be a place of refuge for aliens seeking to escape a violent criminal past." [Source: San Diego Tribune, 26 October 2006]

Jesuit Father General gives money to Typhoon relief

To alleviate the devastation in Vietnam caused by Typhoon Xangsane earlier this month, the Father General of the Society of Jesus has sent 10,000 Euros (approx. $12,580 US) to Jesuits involved in local reconstruction efforts. The typhoon principally affected four central provinces, considered the poorest in the country, and caused extensive suffering and material loss. The coastal city of Danang was hardest hit, with hundreds of people injured and thousands of homes destroyed. Millions of Vietnamese are without power and drinking water. In a land used to the devastating effects of typhoons, this one has been considered the strongest in 30 years. [source: Electronic Information Service for 20 October 2006, Jesuit Curia, BBC News, 2 October 2006]

Indian Jesuit Scholastic Drowns

Loy Manohar Fernandes, SJ, a Jesuit scholastic belonging to the Karnataka province, was drowned in the sea on August 18. Fernandes, along with some of his Jesuit companions, had gone to a nearby beach for a swim.

For the past 25 years, Jesuit students have been going to this beach, although local fishermen note that the sea off Chennai has become unpredictable since the tsunami, causing over 50 deaths in the sea since last winter. The college rector said that "until now, nothing has happened" to his students while swimming, but added that he would no longer permit them to swim there.

Fernandes came from the Catholic stronghold of Mangalore. His younger brother is also a Jesuit seminarian. [Source: Jivan, October 2006]

Irish Jesuit Report Says Prison Rehabilitation Has Regressed Since 1985

A new study conducted by the Irish Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice on rehabilitation in Irish prisons slams St Patrick's Institution for Young Offenders in Ireland as "a disaster and an obscenity."

The report, launched in late October by the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Dermot Kinlen, and social justice campaigner Fr Peter McVerry, says rehabilitation in Irish prisons has regressed in the 21 years since the United Nations published its report on genocide and the penal system in 1985. It also claims the closure of prison workshops and training programs in 2003 is evidence of the lack of political will toward the rehabilitation of prisoners.

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Ireland reports that prisoners in Saint Patrick's, 80 percent of whom are illiterate, are locked up in their cells for 19 hours every day and have very little to do during their five hours of exercise. [Source: Irish Independent, 25 October 2006]

Company Magazine on the Web

The editors of Company Magazine would like to remind the readers of the SJUSA News that Company Magazine is also available on the web. With the Fall 2006 issue, we are starting the twelfth year of putting the entire magazine on the web. The articles from the previous eleven years are there. In addition there is a handy search feature available on the initial page which will help you find an article about a certain person or topic.

It is easy to find us; just try: www.companymagzine.org

Company is also looking into the possibility of providing other types of content on the web, whether it be online prayers, audio, links to the liturgical readings, etc. If you have any suggestions, we would be glad to hear them. Just email your comments to: editor@companymagazine.org

Around the Campuses

Marquette University

Marquette University welcomed Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at Marquette University on October 23, calling for additional help in her country.

Johnson Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa, said her government had begun recruiting and training a new army and was restructuring the police force to prepare for the withdrawal of U.N. forces. Decrying the corruption that preceded her administration, the president said the judicial system is being reformed and a legal and regulatory framework is being developed.

"We are placing emphasis on empowering the people, especially the poor and vulnerable, to become active participants in the development process," she said. To support Sirleaf's efforts, Marquette Provost Madeline Wake announced that Marquette would in 2007 grant a four- year, full-tuition scholarship to a Liberian woman of the president's choosing.

St Xavier High School Celebrates 175th Anniversary

Cincinnati's St. Xavier High celebrates its 175th anniversary with its Living Walls project, featuring displays looking back at the school's traditions and changes. The display includes drawings and photos showing St. Xavier's first buildings, report cards from 1917, and a $500 Confederate bill that once paid for tuition, among other things.

Principal and alum David Mueller notes, "We come from a long tradition, but we keep adapting…It's the Jesuit way." For more information, visit the web site: http://www.xu.edu/175/ [Source: Cincinnati Enquirer, 6 October 2006]

SJU Launches Catholic Bioethics Institute

In an effort to clarify some of the ethical aspects of scientific efforts, Saint Joseph's University has established the Catholic Bioethics Institute. The new institute offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to reflect on contemporary bioethical issues in light of Catholic traditions.

In partnership with Philadelphia-area Catholic hospitals and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the institute will provide consultation to the medical, nursing and administrative staff, as well as bioethical education for medical personnel and hospital administrations at the affiliated hospitals and nursing homes.

Faculty who are interested in bioethics, graduate students and professionals from affiliated institutions in the Philadelphia area will be invited to join the institute as fellows to participate in a research project. http://www.sju.edu/bioethics/ [source: Ignatian Imprints vol. 1]

Remembrance of Things Past

• Nov 26, 1764. In France the decrees against the Society drawn up by De Choiseul received King Louis XV's signature.
• Nov 27, 1911. Louis Billot, SJ made a cardinal. A theologian and professor, he would crown Pius XI with papal tiara. In 1927 he resigned from the College of Cardinals.
• Nov 28, 1629. At Nagasaki, Leonard Kimura, Japanese coadjutor brother, died a glorious martyr by fire.
• Nov 29, 1572. On the death of St Pius V, Gregory XIII ascended the Papal throne and abolished the choir imposed on the Society by his predecessor, as well as other changes made in the Institute.
• Nov 30, 1948. The death of John J Wynne, SJ. Founder and first editor of America magazine (l909-10.) He was also an editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia and vice postulator for the North American Martyrs.

• Dec 1, 1973. Br Alfredo Perez Lobato SJ, 36, was machine-gunned to death in Chad.
• Dec 2, 1829. In the Gesu, Rome, Pope Pius VIII promulgated the decree of canonization of St Alphonsus Ligouri at the altar of St Francis Xavier.
• Dec 3, 1863. The Missouri Vice-Province was erected into a Province. Created a mission in 1831, it was annexed to the Belgian Province in 1836 and created a Vice-Province in 1840. The current Missouri, Detroit, Wisconsin, and Chicago Provinces are derived from it.
• Dec 4, 1984. Fr Ernesto Cardinal, Nicaraguan Minister of Education, received the document dismissing him from Society of Jesus.
• Dec 5, 1551. The Italian Province was constituted. Paschal Broet was named Provincial. It was the fourth province of the Society.
• Dec 6, 1757. In Paris, Fr Busembaum's Medulla Theologiae Moralis was publicly burned by order of Parliament, on the grounds that it favored tyrannicide.
• Dec 7, 1688. At Rome, the death of Fr Honoratus de Fabri, grand penitentiary, and a great scientist. He taught the circulation of the blood before Harvey's book was published.
• Dec 8, 1649. The martyrdom in Canada of St Noel Chabanel, the last of the eight North American Martyrs to die.
• Dec 9, 1905. In France, the law of separation between Church and State was adopted by the French Parliament.
• Dec 10, 1564. The return to Rome of Frs Laynez, Salmeron, Polanco, and Nadal at the close of the Council of Trent.
• Dec 11, 1991. The death of Ernest Burrus SJ. He wrote 50 books on Jesuit History, many with a focus on the Southwest USA.
• Dec 12, 1558. Claudius, Emperor of Ethiopia, forbade Fr Oviedo to preach and subsequently drove him from the palace.
• Dec 13, 1942. The death of Fr General Vladimir Ledochowski in Rome, at age 76. During his tenure, the Society grew from 26 to 50 provinces; membership from 16,946 to 26,588; and those on missions from 971 to 3785.
• Dec 14, 1621. In Chile, Fr Martin de Aranda Valdivia, a Spaniard, Fr Horatio Vecchi, an Italian, and Br Diego Montalto, a native Chilean, were slain for the faith.
• Dec 15, 1566. At Vienna, St Stanislaus Kostka, lying seriously ill, is said to have been visited by St Barbara and have been given Holy Communion by an angel.
• Dec 16, 1767. Tanucci, the Prime Minister of Naples, wrote to the Grand Master of Malta asking him to expel the Jesuits from the island, as they formed part of the dispersed Sicilian Province.
• Dec 17, 1678. In London, the trial of Fr Thomas Whitbread, Fr William Ireland, and others accused by Titus Oates of high treason.
• Dec 18, 1932. The death of Joseph Rickaby SJ, philosopher and learned in the Spiritual Exercises, at St Beuno's, Wales.
• Dec 19, 1593. At Rome, Fr Robert Bellarmine, the future Cardinal, was appointed rector of the Roman College.
• Dec 20, 1815. A ukase of Czar Alexander I was published banishing the Society from St. Petersburg and Moscow, on the pretext that they were troubling the Russian Church.
• Dec 20, 1815. At St Petersburg, a great popular excitement was caused by the news of the conversion of the young Prince Galitzin. The emperor had refused permission to Fr Brzozowski to go to Rome.
• Dec 21, 1576. At Cordova, the death of Fr Francis Gomez, a man of wonderful innocence and simplicity, on whose head a white dove is said to have alighted during Mass one Whit Sunday.
• Dec 22, 1642. At Tyburn, in London, the martyrdom of Fr Thomas Holland. After his sentence he declared himself a priest and a Jesuit and said that he was ready to lay down his life 100 times or more for the Faith. He gave two gold crowns to his executioner.
• Dec 23, 1656. Pope Alexander VII pleaded with the government of Venice for the restoration of the Society in that Republic.
• Dec 24, 1603. The leaders of the French Parliament presented to King Henry IV a long list of accusations against the Jesuits. The king replied by refuting them and making a strong defense of the Society.
• Dec 25, 1538. St Ignatius celebrates his first Mass in the basilica of St Mary Major, Rome, at the altar of the Holy Crib. He had been ordained for over a year.

From the Editors

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