Wow! That’s about as good as when he made the bishop in Tonga a Cardinal! Maybe he is going to show solidarity with a people famous for fighting against border walls?
@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori I think that the Jesuit order as a whole reflects the crisis in the Church. It is split between a majority liberal modernist group who tend to be older, and a minority that are orthodox and who tend to be younger albeit there are a few exceptions i.e. old traditionalists like Fr. Fesser -one of the founding fathers at Ave Maria University who even celebrates the TLM, and there …More
@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori I think that the Jesuit order as a whole reflects the crisis in the Church. It is split between a majority liberal modernist group who tend to be older, and a minority that are orthodox and who tend to be younger albeit there are a few exceptions i.e. old traditionalists like Fr. Fesser -one of the founding fathers at Ave Maria University who even celebrates the TLM, and there are a few young liberals. The problem is that the modernist-lib Jesuits are the ones that have given the order its current reputation.
@philosopher -Thanks for your insightful observations! But I've never heard of any traditionalist/traditional or even conservative Jesuits. If there any, I am sure they are likewise elderly. I read a lot about the Catholic Church, and have done research about the Church for two priests while I was an undergraduate in college. At first, 10 years ago just starting out in college, I did it for the …More
@philosopher -Thanks for your insightful observations! But I've never heard of any traditionalist/traditional or even conservative Jesuits. If there any, I am sure they are likewise elderly. I read a lot about the Catholic Church, and have done research about the Church for two priests while I was an undergraduate in college. At first, 10 years ago just starting out in college, I did it for the small amount of money I earned from the priest who was writing a book about the disaster of Vatican II (really small amount ), but then it actually got interesting, and I dug deeper, learning what a real and true disaster Vatican II is, especially in the made up "Novus Ordo". My experience in college 10 years ago with priests (graduated only 6 years ago), was mostly with Augustinians (every single one elderly and radical liberal), and dioecian priests (half and half). I think for the most part, both the Augustinians and Jesuits (especially Jesuits), will die out. So will the Francis version of the Catholic Church. Of course depending on the individual and the Order, my overall perception of priests is not positive, thanks to Vatican II and the Novus Ordo. I'll give two short examples why: When my great-Aunt died in 2018, she and her family wanted alot of Latin hymns in her funeral, even though it was Novus Ordo. The musical director said "we have no experience singing this", and the pastor basically threw a fit, very rude saying "no Latin" for funerals. He's since dead too, but he was just like Pope Francis. He might as well have been a clone. In college, I stood up in my theology class and confronted a priest who was teaching heresy in class ( that women could be priests). I was smart enough to be able to state both JPII and Benedict XVI about the topic. Then I told him about how many things in the Church can not change. The priest asked me (rudely) how long my family had been Catholic, because I'm Japanese and he rather ignorantly thought that I was new to the Faith. When I told him we have been Catholics since the 1590's he wans't impressed. Instead he said to me, " as ridgid as you are, your family should have stayed Buddhist)." So except for the good, traditionalist priests and Orders........groups like the Jesuits I have no real respect for, even if there are some "traditional" ones. Because as a group, they are hopeless.
It’s true. The Jesuits were so big that the modernists couldn’t drum out every Catholic, and that they reflect the whole of the crisis in the Church. Younger ones are definitely better, on average. Bp. Barber in Oakland is an example of a solid late middle aged Jesuit. The thing that may really hurt them is if they lose their academic rigor, like is happening all over academia now. One thing you …More
It’s true. The Jesuits were so big that the modernists couldn’t drum out every Catholic, and that they reflect the whole of the crisis in the Church. Younger ones are definitely better, on average. Bp. Barber in Oakland is an example of a solid late middle aged Jesuit. The thing that may really hurt them is if they lose their academic rigor, like is happening all over academia now. One thing you used to be able to count on from Jesuits was that they were scholars. I wonder if that will continue.
@John A Cassani -Nope. I read that the standard of scholarship for Jesuits which used to be one of their trademarks is long gone. Even their training time is shortened, of course also their disipline, traditions, and zeal for the Faith. All gone. Like all the rest.
@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori You did some awesome research on the problems of Vatican II! I think that on the whole as an order they are a disaster, and the few orthodox Jesuits are not in the leadership positions and can't stop the liberal administration's goals of pushing a humanistic religion. But as you pointed out, the old modernists are dying out, and they are loosing their intellectual rigor. Maybe …More
@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori You did some awesome research on the problems of Vatican II! I think that on the whole as an order they are a disaster, and the few orthodox Jesuits are not in the leadership positions and can't stop the liberal administration's goals of pushing a humanistic religion. But as you pointed out, the old modernists are dying out, and they are loosing their intellectual rigor. Maybe a smaller more orthodox younger generation will rebuild it. They will always have the life, example and writings of St. Ignacious, so, there is still hope. Also, it's great to see a young guy who fights for the true Faith!
@philosopher -Thank you very much!! I appreciate your kind words. I always like reading your posts. I didn't use to be so orthodox and so determined to fight for traditional Catholicism. I come from a rather "secular" Japanese/American family. We are all Catholic on both sides, except for 2-3 in Japan who are Buddhist/Shinto and have married into our large family. Both sides of my family have been …More
@philosopher -Thank you very much!! I appreciate your kind words. I always like reading your posts. I didn't use to be so orthodox and so determined to fight for traditional Catholicism. I come from a rather "secular" Japanese/American family. We are all Catholic on both sides, except for 2-3 in Japan who are Buddhist/Shinto and have married into our large family. Both sides of my family have been Catholic since the 1590's, thanks mostly to Jesuit and Dominican missionaries of that time. My family itself in the USA is 2nd generation Americans. My grandparents were all born in Japan, but all came to the USA in the late 1950's. My parents were born in the early 1960's, and got married in L.A. in 1989. I'm luck to have 8 brothers and sisters (2 married now), and 4 nieces and nephews. But like most of them, I never bothered much with Church until I started working for an elderly priest when I was a freshman in college, doing the leg-work for him compiling research for his book on the disaster of Vatican II. I even took the train to D.C. to Catholic U to find the data he requested. But along the way I began to realize that yes, Vatican II was/is a disaster for the Catholic Church especially regarding the Mass, but everything else as well. I've come to the conclusion that bad as Vatican II was, the effects of Pope Francis and his agenda is much worse. There was a tiny rebirth in seminary enrollments seen across the world in many places (even Europe) during the all too brief reign of Benedict XVI. Can you imaging how great it would have been had he had the courage to stay in office till he actually died? Now we're stuck with Bergoglio. I really do not think he is Catholic, or even any type of Christian. I think he deliberately (he and his associates) are trying to destroy the Catholic Church. That's more like something the devil would do. So, it was my research done on behalf of a really good priest who was a true scholar that got me interested in the Church. Before that, I had no clue. Thanks for your kind words again. I try to back up my posts with facts, and from the data I know. I'm not a papalotrist who worships the ground Francis treds on because he is the "pope". He and his people have done nothing but undermine Catholic faith and belief, and that has caused a tremendous turn away from the belief in the office of the Papacy, and (believe it or not), towards tradition. The more he and his people degrade it, the more people (even bishops), defy him and embrace it. That's one good result of "The Francis Effect".
@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori I have a great admiration for the courage, nobility and tenacity of our fellow Catholic brothers in Japan. I didn't know much about their struggles in the face of fearce persecution until seeing the movie "Silence" by Martin Scorsese a few years ago. A lot of my friends said don't see it b/c it's anti-Catholic but I saw it from a different perspective. The protagonist of the …More
@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori I have a great admiration for the courage, nobility and tenacity of our fellow Catholic brothers in Japan. I didn't know much about their struggles in the face of fearce persecution until seeing the movie "Silence" by Martin Scorsese a few years ago. A lot of my friends said don't see it b/c it's anti-Catholic but I saw it from a different perspective. The protagonist of the story is not actually the Jesuit Fr. Rodrigues who with Fr. Garupe played by Adam Driver, who are sent to Japan on a mission to find Fr. Ferreira the old Jesuit professor who went missing and apostotized. Fr. Rodrigues compromises his Faith and follows the path of least resistance becoming a Buddhist scholar and takes a wife assimilating into the culture, hoping this will stop the persecutions and torture, (many of whom were crucified in the ocean and drowned). For this liberals think he was the hero. No, he lacked courage, faith, hope and love of the Holy Trinity, and his actions were dishonorable.
The real heroes were the hundreds of Japanese Catholic martyrs who died nobly for the Faith uniting their suffering with Christ, and Fr. Garupe who refused to renounce his faith and gave his life trying to save those being tortured. When ever I am tempted to despair about the crisis in the Church and the actions of Pope Francis, I just meditate on the strength of heart and soul of the Japanese Martyrs and it strengthens my own Faith. Never loose hope! The Church has always survived bad popes, we will survive this one.
@philosopher -Thank you very much. Yes, the early Japanese Christians (all Catholic actually) suffered greatly under the Tokugawa Shogunate. Many don't realize, and it usually is never told, but the persecution of Catholics in Japan began at the instigation of Dutch and English Protestant merchants, who somehow found their way to Japan and into the court of the Shogun. The Martyrs of Japan, or "…More
@philosopher -Thank you very much. Yes, the early Japanese Christians (all Catholic actually) suffered greatly under the Tokugawa Shogunate. Many don't realize, and it usually is never told, but the persecution of Catholics in Japan began at the instigation of Dutch and English Protestant merchants, who somehow found their way to Japan and into the court of the Shogun. The Martyrs of Japan, or "Nihon no junkyosha," were a group of over 400 Catholics who were killed by the edicts of the Shogun. Pope Urban VIII beatified them, and the great Pius IX canonized them in 1862. The imperial regent, Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Jesuit missionaries in 1587 ( but my family secretly converted in the 1590's). Persecution increased under all of the succeeding Tokugawa shoguns, ending only when the Shogunate was abolished in the late 1860's and the Emperor Meiji restored them in 1868. Sorry for the history lesson, but faithful Catholics should know, that it was Protestants who instituted lies and innuendos against Catholics and Catholic missionaries in Japan in the late 1580's-1590's and all thru till 1660's that caused the problem in the first place. It was done largely because the Protestant Dutch and English hated Catholics, and were jealous of the trade agreements made long before by the Spanish and Portuguese Catholic Empires with the Emperor/Shoguns of Japan. I saw the movie you spoke of. It was about 60% accurate.. One of the best programs of all time, which shows the actual persecution of Japanese Catholics during the era of the late 1500's early 1600's in the epic series SHOGUN by James Clavell and starring Richard CHamberlain. He portrayed the anti-Catholic English role very well. And the crucifixion and torture of thousands of Catholics and Franciscan missionaries is totally accurately shown in this series. Martin Scorsese's film has a deliberate ( because he's a liberal), anti-Catholic/anti-Catholic tradition subtle hint to it which makes lots of the film innacurate. Thank you for your compliment about my Japanese heritage and the culture and courage of Japanese Catholics. The only sad thing is that Catholics in Japan ave declined a lot since Vatican II, like everywhere. And the few Jesuits there are, unsurprisingly, radical liberals. Surprisingly, most Orders of Japanese nuns founded in Japan are not rad femminists. Some are quite good and solid. But the rest of the Church, Very sad.
@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori Thanks for the historical insights on the role of Protestants in the persecutions. The Dutch and English Protestants also promulgated a lot of the Spanish Black Legends -anti-Catholic propaganda throughout the world. My favorite is that Catholics colonists in Latin America fed the Indian Children to their dogs, lol. Take care, and God bless!
An old, burnt out radical liberal Jesuit. We should thank God every day, that for the most part, 95% of Jesuits are as old or older than this hot airbag. They will be gone in 20 years! What a blessing for the Church!