Steve Jobs, “Saint” or “exploiter”?
A wise life guru like Saint Ignatius of Loyola or an avaricious man, who could not have cared less about the poor – like the rich man in Luke’s Gospel? Despite being a Buddhist, Steve Jobs became a central figure in Catholic debate.
He has even caused the Society of Jesus to “bicker” over him. Indeed it is mainly the Jesuits who are fighting over him.
On the one hand there is Fr. Antonio Spadaro, director of the Italian Jesuit magazine “Civilta Cattolica” who poured praise on him in his funeral oration, describing the founder of Apple as a “visionary, a genius, a revolutionary,” comparing him to Saint Ignatius of Loyola: “His vision of life and death is very similar to that of the Society of Jesus’ founder.”
On the other hand are the criticisms made by U.S. Jesuits. Their opinion of Jobs is the complete opposite to Fr. Spadaro’s. Through their “America” magazine, they contest Jobs’ “consumer legacy”, pointing out that Jobs’ technological gems are assembled in China, in plants that look like “prison camps, where child labour, epidemics and suicides are rife.”
Continue reading Vatican Insider’s: Jesuits divided over Steve Jobs
Image: Vatican Insider
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