This was the case in India and is still the case today.

While not directly involved in the environmental field, in recent years Jesuits have increasingly taken initiatives in what can be called environmental justice.

Promoting ecological awareness, reforestation, water purification measures, defence of tribal natural resources are some examples. Others have studied biodiversity or created botanical gardens.

One man of science who stands out among Indian Jesuits is Fr Savarimuthu Ignacimuthu (pictured).

He is primarily a biologist, but his scope is very broad, having published over 800 scientific papers and 80 books with two US and 12 Indian patents.

It is worth noting that a species of insect bears his name, Jacthrips ignacimuthui, as well as a natural molecule, Ignaciomycin.

He is one of the top one percent of scientists in the world based on the number of citations of his work by other scientists. We interviewed him.

Father Ignacimuthu, you are a man of science and a man of God; where do you find unity in your life?

The basic foundational experience of the Divine from my childhood and the awe and wonder I experience when I encounter nature have helped me integrate my spirituality of seeing God in all things and all things in God.

Recognition of God's presence in the created beings and things in the universe is the outcome of my union with God.

By means of created things, whether big or small, the divine confronts me, penetrates me and moulds me.

Thus, creation and spirituality converge upon the same view of the reality, that is, vision of God in the concrete world. In this way I experience the unity of being a man of science and a man of God.

What has your work as a biologist taught you?

The most important lesson I learnt from my work as a biologist was the understanding that everything and every life are inter-connected and inter-dependent in this world.

The orderly nature of the universe and the diversity of life forms on earth are very evident everywhere.

They constantly proclaim unity and relatedness.

The complexity of life and its perfect coordination are indeed stepping-stones for awe and wonder.

The mathematical principles that govern everything in this universe and the world are the foundation for this.

For example, the elegance and the organization of the DNA and RNA, their multiple consequences of the copying mechanisms and their implications in expressions are fascinating.

The extensive interaction of miniscule independent cells with one another and the formation of various organs that contribute to life's success are indeed the evidences for the relatedness of all.

My research outputs have contributed to the welfare of the poor in the following ways: Read more

• The Secretariat for Social Justice and Ecology (SJES) undertook this interview: [From "Jesuits 2024 - The Society of Jesus in the world"]

Experts in history, philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology and education came together at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University April 17-19.

They presented talks including: the effects of mass violence waged by colonial powers; the misuse of the memory of the Holocaust; sexual predation in the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages; and slave holding by Jesuits in the United States.

Jesuit slavers

Jesuit Father David Collins, a professor of history at Georgetown University, presented a case study of his order's work in the United States.

This described "large communities of descendants of those who were held in slavery by Jesuits to develop programs of redress, repair and racial healing."

Their work started because a building on the Georgetown campus was being remodeled and people thought it would be opportune to change the building's name, he told Catholic News Service April 18.

The building had been named after an early 19th-century Jesuit who had played a role in the sale of hundreds of slaves in 1838.

The university's president could have, "with a swipe of the pen," changed the name right then and there to "something wholesome and edifying," Father Collins said.

He said the president saw "that would be sort of erasing history, making it disappear,".

He instead decided to make the name change "an opportunity to bring this history to the university's attention" and get the wider community involved in the process.

This resulted in the 2015 creation of the working group on slavery, memory and reconciliation that Father Collins chaired.

The benefit of time

"How do good people become involved in bad things?

"How do good people have blindnesses that make them incapable of seeing something that we're seeing with a certain amount of clarity a hundred years later?

"Those are important things to preserve," Father Collins said.

Memorials, for example, are just "partial stories" that select and tell one side of an historical event, he said.

A city like Rome, he said, is "full of memorials that are about the exercise of power and for the good,".

However, "these very exercises of power have had their victims and have done their violence.

"We need to understand that better than we have" and "to add to the part of the story that is neglected, which is that it's come at a cost."

The abuse crisis

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and former director of its Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, spoke to CNS.

She said part of her work is "to think about saints as a way to … think about who we remember and why.

"This is also occurring in the backdrop of a conversation we're having in the United States" and elsewhere about "who do we honor and why through our memorials and monuments," she said.

Her talk to the conference, she said, wove together clerical sex abuse in the United States, "how this is impacting the saints we remember and the saints we're making and the saints we're not making, and how that is connected to public enshrinement."

One example of reinterpreting existing saints, she said, is looking at the life of St. Maria Goretti.

She died in 1902 at the age of 11 after she was stabbed by a 20-year-old for refusing his sexual advances and attempted rape.

"When I was growing up in a Catholic high school, the suggestion was that she was resisting temptation. She was being chaste," Sprows Cummings said. More to the point, "she was a child."

Today, the patron saint of chastity and purity is more often upheld as a patron saint of abused children and rape victims.

Furthermore, she said, "some dioceses call her the patron saint of safe environments for their training."

The abuse crisis has affected not only how people see saints from the past, but also future candidates, "perhaps saints who were whistleblowers or saints who did what they could," she said.

For example, she said, there is a change.org petition for the cause for canonistion of Sister Catherine Anne Cesnik, a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

She was found dead near a garbage dump in Baltimore in 1970. Her unsolved murder was featured in the Netflix documentary series, The Keepers.

"I don't think she's going to be canonised but the very fact that they're calling for it is indicative of a search for heroes," she said. Read more

Carol Glatz is a Senior Correspondent at Catholic News Service, Washington DC-Baltimore Area

Chocolate's acceptance in the Catholic diet was clearly less the result of what theologians or canon lawyers did or said than of the decisions of ordinary clergy and laity who drank it regardless, says Australian Catholic University academic Dr Miles Pattenden.

There are lessons in that for other things that the Church would have Catholics abstain from, he says.

Chocolate has a history but, for Catholics, it also has a theology.

Long and learned treatises were written about whether it was licit to consume it - and when, writes Pattenden in a piece on History Today.

The Church was initially uncomfortable with its adherents drinking chocolate because the drink had been used as part of Aztec religious rituals. The Aztecs regarded chocolate as a gift of the gods and associated it with the human heart, and many Maya and Mixtec images of human sacrificial victims show those victims as anthropomorphic cacao pods.

Such ideas and images hardly endeared chocolate to the first friars who crossed the Atlantic to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity.

Some wondered whether it could be appropriate for Christians to drink something so intimately associated with idolatry and ritual murder.

On the other hand, some priests thought the use of chocolate in rituals could be effectively converted along with its users, and in some American indigenous communities chocolate replaced wine.

Another problem created by chocolate was how it should be treated in relation to laws of fasting and luxury, and the question of whether fasting religious ought to be allowed to drink chocolate was a matter of debate.

For more than 100 years the debate continued - was chocolate food or drink? Did it break the spirit of the laws against luxuries even if it was not technically forbidden?

An Augustinian theologian came out in favour of chocolate as a fast-busting refreshment, while an Inquisition lawyer disagreed.

The Dominicans were at the forefront of the campaign to limit it and sent a representative to Rome in 1577 to seek Pope Gregory XIII's opinions on a beverage he had neither seen nor tasted.

But eventually, in 1664, it was the Jesuits who had developed commercial interests in cacao production and distribution, and who secured a 16-page opinion from Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio on the use of chocolate.

With the printing press now around 200 years old, the Jesuits immediately published the opinion, reprinting it at least four times in the next decade.

In the end, none of the Church's attempts to manage or restrict the consumption of chocolate was effective.

Canon lawyers' squabbles, the theological opinions and moral arguments all proved academic because chocolate consumption became so popular that the Church could do little to shape the behaviour of its faithful in the matter.

Heaven forbid it confused even the holy, with the Carmelites in Madrid seeking dispensation to drink chocolate behind the walls of their convent.

Pope Innocent refused the request and it was not until almost a century later that Pope Pius VI issued a definitive ruling that clerics could drink chocolate; albeit only away from Church premises.

Yet, by then, at least three 18th-century popes, Benedict XIII, Clement XII, and Benedict XIV, had been keen chocolate drinkers.

So while for a time the Church's attempts to manage or restrict the consumption of chocolate was effective, however, the processes surrounding its theological and canonical acceptance holds lessons for how the Church works in practice.

• The Church takes time to incorporate new things and ideas into its worldview.
• Those who set the Church's rules only have partial control over them.
• The acceptance of chocolate into the Catholic diet was less a result of theological and canonical opinions than it was of the decisions of ordinary clergy and laity who drank it.
• Despite all the moral and legal positioning, some popes have a broader view. It is said that when asked for permission to consume chocolate Pope Gregory burst into laughter at the absurdity of the request.

Pattenden suggests there are lessons in this for other things that the Church would have Catholics abstain from.

• Supplied: Dr Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the Australian Catholic University.
• History Today: The Theology of Chocolate.

The Jesuits are credited with systematizing the country's official language.

Since October, authorities in Da Nang have collected public opinions about a plan to name 137 streets in the southern central city by the end of this year.

Two streets in Hai Chau district are due to be named after Fathers Francisco de Pina (1585-1625) and Alexandre de Rhodes (1591-1660).

Da Nang officials said the two missionaries played significant roles in the formation of the present Vietnamese script.

"The founding of the modern Vietnamese romanized script has boosted Vietnamese culture incredibly. Their names were suggested by historians and cultural researchers," the city's department of culture and sports said.

However, in late October, 12 historians, professors and researchers petitioned Da Nang authorities not to name schools and streets after the Jesuits.

They said Father Rhodes did not create quoc ngu and accused him of using it for evangelisation, condemning the religions of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and hatching a plot to lead French troops to invade Vietnam.

Prof. Hoang Dung from the Pedagogical University in Ho Chi Minh City said most researchers agreed that quoc ngu was not a product of Father Rhodes, who amassed works from other people, but they appreciated his contributions to the national language's development, especially his trilingual dictionary.

Many intellectuals who supported the street-naming plan said the 12 petitioners misunderstood the meaning of the word "soldats" (soldiers) in Father Rhodes' work Divers Voyages et Missions published in 1653.

The supportive intellectuals also said the petitioners made groundless allegations that Father Rhodes was involved in the French invasion of Vietnam.

They said foreign missionaries and local Catholics made great contributions to taking Vietnam to the world and appreciating Western cultural values and are calling on Da Nang authorities to name streets after the priests to express the nation's gratitude to foreign missionaries who contributed to the creation of quoc ngu.

Portuguese Father de Pina, a pioneer in learning and researching Vietnamese after he arrived in southern Vietnam in 1617, romanized Vietnamese writing system and composed a Vietnamese grammar book.

He also used the native language to teach catechism to local people and wrote a catechism book.

French Father Rhodes, who arrived in Vietnam in 1625 and studied Vietnamese with Father de Pina, gathered quoc ngu works by other authors and published three books in Rome in 1651: a Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary, a Vietnamese grammar book and a catechism book.

His works marked the first time a Latin-alphabet Vietnamese writing system was presented in a categorized way. He was expelled from Vietnam in 1645.

Source

• ucanews.org Republished with permission

He often expresses his desire for greater formation in discernment - a concept that may seem obscure without an understanding its importance to the Pope's Jesuit formation.

"When a Jesuit says 'discernment,' they're employing a term that has a very rich spiritual tradition within the Society of Jesus, so you can presume a lot in that," Fr. Brian Reedy, SJ, told CNA in an interview.

Fr. Reedy is a US Navy Reserve chaplain and is pursuing a doctorate in philosophical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He holds a licentiate in theology from Boston College.

He explained that discernment is something St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, emphasized profoundly in his Spiritual Exercises, which form the "backbone" of Jesuit spirituality.

In fact, St. Ignatius twice in the spiritual exercises has an extended discourse on how to carry out discernment properly: what it means, what its limitations are, and the rules that govern it.

"One of the things that's very interesting about discernment is that while it does have a very polyvalent meaning, you can usually presume that when a Jesuit uses the term, when they launch it, it has these rules at least playing the background in their mind," Reedy said.

So when it comes to Jesuits and discernment, what are the governing rules, and how can we use them to understand Pope Francis?

Rules of Ignatian discernment

One of the first things to keep in mind when it comes to discernment is St. Ignatius' distinction between categories of people, Fr. Reedy said, explaining there are different rules for people take the faith seriously, and those who do not.

"If you are somebody who is living a life where God is not really on the scene and the teachings of the Church aren't really important you have one set of rules. But the reverse situation for somebody who does take their faith life very seriously and God is at least sought after … then we have a completely different set of rules," he said. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic News Agency article by Elise Harris
• Image: Catholic News World

He is the father of hypertext.

Stefano Lorenzetto, a journalist from L'Osservatore Romano, summarises Busa's work stating that "if you browse the internet, you owe it to him; if you go from one site to another by clicking the links marked in blue, you owe it to him. If you use your PC to write emails and text documents, you owe it to him." Read more

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Fr Cardenal was suspended from the priesthood after refusing to step down as education minister in the left-wing government, which he joined following the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979.

Fr Cardenal, a supporter of Liberation Theology, was expelled from the Jesuits.

But he stated he could not conceive of a God who would ask him to abandon his commitment to the people.

Fr Cardenal led a successful literacy campaign in Nicaragua.

He was eventually re-admitted to the Jesuits in 1996.

Continue reading

Fr Michael Garanzini, SJ, a former president of the university, said until Pope Francis opened up avenues of discussion, he didn't expect to see change in this area.

Fr Garanzini said the issue is likely to come up during the synod on the family in October, given the public statements of some bishops, notably in England.

"It's spurring the obvious point that one priest with a wife operates just as effectively or perhaps more effectively than the priest down the block," Fr Garanzini said.

"There will always be a role for celibate clergy and there will probably be an opening of ministry positions to a noncelibate or married clergy."

In an article on the Crain's Chicago Business website, he pointed to the Eastern church practice where priests can marry before ordination.

"I don't think it's a huge hurdle, but I think it will take some open thinking," Fr Garanzini said.

He said the discussion of priests marrying has come as a result, in part, of "the fallout of the priest sexual abuse problem".

"Some good things" have evolved since then, he said, "and one is this question of openness to a priest's physical and psychological health".

"The second is that the hierarchy, the leadership, that we have needs to be more open and transparent and admit problems and faults as they happen and that we're not above the law. Those two things are a direct result of the scandal."

Another result, he said, is lay Catholics speaking up more about the Church.

"Those are tremendous positives," Fr Garanzini said.

Sources

• Crain's Chicago Business
• Image: Loyola University Chicago

Its current form as a constituent college of the University of London will end in 2018.

But a statement following a governors' meeting noted that the Jesuit-run institution's "mission and work will not [end]".

Heythrop, which specialises in theology and philosophy, has been struggling with a budget shortfall following the rise in student fees and increasing administration costs.

Merger talks with St Mary's University in Twickenham did not reach a formal negotiating stage.

The college has about 650 students and employs 91 people, including 45 academic staff.

Continue reading

On "Pope Francis - The Sinner", Cardinal Raymond Burke says that since Pope Francis's election two years ago, "there really just is growing confusion about what the Church teaches".

When Cardinal Burke's term as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura came to an end, Pope Francis did not reappoint him.

Instead, Cardinal Burke was given a largely ceremonial role with the Order of Malta.

According to the Irish Times, the documentary will also feature former president of Ireland Mary McAleese saying that while she likes Pope Francis, she feels he just doesn't get women.

"There's a blind side here . . . that leaves good men . . . like Francis still carrying a residual element of misogyny that closes them off . . .," she says.

The Pope's Argentinean biographer Elisabetta Pique tells the programme "he was almost hated by some Jesuits . . ." there.

This is a view echoed by Fr Michael Petty who says "he provoked tremendous division" when he was (Jesuit) provincial in Argentina.

The former Superior General of the Dominicans Fr Timothy Radcliffe however believes that the Pope trusts in the Holy Spirit.

"A very important part of Pope Francis' spirituality is daring not to be in control," he said.

In an address earlier this month in England, Cardinal Burke said that last year's synod on the family, called by Pope Francis, was "confused and erroneous" in that it sought to condone contraception, gay relationships and "living in a public state of adultery".

Cardinal Burke said "confusion about the meaning of human sexuality" had led to breakdown of the family, corruption of children and "ultimately, self-destruction".

During the address, which ran to 25 pages but did not mention Pope Francis, he criticised the report that was issued at the midpoint of the synod, which advocated using more welcoming language around homosexuality.

Cardinal Burke called this report "a manifesto, a kind of incitement to a new approach to fundamental issues of human sexuality in the Church".

Sources

• The Irish Times
• The Tablet
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The grants were announced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Funding has come from the John Templeton Foundation, in an effort to bridge gaps between science and faith.

Catholic institutions to receive grants are the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara (Berkeley).

"Many (religious leaders) don't get a lot of science in their training and yet they become the authority figures that many people in society look up to for advice for all kinds of things, including issues related to science and technology," said Jennifer Wiseman, director of the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion.

The grants will cover faculty, events, science resources, guest speakers and other related costs.

Continue reading

Fr William Brennan, 94, died in a rest home in Wisconsin.

A Jesuit for 75 years and a priest for 63 years, he was a former missionary in Belize and make social justice his life's work.

Joining a November 2012 eucharistic liturgy celebrated by Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a woman ordained in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests movement, caused him to be sanctioned by the Jesuits and the Milwaukee archdiocese, where he lived.

His priestly faculties were suspended, and he was prohibited from leaving Milwaukee without permission and from appearing as a Jesuit at any public gathering, including protests and rallies.

He was also ordered not to contact the media "through phone, email, or any other means".

Fr Brennan later said he could not see why the issue of women priests should not be discussed.

Continue reading

The film will be based on "Silence" by Japanese author Shusako Endo.

It is based on the story of Tome Ferreira (1580-1650), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, who renounced the Christian faith under torture in order to save the group of Christians arrested with him.

His apostasy, however, had dire consequences when he was forced to cooperate in denouncing other Christians on Japanese territory.

Many secular and religious experts will be involved in Scorsese's epic, which will star such luminaries as Liam Neeson and Andrew Garfield (who starred in the latest Spiderman movies).

Scorsese directed the controversial "The Last Temptation of Christ" in the 1980s.

Continue reading

The frequently asked question is whether there is substance behind the style and if so, what does it look like?

Traces of what he draws on are there to behold - if you know what you're looking for - and offer clues to the direction in which he is leading the Church.

Pope Francis has made popular the image of the Church as a "field hospital", something deployed to bring healing to battle-scarred warriors.

Joys and hopes

But there's also an essential, if apparently little understood, connection to the mission of the Church as expressed in the opening words of Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World - Gaudium et Spes:

" The joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ." (GS, 1)

An all too familiar and contrary understanding of the Church and its mission has prevailed particularly in the last two decades and especially in the West: the fortress Church, the one locked behind its defenses and giving admission only to the pure, the elect and the approved.

In the gatherings of cardinals before he was elected, Cardinal Bergoglio was reported to have said that Catholicism has become altogether too "self-referential", a word he used to describe the situation of elitism and condescension, most particularly evident in one of his frequent objects of criticism as pope - careerist clericalism.

Self-referential used in the context of the Church easily translates to a more commonly used English term - self-absorbed.

A self-absorbed Church

This condition of self-absorption has had practical impacts throughout the world, vividly illustrated in the Church's handling of sex abuse cases. Done behind closed doors for fear of scandal, something even more scandalous was done to cover it up.

While Pope Francis has not distinguished himself yet on the subject of sex abuse and, on a couple of occasions, has shown himself to be in need of being brought up to speed on the subject, it will take too much of an imaginative leap for him to grasp the problem and authorize the relevant changes needed in the conduct of Church authorities on the issue.

Why? Because put positively, what Pope Francis is saying is that the Church gets its bearings not from its own internal fixed points but from where its vocation is to be found - where Vatican II in general but Gaudium et Spes in particular suggested it would: in its service to a world that is hungry, thirsty, bruised and in need.

St Peter Faber

One of the earliest actions of Francis as pope was to canonize a Jesuit, Peter Faber, to whom he has had a deep devotion over many years. It is in this gesture that we can see what is at work in his wider agenda.

Peter Faber was the first Jesuit priest. He was no remarkable theologian though he was a peritus at the council of Trent shortly before he died at the age of 40.

As described by the title of the best-known biography of him, Faber was "the quiet companion" whose major distinction was the accolade given him by the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola, as the best director of what Ignatius created - the 30 day retreat according to his Spiritual Exercises.

Faber was above all the pastor of souls who would go to the greatest lengths to bring comfort, reconciliation and encouragement to people, often travelling great distances on foot or by horseback to minister to those in need.

Here is Pope Francis' portrait of Peter Faber whom he canonized, one that could be considered an autobiographical reflection.

Dialogue with all

For Pope Francis, Faber was a man able to "dialogue with all, even the most remote and even with his opponents. He was a man of simple piety, a certain naiveté perhaps, someone able to be available straightaway, capable of careful interior discernment, a man capable of great and strong decisions but also capable of being so gentle and loving."

This irenic approach draws deeply on the contemplative vision proposed by St Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises and in fact echoes what he suggests as the first thing someone contemplatively attuned should do when caught in controversy or dispute - be prepared to consider one's opponent as well disposed and even to force oneself to see the plausibility of what the opponent is proposing.

This is essentially a mystical rather than dogmatic approach to accepting or communicating the faith, and it seems to have its basis in the writings of a little-known Jesuit philosopher Michel de Certeau, who died in 1986.

A 'mystical' future

For de Certeau, the Church of statutes and dogmas offered no path forward for Christian faith in a pluralistic, postmodern and secular world. The future for Christians, de Certeau believed, lay in the mystical. What did he mean by that?

For de Certeau, a mystic is one who understands that life is dynamic and that any achievement or destination reached is only a prelude to a further discovery.

Where Pope Francis takes this attitude, which is essentially a contemplative and searching one rather than a didactic and dogmatic one, will be significant for where his emphasis as pope will lie.

Pope Francis believes "the correct attitude is that of St Augustine: seek God to find him, and find God to keep searching for God forever".

To be a pilgrim

This view corresponds exactly with de Certeau's definition of a mystic. As with de Certeau, the pope's favourite metaphor for talking about encounters with God is travelling, or "walking" - something they both take from St Ignatius who always referred to himself as a pilgrim.

As Pope Francis puts it: "God is encountered walking, along the path. […] God is always a surprise, so you never know where and how you will find him."

Such an approach is anything but dogmatic and applies to more than the interior life, as expressed by Pope Francis during an interview published last year in America magazine.

"Human self-understanding changes with time and so also human consciousness deepens. Let us think of when slavery was accepted or the death penalty was allowed without any problem. The view of the Church's teaching as a monolith to defend without nuance or different understandings is wrong."

Being ready to receive what life experience throws up leads to another deep source which is already demonstrably part of the current pope's make-up - discernment, that daily practice of any Jesuit still in touch with what lay at the heart of the Order's Spiritual Exercises.

Making choices

But the purpose of choosing is to do something, to act. Choices are always difficult and decisions can be costly and wrong.

The discernment process the pope is most familiar with stresses the need to have as many of the facts as can be had before a decision is made.

That is where the Ignatian framework proposes attention to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and finally an act of faith in what may turn out to be right or wrong.

It is clear that Pope Francis wants action. Some things he has done quickly, like taking homosexuality off the table as a point of contest among Catholics and the quaint pageantry that passed for Catholic liturgy and ceremony at the Vatican.

Other matters of greater complexity need an inclusive process.

Access to the Eucharist for remarried divorcees, celibacy of the male clergy and the role of women in ministry in the Church are all issues that need to have substantial understanding and support before any effective and successful enactment can occur.

Only a process headed for decision that also patiently gathers people, gathers and shares the facts and viewpoints on them can take the Church beyond the paralysis that currently enfeebles it.

Michael Kelly SJ is executive director of ucanews.com

Source: UCAnews

Image: UCAnews

Censure has reportedly been threatened against Fr Michael Amaladoss, whose best-known book is "The Asian Jesus".

But the Jesuit provincial of Fr Amaladoss's Indian province said there had been no condemnation or censure.

Rather, there has been an ongoing dialogue that has lasted for two years, the provincial said.

The unique and essential role of Christ in salvation and approaches to interreligious dialogue are the issues in question.

The theologian reportedly believed that his initial responses to questions about his views on the uniqueness of Jesus and the Catholic Church had answered Vatican objections.

But in January, the CDF reportedly returned with a demand that Fr Amaladoss write an article publicly endorsing the Vatican's views or face silencing.

In early April, Fr Amaladoss met with Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller and other Roman officials.

According to an email to RNS reporter David Gibson from Fr Edward Mudavassery, who oversees the Jesuits in India, "[Fr Amaladoss] agreed to rework . . . those issues in the light of the dialogue".

"I understand it was an open and honest meeting trying to clarify objectionable issues," Fr Mudavassery wrote.

Pope Francis reportedly knows about the investigation, but does not seem overly concerned that it will end with Fr Amaladoss being punished, according to Jesuits familiar with the case, Gibson wrote.

Fr Mudavassery said he did not know of any restrictions placed on Fr Amaladoss.

But Fr Amaladoss has pulled out of all speaking and writing commitments as he tries to address the Vatican's concerns.

The theologian also cancelled a lecture at Union Theological Seminary in New York, scheduled for April 8, titled "Is Theology in India Really Different Than Theology in the West?"

The seminary's website stated: "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Vatican has forbidden Dr Amaladoss from speaking and publishing until a process of examining his thought has been successfully completed."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic News Service
• Image: UCA News

Jesus showed us that way throughout his whole life on earth, but this way becomes particularly clear and calls to us most profoundly in the events of Holy Week, not only by Jesus's words, however striking they are, but by his actions and what he suffered, beyond words.

Those events invite us to enter upon this way interiorly, through the words, actions and silences of the liturgy.

Through that liturgy we make a commitment of faith to know Jesus more clearly, as individuals, but also as pilgrims together.

We are drawn into ancient traditions of contemplating these events.

It is a way of humility in obedience and commitment to the Father

We begin with the Palm Sunday procession, to re-enact the journey of Jesus with his disciples and those who followed him from Bethany to Jerusalem (Mt 21:1-11).

We follow him as our king, but one riding on a donkey in humility and in obedience to the Father's word through the prophet Zechariah (Zec 9:9).

As we proceed into the Mass the readings prepare us to focus on this obedience.

From the Third Servant Song of Second Isaiah (Is 50:4-7), we hear that the Servant has been given,

‘a disciple's tongue...Each morning [the Lord] wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple.' Continue reading.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: cfcbchurch.com

Independence movements, environmental campaigns, investigative journalism, humanitarian missions to war zones. They all draw inspiration from sons and daughters who perished in the line of duty.

But this week's killing in Syria of a brave Dutch Jesuit priest, reported by our sister blog Pomegranate, seemed to generate yet another idea about self-sacrifice for a noble purpose.

"He is like a martyr for inter-religious dialogue," said his compatriot and fellow Jesuit, Jan Stuyt, in response to the awful news.

Now at first sight, that's a rather curious concept.

As a religion writer, I have experienced a lot of inter-religious dialogue. Especially in the aftermath of 9/11, every religious figure in the world, from popes and archbishops to grand muftis and rabbis, has been engaged in religious dialogue.

Sometimes they compare theological notes with one another, to see whether they differ and where they agree, and sometimes they discuss some neutral topic, like poverty and the environment.

These are worthy endeavours; they build up robust relationships which come into play when some terrible event, like a terrorist attack, threatens inter-religious peace.

But on the whole, the participants are in no danger of anything worse than jet lag or an overdose of caffeine. Continue reading.

Source: The Economist

Image: onbehalfofall.org

First, Ukraine was not a battleground where Russia and the West were hammering it out. Indeed, 99% of what was taking place on ‘the maidan', the central square in Kyiv, was based on issues internal to Ukraine.

Second, there was never the threat of civil war, as everyone living in Ukraine knew.

Unexpected developments seem to emerge on an almost-hourly basis, but in fact all the events are quite definable, the players well-known and the possibilities limited.

There are three separate moments in the current drama, each of which has its own dynamic.

The first and most important moment is the demonstration-turned-revolution on the maidan.

This protracted standoff between an honest, popular yearning and deceitful, corrupt government was understood from the outset as a spiritual, even apocalyptic, battle between good and evil. It was unimaginable without the youth and the Church.

The second follows the first and, while less dramatic, it is more complex: the creation of a style of government based on new values.

This work entails the definitive cleansing of the vestiges of Soviet-style governance and the establishment of what the West takes for granted: transparency, accountability, fair elections and basic justice.

The maidan now exercises a role of civic stewardship until such governance is in place.

The third moment is the illegal intervention of President Putin in Crimea, which is less an act of aggression than an act of fear.

It is not related to the maidan except as an opportunistic exploitation of it. Continue reading.

David Nazar SJ is Superior of the Jesuits in Ukraine.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: The Guardian

But here in Syria, where St Paul found his faith, many churches stand empty, targets for bombardment and desecration.

Aleppo, where I have been bishop for 25 years, is devastated.

We have become accustomed to the daily dose of death and destruction, but living in such uncertainty and fear exhausts the body and the mind.

We hear the thunder of bombs and the rattle of gunfire, but we don't always know what is happening.

It's hard to describe how chaotic, terrifying and psychologically difficult it is when you have no idea what will happen next, or where the next rocket will fall.

Many Christians cope with the tension by being fatalistic: that whatever happens is God's will.

Until the war began, Syria was one of the last remaining strongholds for Christianity in the Middle East. We have 45 churches in Aleppo.

But now our faith is under mortal threat, in danger of being driven into extinction, the same pattern we have seen in neighbouring Iraq.

Most Christians who could afford to leave Aleppo have already fled for Lebanon, so as to find schools for their children.

Those who remain are mostly from poor families. Many can no longer put food on the table.

Last year, even amid intense fighting, you could see people in the streets running around endlessly trying to find bread in one of the shops. Continue reading.

Bishop Antoine Audo SJ is the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo and president of Caritas Syria.

Source: The Telegraph

Image: Caritas