Nicaragua's government declared Pope Francis's Society of Jesus (Jesuit) order illegal on Wednesday.

All the Jesuits' property and assets were confiscated. The government claims that's because the Jesuits had failed to comply with tax laws.

On Wednesday, the San Salvador-based Jesuit Province of Central America which oversees the Jesuit order in Nicaragua decried the expulsion.

The Nicaraguan decree "cancelled the [Jesuits] legal status" and allowed the government to seize the Jesuits' "immovable and movable property," they announced.

The decision was made "without evidence that the administrative procedures established by law had been carried out."

Nor did the decree allow "the opportunity for a legitimate defence on the part of the Jesuits and without an impartial body that judges and stops these totally unjustified and arbitrary abuses of authority."

Crimes against humanity

The Jesuits say that the decree is a fresh act of "aggression" against the Society of Jesus.

It is "framed in a national context of systematic repression classified as ‘crimes against humanity' by the group of experts on Human Rights in Nicaragua formed by the United Nations.

The government's actions are aimed at "the full establishment of a totalitarian regime" the Jesuits say.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua's Vice President, have failed to "at least being honest with these facts."

The Jesuits say the president and vice president are responsible for impeding an independent and neutral judiciary, which would allow it "to take measures to stop, reverse and sanction" the unjust actions that have been taken.

Their statement calls on the couple to "cease the repression" and seek "a rational solution in which truth, dialogue, justice, respect for human rights and for the rule of law prevail."

It also asks the Ortega government to respect the "freedom and total integrity" of the Jesuits and their collaborators.

Thousands of Nicaraguan victims are "waiting for justice and the repair of the damage that the current Nicaraguan government is causing," the Jesuits say.

At least 26 universities have been closed and their assets seized by the government since December 2021. The most recent occurred two weeks ago.

Catholic tension

Tensions with the Catholic Church in the country have escalated.

Diplomatic relations with the Vatican were severed in April when Nicaragua ousted the Vatican's envoy. The Holy See subsequently formally closed its embassy.

Last year, two orders of nuns were expelled.

In August 2022, Nicaraguan authorities arrested Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was among the Church's most outspoken critics of the Ortega regime.

He was charged with treason and sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Nicaragua has also outlawed or closed over 3,000 civic groups and NGOs including the Red Cross.

Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled since the regime's violent crackdown on the 2018 protests.

Defiant thanks

The Jesuits say they're grateful for the many expressions of support and solidarity they have received "in the face of these growing outrages."

Source

• Crux Now

"How do we best engage with young people?" he was asked.

"For me the key word is testimony," Francis responded.

"Without testimony, without witnessing, nothing can be done.

"You end up like that beautiful song by Mina: 'parole, parole, parole…' (words, words, words). Without testimony nothing happens. And testimony means consistency of life."

It isn't relevant whether a young person is in formation to become a Jesuit or if they're looking for other vocations, Francis said. He offered the following advice.

"Speak clearly!"

Francis commented that it used to be said a good Jesuit had to think clearly and speak obscurely.

"But with young people that does not work: you have to speak clearly, show them consistency. Young people have a nose for when there is no consistency.

"With young people in formation you have to speak as to adults, as you speak to grown ups, not children. And introduce them to spiritual experience; prepare them for the great spiritual experience that is the Exercises.

"Young people do not tolerate double-speak, that is clear to me. But being clear does not mean being aggressive. Clarity must always be combined with amiability, fraternity, fatherhood."

Francis went on to say: "The key word is 'authenticity'. Let young people say what they feel.

"For me, dialogue between a young person and an older person is important: talking, discussing.

"I expect authenticity, that people speak of things as they are: difficulties, sins.

"As a formation facilitator you have to teach young people consistency.

"And it is important for the young to dialogue with the old. The old people cannot be in the infirmary alone; they have to be in community, so that exchanges between them and young people are possible."

Francis then turned to the Old Testament, reminding his audience of the prophet Joel.

Joel said "...the old will have dreams and the young will be prophets. The prophecy of a young person is one that comes from a tender relationship with the old.'

Francis continued: "Tenderness is one of God's key words: closeness, compassion and tenderness. On this path we will never go wrong. This is God's style."

Source

• La Civitta Cattollica

The heading for an article by Vatican commentator Sandro Magister described the move as an "earthquake".

As of April 14, rector Fr James McCann and the deans of the faculties of ecclesiastical sciences and Eastern canon law, Philippe Luisier and Michael Kuchera, all Jesuits, were removed.

The interim pro-rector was named as Fr Samir Khalil, 77.

The order from the superior-general of the Jesuits was put up at the institute for a day, but was then removed.

According to Magister, the superior-general denounced the "uncharitable" spirit that has split the teaching community, with grave harm to the institute's mission.

In recent months, Magister continued, some deans and professors had asked for the removal of Fr McCann, who is American, and who had been rector since 2010.

The Jesuits sent an inspector to the institute.

Tensions had been evident four years ago, according to Magister, as shown in a speech by Stefano Parenti, a professor of oriental liturgies at the Pontifical Atheneum of St Anselm in Rome.

"Unlike today, at the end of the 1980s, the Pontifical Oriental Institute was a place of excellence for the study of oriental liturgies and of the Byzantine liturgy in particular," the professor said.

He also critiqued the precariousness of many contracts and what he described as the unusual ways of recruiting and promoting academic staff.

Magister wrote that subjects today are entrusted to "a ragtag group of professors on temporary leave from other universities, who are reduced to doing in a few weeks what should last a whole semester".

And last year, one of the institute's vice-rectors, Costantin Simon, left the Jesuits and was ordained as a Russian Orthodox priest.

To add to the institute's problems, one of its professors, Fr Lanfranco Rossi, was found dead in a rural area outside Rome last week.

According to police reports, the priest, who also taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University, suffered several blows to the head and had been strangled.

The institute has about 400 students from 48 countries.

Sources

• L'Espresso
• Catholic News Service
• Catholic Herald
• Image: CNEWA

Br Guy Consolmagno was given the award by The American Astronomical Society's (AAS) Division for Planetary Sciences.

The AAS praised Br Consolmagno for becoming "the voice of the juxtaposition of planetary science and astronomy with Christian belief".

It also praised him as a "rational spokesperson who can convey exceptionally well how religion and science can co-exist for believers".

Br Consolmagno is known for his media work, including his BBC radio show "A Brief History of the End of Everything".

He believes that Catholic scientists should not hesitate to share their love of science with their communities.

"Show them that our religion does not tell us what 'facts' we can believe, but rather our religion gives us the reason why we go looking to try to understand those facts," he said.

Continue reading

Never before have there been so many Jesuit-educated men at the heart of Australian politics. The Liberal leader and Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and the Nationals' deputy leader and Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, were students at St Ignatius College, Riverview, in Sydney.

In addition, Treasurer Joe Hockey was educated at the Jesuits' other Sydney school, St Aloysius, Milson's Point, and the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, was a student at the Jesuits' Adelaide school, St Ignatius College, Athelstone.

Particularly in the case of Abbott, this predominance of Jesuit education is much commented on. Sometimes it seems to be just a throwaway line, a curiosity, while at other times it is used as code for Catholic.

But on some occasions it is used against him by those who think that he is failing to stand up for Jesuit ideals and/or the example set by Pope Francis' on matters such as asylum-seeker policy. They call on him to return to his education roots. In all these cases the Jesuit references are greatly overdone.

The rise of Jesuit-educated politicians in Australia is a remarkable conjunction in political leadership: a situation so rare that it may even be a first in the Western world. The Jesuits educate a lot of students in Australia but there has been only one other precedent that I know of at the state level. Former NSW Liberal premier Nick Greiner is also an old boy of St Ignatius, Riverview.

The rise of students from these schools is not a fluke but a consequence of the history and sociology of Australian political parties, especially the Liberal and National parties.

In their case, since many Catholics left Labor in the split of the 1950s, it is a logical consequence of the growth of certain strands of Australian Catholicism in the conservative parties. The current crop won't be the last conservative leaders from the Catholic GPS system. Continue reading

Sources

• John Warhurst in The Age
• Image: The Australian
  

John Warhurst is an emeritus professor of political science at the Australian National University. He was educated by the Jesuits in Adelaide.

Congratulations to Antonio, my former colleagues at America, and the 14 other Jesuit publications for this extraordinary exclusive.

That all of these Jesuits could keep such a coup secret until publication almost makes me believe in Jesuit conspiracy theories.

In the interview, Pope Francis speaks from his heart as one Jesuit to another. While reading the interview, I felt like I was in a Jesuit living room having a conversation with a brother.

The interview demands careful reading and reflection, but let me share with you my first reactions.

In the interview, Pope Francis explains why he was labeled a conservative by many Jesuits in Latin America. He confesses it was his own fault.

In my experience as superior in the Society, to be honest ... I did not always do the necessary consultation. And this was not a good thing. My style of government as a Jesuit at the beginning had many faults. That was a difficult time for the Society: an entire generation of Jesuits had disappeared. Because of this I found myself provincial when I was still very young. I was only 36 years old. That was crazy. I had to deal with difficult situations, and I made my decisions abruptly and by myself.

My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I lived a time of great interior crisis when I was in Cordova. To be sure, I have never been like Blessed Imelda [a goody-goody], but I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems. Continue reading

Sources

• Thomas Reese in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Marge Fenelon

Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese is a senior analyst for NCR.

Ignatius was also in touch with the parts of himself that were incomplete, thirsting for, hungry for, longing for a deeper relationship with God and with others. He has been known to have wept at the very celebration of Eucharist because he feels so deeply.

A friend of mine told me he carries an empty plastic container for facial tissues in his pocket to remind himself that his work as a chaplain does not involve wiping away tears, but to allow others to cry and express themselves in a safe and sacred space. Read more

Sources

• Jocelyn A. Sideco in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Travco

Jocelyn A. Sideco is a founding member of Contemplatives in Action, an urban ministry and retreat experience.