When I was at Loyola (now Loyola Marymount) there was a controversy around this issue due to a diatribe in a magazine (Ramparts, maybe) against the Jesuits and longing for the attitude of Cardinal Newman. English Professor Dr. Frank Sullivan wrote a wonderful essay in response asking where the Cardinal was teaching these days. The essay included this memorable sentence: "When the history is written of puppy dogs who lifted a leg to the pyramids hoping to wash them away, let there be a special chapter to those who raised their fountain pens against the army of Ignatius."
We had radical interesting Jesuits as well as a couple of alcoholics and a drone or two. Pretty much a cross section of anywhere I've been. The good ones were great at logic and dissembling the corrupt mass media. Dan, Loyola '65 Sent from my iPhone On Feb 20, 2012, at 6:48 PM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > Eugene Coyle wrote: >> Yes, the Jesuits then in Latin America. But in North America they are as >> conservative as Bush. > > In my experience with US Jesuits (and there used to be a lot of them > at work), they have a variety of opinions. One I know (a friend) is > basically a Marxist. Officially, they put a big emphasis on the > "preferential option for the poor,"[*] with isn't like Dubya at all. > Of course, some of them ignore that. > > The Jesuits started as the Pope's army, but in my encounters with them > they are more like the Pope's think tank. > > [*] from the Wikipedia: >> According to said doctrine, through one's words, prayers and deeds one must >> show solidarity with, and compassion for, the poor. Therefore, when >> instituting public policy one must always keep the "preferential option for >> the poor" at the forefront of one's mind. Accordingly, this doctrine implies >> that the moral test of any society is "how it treats its most vulnerable >> members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the >> nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how >> they affect the poor." > >> Pope Benedict XVI has taught that “love for widows and orphans, prisoners, >> and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential as the ministry of the >> sacraments and preaching of the Gospel.” This preferential option for the >> poor and vulnerable includes all who are marginalized in society, including >> unborn children [natch!], persons with disabilities, the elderly and >> terminally ill, and victims of injustice and oppression.< > -- > Jim Devine / "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to > be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But > in poetry, it's the exact opposite." -- Paul Dirac > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
