Wlodimir Ledochowski's Afterglow 3 Pedro Arrupe

27th Jesuit Superior General Pedro Arrupe
and 3rd Polish Pope of the 20th Century:
Karol Wojtyla Back and to the Right

There seemed, indeed, during those years of Ledochowski, Pius XI, and Pius XII, no real limit to what both Jesuitism and overall Roman Catholicism could achieve. Even – especially, we should say – in the afterglow of Ledochowski’s long reign and into the Generalate of his successor, Belgian Jean-Baptise Janssens, the magic power of the momentum seemed to continue.

Pedro Arrupe; born November 14, 1907
28th Jesuit Superior General 1965-1983

Karol Jozef Wojtyla; born May 8, 1920
'Pope John Paul 2': October 16, 1978 - April 2, 2005

The Jesuit Order’s post WW2 spin – of not being ‘right’ wing against ‘godless communism’ but rather ‘left’ wing for ‘social justice’ --.through Janssens’ 18 year Generalate, continued after his brain hemorrhage induced October 5, 1964 death via the also 18 year Generalate of his successor Pedro Arrupe, born November 7, 1907, from 1965 until his debilitating August 7, 1981 stroke less then 3 months after the unsuccessful assassination attempt on John Paul 2, who had become Pope after the mere 33 day Papacy of his predecessor John Paul 1:

Arrupe was:

- was a missionary in Japan during WW2 (connection with Kolbe?);

- was appointed Jesuit Superior and Master of Novices in Japan, 1942

- was living in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was exploded in August 1945.

Arrupe’s Generalate occurs with the rise of the organized ‘left’ anti-war movement about the war in Vietnam during the later 1960s and well into the 1970s when it was becoming more and more popular to consider oneself “left”, with Arupe himself was involved with Jesuit activities in Central America ostensibly on behalf of the poor.

John Paul 2’s papacy, extending some 26 1/2 years from October 16, 1978 to his April 2, 2005 death, starts at about the same time when economic and later terrorist troubles went against incumbent figures as ‘left’ U.S. President Jimmy Carter as being weak, leading to the rise of ‘right’ Ronald Reagan in the U.S. and Margaret Thatcher in the U.K, along with the rise of activities opposing the Soviet propped communist regime in Poland.

On May 13, 1981, less then 3 months before Arrupe’s devastating stroke, Wojtyla would survive an assassination attempt, which according to reformation.org was ordered by Arrupe.

Wojtyla – JPII went on to see the fall of the USSR controlled communist regimes and the publication of this sort of cover on Time Magazine, continue as Pope until 2005:

http://www.thecomingcrisisinamerica.com/ha.html

Rome’s 3rd 20^th century Polish Pope, continuing along a succession of successively more Polish figures, was JP 2, born Karol Jozef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920 who died on April 2, 2005.

Woytyla was the 3^rd 20^th Century Polish Pope. The others were:

Wlodimir Ledochowski, who was apparently ½ Polish via his father Anton Ledochowski (1835-1885) , and ½ Swiss-Austrian (apparently ethnic German) via his mother Josephine Zizers who was born in eastern Switzerland.

Pius X, who was ¼ Polish, who would die just hours after the death of the Jesuit Order Super General Franz Wernz, a German, on August 19-20, 1914

Jesuit GC 35: Stressing Obedience via Being Brain Dead

As the brain is part of the human body...
this helps explain the success
in obtaining obedience by such persons as Wlodimir Ledochowski

Perinde ac Cadaver

February 21, 2008, 8:07 pm

Posted by Robert P. Imbelli

A few weeks back there was a discussion on dotCom of the words of St. Ignatius in the “Constitutions of the Society of Jesus” to the effect that one under obedience should allow himself to be directed “as if he were a lifeless body:” perinde ac cadaver.

One of the blogs on the official website of the 35th General Convention reports this reading of the phrase (cited by the Pope in his letter to Father Kolvenbach) from a member of the General congregation:

there was a discussion about a point in the letter of Pope Benedict XVI to Fr. Kolvenbach at the start of GC35 where the Pope reminds us about St. Ignatius wanting our obedience to be perinde ac cadaver, “like a dead body”. Here is part of an interesting post about this:
“ In the process of obeying a superior… there is the key moment where I choose to obey in accordance with my vow. At that moment I am passive, in a stance of abandoning myself and putting myself at the disposal of the superior, implementing the “take, receive” of the ad amorem. This moment in some ways is akin to the moment when I receive a consolation without cause or an impulse of grace over which I have no control. However prior to that moment there is the full activity of my preparation for the moment of obedience: my discernment, my consultation of others, my dialogue with my superior, perhaps even my representation. And following that moment there is the lengthy process of implementation where I fully engage all my strength in doing what I am asked to do as a Jesuit apostle. The “perinde ac cadaver” moment is the still point at the centre of my activity as a Jesuit, the point which focuses it and energizes it…”

Interesting too that the Pope in his address to the Jesuits at today’s audience ends with the prayer from the Spiritual Exercises to which the above comment refers:

Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will — all that I have and possess. You, Lord, have given all to me. Now I give it back to you, o Lord. Dispose of it according to your will. Give me your love and your grace, for that is enough for me.

But before reciting the prayer, Pope Benedict confesses:

mi unisco a voi nella preghiera insegnataci da Sant’Ignazio al termine degli Esercizi – preghiera che sempre mi appare troppo grande, al punto che quasi non oso dirla e che, tuttavia, dovremmo sempre di nuovo riproporci

I join with you in the prayer taught us by Saint Ignatius at the close of his Exercises — a prayer which I always find almost overwhelming, to the point where I almost dare not say it … yet which we must always appropriate anew.

(Permalink)
No Comments »

Adolfo Nicolas, S.J.: Name-Dated as a Child of the 1930s

From Catholic World News

backs to the future

Posted by: Diogenes - Jan. 22, 2008 9:12 AM ET USA

The name "Adolf" says nothing about his politics, but it dates him as a child of the 1930s -- born before the war that made the name unbestowable. The Jesuits' choice of 71-year-old Adolfo Nicolás as their Superior General is a conscious return to the past -- ironically (yet markedly) more so than was the cardinals' choice of 79-year-old Joseph Ratzinger as Pope in the 2005 conclave.

In terms of his theology, the Spanish-born Jesuit came of age in the early 1970s, but his academic pursuits, unlike Ratzinger's, gave way to work in formation and administration, and the theological jargon of the 1970s remains audible in those of Nicolás's homilies and interviews available on the Web.

Bouncing around the blogs and the GC-35 website, I'm struck by how often the Jesuit electors mention former General Pedro Arrupe (1965-1983) in congratulating themselves on the election of Nicolás. The symbolic connection was clearly important to them: both Arrupe and Nicolás came from Spain and both had worked extensively in Japan. But the world has changed since Arrupe was elected in 1965, and it's odd that Jesuits think Arrupe's abilities would answer to today's problems. Yet, just as many lay Boomers are drawn to "reunion concerts" given by pop musicians whose heyday was in the 1960s and 1970s, by their own account the Jesuit electors were moved by a sentimental attachment to the bygone Arrupe years in their emblematic choice of a General. In fact Nicolás seems to have been summoned to do an Arrupe Nostalgia Tour.

This is not to say that Fr. Nicolás will be disposed to play the role sentiment has projected upon him. He may have his own ideas about his generalship. He is described as a progressive and a man who believes Roman Catholics have "much to learn from Asia," but this tells us almost nothing. His Asian experience includes the Philippines, which is a "developing" country with robust Catholicism and a robust birthrate, and it includes as well Japan, which exhibits all the ills of prosperous secularism and is locked into a demographic death spiral scarcely less dramatic than the Jesuits' own. So what do we Catholics need to learn, and which Asians will be commissioned to teach us? Will the Filipino culture of life be held up for our emulation, or will we be coached in the Japanese art of decorous suicide? One suspects that, as often, the wisdom of the orient will be tailored by what our fellow Westerners are keen to thrust upon us.

As an institution, the Society of Jesus is confronting problems that are more "Japanese" in scope than "Filipino." A photo of a Mass celebrated by the electors last Friday provides an emblematic illustration of the order's bewilderment: we see a single vested celebrant at the altar, with all the other priests scattered in the pews, not concelebrating but garbed as laymen in corduroy and cardigans. Hesitations about the purpose and the value of priesthood, along with uncertainty about the connection of the priesthood to the person of Christ, have contributed to the fuzzy sense of Jesuit identity and that eerie feel of detachment from the Church to which both Cardinal Rodé and Pope Benedict alluded in their communications to the delegates. It seems unlikely that a septuagenarian Arrupe Impersonator would be able to confront the real difficulties. It remains to be seen whether Nicolás will abide by the script or will be his own man.

Pedro Arrupe
Jesuit Superior General (1965-1983)

The Jesuit electors often do refer to Arrupe, much due to the facts that both were Spaniards, who spent significant time in Japan.

Given this article's ironic note of his first name, Adolfo, which was essentially the first name of the 3rd Reich Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, (and asides from the question of whether this name choice reflected the politics of his parents) might it be saying that Adolfo Nicolas may share significant qualities with that period's Jesuit Superior General, Wlodimir (Vladimir) Ledochowski?

Wlodimir Ledochowski
Jesuit Superior General (1915-1942)

More from Catholic World News:

The new "Black Pope" promises more Jesuit turmoil

by Phil Lawler

Rome, Jan. 21, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Since Saturday, when Father Adolfo Nicolas was elected by the 35th general congregation of the Society of Jesus, journalists have been describing the new Jesuit superior general as "Arrupe-esque" and "hard to classify." He may be one or the other, but he can't be both. If he is indeed "Arrupe-esque"-- and I suspect he is-- Father Nicolas is not at all difficult to classify.

Father Pedro Arrupe, the superior general 1965 to 1983, presided over a dramatic transformation of the Jesuit order. Don't take my word for it; consider the judgment of Time magazine, which recalls that Arrupe's leadership "saw the rise of radical Jesuit participation in politics, from the anti-war movement in the US in the 1960s to the liberation theology that swept Latin America."

Photos from the 35th General Congregation
taken by Fr. Don Doll, S.J. - Creighton University
Magis Productions

Adolfo Nicolas, S.J. Looks Back At Pedro Arrupe

Adolfo Nicolas
30th Superior General of the Jesuit Order

http://www.amdg.ie/2008/01/19/eight-encounters-with-arrupe-2/

In this warm tribute to Pedro Arrupe for his centenary celebrations, the new Jesuit Father General, Father Adolfo Nicolás, looks back on his various encounters with his predecessor, whom he always saw to be a “man on fire”.

MADRID 1952

The first time I saw Don Pedro, I did not really meet him. It was in Madrid, in late 1952 or early 1953. I was 17, in my last year of high school. I had already decided to become a Jesuit. Pedro Arrupe gave a lecture on Hiroshima and the atomic bomb. It was mostly about his experience. The special auditorium was so packed that I had to sit somewhere on a stairway. Arrupe was the great missionary, a national hero, a man on fire.

JAPAN 1961

In 1961, I was already in Japan, and would have him as Provincial for almost four more years. When he spoke to Scholastics he was still on fire. He tried hard to protect us against the dangers of Japan at the time, and tried even harder to build the Japanese Province.

This kept him often away from Japan. He had to raise funds and recruit Jesuits from all over the world. Although he did this with great success, it kept him away from us, except at visitation time. I was his personal barber at those times - so little to cut, but so much to listen to. He was a warm person and a great conversationalist.

Those four years were not his best. He was great at trusting his men but poor at choosing them. His long absences from the Province proved less than helpful. The Superiors he left in place and fully trusted did not have his style. So the Province had its share of uneasiness and anxiety.

ROME 1970

By 1970, he was already General. I was struggling through a doctoral thesis at the Collegio Bellarmino. The General traditionally spoke each year to the doctoral candidates. The first 30 minutes were the talk of a visionary. Magnificent and inspired: the signs of the times, the Post-Vatican Church, the challenges of an emerging new world.

The second half of the talk was anti-climatic: he felt that he had to justify theologically what he had presented to us, but he could not.

As with Ignatius, vision and intuition went ahead of theology, thank God. After all, he had himself studied theology in the 1930s.

HONG KONG 1972

In 1972 Colloquium II brought together to Hong Kong 28 ‘promising’ young Jesuits from East and West to look at the future of the Society. It did not work like that, but it did bring good fruits. Arrupe parachuted into the experience and stayed with us for three days. Japan had changed him, so that he wanted the East to have an impact on the rest of the Society. He shared with us his concerns and, once again, he expressed very clearly his Ignatian heart and his passion for the Jesuit vocation and life. In his key address to us, he spoke of Obedience and stated emphatically: “If there is no Obedience, we will have chaos in the Society.”

In his enthusiasm he pronounced chaos in the Spanish way, which in English sounds very much like cows. You can imagine the confusion of the English-speakers among us. During the break they were all asking: ‘Where did those cows come from?’

PENINSULAR MALAYSIA 1980

At the 1980 meeting of the Major Superiors, the high point was the celebration of the Eucharist in the Church of Francis Xavier in Malacca. The stage was perfect, a roofless and dilapidated church with a dilapidated empty space where the body of Francis Xavier had lain, and from where it had been stolen (or so the story goes). Arrupe had gone through the years after General Congregation 32, with the misunderstandings and distrust with the Holy See they had brought. It had been rough sailing. In his homily he focused on the last months of Francis Xavier, on his experience of abandonment, failure and loneliness on Shangchuan Island. Francis was going nowhere. He experienced in his body the mystery of the Cross.

This homily gave us all a glimpse of Francis’ heart. It also took us into the Ignatian Spirituality that we had earlier seen and now saw incarnated in Don Pedro. It was also a prophetic anticipation of what was to come.

PHILIPPINES 1981

When he visited the East Asian Pastoral Institute, he charmed the staff and participants who had the privilege of listening to him. The fire was still all there, as were his openness and imaginative vision of Evangelisation. I walked with him for a few moments during one of the very few breaks in his visit to the Philippines. It was in Angono. He shared his concern for the Society, which he summed up in his last letter on love. This was his last word. He was ready to go. The next day he flew to Bangkok, and from Bangkok to the infirmary.

ROME 1984

I visited him in Rome three years later. I could see Francis Xavier on the shore looking at China. Don Pedro was still burning, eager to communicate, to inspire, to encourage, to continue his mission in each one of us. His warmth came through in spite of his inability to speak, his frustration at being in chains, the pain of the moment.

ROME 1987

I saw Don Pedro for the last time in 1987 during a Congregation of Procurators. We could not speak with him. His light was going away, although it took still another four years to dim completely. We could only witness his passion, passed in quiet, in prayer and in thanksgiving. We were seeing the end of a life of total consistency, of great love, of a dedication that knew nothing of conditions and reservations.

After the last visit that I heard this story. An old Japanese man who had received instruction and Baptism from a younger Fr Arrupe was sharing his memories: ‘I asked to be baptised, not because he was a good catechist; not because I understood what he said (in fact I understood close to nothing); not because he tried to pull me in…but because of the goodness of the person.

“If Christianity”, I told myself, “can produce such quality in a person, it will be good for me too”.’

Adolfo Nicolás SJ

Photos from the 35th General Congregation
taken by Fr. Don Doll, S.J. - Creighton University
Magis Productions

Jesuit Order to Elect New "Black Pope"

The Counter Reformation Continues ...

From Time Magazine

(excerpt)

Like the Cardinal electors in a papal conclave, the Jesuit delegates will be considering candidates' prayerfulness, leadership and organizational capacity, language skills and geography. Some wonder if the Jesuits may elect their first ever leader from Asia, with Father Lisbert D'Sousa of India mentioned. Australian Father Mark Raper, former head of the Jesuit Refugee Service, is also among those on insiders' lists, as is Italian Father Federico Lombardi, the current papal spokesman and longtime head of Vatican radio and television channels. [*]

New Jersey-born, Rome-based Jesuit, Father Keith Pecklers, says the ideal successor "will be a combination of the two" most recent superior generals. "We need someone with Arrupe's prophetic vision and courage but also it's absolutely key the leader will be someone with the diplomatic skills Kolvenbach has to maintain close ties with Holy See."

Kolvenbach and Arrupe

Peter Hans Kolvenbach was elected as Superior General of the Jesuit Order September 13, 1983. He succeeded Pedro Arrupe, who was elected to that position in 1965. Arrupe succeeded Jean Baptise Janssens, who was so elected September 15, 1946, succeeding Wlodimir Ledochowski who was so elected February 11, 1915.

[*] The name Mark Raper appears in an early 2006 Jesuit source regarding candidates to succeed Peter Hans Kolvenbach.

Election of the new Superior General of the Jesuits for 2008, names unveiled of frontrunners for the succession

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=5920

Rome, Feb 6, 2006 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The General Assembly of Jesuits will meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on April 22. In the letter convening the 35th General Congregation for the year 2008, the Superior General Fr. Hans Kolvenbach announced his wish to retire. A new Superior General will therefore be elected in January 2008.

A high ranked Jesuit spoke to CNA on condition of anonymity, and gave us the names and profiles of possible frontrunners for the election of the successor of Peter Hans Kolvenbach.

P. Franco Imoda, S.J., former Rector of the Gregorian University. He is an Italian
psychiatrist. He is well known in the Vatican, and would represent the Italian Jesuits and the educational sector of the Company.

Fr. José Morales Orozco, S.J, current rector at the Iberoamerican university of Mexico. Former provincial of Mexico, and advisor to Kolvenbach for formation. He knows well the Company worldwide and is well appreciated internationally. He would represent Latin-America as well the Faith and Justice and educational sectors of the Company.

Fr. Elias Royon Lara, S.J, current provincial for Spain for the second time. He was also master of novices, rector in Philosophy and provincial of Toledo, vice-rector of the University of Comillas in Spain, advisor to Fr. Kolvenbach for Italy, Spain and Portugal and co-president of the Conference of Religious people in Spain. Well known and respected by the Spanish bishops and the Vatican. He is older than the others, but it might work in his favor if the election is controversial and a compromise candidate is sought.

Fr. Mark Raper, S.J, current provincial of Australia. Former director of the Jesuit Refugee Service. He knows Rome and is well known there. He would represent the movement of Faith and Justice in the Company.