Jesuits and the Barque of Peter

My good friend Fr. Finigan, aka His Hermeneuticalness, has a doozy of a post today about admirable Jesuits, on this the feast of their founder, St. Ignatius.  HERE

He names some great Jesuits, many of whom I know and one of whom was also one of my profs at the Augustinianum.  I studied St. Hillary of Poitier with him.  As a matter of fact, Fr. Giles Peland – may he rest in peace – provided us with knock-out argument and quote against the dreadful proposals of Card. Kasper and Company.  HERE  As a matter of fact, it also applies to the quixotic suggestion that women should be ordained as deacons.

Father also mentions Fr. Paul Mankowski, one of the contributors to the extremely important book  Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church (US HERE – UK link HERE – published by Ignatius Press founded by Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio).

Finigan also quotes from Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum of Pius VII, by which document that Pope restored the Society of Jesus in 1814.  To wit:

“We would believe ourselves guilty of a great crime in the presence of God, if, in these so grave necessities of the public interest, We were to neglect to put to work those salutary helps which God, with singular providence has provided Us, and if We, placed in the bark of Peter, tossed and buffeted by continual storms, were to reject the expert and valorous rowers who offer to break the waves of a sea which at every moment threatens Us with shipwreck and ruin.

For the text (Latin and English), HERE

If you want the Latin of that quote, above, get a load of this!

Gravissimi enim criminis in conspectu Dei reos Nos esse crederemus, si in tantis reipublicae necessitatibus ea salutaria auxilia adhibere negligeremus, quae singulari Providentia Deus Nobis suppeditat, et si Nos in Petri navicula assiduis turbinibus agitata et concussa collocati, expertos et validos qui sese Nobis offerunt remiges, ad frangendos pelagi naufragium Nobis et exitium quovis momento minitantis fluctus, respueremus.

Wow.  Those guys could really write.

Fr. Finigan observes:

This reminds me of the recent message of Pope Benedict for the funeral of Cardinal Meisner who, the Emeritus Holy Father said, had “learned to let go and live increasingly from the conviction that the Lord does not leave his Church, even if at times the ship is almost filled to the point of shipwreck.”

Be sure to check out Father’s good post, especially his final sagacious comment.

Meanwhile, more about the 1814 bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum.  Pius VII had already recognized that the Jesuits were still in existence in Russia, where Clement XIV’s earlier suppression had not been implemented.  He also recognized them in Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1804.  So, Pius’ bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum did the same for the whole world, thus reversing Clement XIV’s suppression forty years before.  So, on 7 August 1814, the date of the bull,  Pope Pius went to the glorious baroque main church of the Jesuits in Rome, the Gesù, where, in the presence of prelates and nobility and a crowd of Jesuits, celebrated mass at the altar of of the tomb of St. Ignatius.  After the Mass the bull was read and handed over to the superior of the Jesuits in Italy.  More about all of that HERE.

Pius giving the bull to the Jesuits: