The new Jesuits.
The Mexican magazine «Magis» makes an in-depth analysis of the current situation of the Society of Jesus, whose mission is «to serve faith and promote justice».
A 360 degree analysis which enables to understand the depth of a world, that of Jesuits, that is vast and deeply rooted in northern countries and South in America. Their way of life, that aspires to «finding God in all thing» (in the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola) leads Jesuits to work at the frontiers of the world and in many occasions under constant tension with the Catholic hierarchy.
Hierarchies love them and hold them in esteem, but at the same time they are worried about the positions taken by some of its members, that are not always custodians of true orthodoxy.
The Society of Jesus is the largest religious order in the world and, according to latest official data, has 20 thousand members, priests and seminarians, in 127 countries.
Currently the Jesuits run 3890 educational institutions, the majority of which (2947) fall under the project «Faith and joy», a popular educational movement present in 19 countries of Latin America.
Over the past thirty years many Jesuits were condemned by the Holy See, together with other priests and religious of other congregations.
Jon Sobrino, Jacques Dupuis, Fernando Cardenal and Anthony de Mello are some of the Jesuits who have received a «notification» from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Four years ago the new program guidelines of the Society of Jesus were traced from the new «black pope», the Spaniard Father Adolfo Nicolás.
On the one hand, the poor and the excluded, on the other the enculturation of Christianity in the current circumstances of globalization, namely dialogue with local cultures and faiths.
«Our mission is towards the last, we are tasked with serving God, the Church and the world without ever forgetting that today it is not the geographical nations that proclaim salvation but humans, namely the poor and outcast», specifies Father Nicolas who often cites Buddhism and Shintoism.
In his thought there is no trace of »Western monopoly over the truth», aimed as usual at the Third World and multi-religious societies.
As a former manager of the Conference of East Asia and Oceania (an area stretching from China and Myanmar to Korea, from Micronesia to Australia), Father Nicolás considers dialogue between East and West «a huge but necessary and healthy challenge».
In Japan, in the second half of the nineties, he chaired the Conference of Religious Superiors and as the main consultant to the Japanese episcopate, he directed the bishops towards the most advanced frontiers of collegiality and enculturation.
A progressive approach that is unwelcome in the Vatican: Cardinal Jan Schotte, Secretary General of the Synod, tracked down a «European rather than Japanese hand», therefore the criticism to the Roman curia, little attentive to the independence of national bishops' conferences, was charged to Father Nicolás.
A veto that cost Father Nicolás the appointment as rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University.
«If there are difficulties with the Holy See it is because we are so spiritually close. If two people married tell me that there are no problems among them, I do not believe them», remarked the «black pope» at the time of his election.
«Only people who love can hurt each other. The Society has a fourth specific vow of obedience to the Pope in the missions, as well as those of fidelity, chastity and obedience that all Catholic orders have».
His surprise election in 1965 is reminiscent of another Spaniard, a specialist of Asia, the innovator Father Arrupe, who led the Society of Jesus before him, in the turbulent years 1965-1983, and after many misunderstandings and friction with the Vatican, was replaced by Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach.
«It is written that 50 percent are Arrupe and 50 percent Kolvenbach, then why not a 10 per cent of Elvis Presley? », said ironically the Black Pope.
In 1961 Father Nicolás was a young Jesuit priest stationed in Japan, where Arrupe was responsible for the province. «He was a warm person and a great conversationalist. But above all, a great missionary, a national hero, a man on fire».
The vision and insight of Father Arrupe preceded his theology: «He wanted the East to impact on the rest of the Society».
Now the «antithesis» between the Pope and the Jesuits is «just difficulty in a relationship of love», like a married couple: «I studied the books of Professor Ratzinger in Tokyo, Rome and Germany. Theology is always dialogue. Our God, our faith and our message are so great that they cannot be placed in a bottle, in a country, in a single religious order. It is a message for all nations because it is so great that the message cannot be reduced. Our mission is the poor, those who are manipulated, the outcast, the excluded that increase with globalization, those who have no place in a society that is only for the great».
The Society of Jesus, which raises the «promotion of justice through a preferential option for the poor», for the «multitudes of destitute» who are pressing on the outskirts of the developed world.
«The West does not have the monopoly. In the Church we have a lot to learn from Asia», is precisely the slogan of Father Adolfo Nicolas. On the second vote the «conclave» of the Jesuits chose the head of the Conference of East Asia as the 29th successor of the founder, Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
His election as leader of the world's main religious order was a clear-cut indication especially with regards to the delicate issue of the relationship between Christian evangelism and other cultures and religions in Asia.
«We obey the Pope, but we are not Swiss Guards», summed up the provincial Mexican Juan Luis Orozco, when leaving the Congregation in which he was one of the major constituents of the new General in Charge.
In 2008, on the eve of the election of the new «black pope», Benedict XVI urged the 20 thousand Jesuits to greater loyalty in «promoting the true and healthy Catholic doctrine, asking the Society of Jesus to make a public reaffirmation of «its own total adhesion to the Catholic doctrine, in particular on those neuralgic points which today are strongly attacked by secular culture, such as the relationship between Christ and religions, certain aspects of liberation theology and various points of sexual morality, especially as regards the indissolubility of marriage and the pastoral of homosexual persons».
Joseph Ratzinger reiterated the urgent need for the life and doctrinal search of Jesuits to always be animated by a true spirit of faith and communion in «humble fidelity to the teachings of the Magisterium».
Father Nicolas’ «program update» focuses on dialogue, enculturation, spirituality, the Church of Lays, development, peace, transparency in the Church and in the Society of Jesus.