Seminaries have reverted to legalism, Pope warns Jesuits

Pope Francis has warned Jesuits that a number of seminaries had reverted to legalism and rigidity, rather than discernment, leading to a conception of morality with black-and-white prescriptions, according to The Tablet.

In a transcript of his candid dialogue with delegates to the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, now translated into English on the website of the Italian Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, the Pope was reported as saying: “I am very afraid of this,” comparing it to the “decadent scholasticism” taught prior to Vatican II.

“The whole moral sphere was restricted to ‘yes you can,’ ‘you cannot,’ ‘up to here yes but not here,'” he said, describing it as “a morality very foreign to discernment”.

In the 90-minute discussion on October 24, the Pope spoke in Spanish, but made revisions to the Italian translation of the transcript given to him by La Civiltà Cattolica’s editor, Fr Antonio Spadaro.

His main themes were the deficiencies of contemporary politicians and the importance of combating a tendency towards rigid moral judgement on the part of the priesthood.

“Countries lack those great politicians who were able to spend themselves seriously for their ideals and were not afraid of dialogue or struggle, but went ahead, with intelligence and with the charism specific to politics,” he told the Jesuits.

He focused specifically on attempts by political leaders while in power to reform a country’s constitution to allow them to serve another term in office.

Such attempts have been frequent in the Pope’s native Latin America, including in Argentina, where former president Cristina Kirchner failed to secure enough support in 2013 for such a bid. 

Last year Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, modified the constitution to allow him a potential fourth mandate.