Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday urged Jesuits to avoid "sowing confusion" on sensitive issues for the Roman Catholic Church such as the nature of Jesus Christ, sexual morality or the family. Meeting with a delegation from the centuries-old Society of Jesus, the pope reminded the order of their commitment to "protect and defend Catholic doctrine, in particular regarding sensitive subjects that are today under heavy attack by secular culture."
He said issues of "the salvation of all men in Jesus Christ, sexual morality, marriage and the family should be ... clarified in the context of contemporary reality while staying in tune with the Magisterium (papal authority) to avoid sowing confusion and disarray among the people of God."
The Vatican has sanctioned a number of Jesuits over the past few decades for straying from official doctrine, including for their views on non-Christian religions, the human Christ and the defense of society's dispossessed -- the focus of the liberation theology movement that swept Latin America in the 1970s.
The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith -- which Benedict headed as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before his election as pope in 2005 -- sanctioned Spanish Jesuit Jon Sobrino, who lives in El Salvador, in late 2006 for his books on the nature of Jesus Christ.
The pope said Thursday that the Church "needs" the Jesuits and relies on them "to reach physical and spiritual places that others cannot or have trouble reaching."
In reply the intellectual order's new superior general Adolfo Nicolas, a 71-year-old Spaniard elected in January, assured the pope of the order's "sense of responsibility."
Nicolas lamented that "the inevitable failings and superficial character of some of us (can be used) to dramatize or present as conflicts ... what is often just the manifestation of human limitations and imperfections or inevitable tensions of daily life."
On the eve of Nicolas's election, Benedict asked the Jesuits for their "full adhesion" to Church doctrine.
Throughout their history, the Jesuits have attached great importance to intellectual development as well as a commitment to the geographical and spiritual "frontiers" of Christianity.
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