October 12, 2004

• Spring Hill Welcomes Father General Kolvenbach
• Jesuit Magazine Says Despite War on Terror, World Faces Expanded Threat
• The Religion and Immigration Project at the University of San Francisco
• Fr Greaton's Bible Discovered
• Jesuit Outlines Efforts at UN to Ban Reproductive Cloning Worldwide
• Remembrance of Things Past
• From the Editors

Spring Hill Welcomes Father General Kolvenbach

Calling upon students, faculty, and staff to commit their lives "to work with courage and generosity" Father General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ challenged the Spring Hill College community in October "to live as one family, in solidarity."

As part of the first-ever visit by a Jesuit Superior General to Spring Hill, Fr Kolvenbach addressed a gathering where he urged audience members to embrace the differences in society and to work together toward building the kingdom of God.

As Spring Hill approaches its 175th anniversary in 2005, we look to the spirit of Dr Martin Luther King and of the first African-American students who entered Spring Hill 50 years ago, he said, so that we "teach our students the courage to be bearers to the world of a transforming love, co-creators of a more deeply human world."

After touring campus and greeting students, Fr Kolvenbach celebrated the Mass of the Holy Spirit with the college community in the newly restored St Joseph Chapel where, recounting the Gospel of Matthew, he called upon the congregation to be "salt and light to the world." [Source: Spring Hill College]

Jesuit Magazine Says Despite War on Terror, World Faces Expanded Threat

After a three-year "war on terrorism," the world is facing an expanded terrorist threat by groups that seem to have lost all sense of humanity, said the Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica.

Although Islamic terrorists have been unable to reach major objectives, they have kept up a steady stream of vicious attacks ranging from Spain to Saudi Arabia to southern Russia, said the magazine in an editorial in its October 2nd edition.

"This means that three years of fighting Islamic terrorism have produced few results. The heads of al-Qaida have not been captured . . . and if many terrorists of the middle or lower level have been killed or captured, probably a greater number have taken their place," it said.

"The United States has not succeeded in defeating terrorism; on the contrary, with the war on Iraq, the United States stimulated its birth and growth in a country—Iraq—where before the war it did not exist," it said.

One of the biggest changes in terrorist strategy has been the multiplication of smaller groups or cells, many operating under local control, the editorial said.

But despite the increase in terrorist actions, Islamic terrorists have not reached any major goals over the last three years, the magazine said. Terrorism has caused serious economic damage to the United States, but without diminishing US global influence, it said. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]

The Religion and Immigration Project at the University of San Francisco

Researchers at the University of San Francisco's The Religion and Immigration Project (TRIP) have found that religion can guide new immigrants through confusion.

"Religion is rarely considered as a variable when discussing immigrant patterns," said Lois Lorentzen, professor of theology at USF and lead researcher for TRIP. "We hope that our study will fill a gap in the literature about immigration and help both immigrants and policy makers."

Among the project's most important findings: Religious organizations can be crucial in providing needed services to new immigrants, including support groups and after-school tutoring.

"We found that undocumented immigrants often are afraid or unsure how to get help," Lorentzen said. "Churches, temples, and other places of worship can provide a lot of the services they need."

The USF study focuses on the Bay Area's five largest migrant groups: Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, Salvadoran, and Mexican. Researchers created a portrait of each community through oral histories and extensive interviews both here and in the immigrants' native countries. The organization has a website for the organization: http://www.usfca.edu/TRIP/[Source: by Angie Davis in AJCU Connections]

Fr Greaton's Bible Discovered

The personal bible of Fr Joseph Greaton SJ, the founder of Old Saint Joseph's Church in Philadelphia, was recently discovered at the Woodstock Theological Library at Georgetown University.

Fr Greaton is regarded as one of the most important Jesuit missionaries in colonial America. Born in 1679, Fr Greaton is recorded as being in Maryland in 1722, before he transferred to Philadelphia, where he served most of the rest of his life.

The bible is one of a two-volume 1609 Douai Old Testament, containing the Psalms, Prophets, and Wisdom books. Fr Greaton's name is in the front; it is annotated in his own hand.

The 1609 Douai Bible is the first Catholic Bible in English, and it was translated from the Latin Vulgate of St Jerome by exiled scholars from Oxford during the upheaval following the English Reformation. Fr Greaton evidently acquired the bible during his seminary training in Belgium (1708-10) and kept it with him throughout his life. [Source: Electronic Maryland Province News & Georgetown University Library Associates Newsletter]

Jesuit Outlines Efforts at UN to Ban Reproductive Cloning Worldwide

The Vatican mission to the United Nations is working with dozens of nations on an international convention that would ban reproductive human cloning worldwide, according to Fr Robert Araujo SJ, a member of the permanent delegation of the Holy See to the United Nations.

Fr Araujo said there is "a strong consensus against reproductive human cloning on the international scene."

He said debate was to resume in the third week of October on a resolution, sponsored by 57 nations, that calls for drafting the international convention.

The resolution calls human cloning "unethical, morally reproachable, and contrary to due respect for the human person," according to a UN news release.

The proposal calls on member states to ban any experiments aimed at human cloning in their own countries and use funds that might have gone to cloning research on "pressing global issues in developing countries," including famine, infant mortality, and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Fr Araujo said the Vatican delegation thinks that "the vast number of human eggs needed" for embryonic stem-cell research could lead to "a global market in human life" that has "a disproportionate impact on poor nations."

He said research involving embryos also raises the possibility of genetic manipulation and justice issues.

"Would not humanity be better off if the funds were used to deliver basic health care to so many who lack it?" he asked. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]

Remembrance of Things Past

• Oct 11, 1963. Walter Ciszek SJ was freed from a prison camp in Russia. He had been in detention since 1938.
• Oct 12, 1600. At Madrid, the death of Fr Louis Molina, a great theologian, whose doctrine on Grace and Free Will was fiercely attacked by Dominicans and others, but ably defended before Clement VIII by theologians of the Society.
• Oct 13, 1676. The arrival in London of Fr Claude la Colombiere, to be the chaplain and confessor of Maria d'Este of Modena, Duchess of York, wife of the future King James II.
• Oct 14, 1854. The death of Fr John Bapst SJ, tarred and feathered by religious bigots called the Know Nothings, in Ellsworth, Maine. He was also the first rector of the Boston College Scholasticate. He was given a gold watch as a result of the ordeal and was given special permission by Father General to wear such a costly watch.
• Oct 15, 1523. At Jerusalem, St Ignatius was maltreated on the Mount of Olives by an Armenian servant of the Franciscans. However, he was consoled by a vision of our Blessed Lord.
• Oct 16, 1788. The Bollandists were forced to give up their work, because of the effects of the Suppression.
• Oct 17, 1996. The death of Richard Michael Fernando SJ, a scholastic working with the Jesuit Refugee Service, in Cambodia, killed by a hand grenade from a disturbed ex-student, as he tried to save others' lives.
• Oct 18, 1550. The first Jesuit was appointed to be rector/president of a university. Peter Canisius was elected to that office at the University of Ingolstadt (for a six month term).
• Oct 19, 1934. Fr General Ledochowski sent a letter about the abuse of taking off the cassock on mountain trips.
• Oct 20, 1873. At Rome, all the Society's houses, namely the Gesu, the Roman College, S Andrea, and S Eusebio, were by royal decree appropriated by the government.
• Oct 21, 1866. Gerard Manley Hopkins was received into the Roman Catholic Church by Newman.
• Oct 22, 1986. The death of Frances Xavier Weiser SJ, a writer, on liturgy and church feasts. Also a book of his for youth, The Light on the Mountain, sold one million copies and was translated into forty languages.
• Oct 23, 1944. A New York Times story reported in a dispatch from Stockholm that all clergy are to be included in the draft except Jesuits, who are "declared unfit to bear arms for Germany."
• Oct 24, 1618. John Berchmans and Bartholomew Penneman, scholastics, set out from Flanders for Rome, reaching the city on December 31st.
• Oct 25, 1950. A letter of Fr General Janssens ordered some books removed from libraries in houses of formation, including works of DeLubac, Bouillard, Danielou, and deMontcheuil. This was a follow-up of the encyclical Humani Generis.
• Oct 26, 1554. Princess Juana, daughter of Charles V, was admitted to the Society in an exceptional way and with the obligation of complete secrecy. She takes vows and would die as a Jesuit scholastic.
• Oct 27, 1820. Frs Petrucci, Pietroboni, Rezzi, and others were condemned by a commission of Fathers of plotting against the Institute. The first two repented; Fr Rezzi and others were expelled from the Society.
• Oct 28, 1949. Leonard Feeney dismissed from the Society of Jesus. He receives letter notifying him of this.
• Oct 29, 1996. Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa was killed. He was Archbishop of Bukavu, Zaire. He had been a Jesuit provincial from 1980 to 1986.
• Oct 30, 1985. Fr Goncalvez Kamtedza SJ, pastor, aged 55, and Fr Silvio Moreira SJ, parish priest, aged 44, werekilled by unknown assassins in Mozambique.
• Oct 31, 1610. Solemn public obsequies were celebrated in Peking for Fr Matteo Ricci, who died on May 11th.

• Nov 1, 1945. The death of Bl Rupert Mayer, known as the "Apostle of Munich." He was arrested and imprisoned several times for speaking out against Hitler.
• Nov 2, 1578. Francisco Suarez began to give lectures in theology in the Roman College; Pope Gregory XIII came to hear them.
• Nov 3, 1639. Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, destroyed the Jesuit colleges and houses because the Fathers had disapproved of his second marriage as his first wife was still alive.
• Nov 4, 1584. Charles Borromeo died in the arms of his confessor, Charles Adorno SJ, after celebrating Mass in our house at Arona.

From the Editors

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