N Vo]\' h;i(i sixiki'd luiislii'i winds (n llinscs ttiTihks nl Cnllinlicisni. IIIL- Jesuits- mil

since 1773. wiien ClomciU XIV supprvssL'd IheniallORi'thcr. decliiiiii,!; it "quite iinimssible to main-tain ;i triK' anil laslinj:; [vaee within the Churchwhile this OnU'c exists," As the S(M:i<ny of Jesusended its 3lst Honcial Congregation in Rome lastNovemlxT. Poiv Paul VI I'xpressecl •'amazement"aiu! "sorrow" over "certain rejKirls and rumors."To the Churcli's bipRest. most ixiwerTul oidcr, heput the stern qvifstion. "WIuU stranRe and sinistersuRRcslums have caused a doubt to arise in cer-tain jxirts of \'our extensive SiKiety whether itshould continue to he the ScKiely conceived andfiHindrti b\- that hoh' man |Saiiit lRnatius|, andbuilt on very wise and ver\' firm norms?" Theaddress included an iniiilicit warning: "If youcontinue to be that which you were, you will notsee our esteem and faith less."

Catholics ever\-\vhere were perplexed. To what"strange and sinister suggestions" did the Poperefer? He never specilied. Was he dismayed by theGeneral Congregation's new decrees—those, forexample, easing the rigid structure of the order,giving more voice to rank-and-iile members, re-ducing the traditional social distmctions betweenpriests and nonordained brothers? On the con-trary, he acclaimed them. As one puzzled Amer-ican Jesuit put It, "The Holy Father simultane-ously administered a kick and a pat on the head,"

The Jesuit chiefly burdened with the task ofinterpreting and acting upfjn the Pope's meaning—and defending the order against outside accusa-tions which the rebuke encouraged—is the VeryRev. Pedro de Arrupe y Gondra, a slight, mild,gentle Spaniard of 59, who was elected SuperiorGeneral of the order in 1965, Few people meetingFather Arrui» for the first time would imaginehim to rank among the most prestigious figures inthe Catholic hierarchy. Of the 2,300 prelates whoattended the Ecumenical Council last year nonewas less conspicuous. By comparison to the red-hatted, red-caped cardinals, the bishops mantledwith purple silk, the monastic abbotts wearingflowing hooded tunics, the wispy little Spaniardin his plain black cassock might have been mis-taken for some obscure village curate. But fewothers wield greater infiuence. Indeed, the "BlackPope." as the Jesuit leader is popularly called, in

double allusloti to his power and the slarkness of!us garb, acknowledges no man on earth hisreligious sui>erior save the Supreme Pontiff,

The directness of this relationship betweenPope and Black Pope made the papal reprimandlast November all the more extraordinary. Yet, inan uncomfortable spot. Father Arrupe provedhimself an adroit diplomat. At a press conference-he conceded that some Jesuits had been guilty oferrors of judgment, but he neatly sidesteppedevery request for specifics. As to what rumorstroubled the Pope, he insisted he had no notion."We are still only at the experimental stage." hesairl, "in fullilting the task given by the VaticanCouncil of 'adaptation and renewal' in every field.Beside impressive successes there are also failures.At times boldness has outstripped prudence."

Ultraconservative Catholics were somewhatscandalized by Father Arrupe's own boldness inNew York last April at the Jesuit-run FordhamUniversity. While student guitarists chanted thelitany in folk-song style, the new Superior Generaloffered High Mass in English instead of Latin."It was not at all irreverent." he observed after-ward, adding that it made him "feel at home,"(Nine months later the Vatican denounced theliturgical use of music of a "totally profane andworldly character." and to illustrate its idea ofmusical profanity it referred to a Mass accom-panied, as at Fordham, by guitar,)

The "hootenanny Mass," as the traditionalistsscornfully called it, was but one of several prece-dent-shattering acts that marked Father Arrupe'stour of America, The foremost was the trip itself.Never before had any Superior General set foot inthis country. Few, in fact, had ventured far fromthe Jesuits' Roman headquarters, and none inRome or elsewhere had exhibited attitudes soprogressive and outgoing. Most of the 27 BlackPopes who preceded Father Arrupe were remoteand uncommunicative men. His immediate prede-cessor, the Very Rev, Jan Baptist Janssens ofBelgium, who died in 1964. considered the affairsof the society no concern of the public and wouldseldom speak to journalists. One of the few he con-sented to receive he kept standing throughout theinterview. By contrast Father Arrupe welcomesevery opportunity to propagate the Jesuit aimsand ideals. "Feel free to question me with ease

ILACK POPEFew icoiild sf/sped that this (jentle priest

leads the powerful Jesuit order,

01 that in alt the (-hurrh he has hut one superior.

By JOHN KOBLER Lauvois

and candor, without protocol," he has urgedreporters. To draw attention to his Americantour, the society took the unusual step of retaininga Manhattan public-relations Hrm,

"I have come because I want to understandAmerica," Father Arrupe announced upon hisarrival, "so that the society I serve can serveAmerica better." (Actually, he is no stranger tothe States, having spent two years of his earlytraining at Jesuit centers in various parts of thecountry.) "The American pluralistic society," headded, "has much to teach us all in matters ofhuman freedom and religious dialogue."

The "provincials" who administer the society's11 American "provinces" agreed that such a visitwas long overdue. The decisions affecting them,they contended, might well have been sounder ifbased on lirst-hand observation.

Some 8.400 strong, the American Jesuits are thelargest national Jesuit group, accounting for al-most a lifth of the world total. Through their 56high schools, attended by 35,000 students, andtheir 28 colleges and universities with 140,000students: through their periodicals, notably theoutspoken and progressive weekly review, Amer-ica, with a readership close to 100.000; andthrough their radio and television stations, theyexert a considerable infiuence.

Nor is the effect confined to the Roman Catholiccommunity. At the high-school level perhaps fivepercent of the students are non-Catholics; in thecolleges and universities. 10 percent; and of thepostgraduate students as many as 30 percent.Thus, thousands of Americans, Catholic and non-Catholic, are intellectually and psychologicallyshaped by the rigorous Jesuit training and arelikely to apply to their careers the Ignatian objec-tive of service to God through worldly action."Pray as if all depended on God." said Ignatius."Work as if all depended on your own efforts,"

Jesuit influence, however, derives not only fromthe order's numerical strength and the power ofits institutions but also from its special role asagent of the Pope. The "Pope's Commandos" itsmembers are sometimes called, and throughouttheir history they have furthered papal aims asbehind-the-scenes advisers to rulers, companionsof explorers, molders of poUtical and socialthought. Products of an exigent training, theypursue the ideal of "the contemplative in action."and there is scarcely a single human enterprise,be it nuclear physics, architecture, even psycho-analysis, in which a Jesuit has not distinguishedhimself. It is this ubiquity, combined with a cer-tain covertness. that at various times and placeshas excited the suspicion and fear of Christians aswell as nonbelievers, made the word "Jesuitic" asynonym for devious, and led to suppression.

All Roman Catholic orders, of course, honor thePope, but what sets apart the Society of Jesus isthe vow of perpetual obedience to the papacytaken by its "solemnly professed fathers," that is,those of exceptional spiritual and intellectual at-tainment. These elite Jesuits so bind themselvesthat, in the forthright language of their 16th-century charter, "they must immediately, witli-out any shuffling or excuse, undertake whatsoeverHis Holiness commands appertaining to the prog-ress of souls and the propagation of the faith,whether he sends us to the Turks or to the NewWorld, or to the Lutherans, or to others whomso-ever, infidels or Catholics,"

A bit of apocrypha the Jesuits themselves liketo repeat concems the late Pope John. The so-ciety's headquarters at 5 Via Borgo Santo Spiritostands a few hundred feet from the Vatican, and inits garden towers a statue of Christ bearing on itsbase the inscription, 1 AM THY SALVATION. Fromhis bedroom windows, the story goes, Pope Johnwould read Ihe inscription through binoculars.

31

THE BLACK POPE_

shift his Kfl'-o to (he buiklins sheltcrinK hia shocktroops iind, with a siRh, murmur, "1 hope so."

When I called at Via BorgoSantoSpirito. FatherArruiw sufipestcd some of the directions the societywas likely to take under his generalship. "WeJesuits." iif o\|>laincci, "must become more Igna-tian than Saint IgnatiLis. In his day the paramountproblems arose from dilTerences of opinion, but theditTerences remained within Christian society.Then the whole of Western civilizalion was Chris-tian. Now a militant atheism attacks the vei y con-cept of God. The architects of the new order wouldomit God altogether!"

The materialistic view, he jjointed out, liasweakened Cathohcism. Populations are increasing:faster than Catholic conversions and baptisms.and thus the proixjrtion of Catholics in the world.now 18 percent, must shrink.

"We must be continually present in the mostdifficult areas—behind the Iron Curtain, in thenew African republics. Within the order we mustreeducate ourselves in genetics, physics, al! thesciences. We cannot refute atheistic scientists witha child's catechism. We must prove the existenceof God on the scientists' intellectual level."

Father Arrupe bears a striking resemblance tothe Spanish nobleman who founded the Societyof Jesus in 1534. He has the same thin, delicateprolile, the high-bridged nose, the withdrawn ex-pression. But whereas in contemixtrary represen-tations the set of Ignatius's mouth tended to besevere. Father Arrupe's is quick to smile. Ofmedium height, line-boned, he walks with thelight, springy stride of a young man. He lovessinging and practices whenever time allows. Hisresonant baritone has enlivened Jesuit gatheringsfrom Spain to Japan. Like Ignatius and his cele-brated follower, Francis Xavier. Father Arrupeeomes from the Basque region of northern Spain,and his repertoire abounds in Basque folk songs.

During a stay many years ago at a Jesuit houseon New York's crowded upper West Side, thecarrying ixiwer of his voice caused his colleaguessome embarrassment. They had just persuadedthe neighbors to moderate their disputes and keeptheir radios tumed low. Now this tuba-throatedSpaniard, standing at an open window in his bed-room of an evening, was lx)oming out Basquesongs with such sonority that they were audiblea block away. There were shouts of protest fromthe neighbors; back up to full volume went theradios. Quiet was restored only after the youngpriest learned to practice sotlo vocc.

Although Father Arrupe's health is not robust[his sister Isabel, a nun, recalls: "I asked God ev-ery day that he not be elected Superior General"),he arises at 4 A.M., an hour before anybody else,in a cell-like bedroom containing a cot. a worktable and a straight-backed chair. He rarely re-tires before midnight. Of these 20 waking hourshe devotes three or four to prayer and medita-tion, the rest to the intricate administration of theinternational sfjciety. Not all his decisions aremomentous. Under his regime the Jesuit head-quarters has acquired a soft-drink dispenser,an unheard-of frivolity.

Known as "the Shintoist Jesuit" because of his27 years of service in Japan, he speaks fluentJapanese and can handle chopsticks as deftly asa knife and fork. "Would you like to see how Ipray?" he asked me during a visit I paid to hisapartment, which is on the top floor of the BorgoSanto Spirito building. Leading me into a tinyoratory adjoining his bedroom, he pointed to aJapanese tatami. or floor mat. knelt on it and,removing his shoes, sat back on his heels. Japanesefashion. "It's so comfortable," he said, grinning.

Pedro de Arrupe y Gondra grew up in Bilbao,the son of a wealthy architect and newspaperpublisher, Marcellino Arrupe. There were fourolder children, all of them gir!s. The son studiedmedicine at the University of Madrid, where he

felt tho (irst stirrings of a priestly vocation. Theyarose following a charity visit tt) the slum dwellersof Madrid, iierhajis the most abject, brutalized,hopeless creatures in Euroiie, Years later he wrote:"The miserable wretches, leading such a hard,bitter life, had jiullcd the veil of ignorance frommy eyes. They made me realize the existence ofa world other than my own in wliich there ia muchwork to be done."

What drew him closer to the priesthood was aliilgrimage to Lourdes. There he witnessed threecures which he believed to be miraculous—a nunsuffering from tuberculosis of the spine, a womanwith stomach cancer, and a boy crippled by polio.When the medical student recounted his experi-ence to his university professors, some of whomwere Marxists destined to achieve eminence underthe Spanish Republic, they laughed at him. Theirmockery moved him to decision. In 1927, at theage of 20. he left the university to enter the Jesuitnovitiate at Loyola, near the birthplace of Ignatius.

No religious order demands a longer, more ardu-ous training. Ignatius had been an army officerbefore his conversion, and he imposed an army-like discipline upon his followers. It normally takessix years to become a Catholic priest and onemore year to qualify as a Dominican or a Benedic-tine. But until recently the Jesuit's training pre-ceding his linal vows required at least 15 years—among the reforms voted by the General Congre-gation is shorter preparation. The precise programnow varies from province to province, as experi-mentation goes on, but generally it has consistedof six stages^the novitiate (two years mainlyof spiritual formation), the juniorate (two yearsdevoted to classical literature, Greek and Latin),the scholasticate (three years of philosophy andscience), the regency (three years spent studyingspecial subjects and teaching), the theologate(four years of theology) and finally the tertian-ship (one year of advanced spiritual formation).

Young Arrupe, having passed through his no-vitiate, with its psychologically strenuous 30-dayIgnatian retreat, took the usual vows of poverty,chastity and obedience and thereby became apermanent member of the order. His advancedtraining, however, was disrupted by the civil strifein Spain. The Catholic Church there had beennotorious for its aggressive intolerance, and in 1931the new anti-clerical Republican govemmentstruck back with vengeful fury. The Jesuit order,among others, was dissolved, its property confis-cated, its members banished. Arrupe's formationcontinued at various Jesuit centers in Europe andthe U.S. First he completed his theology at St.Mary's College in St. Marys. Kans.; later he wentto Catholic University in Washington. D.C, tostudy psychiatry. The subject fascinated him.But second thoughts troubled the local provincial.The moral issues raised by the practice of psy-chiatry, and especially of psychoanalysis, werecreating such confusion among Catholic theo-logians that he decided the time was not yetripe for a priest to venture into the field, and heordered Arrupe to withdraw.

His disappointment might have been keenerhad he not cherished another prospect. Fired bythe example of St. Francis Xavier, the first Jesuitmissionary to distant lands, who lived his lastyears in Japan, he longed to go there. Every otherpursuit, even psychiatry, he felt to be a digressionfrom his real destiny. Time and again he beggedhis superiors to send him to Japan, where thesociety had no province, only a meager mission.They applauded his desire, but without indicatingwhen they would satisfy it.

The appointment came at last in the spring of1938. Arrupe awaited the (inal arrangements forhis transfer at the Jesuit Missions house in NewYork. Casting about for an enterprise, he turnedto the city's uprooted, neglected Spanish-speakingpoor. He worked among them day and nightthen submitted a sociological report to the thenBishop Spellman. The direct results are still

3 2

BECOMINGA JESUIT

PRIESTTAKES

YEARS OFTOIL

St. Andrew's novitiate sits on a pleasant rise above the Hudson River, a place of redbrick and columns and shaded walks. Every summer some 35 young men, most ofthem fresh from high school, arrive to begin the arduous 12- to 14-year preparationfor the Jesuit order. The first phase—which, like St. Andrew's itself, is called thenovitiate—lasts two years, and by the time it is finished perhaps 10 of the 35 noviceswill have dropped out. At St. Andrew's, as at all Jesuit novitiates, the training followsthe strict pattern set by St, Ignatius, founder of the order. There are times for studyand times for "trials"—some, like scrubbing floors and washing dishes, to teach thenovice humility. But the crucial experience for the novice is his 30-day retreat, duringwhich he may speak to no one, except on three "break days." With the novice masterto prei^are him and to fortify him if he falters, he embarks upon an intense and exact-ing regimen of self-examinations, mortifications, prayers and meditations. He maybegin alone m his room by reciting Ignatius's favorite prayer: "Soul of Christ, sanctifyme. Body of Christ, save me. . , ," For the first week he meditates on sm, death, judg-ment and hell. During the second week he contemplates the earthly history of Christ,during the third the Passion, and during the fourth the Resurrection, At noon andnight every day of the retreat (and for the rest of his life as well) he must scrutinizehis conscience for the tiniest lajDses. Eventually, after he leaves the novitiate, thenovice will go on through the five higher stages of the Jesuit preparation, and then outinto the world in the service of his order; yet no experience is likely to mark him sodeeply as that early retreat. For Ignatius designed it to leave a young man totallycommitted to God and forever armored in the assurance of divine consolation.

Upper left: At St. Andreio's nooiti-

ate, New York, a Jiovice is measured

for his cassock, but not a new one—

a used one, in keeping with ihe spirit

of poverty. Upper right: Ahaorbed

iu preparing for their inedilations,

novieet^ stroll the grounds of St. An-

drew's. Center: For one hour eeery

morning and half an hour every after-

noon, the novices meditate. When

they lire of kneeling, then niaij stand.

Lower left: Years beyond iheir novi-

tiale now and approaching the end

of their endeavor, seholasticii of the

Jesuits' Woodiitock College in Mary-

land immerse themselves in the-

ology. Lower right: A Woodstock

e is ordained a Jesuit priest.

THE BLACK POPE.

tiianifcsl. The cleiircssotl niinorily be-came the object o( extensive social-wel-fare elforts, with more church funds and[x-rsonncl assinned lo (hem,

Whoii AnuiK' learned (hat nearly athird of the 2.700 ininales of the cityprison on Rikers Island came from LatinAmerica, lie volunteered for chai^lainduty there. Arriving later than usual oneday, lie found the cells empty. The occu-pants, a guard informed him. were watch-ins a l rison ball E ime, Undaunted by thewarning Chat the sight of a priest wouldprobably mo\'e some of the hoodlums toinsults and blasphemy, Arrupe insistedon watching too. Once seated, he en-countered nothing more menacing thancurious stares, A Puerto Rican, whom hehad confessed, approached him. "I'mglad you're here, padre, because there'sthis Cuban, Luis, who wants to confess.He hasn't done it for a long time, andhe feels a terrible need,"

Luis had stabbed his woman to deathin a jealous frenzy. The reason no priesthad confessed him in his cell was that thewarden considered him too dangerous tobe left alone with anybody, "Send himto me now," said Arrupe.

Luis elbowed a path through thecrowd. The guards kept their eyes on himbut let him pass, and presently he stood,a dark, hulking man, before the priest.Behind the grandstand, the priest hadnoticed, a mounted guard was stationed,so to divert suspicion from Luis and puthim at ease he led him there, and in theshadow of man and horse Arrupe heardthe long and whispered confession. Asthey parted, Luis said, "You know, padre,1 am no criminal at heart."

Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican hadspread the news of the encounter amongIns fellow Latin Americans, and whenArrupe regained his seat they rose as oneman, holding various oddments they had put to-gether to use as musical instruments—pocketcombs wrapped in tissue paper, tin cans contain-ing pebbles—and gave him a concert. He returnedthe compliment. Standing under the summersun, his voice carrying across the stadium, hesang a Basque song. "It was the biggest thing thathad ever happened to me as a priest," he recalls."1 was near tears. I sensed the spiritual value ofevery individual."

Arrupe repfjrted to his first Japanese post, atNagatsuka (now Gion), a town four miles northof Hiroshima, in October, 1938. "The missionaryto Japan." he wrote later, "is not like water flow-ing naturally into the Oriental mold. He is ratherlike sheet metal in his resistance to surrenderinghis strong framework of culture, tradition, customsand way of thinking and to substituting newvalues. The missionary was right who said of hisearly years in Japan, '1 felt as if they had tornaway my skin and replaced it with a much smallerskin in which I could not move.'"

To identify with the Japanese the better toreach their minds. Arrupe immersed himself intheir social forms: the elaborate obeisances, thetea ceremony, the flower arrangements, the art ofbrush painting and calligraphy, the literature,religions and philosophies. He mastered theirlanguage so thoroughly that he was able to writeeight books in it, not to mention translations ofreligious works.

At the University of Yamaguchi, where hetaught Spanish, he received frequent visits froma policeman, a meek, somewhat epicene character,who seemed eager for conversion. Not until theJapanese bombed Pearl Harbor did he realize whathis visitor had really been up to. Arrested by a

Jesuits, says Father Arrupe,

have been guilty of 'misguided zeal' and

'an exaggerated sense of loyalty.'

colonel of the military police, he was confrontedwith a report compiled by the policeman. The re-port alleged every kind of crime—moral, sexual,political, financial, "Christian humility obliges usto think of ourselves as miserable sinners,"Arrupe relates, "and I had formed a very badconcept of myself, but that bad? No!"

After a night's detention in a room without bedor chair, and so cold that he had to performcalisthenics to keep his blood circulating, he wastransferred to a jail for common criminals and amonth later brought before an examining magis-trate. The interrogation lasted 37 hours, but oneb>' one the charges against him collapsed asJapanese whom he had converted testified to hischaracter. Accepting the court's challenge to de-fine and defend his belief, he discoursed elo-quently on tht Christian ethic. The most danger-ous question put to him was whether he believedin the divinity of the Emperor of Japan. Hecountered by asking, "Do you believe the emperorto be creator of the universe?" In the ensuingsilence the magistrate dismissed the case.

Since Arrupe was a national of a neutral coun-try, and the staff of the mission itself was predom-inantly German, the Japanese troubled him nofurther. His situation produced a painful conflict,however, dedicated as he was to the individualJapanese Christian while horror-struck by thecountry's war lust.

As befitted a younger Jesuit, Father Arrupe allthis time was working, praying and studying hisway up the Ignatian progression. The ultimatechallenge to his academic qualilkations came whenhe took the two-hour oral examination ad padtim("for rank"). As many as four fifths fail this test.This group, and those who do not take it, receive

full status in the order after once a^ainvr)winK ixjverty, chastity and obcdicnct;they thenceforth carry the rank of "spir-itual coadjutor," Thfjse who pass, how-ever, and who are judged exceptionallyvirtuous, are allowed to make the "s(jlemnprofession" -the three usual vows and aff)urth vow of allegiance to the Pope,Arrupe passed, and In February, 1942, hewas solemnly professed. A month later hissuperiors named him vice rector and nov-ice master. Twelve years later they ar>-rx)inted him vice provincial of Japan and,four years after that, provincial.

One day in August of 1945, Arrupe stillvividly recalls, "a magnesium flash rentthe blue sky, and a dull, continuing roar,more like a cataract than a bomb, washeard with frightening force. It was likean earthquake,"

The blast from the bomb that kiltedsome 200,000 people in Hiroshima de-stroyed the Jesuit-built parish church inNagatsuka, four miles away, and shat-tered the doors and windows of the noviti-ate. With no idea of what had hit the city.Father Arrupe organized a rescue team ofpriests and novices and, throwing togetherwhatever first-aid supplies he could im-mediately lay hands on, hastened to theheart of the holocaust.

In the damaged novitiate they set up ahospital, "People who had suffered noimmediate damage began to collapse.They felt on fire inside, and they died."For days he had no sleep. When not min-istering to the injured at the novitiate, hehurried from house to house to warnagainst popular folk remedies like potatoand turnip juice or ashes, which wouldinfect the wounds, "If only we could havpbrought Christian solace to their souls,but no, that was impossible. They didn'tunderstand us, because the pagan way ofthinking cannot turn one hundred eightydegrees in a second,"

When Father Arrupe went to Japan in1938 the Jesuit mission there numbered 80 Ger-mans and six Spaniards, By the time he left forRome in 1965, the modest mission had become agreat Jesuit province with 430 priests from 35other provinces in 20 countries.

What took Arrupe to Rome was a GeneralCongregation at which top-ranking Jesuits wouldelect the 27th successor to St, Ignatius. During thefour days preceding the voting the 225 delegateswere prevented by tradition from leaving head-quarters, talking to anybody except each other orchampioning a particular candidate. They spentmost of the time in prayer. On the fateful morningthey marched into the main hall, chanting theVeni CrealoT. the invocation of the Holy Spirit. Asthey took their places on hard wooden benches be-hind wooden desks, the door was locked from theoutside, not to be unlocked until a new SuperiorGeneral had been selected,

Arrupe was one of half a dozen provincialsfrequently mentioned as a possible ciioice. Thoseopposed to him raised two main objections: A manof enormous personal appeal, he tended to governby charisma, they said, rather than by the book;and his long stay in the Far East had unfittedhim for leadership in the cultural climate ofEurope, But the objections faded, and on thethird ballot he was eiected.

When the election was announced, Arrupe re-ceived the usual flurry of public attention, but hisviews and personality gained no wide notice in theUnited States until his trip here. Tearing acrossthe country by chartered jet. helicopter and car,he managed to visit 12 cities in 17 days- He set thetone of his tour with a Palm Sunday semion inNew York's Church of St, Ignatius Loyola. "Mymission," he declared, "is to do for the Society of

3 4

POPE.

JL'SUS ill llicsc United Slates what the fathers oftlicVaticiinCnuiicil liavctried lodoforlheChurchin tlie world," lie then cautioned his fellow Jesuits,"It Is not the new world I fear. I am afraid laUicrthat we Jesuits may have little or nothing to offerthis world, iidle lo say or do that would jusL-ifyour existence as Jesuits, 1 am afraid Ihat we mayreix;at yesterday's answers to tomorrow's jirob-lems. talk in a way men no longer understand,sijenk a language that does nol s|)eak to the heart ofliving man. If we do this, we shall more and morebe talking to ourselves; no oni.' will listen, becauseno one will understand what we are trying to say."

At Fordham University, following the "hoote-nanny Mass," he took part in a gesture of ecumen-ism, conferring honorary degrees upon four non-Roman Catholic clergj'men. For the schisms inChristianity he held the Jesuits themselves partlyresponsible, "An exaggerated sense of loyalty toone's own church at the expense of charity; atoo-rigid concept of the truth, where personalopinions were sometimes easily confused with di-vine revelation; a misguided zeal for propagatingthe Gospel, which sometimes made use of meansnot always in accord with that Gospel; an igno-rance of the true thought of others, ora facile misjudgment of motives; atoo-easy yielding to nationalistic orpartisan prejudices—these are thecommon burdens we all must bearfor the past."

He entered a plea for freedom ofintellectual inquirj' on the campus,"The university must be free to an-alyze not only ungrounded attacksupon the faith, but formulations, de-fenses and practical orientations whichonly bring the faith into derision,"This was interpreted as a rebuke toAmerica's largest Catholic university,St. John's in New " 'ork, which anumber of discharged professors haveaccused of repressive policies,

Jesuit education in America is al-ready feeling tht effects ol FatherArrupe's tour. At every institute hevisited he sought out the young schol-ars with young ideas. He shares theconviction of many younger Jesuitsthat their educationai centers are in-sular, that they immobilize too muchmanpower, and that more laymenshould be entrusted with administra-tion, thus freeing more "militantdisciples of Christ," in the Ignatianphrase, for other activities.

The order now is giving substanceto these words. In December it an-nounced that the Jesuit theologicalschool of Woodstock was thinkingabout leaving its rural campus andaffiliating with a large urban univer-sity—either Yale or Fordham. Theaim is to bring the young scholars incontact with other beliefs and otheracademic disciplines. The four otherJesuit theoiogates are considering thesame kind of move. And this Januarythe president of St, Louis Universityannounced that with Rome's assentthe 150-year-old Jesuit institutionwould bring laymen onto its board otdirectors—the first time, he pointedout, that a major Catholic academicinstitution will be run by both clergyand ]a>Tnen; the laymen will out-number the clerical members, and theboard chairman will be a layman.Soon after the announcement theJesuit's University of Detroit dis-closed a similar plan.

Thus it is clear that the new supe-

rior general dues not fear changf, liiiL change forFather Arrupe, as for every Black Fope, raises adilemma because of thai very menlalily which thesociety takes such pains to shape in its members.While ensuring that all Jesuits meet Ihcir obliga-lions (o the order, the Superior (ieneral must alsobe sensitive to Ihcir righLs as independent individ-uals. According to a popular misc(.tnception, theJesuit becomes an automaton, submiUing blindlyto the manipulation of his superiors. The image isincomplete, however, No Jesuit, il is true, can runcounter lo defined doctrine or resist a command byhis superior (unless convinced it is evil). But out-side those limits lies an area in which a Jesuitretains independence of thought and action. Withhis mind sharpened by one of the most exactingeducational systems ever devised, it is not surpris-ing if his ideas shock conservative churchmen.

From its inception the Society of Jesus hasexcited controversy. Ignatius himself fell undersuspicion of heresy. Many 20th-century Jesuitshave incurred official censure, including the Frenchscientist, Teilhard de Ciiardin, with his theories ofevolution, and the American theologian, JohnCourtney Murray, urging the separation of churchand state. Such bold thinkers prompted the o]dJesuit joke, "The society is a monarchy limited

Long a Jesuit missionary in Japan,

Father Arrupe still prays in the Japanese fash ion-

sitting on his heels.

3 6

only by the incompetence of ita aupcriorfl andthe insulx>rdination of its subjects."

Mow far and how fast can a Jesuit—or. indeed,any priest- go in his involvement with the mrxlernsecular world? According to several Vatican in-siders, it is the approach and the pace of mmnJesuits, rather than any real dfKtrinal offense, thataroused Pope Paul's concern. Though he has giventhe society a mandate to confront head-on theforces of secularism, atheism and especially Marx-ism, he sees dangers in contact tw) free and close.

In Milan fto cite an example of what probablyworries him) the Jesuits of San Fidele maintain soclose a rapport with Italy's intellectual left thatsome say they risk condemnation.

All over Europe and South America the highlycontroversial worker-priest movement has enlistedJesuits, It began during World War 11 when Frenchpriests, changing their cassocks for overalls, ac-companied deported workers to German labtjrcamps and there tried to bring them spiritual aid.They continued to identify themselves with laborafter the war, working in factories, joining laborunions, taking part in strikes. Considering suchidentification a potential jeopardy to their priest-hood, the Vatican banned the movement. Then, in1965, to the gratification of Catholic liberals. Pope

Paul sanctioned its revival. But hehas since been disquieted by com-plaints from various distant dioceses,charging the worker-priests withMarxist sympathies.

In Poland a bizarre organizationcalled PAX claims to act as a mediumof reconciliation between Catholicismand Communism, Its Communist-directed purpose, however, is to viti-ate the country's Catholic front.Though the Vatican condemnedPAX in 1965, a score of priests, someJesuits among them, support it.

fn America, Father Murray is notthe only Jesuit to have hazarded con-troversial views. Not long ago. FatherJoseph D. Hassett, chairman ofFordham's philosophy department,opposed the Catholic bishops of NewYork when he backed proposed lib-eralized grounds for divorce, argu-ing, "When it comes to legal enact-ment, we should not force our reli-gious or moral beliefs of one groupon another,"

The outspoken do not always gounchecked. In 1965 the Rev. DanielBerrigan, an associate editor of/esHi/Missions magazine and co-chairmanof the Clergy Concerned About Viet-nam Committee, w-as transferred toLatin America after denouncing U.S,policy in Vietnam. The Catholic peri-odical Commonweal called the trans-fer "a shame and a scandal, a disgust-ingly blind, totalitarian act." Andthis Januarj- still another Jesuit, ateacher in a high school in Pliiladel-phia, was packed off to Baltimoreafter alleged unorthodoxies, where-upon some 82 fellow Jesuits signed aletter of outraged protest.

And so Jesuits continue to takerisks and launch ventures, some ac-tions meeting with approval, otherswith repudiation, but all of them re-vealing an imiwrtait organizationrevitalizing itself unt'er a gentle andpowerful leader. Arm w himself, dur-ing a press conference in America, setforth the premise: "W''do not intendto defend our mistake;. But neitherdo we want to comniii the greatestmistake of all—that of .vaiting witharms folded, and doing nothing forfear of making a mistake." D