Bill McGurn · June 6, 2012 at 4:50pm

Speaks for itself: 25 Jesuits in Wisconsin signed petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker. This link provides some colorful details:

EMM has learned Marquette University High School  President Rev. Warren Samaza, SJ   acted as a signature gatherer for the  left’s  effort to recall Wisconsin Governor  Scott Walker.  I’m sure many  parents who sacrifice to  send  their sons to Marquette High School to learn Catholic values will be thrilled to know he’s so committed to undoing their votes from the 2010 gubernatorial election.  Oh well, if they can afford that school, they’re probably greedy undertaxed one percenters.

Sazama isn’t the only Jesuit in the Marquette community who is on board to replace the Marquette University alum governor  with a pro-abort/pro-gay marriage/pro-welfare state  secular humanist Democrat.   One of the signatures Sazama personally  collected was that of Marquette University  Trustee Father Thomas Lawler, SJ.  Oh, and, Lawler also happens to be  the Provincial Superior of all Jesuits  for Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Father Willian O’Leary, SJ was so caught up in recall fever that signed the petition twice.   On 11/19/12, he signed using the address 10100 W  Wisconsin Ave.  Then on 12/9/12 he signed again using the address 10100 W  Bluemound Rd.  Both addresses are part of the St Camillus Campus in Wauwatosa.  Thanks a lot, padre.  Much appreciated.

Father William J. Brennan, SJ also acted as a signature gatherer.  Father Bill is a colorful character.  In 2007 he travelled  to Cuba in order to perform an  ecumenical service at the tomb of  the marxist mass killer  Che Guevara.  I’m sure his heart was in the right place-lol.

Comments:


Ted Blurn
Joined
Mar '11
Ted Blurn

I'm shocked, shocked to learn there are raging leftists in Jesuit ranks. Hopefully the Vatican has a visit in store for them as well.

tabula rasa
Joined
Jun '10
tabula rasa

I need help from my Catholic friends. In my reading of history, the Jesuits were always getting in trouble for being tough guys, trying to run everything, etc. (i.e., not your standard "social justice" types).

Now they seem to be a bunch of effete, leftie wimps.  What happened? Or have I completely misread history?

Edited on June 6, 2012 at 5:26pm
Bill McGurn

No Salvation Outside the Democratic Party...

KC Mulville
Joined
Jan '11
KC Mulville

Speaks for itself? Humor me, I'm obviously deaf. What does it say?

  • That being liberal is anti-Catholic?
  • That being Democrat is anti-Catholic?
  • That being pro-union is anti-Catholic?
  • That unless you voted for Walker, you're not a true Catholic?
Pseudodionysius
Joined
Sep '10
Pseudodionysius

tabula rasa: I need help from my Catholic friends. In my reading of history, the Jesuits were always getting in trouble for being tough guys, trying to run everything, etc. (i.e., not your standard "social justice" types).

Now they seem to be a bunch of effete, leftie wimps.  What happened? Or have I completely misread history? · 11 minutes ago

Edited 10 minutes ago

Joseph M. Becker has some of the story here.

Pseudodionysius
Joined
Sep '10
Pseudodionysius

Pseudodionysius

tabula rasa: I need help from my Catholic friends. In my reading of history, the Jesuits were always getting in trouble for being tough guys, trying to run everything, etc. (i.e., not your standard "social justice" types).

Now they seem to be a bunch of effete, leftie wimps.  What happened? Or have I completely misread history? · 11 minutes ago

Edited 10 minutes ago

Joseph M. Becker has some of the story here. · 2 minutes ago

Small book review at New Oxford Review here.

tabula rasa
Joined
Jun '10
tabula rasa

Pseudodionysius

tabula rasa: I need help from my Catholic friends. In my reading of history, the Jesuits were always getting in trouble for being tough guys, trying to run everything, etc. (i.e., not your standard "social justice" types).

Now they seem to be a bunch of effete, leftie wimps.  What happened? Or have I completely misread history? · 11 minutes ago

Edited 10 minutes ago

Joseph M. Becker has some of the story here. · 2 minutes ago

Thanks, Pseudo.  I'm glad to know that I'm not completely delusional.

Pseudodionysius
Joined
Sep '10
Pseudodionysius

tabula rasa

Pseudodionysius

tabula rasa: I need help from my Catholic friends. In my reading of history, the Jesuits were always getting in trouble for being tough guys, trying to run everything, etc. (i.e., not your standard "social justice" types).

Now they seem to be a bunch of effete, leftie wimps.  What happened? Or have I completely misread history? · 11 minutes ago

Edited 10 minutes ago

Joseph M. Becker has some of the story here. · 2 minutes ago

Thanks, Pseudo.  I'm glad to know that I'm not completely delusional. · 3 minutes ago

I've read the book (several years ago). A very sad and poignant read in many parts, particularly because its devoid of polemic.

Foxman
Joined
Dec '10
Foxman

The founder of the Jesuits was Saint Ignatius.  He got to be a saint by killing heretics.  Things have changed.

KC Mulville
Joined
Jan '11
KC Mulville

Pseudodionysius

Small book review at New Oxford Reviewhere.

For the record, I haven't read the Becker book ... but if the review of it reflects what it says, it rings true to me. 

Couple of points to consider:

  1. Until the Sixties and Vatican II, most Jesuit candidates were recruited from high school (speaking only for America here). After that, they were all recruited from the colleges.
  2. Many Jesuits who were my superiors came from the Sixties generation. I recall one who admitted that when they were going through formation, they were the generation that rebelled against authority ... and so they never learned the skills of command.

For a long stretch that coincided with my time  in the Order, very few superiors knew how to command. Conflicts within a community weren't resolved by a command of obedience from a superior ... instead they became passive-aggressive dances of feelings and manipulation. We'd have to sit in a circle and hope the Holy Spirit would bring illumination. I always thought that Spirit would let us just sit there, in penance for our stupidity.

KC Mulville
Joined
Jan '11
KC Mulville
Foxman:  He got to be a saint by killing heretics. 

Not sure this is exactly accurate ...

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.

I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea that being a good Jesuit means you support one political party over another. Voting decisions are complex and require balancing competing values.

Nanda Panjandrum
Joined
Nov '11
Nanda Panjandrum

Aggrieved by Mr. McGurn's post and - as always - enlightened, heartened and challenged by K. C.'s responses!  Thanks to all!


Joined
Aug '11
Versed

Leftist values are a religion unto themselves and are fundamentally in conflict with many tenets of traditional Jewish and Christian faiths.  Leftists who consider themselves religious must by definition have left behind many of the traditional teachings of their faiths which are in direct conflict with leftist values.

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea that being a good Jesuit means you support one political party over another. Voting decisions are complex and require balancing competing values. · 1 minute ago
Fredösphere
Joined
May '10
Fredösphere

Then there's this somewhat more damning portrait of an order taken over by a gay mafia, found in the Weekly Standard. It ends with the memorable sentence:

But the passionately uncertain Jesuit finds himself enclosed in a small corner of a small world, with the waning consolations of sodomy and single-malt whiskey, tottering down the corridors of an increasingly ominous twilight.

That formula--single-malt whiskey, sodomy, senescence--compares and contrasts neatly with Churchill's famous summary of life in the British navy: rum, sodomy, the lash.

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.

If you want to see what a post like this looks from "the other side," you can read here.

Foxman
Joined
Dec '10
Foxman

KC Mulville

Foxman:  He got to be a saint by killing heretics. 

Not sure this is exactly accurate ... · 2 hours ago

Wasn't meant to be;-)

Bill McGurn

Actually what I summarized in flip form has become the de facto philosophy of left of center Catholics, who dissent -- usually publicly -- on most Catholic teaching, especially on human sexuality, but never question one jot of the Democratic Party platform. They would never put it that way, of course, but that's the way it works in practice, and the good fathers of Marquette just helped confirm it. 

KC Mulville
Joined
Jan '11
KC Mulville

What's most disturbing to me is the short-sightedness of "social justice" being measured entirely by tax money to the poor. The opposition that claims to be Catholic and for social justice sees only one thing: that money which used to go to the poor is on the proposed chopping block. Then, they see tax cuts, and all they can calculate is less money to poor, more money to investors (the already wealthy).

That's just short-sighted. Liberals often answer that by saying that the poor don't have time to be far-sighted. Yes - we have to find some way to overcome that - but continuing the existing mistake isn't a moral answer, especially when the money is going to run out soon anyway.

Look Away
Joined
Nov '10
Look Away

Bill, many thanks for this information, I now have fresh ammunition to defend myself from my Catholic wife and Priest, an exceptionally wonderful man, who are on my back constantly about converting from the Episcopal Church. As much as I admire the Catholic Church, I remain scarred from what I consider near communist proclamations from the Bishop in Richmond during the 1980s and 19902. I admire the Church, I am not sure I trust it yet.


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