The following quotations speak for themselves. They were collected and collated by a Jesuit friend, now deceased (my faithful readers can probably guess…), who thought they should be made public. I’m posting them now to honor his intention. – PFL
The fervour that characterized our beginnings, manifested in Ignatius and in his friends in the Lord, must also be apparent in our present day. Father Nadal, speaking in the name of the first Jesuits, noted that the Society is a light shining forth from Christ. It fills our beings, arouses strong desires and urges us to work for the salvation of all in a mission received from the Vicar of Christ on earth. [Introductory Allocution of Father General to the Congregation of Procurators, Sept 17, 1999.]
Bollard also told interviewers on “60 Minutes” that during his seven years as a Jesuit, at least 12 priests made unwelcome sexual advances and invited him to cruise gay bars. At first, he refrained from reporting the advances, he said, out of fear that he would jeopardize his future with the order. When Bollard did take his complaints to the Jesuit provincial in California, Fr. John Privett, they were brushed off, he said. He said Privett gave him a coffee cup that bore the words “no whining” and asked him to sign a paper releasing the Jesuits from legal liability. [Pam Schaeffer, in the National Catholic Reporter, December 17, 1999]
Today the Jesuit is a man whose mission is to dedicate himself entirely to the service of faith and the promotion of justice. [General Congregation 32, “Our Mission Today,” §41]
I feel that hopefully we now have an impetus going in the Congress which will never allow [a pro-life amendment] to become the law of the land. I have regularly received excellent information from your organization and will continue to rely upon you and your associates. [Letter of Fr. Robert Drinan, S.J., to the president of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, August 5, 1974, cited by Mary Meehan, Our Sunday Visitor, September 8, 1996, p. 9]
In like manner, we are to [call to mind the] sin of one who went to hell because of one mortal sin. Consider also countless others who have been lost for fewer sins than I have committed. … Enter into conversation with Christ our Lord. Recall to memory that of those who are in hell; some came there because they did not believe in the coming of Christ; others, though they believed, because they did not keep the commandments. [St. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, §§52, 71.]
On one point, however, I would like to correct the record. When asked what Jesuits have to contribute to Boston College, I replied that Ignatius and the early Jesuits often said that their purpose was “to help souls.” Your reporter heard me say, “to help save souls” — a small but important difference. … The Ignatian impulse is not to save people from their condition but to help them realize what it truly means. [Joseph Appleyard, S.J., rector of the Boston College Jesuit community, letter to the editor of the Boston College Observer, November, 1996.]
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