Can the Jesuits Be Saved?
by Russell Shaw – January 10, 2008 Reprinted with permission from our good friends at InsideCatholic.com, the leading online journal of Catholic faith, culture, and politics. A friend of mine tells of attending a showing at a Jesuit university of a video produced to mark the centenary of the birth in 1907 of Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., “the Basque Jesuit,” who as a missionary in Japan tended the wounded and dying after the atom-bombing of Hiroshima, and was superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. He is revered by contemporary Jesuits as the man who not only presided over but initiated many of the changes in the Society after Vatican II. Questions and discussion followed the video. Someone asked if Father Arrupe would be canonized a saint. According to my friend, the answer was: Not as long as the people currently in charge in Rome are calling the shots. That strikes the authentic Jesuit note of the last 30 years: a little paranoid, more than a little petulant, quick to
