A 'brief' on Matthews, St. Joe's, and Jesuit identity

"Because we are Jesuit, our education and formation are rooted in Ignatian spirituality. Because we are Jesuit, our work is characterized by loyalty to the Church, availability for service, and a high-hearted love of Christ.

Because we are Jesuit, the education we provide is marked by “cura personalis,” which means attention to the individual student and respect for the individual’s potential and pace in learning. Jesuit education is characterized by adaptability to individual differences and needs, as well as to wider needs determined by a reading of the “signs of the times.”

Because we are Jesuit, we routinely engage in the practice of discernment, an effort to choose wisely in worldly matters by striving to align personal and institutional choice with the will of God. We share this practice with our students, helping them to choose wisely and well as they mature into men for and with others."

excerpt from "Our Mission" - St. Joseph's Preparatory School

Agere sequitur essere -- Activity emanates from identity.

Is our identity still the same on Hawk Hill? Has our raison d'être at St. Joseph's University changed?

My good friend John Lammers, aka Novaboy, told me years ago when we were at Lucent Technologies to never write, then send, a letter out of anger. To shelve it, and wait until a cooler mind may prevail. So I've waited a month. I was disappointed with my alma mater's decision to honor Chris Matthews at this year's commencement -- and I remain so. It was an extremely poor decision made by the faculty, and approved by the SJU Board of Trustees and Fr. Timothy Lannon, SJ -- a man whom I greatly admire. Mr. Matthews had the following to say about the United States Bishops who feel that the teachings the Roman Catholic Church should apply to all Roman Catholics, including politicians:

"Today you have the Roman Catholic Church through its bishops challenging the rights of Catholic office-holders to take positions for abortion rights. They basically say you have to be for imprisonment of people involved with abortion or else you're not a Catholic and you'll be excommunicated. It seems to be an era, not just because of Islam, to keep religion out of politics . Why are they foisting themselves, why are the religious leaders jumping into the political marketplace and saying to politically-elected people, who are duly elected, "you cannot take that position and be in our church, or we will
excommunicate you"? That seems to be what's going on."

Mr. Matthews also uses his Nielsen challenged MS-NBC television show as a bully pulpit to voice his pro-abortion stance and to promote pro-abortion candidates. Is this really the person we want to give the last life lesson to our graduates? To a captive audience forced to listen?

I realize that "we cannot possibly please everyone when we choose our commencement speakers and honorees." As Matt Archbald reasoned "No. You can't please everyone. How about just God, then?" All issues are not equal in importance. It's not as if Mr. Matthews is on record as hating the colors of crimson and gray. We are talking about the sanctity of life. The Church's respect for life, that "Seamless Garment" from conception to natural death, is inviolate. Again I ask... why are we honoring him on Hawk Hill? In 2004 the US Bishops issued the following guidelines: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions. “

The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Catholic Standard and Times, had the following to say to St. Joseph's: “A person’s public support for abortion does not mean that the Church and its members should have nothing to do with him or her. It does mean that such a person should expect no honors from the church. Effecting such a change in hearts and in public policy must begin with a reliance on God’s grace, the witness of the Church’s principled stand against giving honors to those who oppose its teaching on the sanctity of human life and constant engagement with all people in consistent, respectful dialogue.” So my question remains... if the Cardinal of Philadelphia and the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church tell us NOT to honor those who act in defiance of the Church's moral principles...why is St. Joseph's University honoring Chris Matthews?

In her letter this week explaining why she is unable to accept Notre Dame's prestigious Laetare Medal, Harvard professor and former Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon quotes those same Bishop's guidelines: "This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops’ express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions 'should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles' and that such persons 'should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."'

Dr. Glendon further questions the decisions of Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of Notre Dame: "That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution’s freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it."

I am at a loss as well with regards to St. Joseph's decision. Invite him to speak someday at the school, where students, alumni, faculty, parents, and friends, if they choose, can listen to him. Heck, have him debate then mud wrestle Sean Hannity at the opening of the Hagan arena -- but don't honor him. This isn't about dialogue -- which is a conversation between two people -- it's about conferring honors. I was further dismayed by the "Pravda-like" article that appeared in The Hawk three days after the announcement; "We are first and foremost an academic institution," said Dr. Marty Meloche, who, on behalf of the committee, gives recommendations for speakers to University President Timothy Lannon, SJ, who makes the final decision. "Chris Matthews has a strong left-center position politically, and his show is called 'Hardball' for a reason. He has some positions that we agree with, but mostly he's just a good speaker." The article went on to dismiss alumni upset by the decision, who hold to the teachings of the Church, as a handful; "The University has heard from a handful of alumni who raised some concerns, but the response from the university community has been largely positive because of Matthews' stature as a national political commentator," said Harriet Goodheart, assistant vice president for University Communications, who also noted Matthews' extensive service record and numerous recognitions from other Catholic universities.

16 years of Catholic education and I am unsure what "a handful" constitutes. Not many, I guess, which I assume was an intentional way to belittle those alumni who still follow the teachings of the Church. Those who have roamed Barbelin Hall in decades past, and care enough about our future to write. Of course the "handful" had approximately three days to voice their concerns before The Hawk went to print - so that was hardly fair, was it? Neither Ms. Goodheart nor Dr. Meloche mentioned WHY there might be alumni upset with the decision, so we are also missing the intellectual honesty (conveniently missing in the article was Mr. Matthews calling Pro-Life Catholics terrorists) in the article by not presenting both points of view., particularly the Catholic point of view. Shouldn't Jesuit schools be defending the rights of the unborn, not ignoring them? Shouldn't Jesuit schools be honoring those who champion that which the Church stands for... not those who oppose our mores?

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put
other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and
peace is abortion."

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I am not interested in Matthews' service 40 years ago, although I thought it cool that he took his family to visit Fr. Angelo D'Agostino, SJ, MD at Nyumbani Orphanage. I care little that eight other Jesuits colleges and Villanova defied the Bishop's guidelines as well. To use this as an excuse is similar to the teenage rationale that "everyone else is doing it?" I was also surprised that a professor at St. Joe's would boast that "we are first and foremost an academic institution." Who gave him permission to remove the adjectives "Catholic" and "Jesuit" from my alma mater? Be careful what you wish for Doctor. In our attempt to become the pre-eminent Catholic university in the Northeast we are in jeopardy of losing our Catholic nature, as evidenced when you conveniently removed the modifiers. Beware that many alumni I talk to are having trouble cost justifying tuition at St. Joseph's for their children, when many of Hawk Hill's professors wish the school to be identical to a secular public university or an agnostic Ivy League college. State supported colleges do it much cheaper and the Ivies are more prestigious. Catholic and Jesuit gives us our distinctive nature. Continue to remove those labels, and what they represent, and you may find it difficult to attract students who no longer wish to matriculate at what is seemingly an over-priced public school with a Neumann Center or a less prestigious Ivy wanna-be with a chapel.

Of course sometimes (often times) I fee like old Don Quixote (but older). Perhaps I am wrong, and am just tilting at windmills. Fighting the inevitable. Times change, people change, and if the majority of professors just want an academic institution sans the Ignatian Spirituality -- I should just let it be and fondly remember our glorious past. But that's not the vision Fr. Lannon has for his faculty, many whom he inherited...

"I have long been of the opinion that our educational mission needs to be more firmly tied to the logic and dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises... But how do we bring faculty to the same point as that to which we want to bring our students? Surely, if we do not succeed with faculty, we shall not succeed with students. Today, even with hiring for mission working at its best, we will assemble a faculty distinguished by cultural, religious and political pluralism. Many of our best faculty are not Catholic, and may not be Christian. It seems to me that we need to develop a method through which the experience of the Exercises, obviously in some kind of humanistic reduction, can be available to those who do not share its spiritual vision or religious tradition. I am in total agreement with Father Provincial that the Exercises need to be offered to faculty in our institutions, but we also need a less specifically Christian expression of their genius to inform our formation programs for faculty. Without such a process, I fear, the Ignatian spirit will be progressively diluted precisely because it must in the future largely be promoted by non-Jesuits, who may very well be neither Catholic nor Christian."

Paideia and Empathy: Mission and Identity in a PluralisticWorld

Which brings us to another question. How can we retain our Catholic and Jesuit identity, especially with the evaporating Jesuit presence on campus? During our growth in the 1980's and 1990's it is a fact that as Jesuits and their Jesuit educated colleagues retired they were being replaced by both Catholics and non-Catholics who not only didn't understand nor share the Jesuit charism, but didn't even know who Ignatius Loyola was (although one applicant said she could probably "bone up" on the knowledge). In an effort to quickly fill the open positions we seemed to have hired a few who even had an antipathy towards Catholicism. You might also be surprised that our theology chairperson, of this Catholic, Jesuit college, isn't a Jesuit priest, and isn't even a Catholic. I don't think this is what Vatican II's Degree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio had in mind, at least that's not how Fr. Martin Tripole, SJ explained it, although I am no Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ. I would wager that Luther and Calvin are cracking a smile though, wherever they are.

Yet this is a concern shared by all 28 Jesuit colleges in the United States. Fr. Charles L. Currie, SJ, former professor at St. Joseph's, former rector of the Jesuit Community here, and now president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), gave a speech at Santa Clara University last May in which he "lauded Santa Clara for being at the center of all that is good about contemporary Jesuit higher education,” which he called "the holistic pursuit of excellence in all that you are doing, and a vibrant, engaged Jesuit, Catholic institutional identity.” As for the question, “‘Are we still Jesuit and Catholic?’,” Currie said, “we can respond that we are engaged in an ongoing quest to realize the promise of being Jesuit and Catholic—no easy task, but a magnanimous venture. With the strengths we have built in our schools, we have opportunities (and responsibilities) to participate in the transformation of our Church, nation, and world.” While optimistic Fr. Currie was also realistic:

"The reality is clear. At least in the short term, we are running out of Jesuits. That may or may not change in 15-20 years, but we already know the number of Jesuits in the pipeline and it is not enough to come near to replacing Jesuits who are or will be retiring. The ten Jesuit provinces are in the process of contracting to five. One obvious consequence of this: we are
losing those who have embodied the stories and traditions of our colleges and universities. Are we replacing them with women and men who can keep those stories and traditions alive and well? ... Of course, in the pluralistic world
in which we live, there will always be some on campus who are disinterested or even opposed to the fostering of Jesuit, Catholic identity as inappropriate for the main work of the university."

I have always been proud that Fr. Lannon has been at our helm of our school. I may have been one of the first to congratulate him when he accepted the office, writing and sending a Hawk t-shirt to him at Marquette. He was kind enough to invite my friends to break bread with him at Regis Hall after the Hogan / Ignatius Awards and we have corresponded on quite a few issues which affect the University. I do however disagree with his decision conferring honors on Mr. Matthews, but we are lucky to have him. He shares these concerns as well, and in a piece for Conversations in Jesuit Higher Education, echoed Fr. Currie's fears:

"More recently when I think about mission, I think about our Catholic and Jesuit identity in 2025 and beyond. During the ensuing years, we will continue to have fewer Jesuits on our campuses, we will face increasing specialization of the disciplines at our universities, and we may find ourselves living ion a culture even more unsupportive of our values."

Catholic Courses Are The Heart of Our Mission

Although expected, I was disappointed as when I heard that the University was again trying to revamp the GER, as I knew this meant reducing the number of philosophy and theology requirements, perhaps the last blow to the Jesuits' ancient Ratio Studiorum. As a compromise it was my understanding that Fr. Lannon requested (insisted:-) that one of the mandatory courses be on Ignatian/Jesuit Spirituality. While explaining the changes the Provost of the University also mentioned that the inclusion was "controversial" amongst the faculty. Although an explanation was rendered, I remain confused as to why a course on Jesuit Spirituality at a Jesuit college would be controversial (That course, taught by Fr. Willie Walsh, SJ, was my favorite -- surprise, surprise). I don't think this would be the case if there was still a Long Black Line at St. Joseph's and our other institutions. Of course when you've hired so many professors who don't share the Jesuits' mission and identity -- it shouldn't be a surprise. We now reap what we sowed, deleterious as it is to the spiritual welfare of our undergraduates.

Fr. Rick Malloy, SJ, one time professor at St. Joseph's (and should still be a professor at St. Joseph's), told me once of the 80/20 rule at SJU... that only about 20% of the students get "it", as in Hand-in-Hand, immersion programs, retreats based on the Exercises/Kairos, weekly mass attendance et al. While Williams, Yastrzemski, DiMaggio and Clemente never batted a 1.000 -- we must have a better batting average. In reading online comments about conferring honors on Matthews (The Hawk - commencement comments) I chose three nuggets of ignorance for obvious reasons. I am aware that the Jesuits educated Voltaire, Goebbels, and Castro -- but it would be a shame if these three didn't see the light before they left Hawk Hill, and if not, let them be discreet about where they received their undergraduate education:

For the three blind mice below, who may not have seen

this banner, and others, waving at them in front of the

Michael J. Smith, SJ Memorial - Chapel of St. Joseph.

"If you wanted a school that is very strict about the religious backgrounds of applying students, you should have gone to Bob Jones University. SJU is not Bob Jones. SJU does not take into consideration things like race or creed, in the JESUIT spirit of Men And Women For Others and Cura Personalis. So stop trying to say that this school has some kind of responsibility to the Catholic Church."

"I chose to join the Saint Joseph's community because I have respect for the ideals of the Jesuit order, regardless of the fact that I don't think their religion has any basis in truth, and that their faith is a myth. Saint Joseph's, and the Jesuit Order, are above the pettiness of the Catholic Church. I may not believe in the theology side of the Jesuits, but I certainly respect their courage for standing up for what is right. Instead of considering the comparatively minor issues 'compromised' by having Chris Matthews speak on campus, how about we take a look at the values that are being compromised by strictly following Catholic Church teaching?"

"While you may wish to believe that SJU continues to be "first and foremost a CATHOLIC Academic institution" this '06 grad disagrees. All of my courses, including my theology GERs had a distinctively humanistic slant. Unless you are a recent graduate like myself you have no means to evaluate the true nature of the university. The times they have been a-changin' indeed!"

When you receive your diplomas, please notice the following:

"Greetings in the Lord" and " ad maiorem Dei gloriam" should make you understand this a bit more ;-)

FYI: The Archdiocese raised a million so

the Jesuits could separate the College

from the Prep and move to Overbrook. Here

Cardinal Dougherty blesses the cornerstone

of Barbelin - Lonergan Hall.

In the last month I've gone from wanting to withdrawal from St. Joseph's -- to wanting to fight for it. Tenui nec dimittam! One or two sad episodes will not douse the fire. Hawk Hill, or my vision of Hawk Hill, is worth fighting for. I have always tried, in various small ways, to support every Jesuit mission I could; my buddies the Jamshedpur Jesuits, St. Joseph's Preparatory School, Old St. Joseph's Church, the Gesu School in North Philadelphia, St. Luke's Catholic Medical Services - JUST in Camden, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and the JRS, (Subtlety I included the links for you so you may click and maybe send them some $) I do not want the secular humanists, the atheists, the agnostics... whomever we made the mistake of inviting in... to destroy my Catholic, Jesuit alma mater by turning her into just Joseph's University (sans saint), Penn State - City Line Campus, or Harvard Community College. I don't think this is what St. Ignatius would have wanted for our Jesuit university...

This was in keeping with one of Ignatius' first principles in choosing apostolates: all other things being equal, choose those apostolates that will influence those who have the most influence on others. Maybe the best expression of this idea was in a letter he wrote about the founding of colleges in December of 1551: "From among those who are now merely students, in time some will depart to play diverse roles - one to preach and carry on the care of souls, another to government of the land and the administration of justice, and others to other callings. Finally, since young boys become grown men, their good
education in life and doctrine will be beneficial to many others, with the fruit expanding more widely every day." From then on, Ignatius helped establish Jesuit schools and universities all over Europe and the world.

Fr. Norman O'Neal, SJ

In omnibus quaerant Deum -- "in all things seek God." I know Dr. Meloche or Ms. Goodheart would be familiar with that Ignatian phrase, although it isn't evident from their quotes. Perhaps it's 'controversial' these days. Yet St. Ignatius and his companions, before they even started the first college in Messina, were all about saving souls, so much so that in his 500 year old training manual, a classic in Christian mysticism, he had the foresight to know that not just Jesuits would be "taking the Exercises", thus the 19th Annotation for those of us "taken up with public affairs or suitable business", who couldn't devote 30 straight days to meditation. The following from Louis J. Puhl, SJ, from his translation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

"By the term Spiritual Exercises is meant every method of examination of conscience, of meditation, of contemplation, of vocal and mental prayer, and of other spiritual activities that will be mentioned later. For just as taking a walk, journeying on foot, and running are bodily exercises, so we call the Spiritual Exercises every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all inordinate attachments, and, after their removal, of seeking and finding the will of God in the disposition of our life for the salvation of our soul."

Seeking and finding the will of God, and the salvation of souls. It still seems important. Important enough to pass on to the next generation. Are we still doing that? If so it must, like love, "manifest itself more by deeds than by words." I express my disappointment here because the Jesuits have always been heroes to me, since I was a young boy in Catholic grade school. I was impressed then, and I remain impressed with their imitation(s) of Christ. Fr. Ignatius said that if the Society of Jesus were to be disbanded, it would take him just a half-hour of prayer to get over it. So I guess I should now get over this. If any of you are still awake I'll leave you with the words of the former Father General:

“You are called by the Society of Jesus to be men and women who reflect upon the reality of the world around you, with all its ambiguities, opportunities, and challenges in order to discern what is really happening in your life and in the lives of others. To find God there, and to discover where God is calling you, to employ criteria for significant choices that reflect Godly values rather than elusive self interest. To decide in the light what is truly for the greater glory of God and the service of those in need, and then to act accordingly.

Fr-General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach,SJ (pictured with Fr-General Pedro Arrupe, SJ), St.Joseph's University address

May it always be.

AMDG,

44

PS -- responses from "the handful" that care about St. Joseph's and Catholic higer education are in the comments section, all anonymous. You'll have to take my word that I didn't write them.

PPS -- Think I need an editor?