Oh, Those Wacky Jesuits!

The new Superior General thinks that liberation theology will be just fine as long as it's given time to "mature" and is saddened that this heretical BS hasn't' been given a "vote of confidence."

What the hell is this? I gladly kicked dirt on the grave of liberation over a decade ago. Now this guy wants us to give it a "vote of confidence." Really. I'm not making this up. CNA has the story:

In an interview with El Periodico, Father Nicolas said Liberation Theology “is a courageous and creative response to an unbearable situation of injustice in Latin America. As with any theology, it needs years to mature. It’s a shame that it has not been given a vote of confidence and that soon its wings will be cut before it learns to fly. It needs more time.”

We've been dealing with this stuff for decades now. It has been condemned by the current pope and the previous one as completely incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Perhaps Fr. Nicolas would like for us to give Arianism another shot. How about rolling iconoclasm out of the garage and kicking the tires on it for another century or so?

Here was Cardinal Ratzinger's first broadside, way back in 1984. This made for a steady stream of attacks all the way up to his first encyclical.

The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. . .

The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. The Church is one of those living forces: she is alive with the love enkindled by the Spirit of Christ. This love does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support. In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live “by bread alone”—a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.

Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est

Hmmm. Materialist conceptions of man? Wonder who might promote that? Smells like Marxism, which is the engine that drives the whole liberation theology bus.

Yeah, maybe Fr. Nicolas isn't referring to any of the condemned "versions" of LT, but if that's the case then he should make that distinction. Not to mention the very fact that he's talking about "cut wings" and such indicates that he is specifically referring to what has already been classified as heresy.

In almost Kasparian fashion, Fr. Nicolas closes out with an even more outrageous comment:

He said it was “possible” that the Church in Spain has “a tendency to be reprimanding.” “I’ve always found it bothersome and incomprehensible that a priest lectures his people. What right does he have to do that? It’s a mistake,” Father Nicolas said.

Screw those spiritual works of mercy. Why bother sinners with correction or the ignorant with instruction? How could anyone think that a priest would lecture/reprimand his flock? Maybe because Jesus did and instructed his apostles to do likewise. Surely there's a problem with the translation here.

It seems like a short time ago that JPII directly intervened in the Jesuit's election of their Superior General. We know that both Cardinal Rode and Pope Benedict made a point to emphasize the 4th vow to the Society prior to this election. It seems that neither action has done any good.

Let us pray for the Society, its members, and those entrusted to their care. St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Peter Canisius, and St. Robert Bellarmine, pray for them!