[Robert357]

“...Please explain the “Jesuits” thing. A liberal sect?

I just know they tend to be more academic...”

Actually the Jesuits have been kicked out of more countries than you can shake a stick at.

They tend to also be explores and highly political missionaries. The order was founded by a soldier.

Sort of think Mohammad, but Christian. They were known in many circles as the Pope's soldiers and did his dirty work.

The Dominicans and the Jesuits were at the center of the Spanish Inquisition, with the Jesuits being pretty infamous for what they did.

They run and teach at many universities around the world. Some would say in an effort to influence the elite of those countries and shape their policies.

Again, this should be interesting.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Jesuits

Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit Priest who became a missionary to China.

He was a genius who could speak Chinese as well as read and write classical Chinese, the literary language of scholars and officials. He was known for his appreciation of Chinese culture in general, but did condemn the prostitution which was widespread in Beijing at the time.

During his research he discovered that, in contrast to the cultures of South Asia, Chinese culture was strongly intertwined with Confucian values and therefore decided to use existing Chinese concepts to explain Christianity. He did not explain the Catholic faith as something foreign or new, instead, he said that the Chinese culture and people always believed in God, and that Christianity is simply the most perfect manifestation of their faith.

Thus the Chinese Lord of Heaven (Pinyin "Tiānzhǔ") is identical with God. He supported Chinese traditions by agreeing with their honoring of the dead.

With this approach, Ricci was able to convert many members of the Qing dynasty court to Christianity (the Emperor Kang-Xi himself was very favorable to the preaching of Christianity in all of China ).

Dominican and Franciscan missionaries felt Ricci went too far in accommodation and convinced the Vatican to outlaw Ricci's approach. This gave rise eventually to the Chinese Rites controversy.

The Chinese Rites controversy was a 17th–18th-century dispute among Roman Catholic missionaries, first originated in China, about whether Chinese ritual practices of honoring family ancestors and other formal Confucius and Chinese imperial rites were too superstitious to be incompatible with Catholic and Christian belief.

On one side, the Jesuits (e.g. Matteo Ricci himself) argued that these Chinese rites are compatible within certain limits and should thus be tolerated. On the other side, the Dominicans and Franciscans argued otherwise and reported the issue to Rome.

Rome's Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith sided with the Dominicans in 1645 by condemning the Chinese rites based on their brief. However, the same congregation sided with the Jesuits in 1656, thereby lifting the ban.

It was one of the many disputes between the Jesuits and the Dominicans else where in Asia, including Japan and India.

The controversy embroiled leading European universities; the Kang-xi emperor (China) and several popes (including Clement XI and Clement XIV) considered the case; the offices of the Holy See also intervened. Near the end of the 17th century, many Dominicans and Franciscans had shifted their positions in agreeing with the Jesuits' opinion, but Rome disagreed.

Clement XI banned the rites in 1704. In 1742 Benedict XIV reaffirmed the ban and forbade debate.

In 1939, after two centuries the Holy See re-assessed the issue. Pope Pius XII issued a decree of 8 Dec 1939, authorized Christians to observe the ancestral rites and participate in Confucius-honouring ceremonies. Later, the general principle of admitting native ceremonies into the liturgy of the church whenever possible was proclaimed by the second Vatican Council (1962–65).

[Mike OMalley]

There is a British film from 1986 about the Jesuits at their best: “The Mission”.

The film is set in the 1750s and involves Spanish Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (played by Jeremy Irons) who enters the South American jungle to build a mission and convert a Guaraní community to Christianity. This film comes highly recommended... http://artsandfaith.com/t100/

The Guaraní survive today in Paraguay.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

“The fairies in what nation soever they converse have but one universal king, which some poets of ours call King Oberon; but the Scripture calls Beelzebub, prince of demons. 

The ecclesiastics likewise, in whose dominions soever they be found, acknowledge but one universal king, the Pope.”

- Thomas Hobbes. 

Leviathan, 1651.

[SisterK]

The Jesuits are like the CIA of the Roman Catholic Church. Might get interesting.