Gregorian: new Rector takes His Office

Gregorian: new Rector takes His Office Editor: The first commenter on the kath.net portal, "palmzweig" complains that none of the Jesuits wear their habits. It's understandable that this should provoke suspicion and distrust. It's amazing that such a superficial thing reveals so much. All in all this is not an encouraging appointment. That this man's specialty is Hannah Arendt is hardly consoling. It may take more time before the people in charge realize that men whose worldly studies may impress secular mentalities, do not serve the Church well.

Yesterday on Wednesday the French philosopher and Jesuit Francoi-Xavier Durmortier (61) begins his job as Rector of the Papal Gregorian University.

Rome [kath.net/as] Yesterday on Wednesday, September 1, the French philosopher and Jesuit Francois-Xavier Dumortier (61) began his new work as Rector of the Papal Gregorian University. P. Dumortier worked previously as a professor of philosophy with the specialization in philosophic ethics at the Centre Sèvres and taught at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge Massachusets. Dumortier researches the German philosopher Hannah Arendt (d. 1976), who as a young researcher was forced by the National Socialists to exile in the United States. IN 1982 Dumortier was ordained a priest. In 1990 he took solemn vows in the Society of Jesus.

In 2003 Dumortier was selected as the Superior of the Jesuit French Province. Pope Benedict XVI. had named him on April 26th as the new rector to the Gregorian University.

My first thought was, I've never even SEEN a modern Jesuit in any sort of habit. I'm familiar with the brown robes of the Franciscans, grey ones of Fr. Groeschel's branch of the Franciscans, and the white ones of the Dominicans. I'm assuming the Jesuits have black robes, because of the historical mentions of them in evangelization of the Americas.

My other thought was the fact that his research specialty is a philosopher who might be questionable when it comes to Catholic teaching is not, in and of itself, any sort of threat to the Church. I believe we SHOULD know all we can about those who would try to answer questions that the Church looks on as best answered in a religious context, but are doing so in a secular humanist way, so as to provide an alternative for students who may come across that person's writings in their own studies.

I have no reason to doubt Pope Benedict's judgment in his appointments, so the fact that it was he who chose Durmortier makes me less likely to be suspect of him. And since he's at the Gregorian, he'll be close enough so that the Pope can keep a close eye on him. ;o)

People who are interested in Arendt are Frankfurt School types. Here’s a brush-up on Frankfurt School for those who don’t know anything about it:

http://www.catholicinsight.com/online/features/article_882.shtml

I could think of a million and one things I’d rather a Priest were doing than study Hannah Arendt. He’s probably just another multi-culturalist, and it would probably also be telling who his academic advisor was... Of course, Weston School of Theology is a real bastion of Orthodoxy.

http://www.catholicinsight.com/online/features/article_882.shtml

This is the second thread from this same blog today that shows the author of the blog doesn’t know what he’s talking about. (The other one was on the new Jesuit institute in Sweden.)

Jesuits never wore habits. That was one of the innovations they pioneered back in the 1500s.

They wore cassocks, as did all priests. But there is no such thing as a Jesuit habit.

And some Jesuits do wear cassocks today and some wear other forms of clericals.

This author posts crap.

There are solid and orthodox Jesuits out there. Fr. Fessio, Paul Mankowski, Edward T. Oakes, the late Avery Dulles, and a lot of others. There are many more under the radar because they are not yet through their formation. But eventually they will provide the leadership. The last 40 years in the wilderness will come to an end. This blogger doesn’t get it that “past performance is no guarantee of future performance.”

He can bitch all he wants about all the bad things Jesuits of the last 40 years have done. But just because the new rector is a Jesuit doesn’t not mean the new rector is a bad guy. To assume that he is is just plain stupid and morally wrong. The author owes his readers evidence about the actual positions and writings of the new rector. If they are unorthodox, bitch away at him. But to do so without evidence is unChristian and unCatholic and just plain wrong.

The “evidence” that “Tancred” offers is that the new rector has written about Hannah Arendt.

I know some pretty distinguished conservatives who like aspects of Arendt’s work. Jean Bethke Elshtain comes to mind. That doesn’t mean they belong to the Frankfort School or agree with everything Arendt believed.

This “Trancred” guy is offering a double-guilt-by-association calumny: the new rector is a Jesuit who studies Arendt. Arendt is unremittingly evil and Jesuits are unremitting evil ergo this new rector is bad.

This is garbage. Tancred has to offer concrete evidence from the writings of the new rector to demonstrate that he’s a bad guy.

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