in the tradition

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 09, 2008

The Jesuits have just concluded their 35th General Congregation, and your Uncle Di spent half an hour bouncing around the website constructed for the occasion. The home page has links directing us to photos, news releases, interviews, blog postings, and oddly opaque notices about forthcoming declarations. There's also a "sharing" site where anyone who wishes can post his personal reflections. I think the entry from February 18 deserves a smaller readership:

Dear Delegates: You have solicitated some thoughts about GC-35 from interested parties. Well here's mine. You should not overlook the potential contributions possible from former Jesuits. I am one such person. So was my father before me. In many places I am accepted with open arms. In other places I feel like a leper. Some of us are extremely angry people. Others are not. Others still are grateful for the positive influence the SOC has had on our lives. We are not cyclops, with one eye in the center of our forehead. In general I don't think that the order has a clue on how to deal with former members and this is a pity because this is an untapped resource. Consider this. John McEnerney

John my lad, I can only hope that when, God willing, your own son leaves the Jesuits, he may partake of his father's and grandfather's ardor to contribute to the Society's survival. Far from constituting an "untapped" resource, you former members would appear to be the wave of the future.