To Those Jesuits to Whom This Applies

This article is not at all against the Jesuits proper, but it is against a certain genre of Jesuit which I have observed over my years here at BC. This is also not to any of those Jesuits whom I am close to—the ones I know well are good as gold and an honor to the Society. This also is admittedly not from a bishop to his priests, nor even from a priest to another priest, but in this era of synodality, it seems at least permissible. Lastly, while some of these things may come across as harsh, I say them only because I think so highly of the Society of Jesus, and, just like we see in a family, one is always most critical of those closest to him.

There are three main points which I would like to propose to these certain members of the Jesuit community: that I find their actions A) intolerant, B) lacking courage, and C) apathetic.

The inspiration for this article happened with regards to this first category. I was at the noon mass at St. Mary’s Chapel going up to communion when I saw someone ahead of me put his hands behind his back and open his mouth to receive communion on the tongue. The priest lowered the host so that the recipient would receive on the hand (this had happened a good number of times already). The recipient looked somewhat confused, and I saw the priest roughly say, “No!”.

It may be asked, “is there any directive from the Diocese or the Vatican which says only to receive Communion on the hand?”—no, not at all, and for more on this, see an article by Adam Sorrels from our last issue. Was this a safety precaution for the now-dead COVID? Doubtful, he didn’t wear a mask to distribute Communion, as anybody worried about COVID would do. No, this was wholly a matter of preference on the part of the priest.

Now I won’t lie, the deep places of my soul smolder at the sight of this, but the kicker, the straw on the old camel’s back, the coup de grâce was that this came on the coattails of a politically charged homily on tolerance, where the celebrant had said that the old Catholic schools were wrong to have divided up the class between boys and girls, that we had acted with ignorance and hate in immigration law, and that we need to have respect for everyone’s opinions.

This seems like the part in a harangue where I would go into some artful rhetorical device to illustrate in three parallel sentences why this is hypocritical and whatnot, but I don’t know if the priest even knew the irony of the situation and I don’t think it was ill intentioned, so in plain words I’ll just ask one honest question—why is it that you preach and practice tolerance only to those opinions which I think you hold and have no regard for people and ideas that disagree with your own private ideas?

Now, and in continuation with the last bit, I bring up my second point—viz. that there is a lack of courage. I know firsthand how hard it is to stand up to the loud voices on campus, how nice it would be if we could all agree, and the need to not be in-your-face about all our thoughts. I very much understand—I table with a very unpopular group on campus. Knowing all this, I have to say that I wish there was more courage from the pulpit. It is very easy to speak on how evil Nazism is, because, frankly, I doubt there are any Nazis at BC, or at least any who are openly so. There are, however, members of the Boston College community who could be reached from the pulpit—people who struggle with other much more common sins—fornication, sodomy, pornography, drunkenness, gluttony, and abortion.

Lastly, and this hurts most of all, I see a persistent apathy towards the Lord present in the Eucharist. The Words of Institution are said with either no reverence and no feeling, or theatrically overdone, waving the host back and forth like some carnival shiller, playing fast and loose with the words. I earnestly ask the priests of BC—please, please act like the Lord God Aalmighty is in your hands. How can the laity believe that this is truly the God of Noah and Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob, of Moses and Elijah, that same God Who set the mountains in their foundations, Who parted the Red Sea, Who died on the Cross? How can they possibly believe this if you treat Him in the exact same way as you would treat a tea-cookie?

And with these things having been said, I end. This is not the writings of someone angry at the Jesuit order, not someone wise in what they should be, but just the opinion of a lay man who is hurt to see how those who would be his role models so often fall short.

Featured image courtesy of Lawrence OP via Flickr