MrUlster 20220130 - SharedFuture - 4CornersBelfast - EM5B2475
(Image by Mr Ulster from flickr) Details DMCA
Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) April 23, 2024: The lay Catholic English journalist Dr. Austen Ivereigh (born in 1966) published the book Catholicism and Politics in Argentina, 1810-1960 (St. Martin's Press) in 1995 - long before Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (born in 1936) from Argentina was elected pope in March 2013 and took the name Pope Francis - the first Jesuit spiritual director ever elected pope.
Known popularly as the Jesuit order (known formally as the Society of Jesus), the religious order of men (there is no branch of women Jesuits) was founded by the Spanish Renaissance mystic known as St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) - the author of the succinctly written book of instructions known as the Spiritual Exercises. The succinctly written instructions are for what are known as Spiritual Exercises (no italics) - also known as meditations.
As part of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Jesuit formation, he made a 30-day retreat in silence (except for the daily conferences with the retreat direction) following the instructions in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola in both his first year in the Jesuit novitiate and, later, in his tertianship year. (The Jesuit novitiate is a two-year period; the later third year known as tertianship involves novitiate-like living.)
Disclosure: When I was in the Jesuits (1979-1987), I made a 30-day directed retreat in my first year in the Jesuit novitiate in Denver, Colorado, under the direction of the novice master, Father Edward O'Brien, S.J. It was one of the most memorable events in my life. But also in my two-year Jesuit novitiate, I made numerous shorter preached retreats - lasting three days or eight days.
Up to the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the Roman Catholic Church, the Jesuits tended to offer preached retreats. However, Vatican II urge all religious orders to revisit their founding, In the process of revisiting the founding of their order, the Jesuits learned that early Jesuits tended to give directed retreats, not preached retreats. As a result, Jesuits renewed their tradition of offering directed retreats, but without discarding preached retreats.
In any event, does it help us understand the thrust of the doctrinally conservation Pope Francis' papacy to know that he is the first Jesuit spiritual directory ever elected pope?
I have profiled the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis in my widely read OEN article "Pope Francis on Evil and Satan" (dated March 24, 2019):
Now, subsequent to the election of Pope Francis in March 2013, Dr. Ivereigh published two biographies of the man from Argentina: (1) The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (Henry Holt, 2014); and (2) Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church (Henry Holt, 2019).
But to round out your understanding of the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis, I would also recommend reading the intellectual biography The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Intellectual Journey by the Italian philosopher Massimo Borghesi, translated by Barry Hudock (Liturgical Press Academic, 2018; orig. Italian ed., 2017).
As to understanding why Dr. Ivereigh refers to the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis as "Wounded Shepherd," figuratively speaking, see Borghesi's 2021 book Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis, translated by Barry Hudock (Liturgical Press Academic; orig. Italian ed.,2021).
Now, more recently, Dr. Ivereigh participated in producing the accessible 2020 book Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future: Pope Francis in Conversation with Austen Ivereigh (Simon & Schuster).
Now, Dr. Ivereigh's accessible new 2024 book is titled First Belong to God: On Retreat with Pope Francis (Loyola Press) - with a "Foreword" by Pope Francis (pp. xi-xiii). Dr. Ivereigh has structured it as an eight-day preached retreat.
Dr. Ivereigh presents a schematic "Overview of the Retreat" over two pages toward the end of the book (pp. 182-183). The headings of the columns in the "Overview" are Day (of the eight-day retreat), Title (of the Day in the book), Theme of the Day, Sections (of the Day), Spiritual Exercises (of the corresponding section of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola), and Texts (of Gospels and of Pope Francis' writings selected for meditation). The sheer intricacy of the "Overview of the Retreat" shows just how carefully Dr. Ivereigh has organized this new 2024 book.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Post Article Comment and Rate This Article
