Review: 'American Jesuits and the World' | National Catholic Reporter

Review: 'American Jesuits and the World' | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: There is always an "on the other hand."  The Jesuits were considered the shock troops for the Pope (a designation that no longer applied until, perhaps, Francis).  As the Pope had pretensions as leader of Italy, as well as Catholicism, some of the fears were justified.  Perhaps if the Popes had not damned Protestants for not being Catholic, the situation might have been different.  Indeed, calling them sects of western Christianity rather than Churches in their own right is still offensive.  As for the Bible, it had not been much earlier that the Anglicans had burned people at the stake for translating the Bible - but in the end the Protestants were right, the people have a right to the scriptures in their own venacular - even as the language evolves.  Granted, there is no excuse for persecution and bad behavior, but that bad behavior goes both ways - although more from the Pope's than the Jesuits themselves.  As presented here, its seems that this book does a good job of taking the Jesuit side, but not so much taking the side of history.



On the religious freedom angle - in democracies the the Church seeks religious freedom if it must, religious power if it can (see the 1950s) - in other countries it seeks religious power - and that is not something that should be defended.