(Vatican Radio) Among the Jesuits in Rome is church historian and well known author,
Professor Norman Tanner. Veronica Scarisbrick recently sat down with him in our studios
in an effort to find out more about what it is that makes a Jesuit... Listen:
In
the second part of this interview which she’s called ‘Once a Jesuit, always a Jesuit?..’
she begins by asking Professor Tanner about the openness Pope Francis, who as we know
is a Jesuit, has towards everyone around him: "Yes I think he's been able to
transcend a lot of the tensions which are there by his outgoing and warm personality.
On the other hand of course we know he's often spoken of the devil, he's had to face
difficulties within the church, he lived in a time in his own country Argentine when
there was a very difficult political situation. Many of those whom he knew in the
Order and outside the Jesuit Order suffered grievously...so he's fully aware you
might say of the reality of evil and encourages Christians by his mentioning the devil
and so on to confront this other aspect of our lives and not be naively idealistic.
And indeed his early family itself lived in Italy and migrated to Argentine before
the birth of Pope Francis and that's a huge upheaval for a family to move from Italy
to, as he said, the other end of the world. So he gives this joyous and encouraging
face to us but he's fully aware of the difficulties of life. Asked by Veronica
Scarisbrick about the frequent reference of Pope Francis of converting and of the
possibility of changing one's life style Professor Tanner replies: " I think that's
very important, we have two senses of conversion I suppose becoming Christians becoming
Catholics but also in the second sense of encouraging Christians and Catholics
themselves to convert again and go deeper into their faith, not just in terms of
the intellectual side but also of life style, way of living"... Another question
put to Professor Tanner in this interview relates to how Saint Ignatius might have
reacted to the election of a Jesuit Pope: " Well it's true that Ignatius was
very cautious, indeed against the idea of Jesuits becoming bishops. he fought in his
own lifetime strenuously against popes who wanted to make various Jesuits into bishops
or cardinals. So he was very hesitant in that respect and it felt that talented or
important members of the order were in a sense taken out of the order for a greater
good, but nevertheless taken out of the order, and so people that the order needed
were not there anymore. In Ignatius's lifetime although there were plenty of Jesuits
who were asked to become bishops, one or two accepted Ignatius managed to persuade
the Pope not to appoint most of them. But there was never any question in his lifetime
of a Jesuit actually becoming Pope, so we'll leave that question to another day ..." However
not satisfied with leaving that question to another day Veronica Scarisbrick dared
push the question further asking whether Ignatius would have approved of a Jesuit
Pope : "Well it never got to the stage of Pope, the key point was whether Jesuits
would be made bishops. so we were in a very difficult time with the Reformation,
Counter- Reformation and there were lots of diocese which needed good bishops and
a succession of popes wanted to make various Jesuits into bishops or archbishops or
cardinals ...and the order has always admitted this possibility but it accepts it
with some reluctance"... So where does the oath Jesuits take not to seek higher
office stand then, Veronica Scarisbrick queried and again how does the Pope himself
stand towards his Jesuit Superior General now that he's the head of the Catholic Church
? "Yes that's right we take a vow not to seek these higher offices.. but if we're
asked or ordered by the Pope to accept a bishopric then obviously we would normally
say yes.... if we go a step back when a Jesuit is asked to become a bishop he remains
in a sense part of the order but obviously in another sense he’s outside the order.
So that’s even more the case when a man is chosen to become pope. We’re very pleased
that the Pope has kept as it were his Jesuit links but he’s been asked by the Church,
by God to take on a new role. Other questions in this interview focus around the
Jesuit’s solemn vows, their formation, their training ,their belonging to the family…