University of Detroit - Tower Yearbook (Detroit, MI)

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ST. FRANCIS XAVIER ST. JOHN BERCHMANS would show men that they could not pride themselves on hatred of their enemies, and still quench their thirst for peace. To accomplish these reformations, Ignatius needed an army of followers that was mobile, disciplined, and devoted. It is hardly possible to dwell on his early difficulties. Among these was the necessity of further education if he were to become the leader which he now felt he ought to be. But it is pleasant to recall that his eleven years of schooling, begun when he was thirty-three, ended happily. In 1534, he received his master’s degree and his formal education was over. He had won the devotion of two brilliant professors of Philosophy, Francis Navier and Peter Faber, from the University of Paris; two Doctors of Theology, Laynez and Salmeron, from the University of Alcala; Professor Bobadilla from the Uni- versity of Valladolid, and Simon Rodriguez from Portugal. On the Feast of the Assumption in that same year, this group of like-minded men met at the Chapel of St. Denis at Montmarte. Here they pronounced their vows of Poverty, Chas- tity, and Apostolic Labours. In 1537, the third vow of Apostolic Labours was replaced by one of obedience. It was all for the “Greater Glory of God.” Whither this motto would lead them, to what it would make them devote themselves, at first these Ignatians scarcely knew, nor did they seem greatly to care. They had caught the gleam of Christ's standard, and they vowed away their own wills that they might be prepared to undergo any labor or sacrifice for its greater advancement. The group developed rapidly and well; by September of 1540, it had at- tracted so many followers, and had achieved such notable success that Pope Paul [11 approved of its constitutions in the Bull, “Regimini Militantis Ecclesia” and the Society of Jesus was fully formed. A few months before this formal approval, the first major test of obedience was gloriously passed by Francis Xavier. At a moment's notice, without the slightest hesitation, he answered his Superior’s order to carry the light of truth to the Far East. On March 16, 1540, Francis left Rome to devote the remaining twelve years of his life to the study of Oriental languages and religions, to the composition of grammars and the translations of the Gospels, to the conversion of hundreds of thousands and the consoling of feverish brows that had never throbbed in unison with a Head crowned with thorns. Xavier was but the first of these new heroes of Christ. While his letters were proclaiming the victories of Christ in the Indies, his brethren were achieving like success as missionaries and Papal envoys in Vienna, Salamanca, Scotland, Ireland and wherever else the Greater Glory of God needed them. ‘To take the single instance of Southern and Central Germany where Faith was corrupted Page 10

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LIES) TOUR NG Page 9 $T. ICNATIUS LOYOLA, FOUNDER AND FIRST GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF THE 1940 DO GINA Y VERY REV. WLODIMIR LEDOCHOWSKI, S.J. PRESENT CENERAL OF THE SOCIETY | so many heroes today, Ignatius Loyola was a soldier. Like them he per- formed his deeds of valor, and with them he dreamed his glorious conquests. Unlike them, however, he earned his glory for all time; his dreams which were to fill the books of history became victories recorded in the Book of Life. It was in the year 1521, after the Battle of Pamplona, while he was proudly nursing his broken right shin, that this swashbuckling son of Don Belran Yanez de Onez y Loyola, this would-be conqueror of the world, became Inigo, the ruler of his soul. In that hour, through the writings of a Carthusian monk, he met Christ and the Saints. For the first time in his lite he saw the ruthlessness, the cheapness, the evanescence of earthly glory. Ignatius saw and he was determined. He would unite this Babylonian world under a new standard which did not im- pose conditions of peace, but actually created peace. He would remind men of their rational nature and their mystical union with God. His Spiritual Exercises

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Page 11 ST, ALOYSIUS CONZACA ST. PETER CANISIUS completely by the heresies of Luther and the scandalous lives of the clergy: Igna tius immediately established the German College for the training of German youths to go back as clerical missionaries to their own land. At the same time, he sent some of his best men to Ingolstadt to establish German universities that would rival the Protestant institutions. Among these Jesuits whom he sent was one of the most brilliant young scholars in Europe, Peter Canisius. The success of Peter’s mission and the wonderful works accomplished by him seem almost in credible. A rathei incomplete bibliography of the Society devotes thirty-eight quarto pages to a list of the works published by Canisius. He was not only a prolific writer but he was Papal Theologian, Catechizer of Children, Confessor to the Queen, Priest of the poor, Founder of Universities, and Apostle of Germany. Hundreds of gold-lettered pages might tell of Ignatius’ efforts to make his followers masters of themselves and of the world about them. ‘The Spiritual Exercises, the Constitutions of the Society, the letters to his novices and to his veterans, could be read, but it would always be the same indifference to “health or sickness, wealth or poverty, honour or dishonour, long life or short” as long as it was for their Creator’s greater glory. It would always be the song of the Suscipe “Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty; my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. ‘Thou hast given me all that I have and all that I possess; I re store it all to Thee and surrender it, that Thou mayest dispose of it according to Thy will. Give me only Thy love and Thy grace, and I am rich enough and desire nothing more.” This complete surrender to God was the only love-prayer Ignatius knew. He taught it to his spiritual children and knew that they would teach it to all na- tions. He had given them the key to happiness in this life as well as the next, and now he was content to die. It was the last day of July, 1556. The correctness of Ignatius’ principles was soon proven by two of his dis- ciples; Bellarmine, the great Doctor of Theology, and Berchmans, humble observer of the Constitutions. Bellarmine, of whom Pope Clement VIII said “Phe Church of God has no equal in his learning,” was the meeting point of most of the theological reason- ing that went before him, and the starting point of most modern systems. In his day, scholars on both sides quoted Bellarmine, and leetured for or against him. Yet Robert Bellarmine seems to have been unaware of anything but the Ignatian principles. With the same simple demeanor, with the same simple manner, he would address the Pope, the severest adversaries, the students in his classroom. All of his ambitions and great gifts were used not for himself but for others. He himself tells us that he read “almost all the Fathers, and many scholastic