The Jesuits [Paperback]

Malachi Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1988

In The Jesuits, Malachi Martin reveals for the first time the harrowing behind-the-scenes story of the "new" worldwide Society of Jesus. The leaders and the dupes; the blood and the pathos; the politics, the betrayals and the humiliations; the unheard-of alliances and compromises. The Jesuits tells a true story of today that is already changing the face of all our tomorrows.

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Chapter 1

PAPAL OBJECTIONS

Every Pope worth his salt sets a dominant strategy for his papacy. He formulates many policies, pursues various particular aims: but all policies and each single aim are framed within the scope of that strategy.

The Society of Jesus was established by the papacy in 1540 as a very special "fighting unit" at the total and exclusive disposal of the Roman Pope -- whoever he might be. From their beginnings, the Jesuits were conceived in a military mode. Soldiers of Christ, they were given only two purposes: to propagate the religious doctrine and the moral law of the Roman Catholic Church as proposed and taught by the Roman Pope, and to defend the rights and prerogatives of that same Roman Pope. Purely spiritual and supernatural purposes. And specifically Roman Catholic. Surprisingly enough, given this mandate of the Society, papal strategy itself has become the wedge of separation between Jesuits and papacy -- indeed, the very arena where the lethal battle between the two is being fought.

Plus XII, Pope from 1939 to 1958, had found himself in a new world dominated by two rival superpowers, one of which -- the USSR -- he held in anathema. His postwar policy was one of intractable opposition to Soviet Marxism, and of support for "Western" civilization, centered in Europe and protected by the United States.

John XXIII, Pope from 1958 to 1963, was convinced that an "open windows, open fields" policy would induce others -- including the Soviets -- to refashion their own attitudes and policies. Pope John lowered as many barriers between the Church and the world -- including the Soviet Union -- as he could in his short, action-packed pontificate. He even went so far as to guarantee the USSR immunity from attacks by the Church, a stunning reversal of papal attitudes.

It was a huge gamble. And it could only work if an adequate amount of goodwill reigned among his opposite numbers.

The gamble failed. The great poignancy was that when he died, Pope John, peasant-realist that he was, knew that his openness had been seen as weakness, and had been taken advantage of by men of much smaller spirit.

Pope Paul VI, 1963-1978, blind to the deficiencies of John's policy, further refined it. The Holy See became nothing less than a plaintiff at the bar of Soviet power, pleading on diplomatic grounds for a hearing; instituting cautious conversations; practicing the week-kneed art of concessionary approaches -- and even stooping to mean-spirited deception and betrayal of the admittedly difficult Primate of Hungary, Cardinal Mindszenty, in order to please the Soviets and their castrated Hungarian surrogate, Janos Kadar.

In all of this, Paul VI, personally the gentlest of all modern Popes, unwittingly compromised his papal authority. His grand strategy for his Church was taken over and prostituted by others, reducing him to an impotence that scarred his last disease-ridden years until his death on August 6, 1978.

Still, it was Paul VI who, very late in the day of his papacy, realized that the original dual purpose of the Society of Jesus had been changed. Under his pontificate, an extensive critical dossier about the Society was compiled. It is enough for the moment to say of that dossier that its contents were damning. It was a portrait, in effect, of a Jesuit Order that, like a weathervane atop a roof, had been turned by a different wind. For Jesuits, the papacy no longer held primacy of position. The corporate aim of the Society was now to place itself and the Church at the disposal of a radical and purely sociopolitical change in the world, without reference to -- indeed, in defiance of -- papal strategy, policies, and aims.

In 1973, Paul VI, alarmed more than ever by the way the Society's members were behaving, tried to stop the onrush of events. He met with the head of the Order, Jesuit Father General Pedro Arrupe, several times. More than a few of those interviews between the two men were stormy. More than once, Paul wanted Arrupe to resign. One way or the other, Arrupe survived all papal attacks. Paul VI did insist that Arrupe convey to his Jesuits "Our demand that the Jesuits remain loyal to the Pope." Arrupe and his assistants in Rome at that time were intent on preparing for another international assembly of the Order, a General Congregation, as such an assembly is called. So he bought time, valuable time. Paul, in his weakness, could find no alternative but to wait.

Paul did make one last but equally ineffective attempt to recall the allegiance of the Society to the papacy during the ninety-six-day international assembly of Jesuit leaders, the 32nd General Congregation of 1974-1975. His effort met with total incomprehension and stubborn -- some said even self-righteous -- opposition from the Order. Pope and Jesuits simply could not agree. The Jesuits would not obey. Paul was too weak to force the issue farther.

"When you have people [the Jesuits]," wrote Jesuit Father M. Buckley about Paul's attitude to that 32nd General Congregation, "who do not think they have made errors either in content or procedure, and when they are suspected, resisted or reproved by the very man they are attempting to serve...you have...a very serious religious problem."

To say the least.

Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected to succeed Paul VI on August 26, 1978. Even before he became Pope, he had apparently made up his mind unfavorably about the Society.

And apparently the Society had already made up its mind about Pope John Paul I. No sooner had he been elected than the Jesuits asserted themselves. Father Vincent O'Keefe, the most prominent of the four General Assistants to Arrupe, and the one being groomed to succeed Arrupe one day as Father General of the Order, told a Dutch newspaper in an interview that the new Pope should reconsider the Church's ban on abortion, homosexuality, and priesthood for women. The interview was published.

Pope John Paul I was incensed. This was more than contempt. It was an assertion that the Society of Jesus knew better than the Pope what morals Catholics should practice. And it was an assertion that the Society had the authority to speak out; that is, it was a direct appropriation of the authority that belonged exclusively to the papacy.

John Paul I summoned Arrupe and demanded an explanation. Arrupe humbly promised to look into the whole matter. But John Paul could read the handwriting on the wall as clearly as any Pope. On the basis of Paul VI's critical dossier, and with the help of a very experienced old Jesuit, Father Paolo Dezza, who had been Confessor to Pope Paul VI and now was John Paul I's confessor, the Pope composed a hard-hitting speech of warning. He planned to deliver it to the international assembly of Jesuit leaders and Father General Arrupe at another of their General Congregations to be held in Rome on September 30, 1978.

One of the striking features of his speech was John Paul I's repeated reference to doctrinal deviations on the part of Jesuits. "Let it not happen that the teachings and publications of Jesuits contain anything to cause confusion among the faithful." Doctrinal deviation was for him the most ominous symptom of Jesuit failure.

Veiled beneath the polished veneer of its graceful romanità, that speech contained a clear threat: the Society would return to its proper and assigned role, or the Pope would be forced to take action.

What action? From John Paul's memoranda and notes, it is clear that, unless a speedy reform of the Order proved feasible, he had in mind the effective liquidation of the Society of Jesus as it is today -- perhaps to be reconstituted later in a more manageable form. John Paul I had received the petitions of many Jesuits, pleading with him to do just that.

The Pope never delivered that speech of warning. On the morning of September 29, after thirty-three days on the Throne of Peter, and one day before he was to address the Society's General Congregation, John Paul I was found dead in bed.

In the following days, Jesuit Father General Arrupe petitioned Cardinal Jean Villot, who as Vatican Secretary of State ruled the Holy See in the interim period between John Paul I's death and the election of his successor: Could the Jesuits have a copy of that speech?

After a discussion with the College of Cardinals who were helping him to prepare for the election of the next pope, the Cardinal prudently refused. Arrupe was told instead that in the opinion of Villot and the Council, "it was high time the Jesuits put their affairs in order."

For their part, Arrupe and the Jesuits decided to sit the time out and see who would become the next Pope. Time was the commodity they always sought to have.

More than either of his two immediate predecessors, Karol Wojtyla of Poland, elected as John Paul II on October 16, 1978, could not afford to hesitate in this matter of the Jesuits. John Paul II's grand papal strategy embraced the First World of capitalism, the Second World of Soviet Communism, and the Third World of so-called underdeveloped and developing countries.

Wojtyla was extremely hard-headed in analyzing the character and limitations of papal strategy since 1945. In his view, Plus XII had guided the Church on the basis of a "siege" mentality, permitting papal strategy only clandestine movement within the Soviet empire, but providing no challenge to the continual erosion of the Church in that area. John XXIII's policy of "open fields" had been a failure. Paul VI's policy had consisted merely of a refinement of an already faulty and failed policy. By the time of Paul VI's death in 1978, his Secretariat of State had managed to work out protocol agreements with more than one member-government of the Soviet Socialist "fraternity," but none had been initialed, let alone signed and sealed into law. In any case, even had those protocols been ratified, it had already become clear enough that they would have made no difference to the status of Roman Catholics under Soviet rule.

In John Paul II's analysis, as long as the so-called First...

Product Details

• Paperback: 525 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067165716X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671657161
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #83 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Church Institutions & Organizations

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153 of 174 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marxist Jesuits, January 17, 2005

By 

C. Sand (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church (Hardcover)

First of all Malachi Martin did NOT walk out on his order to marry a foreign correspondent during the Vatican Council, as claimed by a previous reviwer. In 1965, Martin received a "dispensation from all privileges and obligations deriving from his vows as a Jesuit and from priestly ordination." (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, 25 June 1997, Prot. N. 04300/65).

Why would a Jesuit priest request such dispensation? It is likely because the heterodox Jesuit heirarchy would never have allowed him to publish this book. He would have had to break his vow of obedience to his superiors within the order to both research and write this book. Had he not requested such dispensation, Fr. Martin would have joined a host of orthodox Jesuit priests, such as Fr. Cornelius Buckley, S.J. and Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. who were either silenced or the attempt made to silence them by their heterodox brethren.

I had never heard of Malachi Martin before I picked up this book. But I have attended two Jesuit universities and I've seen the war between orthodox and heterodox Jesuits up close. It is real and it does exist. Heterodox Jesuits continue to support the dogma of Liberation Theology which is, in reality, a blend of Catholicism and Marxism that is neither authentically Catholic nor authentically Christian. Heterodox Jesuits teaching in universities are having symposiums on such philosophers as Michel Foucault which, when you consider that Foucault advocated sex with children, seems more than a little ironic. It goes on and on. My own experiences with the Jesuits lend a boatload of credence to what Martin writes. The Jesuits haven't merely betrayed the heirarchy of the Roman Catholic Church - they've betrayed millions of faithful Catholics all over the world - especially those faithful in Central and South America who were murdered and starved and oppressed by the very same Jesuits who said they were there to "help".

This book reads like a spy thriller. I literally couldn't put it down once I started reading it. It seems clear to me that Martin had sources that were well placed at very high levels, both at the Vatican and within the Jesuits. It is also evident to me that Martin is more right than wrong. If you want to know what's wrong with the Roman Catholic Church, this book goes a long way towards explaining it.

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye of the Hurricane, January 9, 2006

By 

Billyjack D'Urberville (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jesuits (Paperback)

Here is Malachi Martin at his most passionate and informed, stating the obvious about his former religious order and its descent into sheer insanity. That it: (1) was a foundation for modernist revolt early in century 20; (2) provided a good hiding place in the middle years for underground wackiness ala Teilhard de Chardin; (3) concocted, post Vatican 2, a startling and heady vision of "salvation as seen through the scope of a rifle" (liberation theology) and pushed it determinedly in Central America.

Yes, this book only states the obvious. The facts were published elsewhere, many other places first, indeed -- Time magazine, the Jesuits' magazine America, the "liberation theology" tomes of Fr. Gustavo Guiterrez and Ernesto Cardenal. Only with a different spin, of course -- it was all considered quite "daring, challenging, courageous." Especially here, among self-styled Catholic "progressives" in the good old USA. You don't have to do any "deep research" -- just go into your public library's microfilm department and scan old Life and Look magazines . . . .

So why the furor? Well, here in the USA, one judges the worth of a book or article by the extent to which one "agrees" with it. In other words, ideology precedes assent, even information. Now, you can even get advanced degrees for it.

Oh well, maybe Malachi Martin once was a lusty fellow, maybe he was a jerk, maybe there are even some minor innacuracies of date, place, etc. Fine: and for the purpose of argument, agreed. So what? The late Father John Hardon, S.J., who also knew both his order and the Vatican well, staunchly defended this book and its publication.

All said, this is indispensible history between 2 covers, that will not be found between 2 covers anywhere else. It is elegantly written, and a fully engaged report from the eye of a hurricane its author knew only too well.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed Feelings, April 8, 2009

By 

Bobby Bambino (Lebanon, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jesuits (Paperback)

There were some very good things and some very bad things about this book. First, the good. Martin goes through the whole history as well as downfall of the Jesuits. The first few chapters are especially good because he builds up how great the Jesuits use to be. They were once "Pope's men," men who were 100% faithful to the Pope (this was a special vow that a Jesuit took) and would go anywhere and do anything that the Pope asked. They were warriors for the Church. The greatness that the order once held is crucial to appreciating how devastating their downfall is. There is much history and detail of the 20th century Jesuits, as this is when the rebellion subtly began and then became full-fledged. It is a heart-wrenching story, reading about how the once faithful order has been subsumed with Marxist liberation theology.

Now onto the bad parts. The book is very, very long and much of it seems unnecessary. There was a considerable amount of detail and information that should have been dropped because it took away from some of the more important details. The other very disturbing fact is that for such a huge HISTORICAL work, there are almost no footnotes citing references for many claims. Even references for official Jesuit documents or Vatican documents could have been provided quite easily, but most of the time were not. I see this as a very serious drawback for such a historical tome written only in the last 25 years.