Two Notable Resignations

The head of the Jesuit order, Fr. Hans Kolvenbach, has announced his resignation.

This is a very unusual move, as Jesuit superior generals normally hold office for life. According to some reports, he’s been trying to resign for the last ten years, but JP2 wouldn’t let him.

Now B16 has.

In announcing his resignation, Fr. Kolvenbach also announced the calling of a general congregation to elect his successor and to deal with other (apparently unnamed) serious problems affecting the order.

In view of the opposition that many in the Jesuit order have been giving to authentic Catholic teaching and practice in recent years on many issues but notably in recent months on the issue of whether homosexuals should be ordained, it will be interesting to see how the pope may intervene in this matter in the runup to the general convention in 2008.

This may be the beginning of the shakeup folks have been predicing under B16.

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In related news, B16 has approved the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, who is now 76 and past the age for turning in his retirement letter (which the pope can accept or decline). Bishop Gumbleton has expressed his discomfort with the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, suggested future doctrinal change on this point, advocated the ordination of homosexuals, and been known for once wearing a mitre with a pink triangle on it in solidarity with homosexuals.

Maybe there isn’t a truce of 2005 after all.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

13 thoughts on “Two Notable Resignations”

  1. I’m indifferent to his resignation, but I DON’T LIKE the 2+ year lame duck period he’s just announced. There’s way too much of that lately, people holding office that others know they will not hold long enough to make a real difference in anymore. We need leaders, not place holders.

  5. Oh goodie! I sincerely hope that B16 gets around to appointing some bishops for us. One really isn’t enough for a country the size of Canada.

  7. One should be mindful, of course, that it takes time to call a General Council for the Jesuits. If I recall correctly, several things need to happen:
    1)a prepatory meeting needs to occur to plan out what needs to be discussed (not unlike the prep commision that occured for VII)
    2)each province must convene a provincial congregation and elect at least one person to accompany the superior as a voting member of G.C. 35.
    3)Everyone needs to go to Rome.
    Given that much of the Jesuit’s work is still missionary in nature, two years is about right for this to happen.

  9. Several things must be considered: were this only to be a G.C. to elect a General, it wouldn’t take as long, as there would not be a need for prepatory committiees, etc.
    Also, bear in mind that even though he resigned in 1983, immediately before the General Congregation that elected Kolvenbach, indeed to allow it to take place, Arrupe suffered his stroke in 1981, with the papal delegates in charge of the Society in the interim. The necessary preparations would have been underway almost as soon as Fr. Arrupe had his debilitating stroke and ended, for all practical purposes, his generalcy.

  10. “This may be the beginning of the shakeup folks have been predicing under B16”
    This could be the test-run of the B-16 Stealth Heresy Bomber.

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