Fr. Kolvenbach is expected to resign as Superior General in two years, when he turns 80.
Here’s a great story attributed to Fr. Kolvenbach:
Speaking to the National Catholic Reporter’s John L. Allen, Australian Jesuit Fr Dan Madigan said that Kolvenbach ‘won the confidence of the Jesuits with his intelligence, wisdom and great experience,’ while at the same time gaining the trust of the Holy See.
Allen quoted a story told to him by Madigan, which makes the point. Kolvenbach is never seen without his black cassock, and Madigan said that one Jesuit, skeptical of clerical garb, challenged him, asking, ‘Why do you dress like that?’
Kolvenbach’s response, as Madigan tells the story: ‘I dress like this so you can dress like that.’
A very Jesuitical answer if I’ve ever heard of one.
The Jesuits in America — moreso than our diocesan priests — have been caricatured as liberal. In the case of taking down the crosses in the classrooms at Georgetown, sometimes deservedly so. Overall though, American Catholics tend to be the black sheep of the Church, emphasising the worst qualities of the “Ugly American” stereotype.
We could use some good Jesuits in the United States. It’s ironic how the Jesuits, considered to be the most independent of all the orders in Catholicism, just might be the thing we need to bring Catholicism in America back to its senses.