Archd. of Indianapolis says Jesuit school isn’t Catholic

UPDATE 22 June:

CNA has more of the back story.

HERE

UPDATE 21 June:

Check out canonist Ed Peters on this story. HERE

___

You may have already seen this, but I’m both glad and sad to post it. This speaks for itself.

Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ statement on Brebeuf:

Decree acknowledges Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School’s choice to no longer retain its Catholic identity

The Catholic Church teaches that Catholic schools are integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and to be places of learning where students encounter the living Christ.

All those who minister in Catholic educational institutions carry out an important ministry in communicating the fullness of Catholic teaching to students both by word and action inside and outside the classroom. It is their duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. To effectively bear witness to Christ, whether they teach religion or not, all ministers in their professional and private lives must convey and be supportive of Catholic Church teaching. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis recognizes all teachers, guidance counselors and administrators as ministers. A comprehensive description of Catholic Church teaching can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, every archdiocesan Catholic school and private Catholic school has been instructed to clearly state in its contracts and ministerial job descriptions that all ministers must convey and be supportive of all teachings of the Catholic Church.

Regrettably, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School has freely chosen not to enter into such agreements that protect the important ministry of communicating the fullness of Catholic teaching to students. Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School has chosen to no longer be recognized as a Catholic institution by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The attached decree is effective as of June 21, 2019.

So, the powers at the school didn’t want to be Catholic. They got their wish. The bishop did his job.

It is sad that this happened. I am glad it happened.

I’m glad the bihsop made the tough call and I hope that other bishops will be strengthened in their own dealing with Jesuits and other in their dioceses.

Meanwhile… Jesuit homosexualist Fr James Martin wrote:

Breaking: Brebeuf Jesuit Prep, a Jesuit school in Indianapolis, stands with its LGBT employees after the Archdiocese of Indianapolis ordered the school to fire a teacher who entered into a same-sex marriage. The Archdiocese now no longer recognizes the school as Catholic (Thread) https://t.co/2FSTtEidFX

If that was the reason – I suspect there are other issues as well – then …GOOD!

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17 Comments

  1. Atra Dicenda, Rubra Agenda says:

    Of Course Fr. James Martin rides in on his pale horse to stir up secular/liberal/modernist scandal AGAINST the Church in Indianapolis.

  2. francophile says:

    If my reading is careful, I think that the school did not want to be Catholic in the way the Church teaches. In another statement, they write that they wanted to follow their conscience. Seems to me that is a problem.

  3. Fallibilissimo says:

    So…Jesuit school isn’t Catholic. Okey dokey. And Virgil was only weary of Greeks bearing gifts? Hey! Virgil! Get a load of this lot!

  4. Gaetano says:

    Personnel is policy. Plain and simple.

    It also appears that this decision followed considerable negotiations by both sides, so Brebeuf had ample time to address the matter.

    This like does not so much mark a change, as an acknowledgment of a reality that has existed for some time.

    Note the obligatory James Martin quote.

    I feel sorry for the priests, novices & scholastics who dedicated their lives to the Society who believing it was a Catholic religious order. Determine whether you can do more good inside the order or someplace else, then act. Other religious orders, other diocese, and the military services need you. Religious life is challenging enough without having to fight these ridiculous headwinds.

  5. Michele da Roma says:

    While certainly noteworthy, one wonders what the next step(s), if any, will be. For starters, how will the ownership of the physical plant be handled? Donations? Publicity? If this school just gets to “opt out” of being Catholic with little or no non-spiritual consequence, this likely won’t be the last time we see such a story.

  6. Dr. Peters mention’s the school’s canonical recourse against the ruling of the archdiocese. To what person or body does a school appeal in a situation like this? And is there a realistic possibility of the archdiocese being overruled?

  7. rollingrj says:

    Anita, it seems to me the only recourse is to appeal to Rome. And with a member of the Society of Jesus running the place, one can guess the outcome.

  8. JonathanTX says:

    What’s the chain of command for this; the local bishop or the Jesuit provincial? I assumed that religious orders worked in a territory at the pleasure of the ordinary, but I guess this isn’t so? If the provincial is in Chicago, does he answer to Cupich?

  9. tho says:

    God bless the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, someone must make a stand against all the abuses of our faith, so prevalent throughout the country. Ground zero, for all of the nonsense that we are made to tolerate, has to be the Spirit of VII. Pope St. Pius X was so prescient is his condemnation of modernism. To paraphrase Barry Goldwater in 1964, there has never been a successful liberal program, and I will add, in our country, nor in our church.

  10. brasscow says:

    What a disgrace to the brave Martyr whose name they bear. I wish we could strip them of his name.

  11. Fool_for_Christ says:

    Went to that school in the 80’s – riddled with scandal and the worst heretical form of social liberalism. I was never taught about the Trinity, or the Incarnation, or the Redemption, or the Sacraments, or anything else Catholic in the 4 mandatory semesters of “Religion” I had there. The “religion” teachers at that time were 3 lay people: 2 feminists and a Marxist.

    At any rate, look up “Brebeuf scandal” and any of the following names in a search engine: Fr. James Grear, Fr. Bernard Knoth, S.J., Fr. Joseph Casey, S.J., Rick Doucette and you’ll see that the problem the Bishop is addressing is nothing new. Fr. Grear was in the 70s; the other three in the 80s. The staff has always included active homosexuals, at least since the 80s. In the 80s two of the homosexual professors had AIDS (one died while I was there) and later, after I was long gone, they hired a Dean of Students who was an open homosexual promoting the “acceptance” agenda for various moral disorders which I won’t name even in the abbreviation form.

    Kudos to the Bishop! Shame on the Jesuits.

  12. TonyO says:

    It’s sad.

    Sad that there are ANY Catholic parents who still think that a school being Jesuit means that it is Catholic! In this day and age, after 50 years of rampant, deep-seated organizational Jesuit heresy? What would it take?

    Sad that it took the diocese this long to find a pair. Proves that most of its bishops were old women.

    Sad that Fr. Martin can gain any traction at all on the ‘stand with our KGB-Q-NKVD employees.’ mantra Too bad he can’t be bothered to stand with the Catholic employees (assuming there are any left, not terribly likely).

    Sad that this hasn’t happened all across the country. And that hardly 2 bishops will sit up and take notice, and make similar improvements in their own dioceses.

    Sad that neither Paul VI nor JPII thought they had enough authority to crack down on the Jesuits and get REAL reforms, nor thought it advisable to simply suppress the order when no reform worthy of the name happened. If they had, (a) yet another generation would not have been mis-educated by Jesuits, and (b) we would not now have Francis in the Chair of Peter. What would have been a win-win result has been foreclosed by a failure to exercise authority properly.

    Sad to have to wonder whether any bishop will take on the equally heretical sects of the LCWR nun orders. Ever.

  13. Amerikaner says:

    The Jesuits can disagree about this with the bishop all they want. It doesn’t change the basic fact that they are not supporting the Catholic faith and thus, rightfully, the school is no longer recognized as Catholic. They can fume all they want. If they want to solve the problem then follow the bishop’s directive. It’s really quite simple and easy. They make themselves the victim loudly.

  14. LeeGilbert says:

    Just for the record, DePaul U. in Chicago is anything but a Catholic school, and a succession of ordinaries have been totally remiss in not condemning it. When I was there in 1964, John Dominic Crossan, married ex priest and apostate was teaching theology there. I registered for and took one class of a course on human sexuality that was a disgrace. Since then it has devolved into a center of “Women’s Studies” and is a hotbed of lgbt stupidity. Yet somehow it is still a Catholic school in good standing with the Archdiocese.

  15. Uxixu says:

    Good start, but should really put an interdict on the school. The Regulars couldn’t stay without risking censure.

  16. Semper Gumby says:

    Well done, now on to the Fishwrap.

    Fool_for_Christ: Those “religion” teachers sound like a bad joke: Two feminists and a Marxist walk into a Catholic school and walk out of a Poetry Slam.

  17. veritas vincit says:

    “Good start, but should really put an interdict on the school. The Regulars couldn’t stay without risking censure.”

    The 1983 revision of Code of Canon Law (if not before, in the 1917 version) removed interdiction as anything other than a personal sanction. Too bad, because it fits for this purpose.

    That a Catholic religious order could be running a school that is not recognized as “Catholic” is scandalous. If the bishop issued personal interdicts against all the administrators of the school, that does not sound too harsh a penalty.

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