An oft-cited essay by Dr John Lamont blames St Ignatius and the Jesuits for many evils, based on the notion of obedience expressed in the foundational texts. Is this justified—or vacuous?
I don't think it would change your evaluation or Fr. ZeloZelavi's critique very much, but I would like to note that there is a longer and more developed version of John Lamont's essay in the following anthology, which also contains some of the best R&R argumentation to be found anywhere:
With contributions by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke • Bishop Athanasius Schneider • Phillip Campbell • Stuart Chessman • Charles A. Coulombe • Roberto de Mattei • Edward Feser • Timothy S. Flanders • Rémi Fontaine • A Friar of the Order of Preachers • Matt Gaspers • Jeremy Holmes • John P. Joy • Robert W. Keim • John Lamont • Sebastian Morello • Martin Mosebach • Clemens Victor Oldendorf • Thomas Pink • Enrico Roccagiachini • Eric Sammons • Joseph Shaw • Henry Sire • Thomas Sternberg • Darrick Taylor • José A. Ureta
Thank you for your reply Dr Kwasniewski, and please be aware that I do regret your being named in Fr ZeloZelavi's article. But it is not possible to redact such things.
Unfortunately, the list of contributing R&R authors is far from “the best.” It looks more like a buffet of indult apologists, who are much heavier in the “recognize” than they are on the “resist.”
If one wants to read the strongest R&R apologists, they’d be much better off reading the likes of +Williamson, the Avrille Dominicans, +Lefebvre, +de Mayer, or the pre-branded SSPX (2007).
As an aside, it’s not clear to me how Dr. Lamont can be included amongst the list of RR apologists, in light of his articles on the public heresy of Francis. Yes, I’m aware that he does not consider himself a sede, but the interior cognitive dissonance must be intense, given the unavoidable consequence of his theological conclusion regarding church membership and public heretics. To the extent that he continues to identify as RR, he does so despite his own theology.
I remember first coming across a positive evaluation of "blind obedience" when reading through Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year. I realized how liberalised my conception of obedience had been up to that point, and it was a moment where I had to decide to either hold on to my own ideas or conform myself to the mind of the Church. I hope and pray that I've done the latter.
But the esteemed abbot's words fit right alongside those of St. Ignatius and Fr. Rodríguez above.
Our lives, living in this era, are destined to consist of progressively uncovering new layers of liberalism which we have imbibed—and divesting ourselves of them.
Very good article, and very timely, I hope you will also publish the second part soon; I don't know how I missed reading this. Also, among the further R&R authorities listed is one Thomas Pink of whom, if I am not mistaken wrote an article defending the Conciliar Document "Dignitatis Humanae", and its teaching on Religious Liberty, and its compatibility with the traditional teaching of the Church, on the basis that D.H. taught that there was no "merely human authority" that had the right to suppress those who publicly taught a false religion, except when specifically authorized by the Church. Which revives the LIberal Catholic idea that the state itself has no competence in religious matters, and which was condemned especially by Pius IX in Quanta Cura and his Syllabus, and again by Leo XIII in Immortale Dei.
On Fr. Alfonso Rodriguez S.J. And "The Practice of Perfection and Christian Virtues"; I am blessed with being able to read Spanish and therefore the work in the original; from what I have read online the most popular version in English was translated not from the Spanish but from a French version that was somewhat "free" with its rendering; Fr. Joseph Rickaby S.J. Undertook and completed a new new translation in 1926; which is unfortunately hard to find. This is a notice that I found on archive.org on Fr Rodriguez, his work and Fr. Ricaby's translation (excerpt)
The first complete English translation came out in 1699. The anonymous translator has recently been identified as Sir John Warner, S.J., Bart. Father Warner, most unhappily, overlooking the original Spanish, translated the French version of Regnier des Marais. Des Marais took considerable liberties with the text in putting the somewhat rugged Spanish into an elegant Louis Quatorze garb. His loose renderings, and more besides, passed into the English translation. Corrections were made in the Kilkenny edition of 1809; but never to this day has the baleful influence of Des Marais been wholly eliminated. It has cost the present translator a world of toil and trouble. In my veneration for the quaint old seventeenth century version, still read amongst us, I endeavoured to base my work upon that, instead of doing what I was ultimately forced to do, translating straight from the Spanish. The translation has been revised throughout by a native Spaniard, who is also a competent English scholar. To him I return my hearty thanks. I have borne in mind, and beg my reader to bear in mind, that I am a Translator only, and not an Editor.
It has been Rodriguez's good fortune in our day, laudari a laudato viro. Writing to the Heads of Religious Orders on the training of their young religious, His Holiness Pius XI. says, 19 March, 1924 : "Most useful to read through and study will be the writings of St. Bernard, and of the Seraphic Doctor St. Bonaventure, as also of Alphonsus Rodriguez. So far from the virtue and efficacy of these works having failed and become exhausted by lapse of time, it seems to have grown and increased" (Acta Ap. Sedis, vol. 16, p. 142). .......
I don't think it would change your evaluation or Fr. ZeloZelavi's critique very much, but I would like to note that there is a longer and more developed version of John Lamont's essay in the following anthology, which also contains some of the best R&R argumentation to be found anywhere:
https://osjustipress.com/products/ultramontanism-and-tradition
With contributions by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke • Bishop Athanasius Schneider • Phillip Campbell • Stuart Chessman • Charles A. Coulombe • Roberto de Mattei • Edward Feser • Timothy S. Flanders • Rémi Fontaine • A Friar of the Order of Preachers • Matt Gaspers • Jeremy Holmes • John P. Joy • Robert W. Keim • John Lamont • Sebastian Morello • Martin Mosebach • Clemens Victor Oldendorf • Thomas Pink • Enrico Roccagiachini • Eric Sammons • Joseph Shaw • Henry Sire • Thomas Sternberg • Darrick Taylor • José A. Ureta
Thank you for your reply Dr Kwasniewski, and please be aware that I do regret your being named in Fr ZeloZelavi's article. But it is not possible to redact such things.
No worries, I can give and take punches like any man!
Not every man can, I'm afraid!
Unfortunately, the list of contributing R&R authors is far from “the best.” It looks more like a buffet of indult apologists, who are much heavier in the “recognize” than they are on the “resist.”
If one wants to read the strongest R&R apologists, they’d be much better off reading the likes of +Williamson, the Avrille Dominicans, +Lefebvre, +de Mayer, or the pre-branded SSPX (2007).
As an aside, it’s not clear to me how Dr. Lamont can be included amongst the list of RR apologists, in light of his articles on the public heresy of Francis. Yes, I’m aware that he does not consider himself a sede, but the interior cognitive dissonance must be intense, given the unavoidable consequence of his theological conclusion regarding church membership and public heretics. To the extent that he continues to identify as RR, he does so despite his own theology.
I remember first coming across a positive evaluation of "blind obedience" when reading through Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year. I realized how liberalised my conception of obedience had been up to that point, and it was a moment where I had to decide to either hold on to my own ideas or conform myself to the mind of the Church. I hope and pray that I've done the latter.
But the esteemed abbot's words fit right alongside those of St. Ignatius and Fr. Rodríguez above.
Our lives, living in this era, are destined to consist of progressively uncovering new layers of liberalism which we have imbibed—and divesting ourselves of them.
Very good article, and very timely, I hope you will also publish the second part soon; I don't know how I missed reading this. Also, among the further R&R authorities listed is one Thomas Pink of whom, if I am not mistaken wrote an article defending the Conciliar Document "Dignitatis Humanae", and its teaching on Religious Liberty, and its compatibility with the traditional teaching of the Church, on the basis that D.H. taught that there was no "merely human authority" that had the right to suppress those who publicly taught a false religion, except when specifically authorized by the Church. Which revives the LIberal Catholic idea that the state itself has no competence in religious matters, and which was condemned especially by Pius IX in Quanta Cura and his Syllabus, and again by Leo XIII in Immortale Dei.
It's already out!
On Fr. Alfonso Rodriguez S.J. And "The Practice of Perfection and Christian Virtues"; I am blessed with being able to read Spanish and therefore the work in the original; from what I have read online the most popular version in English was translated not from the Spanish but from a French version that was somewhat "free" with its rendering; Fr. Joseph Rickaby S.J. Undertook and completed a new new translation in 1926; which is unfortunately hard to find. This is a notice that I found on archive.org on Fr Rodriguez, his work and Fr. Ricaby's translation (excerpt)
https://archive.org/details/PPCV-Manresa
The first complete English translation came out in 1699. The anonymous translator has recently been identified as Sir John Warner, S.J., Bart. Father Warner, most unhappily, overlooking the original Spanish, translated the French version of Regnier des Marais. Des Marais took considerable liberties with the text in putting the somewhat rugged Spanish into an elegant Louis Quatorze garb. His loose renderings, and more besides, passed into the English translation. Corrections were made in the Kilkenny edition of 1809; but never to this day has the baleful influence of Des Marais been wholly eliminated. It has cost the present translator a world of toil and trouble. In my veneration for the quaint old seventeenth century version, still read amongst us, I endeavoured to base my work upon that, instead of doing what I was ultimately forced to do, translating straight from the Spanish. The translation has been revised throughout by a native Spaniard, who is also a competent English scholar. To him I return my hearty thanks. I have borne in mind, and beg my reader to bear in mind, that I am a Translator only, and not an Editor.
It has been Rodriguez's good fortune in our day, laudari a laudato viro. Writing to the Heads of Religious Orders on the training of their young religious, His Holiness Pius XI. says, 19 March, 1924 : "Most useful to read through and study will be the writings of St. Bernard, and of the Seraphic Doctor St. Bonaventure, as also of Alphonsus Rodriguez. So far from the virtue and efficacy of these works having failed and become exhausted by lapse of time, it seems to have grown and increased" (Acta Ap. Sedis, vol. 16, p. 142). .......