A smile crossed my face
when the College of Cardinals elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. as
the first Jesuit pope, and he promptly took the name “Francis”. Finally Raispis
was getting the recognition that he deserved. (Just kidding…kind of) Did you
know that Frank Raispis actually considered entering the Jesuits following his
college years, then spent the next 60+ years (1955 to 2012) working for
them?
A bigger smile twisted across my twisted face when I
heard about the changes in the Vatican culture that Pope Francis was bringing
about. The reason for my smile was that, a year and a half ago, I was invited
to give a speech at the 2012 graduation, and the main point of my speech was
that an integral part of Jesuit education is that students should listen and
learn, then use their knowledge, along with their intelligence to determine what
is true and just. They shouldn’t just follow along, doing what others have
done or tell them to do. Almost on cue, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope…as well as the first non-European pope…came along to shake up the long-standing traditions of the papacy and the Vatican. The cardinals are intelligent men, and they knew his background and works in Argentina. Considering some of the difficulties that the Church has had to deal with in recent years, it may well have been that the College of Cardinals decided to move in a direction that would show the world its intention to “right the ship”. (This is NOT a religio-political statement …one of neither approval or disapproval…. definitely a can-of-worms that I do not care to open.)
The history of the Jesuits is both interesting and
complex, and in a later blog, I’d like to revisit that in more detail, but for
the moment, on a somewhat unrelated topic, I have been keeping tabs on some
friends of ours…Frank Raispis, Mrs. Sue Connelly, Jim’s widow, and Joan
Terracina, long-time secretary to the treasurer at Ignatius. They are all doing
pretty well. As my mother-law use to say, they’re in pretty good shape for the
shape they’re in. I also talked to Bob Gabric who is sending his regards to
those who knew him back-in-the-day.
That’s all for now, folks.
