Originally published at National Catholic Register
COMMENTARY: The Holy Father’s recent nod to the late Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe, the controversial Father General of his religious order during that tumultuous time, suggests the formative influence of long-ago events
During his foreign travels, meetings between Pope Francis and local members of his Jesuit order have provided telling clues about the orientation of his papacy — including during his recent visit to Singapore.
The Holy Father’s comments there hinted at an ongoing papal desire to revisit the inflammatory Church debates of the 1970s and 1980s that seemed to have been settled during the preceding pontificates of Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
We do not yet have the complete transcript of Pope Francis’ meeting with the Jesuits of Singapore, but we know — from a Vatican News report that includes a testimony by Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro — the Pope spoke of two Jesuits: Pedro Arrupe, who led the Society of Jesus in the turbulent years after the Second Vatican Council, and Matteo Ricci, the late 16th and early 17th-century missionary to China. Both figures are much beloved and still highly controversial.
Father Arrupe’s tenure as “Black Pope”— the unofficial moniker given to the
