Jesuit Apologetics

Intramural exchanges in the higher reaches of the Catholic Church are seldom made public. But recently, the Society of Jesus confirmed that its superior general, the Very Rev. Pedro Arrupe, had sent a letter of apology to a ranking member of the Papal Curia, Archbishop Giovanni Benelli. Arrupe's letter expressed regret for an article in the London Observer by Father Peter Hebblethwaite, S.J., editor of the English Jesuit magazine, The Month. Hebblethwaite had attacked Benelli, who is considered one of Pope Paul VI's closest confidants and advisers, as being "concerned with prestige and pomposity at a time when many Christians are trying to make the church a simpler, more fraternal and welcoming place."

To some in the Vatican, the article was viewed as an attack not on Benelli but on his patron, the Pope. Even so, the matter might have ended with Arrupe's letter. Last week, however, Hebblethwaite struck again.

This time, in a follow-up article in the Observer, he called the archbishop the Vatican's "universal hatchet man," adding that "there is no need for an embattled war psychosis which sees enemies lurking in every corner." Although Benelli is technically only a deputy to Papal Secretary of State Jean Villot, he functions as a kind of chief of staff to Pope Paul, overseeing and coordinating the activities of the entire Vatican bureaucracy, except in the area of diplomatic relations. Nicknamed "the Berlin Wall," he has the reputation of being authoritarian in administrative matters and an alarmist. Archbishop Benelli, conceded Hebblethwaite, was not personally wicked or corrupt but his chosen style of operation was "opaque and impenetrable."

Reaction in Rome to the second Hebblethwaite attack was swift. In a front-page editorial, the Catholic daily L'Avvenire accused the English Jesuit of having a "deeply deformed view of the life and the problems of the church today, fed by ancient polemics according to which everything in Rome is always wrong." Pope Paul undoubtedly had critics like Hebblethwaite in mind when he said in a recent speech: "The Curia is unfortunately disfigured in the eyes of those who know it and perhaps love it least, as though it were an artificial complex, bureaucratic, legalistic, preoccupied only with the external ..."

Despite the renewed tempest, General Arrupe declined to reprimand Hebblethwaite or dispatch fresh apologies to Benelli. Any action, said a Jesuit spokesman in Rome, would have to be taken by Hebblethwaite's superiors in England. The reaction was not surprising; many officials in Arrupe's own curia are known to concur quietly with Hebblethwaite's complaint.

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