Black and White

Pope Benedict XVI poses with newly elected Jesuit Superior General Adolfo Nicolas (R) during their meeting at the Vatican January 26, 2008. Father Nicolas was elected "black pope", as the head of the largest and perhaps most influential, controversial and prestigious Catholic order is known, in a secret conclave last week.

Sneak peek

Coming soon... on Unam Sanctam.

What I did last week.

The Hindu festival of Thaipusam.





Ordination to the priesthood of Deacon Matthew Bun.

So stay tuned!

New Malaysian Bishop

Today the Holy Father appointed:

- Fr. Joseph Hii Teck Kwong, pastor of the parish of the Immaculate Conception in Kapit, as auxiliary of Sibu (area 41,484, population 745,000, Catholics 90,000, priests 17, religious 31), Malaysia. The bishop-elect was born in Sibu in 1965 and ordained a priest in 1993.

Ordination of Deacon Matthew Bun to the priesthood

Today, I'll be attending Deacon Matthew Bun's ordination to the priesthood. Bishop Paul Tan SJ, of Malacca-Johore will be the ordaining prelate. After his ordination, Deacon Matthew will serve in the Diocese of Malacca-Johore which sponsored his seminary studies in Taiwan.

Penang thus loses another priest. Last year, it was the Camillan Fr. Jacob. This year, it's Fr. to be Matthew Bun. A pity.

An outing with the Jesuits - Part 3

After leaving our memorable tour of the convent and the good Sr. Fidelis, we passed several notable edifices towards our next destination.

First off, just opposite the Convent is the newly restored Court House. A section of the complex can be seen in the photo below.

We then passed the Anglican St. George's Church which was built in 1816, the very first Anglican Church in South East Asia. The founder, Rev. Robert Sparke Hutchings also went on to found my own alma mater, the Penang Free School. The cost of the building, 60 thousand Spanish dollars, is equal to the cost the British paid for Singapore. The traditional Georgian Palladium architecture makes it one of the unique buildings in Penang. The huge Grecian columns remind one of buildings such as the Parthenon in Athens.

Penang has a huge Chinese population, one of the largest concentrations in South East Asia. And as such, there are huge numbers of Buddhist temples. But the Kuan Yim Teng of temple of the Goddess of Mercy is unique because it's a fully functional temple, with devotees visiting it daily.

Constucted in the 1800's, it is the earliest Buddhist Temple in Penang and right down the road from St. George's and the former Assumption Cathedral.

No, they were not greeting us with Ecce sacerdos magnus and incense.

Here's a glimpse of the inner sanctum housing the temple idols.

There's a courtyard further in which houses another set of idols. As you can see, the flow of people never ebbs.

Mark having the rare distinction of instructing Jesuits

From there, a hundred metres away, we visited a Mohammedan place of worship, the Kapitan Keling Mosque. Kapitan Keling is literally the Captain of the Indians-Muslims. The British, who had a policy of divide and rule, had separate leaders or ethnarchs for each community.

Also founded in the 1800's, this monumental building crowned by copper domes is the largest historic mosque in Penang. The Islamic Propagation Society is also housed here, in the minaret.

When we arrived, some people were praying, reading, etc. We were not allowed into the main prayer hall, but were allowed to access the surrounding corridors.

Note the 99 names of the Muslim deity Allah on the wall

You can see the large ornately carved wooded pulpit or minbar and the mihrab or niche in the wall which indicates the kiblat or direction of Mecca towards which all Muslims pray. Of course it had earlier been towards Jerusalem but when the Jews could not be hoodwinked into accepting Muhammad, he changed the direction of prayer towards Mecca which the majority of his converts already held sacred. Anyway... moving on.

Here are the adventurers in a group pic in the mosque.

And here we are on the bus home. We were supposed to be back at five, but miscalculations and a very late bus taking a very indirect route caused us much delay.

On the bus with the most circuitous route. That's why its empty save for us.

All in all, it was a good trip and I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did.

The novices helping themselves to some Islamic propaganda, below. Interested, anyone?

So, if you're coming to Penang and game for a tour, you know who to call.

Pray for Dom Drostan

Dear readers, I implore your prayers for Dom Drostan, the great-uncle of good Master Joee Blogs. Dom Drostan, 81, is a monk of Pluscarden Abbey and has taken ill recently.


Although his condition is improving, please pray for his full and complete recovery and for God to make His presence and comfort known to Dom Drostan in this moment of trial and illness. May the prayers of Mary our Mother and all the saints of God be with him.

You can find out more about this good and holy monk here.

The New Black Pope

Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J.

THE NEW SUPERIOR GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

Excerps of Fr.Schultenover's account of the election:

The election of the general of the Society of Jesus is preceded by four days of "murmuring,” a process of one-on-one conversation about potential candidates for the office.

The process is described by Ignatius in the Constitutions:

During the murmuratio, the electors “will seek to be informed by those capable of supplying good information, but make no decision until they have entered and been locked into the place of the election. . . . After all together have recited the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, they should be locked inside the place of the congregation . . . in such a manner that they may not leave nor be given any food except bread and water until they have elected a general” (nos. 694, 698).

At 8:00 AM all us electors, vested in albs and stoles, made our way across the street from the curia to the Church of the Holy Spirit—a church connected to the Hospital of the Holy Spirit which has medieval foundations and where Ignatius and some of his early companions ministered to the sick and homeless. The celebrant for the Mass of the Holy Spirit was Frank Case of the Oregon Province and Secretary of the Society of Jesus. It was again a beautifully planned Mass, and Frank delivered a superb homily, the text of which I hope will find its way onto this site. The end of the Mass, when all of us filed out of the church two by two chanting the Veni Creator Spiritus was especially solemn and moving: we were heading to the aula where we would begin the voting process for the new general of the Society of Jesus. . .

Why Adolfo Nicholás as the new general? At age 71 (72 in April), I can imagine that the rest of the world is saying to us electors, “What were you thinking?! You couldn’t find a younger man?!” Well, God alone knows the real reason. Of course, age is a factor. But there are many other factors too, factors that apparently outweigh the age factor. The first time I met Adolfo, the day he arrived, I was instantly impressed with his youthful spirit, which belied his age, and his integrity. He was clearly a man at home with himself and of good humor. In fact, I told him, kiddingly, that he was a marked man—kidding, because I figured that for all his personal gifts, experience, record of accomplishments, and reputation, he would be a dark horse simply because of his age. But apparently most of us—and eventually all of us, I hope—concluded that this was in fact the man God was calling to be general of the Society of Jesus.

John XXIII was elected pope at age 76, and Benedict XVI at 78, so why not Adolfo Nicholás at 71? What I find especially attractive about him is that he is a professional theologian who has very broad and deep experience of a part of the world—the Far East—that is becoming increasingly important as world-hegemonies shift. He will bring that perspective to the Society of Jesus and to the church it serves. The Basque Pedro Arrupe came to us as general from Japan in 1965. Forty-three years later, the northern Spaniard Adolfo Nicholás also comes to us from Japan. I trust he’ll be the proverbial wise man from the East.

David G. Schultenover,
S.J.Residenza San Pietro CanisioVia dei Penitenzieri 20 – 100193 RomeITALY

Photo source.

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