“I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning!” (Lk 12:49).
Ignatians Foster the Imagination of Catholic Creative Minorities
By creating an ethos firstly among its own members and then among creatively-minded Catholic laity, the Society of Ignatians aims to provoke, ignite, and channel countless initiatives for the conversion of non-Catholics to the Faith, for the strengthening of the Faith among actual Catholics, and for the creation of a Catholic culture and society.
Ignatian Creative Minorities will be Provocatively Proactive
Ignatians will seek to foster in themselves and in Catholic laity the spirit of “solutionologists”, combining their criticism of evils with strategies to vanquish them.
“Brain-storming” both individually and corporatively will be integral to the Ignatian response to resolving difficulties and to countering the tactics of the enemies of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Inspired by Tradition to be Ultra-Modern
Ignatians will break taboos as regards outmoded ways of doing things. In doing so, they will simply follow the saints who have often rewritten the script assigned to their roles by the fashions and outdated modes of working, redesigning the ways of working with youth, working in parishes, training seminarians, doing missionary work but of course they always did so by respecting the centuries old authentic traditions of the Church and by renewed fidelity to Tradition.
Through the Power of the Supernatural
Through the establishment of fellowships of Catholics in which the spontaneous impetus of the supernatural acting through the sacraments, aided by education, preaching, spiritual direction, and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius will provoke concrete enterprises for the building up of Christ’s Mystical Body.
This is the formula. We have no doubt it will work because it is a formula from the heart of Catholic Tradition. It has worked before throughout history. It will work again because it is in “the power of the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:4).
Endless Space for Enterprise
Projects will vary according to people, place and time. Within and beyond the confines of the parish and the diocese, nationally and internationally, for after all we are Catholic and therefore called to be ever universally-minded!
Examples of Projects for Catholic Activists and Trailblazers
The following list is merely representative since “the Spirit breatheth where he will” (John 3:8). Some of them are already in existence in one form or another, thanks to the zeal of our fellow Catholics: Ignatians in these instances will strive to spread them.
- Forming networks of Catholic activists according to professions: scientists, journalists, writers, actors, musicians, surgeons ‒ and in every other profession that can build up a Catholic culture and society. Within these professional networks, fellowships of like-minded Catholics will find a launching pad for projects.
- Culture of Life activists
- Political lobbying groups
Forming Catholics as Defenders of persecuted Christians
- Organizers of spiritual, financial, and political support for persecuted Catholics in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. In 2,000 years of Christian history, never has there been such globally widespread, systematic perseuction of Christians who are frequently rounded up, imprisoned and at gunpoint are called upon to renounce the Faith. What a difference it would make if Catholics formed a strong association to help their persecuted brothers and sisters or supported existing groups such as https://www.opendoorsusa.org/ or www.WhereGodWeeps.org
- Establishment of think-tanks and public policy institutes researching and promoting the creation of a Catholic culture in the fields of economics, technology, social policy, political strategy; thus functioning as reference points for lobbying groups, governments and non-governmental organizations.
- Networks of Catholic sports coaches:
- equipping themselves as Catholics in order to form the athletes under their care as athletes for Christ,
- inspiring and teaching them how to be committed to their Lord and Savior,
- setting them the example of witnessing publicly to Christ
- Fostering groups of talented letter-writers proactively sending in constructive articles to the editors of local and national newspapers and TV programs on all things of interest to the Catholic Faith, defending the Church when attacked, and pro-actively publicizing all the good in the Church both local and universal.
- Groups of “Public Square Catholics” such as journalists, politicians and businessmen who start off formation-groups for youth interested in equipping themselves to enter their professions.
- Teachers or students who commit themselves to increasing the number and quality of Catholic university and high-school apologetics groups
- Catholic organizers of summer schools of catechesis and apologetics
- Groups to promote priestly vocations
- Promoters of Catholic radio stations
- Catholic Pro-Life Lawyers.
- Expanding the number of Catholic university campus and high school groups of professors with the dynamism of ardent Catholics like Professor John Senior who, at the University of Kansas, led so many students to convert to the Catholic Faith, and prepared the soil for so many to become priests and consecrated. http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/education/catholic-contributions/a-tribute-to-john-senior.html
- Scientists
To form more men like Antonino Zichichi, President of the World Federation of Scientists, who is vibrantly pro-Catholic in public.
Antonino Zichichi , the President of the World Federation of Scientists, developed the most powerful electronic circuit which has allowed us to reach a precision of seventy thousand millionth’s of a second in the measurement of the “flying time” of subnuclear particles; he has also discovered the Nuclear Antimatter as well as the structure “type-time” of the proton.
In 1999 he published a book entitled Perche io credo in Colui che ha fatto il mondo [Why I believe in Him who made the World] which had run into 17 editions by 2001. On the last page he wrote:
“His intelligence (the original Italian – “La Sua intelligenza” – was written in capital letters his deep reverence for God) is far higher than ours. Our thought is little, a very very small thing, in comparison to His. It is Divine Providence that rules the fates of the world, not the powerful who cannot ever alter the smallest detail in the logic of creation.”
In a telegram sent by the World Federation of Scientists to Pope John Paul II, he stated: “The 10,000 scientists of the 115 nations in the WFS send the Holy Father our most cordial best wishes for his 80th birthday and want to express their gratitude for his work of apostolate done in defence of science and its values.” In 1983 he brought the hundred best students in Italy at the end of a competition sponsored by the WFS to the Vatican for a final ceremony presided over by the Pope.
- Among Catholic Surgeons and Doctors: Those who are already qualified as doctors could form a Fellowship to study bio-ethical issues and formulate strategies to promote the Christian meaning of medicine in public life especially in defence of the embryo and the right to die a natural death. By lecturing, writing, and establishing a network of pro-life medical personnel they could powerfully aid in the spread of the Faith and the creation of a Culture of Life.
- Music:
- By channeling the musical genius of young talented Catholic musicians by introducing them to the large numbers of Christians whose music in the United States is popular enough to motivate secular music companies to have Christian music brands.
- To organize Catholic music festivals with large numbers of singers, musicians, and high quality speakers who will also introduce youth to the great tradition of Catholic music, notably Gregorian chant, polyphony
- Founding Summer Schools of Catholic Action wherein youth and young adults in which youth equip themselves with the history and socio-political-cultural dimensions of Catholicism to act as a convinced Catholic intelligentsia undertaking projects for the creation of a Catholic culture and society.
- Founding Catholic universities and colleges that are integrally Catholic, founded on Tradition. Promoting existing strongly Catholic schools and colleges and founding new ones like
Empowering an Enterprising Catholic Youth through Traditional Catholic Scouting Movement
Organizers of Father-Son Wilderness Camps
- Programs for Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family: Create new programs or build up existing ones to strengthen fatherhood in our society.
- Defenders of Catholic Freedom in the West
Defending the Mystical Body of Christ through organizations that emulate the admirable example of Jewish organizations who defend the noble Jewish people against the scourge of anti-semitism in such organizations as the B’nai Brith and the Anti-Jewish Defamation League. This is an important mission since in contemporary society it often seems that the last acceptable form of discrimination is anti-Catholicism. Some years ago a Catholic lawyer founded The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest law firm protecting the free expression of religion. The Becket Fund operates in three arenas: the courts of law (litigation), the court of public opinion (media), and in the academy (scholarship) in the USA and internationally. This is one powerful example of what can be done to defend the Church’s rights. www.becketfund.org
- Strengthening The Catholic Spinal Chord through Spreading Perpetual Adoration!: Founding groups of lay Catholics who dedicate themselves to energetic, pro-active promotion of perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in parishes throughout the world. This is where all action begins and ends! Here, at the foot of the tabernacle, all initiatives are born, all determination begins, all energy is sustained!