And Now the Jesuits

Ever since Ignatius Loyola created the Society of Jesus as a spiritual elite corps of the Counter-Reformation more than 400 years ago, the Jesuits have been the Pope's Own. But even their privileged position has not kept them immune from the present dissension and turmoil in the Roman Catholic Church. Last week Father Marius Schoenenberger, 49, one of eleven regional assistants who are part of the "Jesuit curia" under Father-General Pedro Arrupe, announced that he was asking to leave the order. He is the highest-ranking Jesuit ever to quit the society.

He is hardly the first, however: since 1965, about 2,000 Jesuits have left the 36,000-member order. Schoenenberger's departure grew directly out of a broader, long-brewing struggle between the rebellious young Jesuits in the Dutch church and Father Arrupe, the order's moderately progressive but increasingly worried "Black Pope." Last fall a Jesuit chaplain to Roman Catholic students in Amsterdam announced that he intended to marry and continue in the priesthood. Two other young Jesuits gave him public support, and early this month were dismissed from the order by Arrupe. The Provincial of the Dutch Jesuits, Father Jan Hermans, then re signed his post rather than enforce the dismissals. Schoenenberger, Arrupe's Swiss-born administrator for seven Northern European countries, was also in sympathy with the Dutch rebels, and concerned about the slow pace of reform within the society. The dismissals confirmed his resolve to leave.

Schoenenberger made his exit in a grand and confident manner. He called a press conference in the Sala Rosa of Rome's Cavalieri Hilton, ordered drinks set up for newsmen, and explained why he was going. "Controversial issues with in the order," he said, had caused him to be "reproached for his progressive position and modern approach to life." Later he told a TIME correspondent that "I would have betrayed my vocation if I had remained in the order under present conditions. I would have been bound to a life of inaction." Instead, Schoenenberger will remain a priest, plans to found an organization of clerics and lay people called Forum Oggi (Forum Today) as a coordination center for new programs in social action and mass media communication.

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