The Popes and the Catholic Discovery of America

This must be the strangest title for a lecture, "The Popes and the Catholic Discovery of America." What makes it strange is that for many people, the last terms they would associate are "Popes" and "America." Not only that, but the last ideas they even want to conceive is the "papacy" having anything to do with "independent" nations like the United States of America.

Yet the facts of history show that the Bishops of Rome had far more to do with the New World discovered by Columbus than most people realize.

My plan is to address myself to a series of topics, all bearing on the subject of "The Pope's and the Catholic Discovery of America."

Catholic evangelization of the New World with massive defection from the papacy in the Old World

Pontifical America, or papal direction and legislation for America in the sixteenth century

Papal Loyalty in Pre-Columbian Spain There is more than academic value in at least briefly reviewing Spanish fidelity to the Bishop of Rome before Columbus left Spain to discover the Indies.

Why is this important? It is important because it helps to explain why, of all countries, Spain should have been the one to send Columbus to find the Indies.

All the evidence available indicates that what we have come to call the Western Hemisphere had been known to Europeans and Orientals long before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in 1492. It must have been known. Why? Because the natives of North and South America were themselves immigrants from the Far and Near East.

Yet, in the mysterious designs of Providence it was not until the end of the fifteenth century that the so-called New World was "discovered." Equally mysterious is that it should have been Spain to make the discovery. Why Spain?

Many historical or sociological reasons could be given. But they pale into insignificance when compared with one profound theological reason: Spain, at the close of the fifteenth century, was the most "papist" country in the world. Her political rulers were dedicated to the Bishop of Rome. With all their human failings, they recognized the authority of the Pope even in matters that today would seem to be outside of papal jurisdiction.

It is not enough to say that this belonged to the Spanish temperament. Nor is it sufficient to say that seven-plus countries of resisting Moslem oppression had made the Spaniards psychologically conditioned to pontifical loyalty.

No doubt the Spaniards were supported in their conflict with the Moors by the strong encouragement of the Popes. But this encouragement would have been meaningless unless the Spaniards deeply believed in the Roman primacy.

Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the teaching and writing of the Spaniard, St. Ignatius Loyola. He was born in 1491, the very year that Spain was finally liberated from the Moors. So devoted was Ignatius to the papacy that he prescribed on his followers in the Society of Jesus, unconditional obedience to the Bishop of Rome. To this end, he imposed on all professed members of the Society a fourth special vow of obedience to the Pope.

Divine Providence gently disposes all things, bringing to their appointed end the lowest by the middlemost and the middlemost by the highest. Even in the angels there is subordination of one hierarchy to another ...We see the same on earth in well-governed states, and in the hierarchy of the Church, the members of which render their obedience to the one universal Vicar of Christ our Lord. This attitude of reliance on the Pope was built into the Spanish culture. Even when Spaniards failed in their obedience to the Pope, they still recognize it was a failure in faith.

The Papacy Abandoned and Discovered Nothing ever happens by chance. It was therefore certainly providential that the massive rejection of the papacy in Europe was countered by a miraculous Catholicism in the New World.

Some dates here will be informative. Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, was born in 1483, just nine years before Columbus discovered America. Luther's break with the Catholic Church can be synthesized in his rejecting the divinely established authority of the Bishop of Rome.

Luther broke with Rome in 1517, and he spent the rest of his life in venting his hatred of the papacy. His last published work (1545), was also his bitterest attack on the very institution of supreme Roman authority in the Church founded by Christ. For Luther, the papacy was instituted by the devil.

In 1535, St. John Fisher was beheaded by Henry VIII because the king insisted that he, and not the Bishop of Rome, was the real head of the Church in England.

Again, not coincidentally, the Queen of England whom Henry VIII repudiated in favor of his mistress, was the daughter of Queen Isabella of Spain, who sent Columbus on his historic discovery of America. It was, in fact, Catherine of Aragon's appeal to the Pope in favor of her marriage to Henry VIII that precipitated the crisis which separated England from union with the Bishop of Rome.

By the end of the sixteenth century, six whole countries in Europe had separated from the Pope and therefore from the Catholic Church. Under coercion from their political leaders, all of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, Scotland and Wales broke with Rome. At the same time, large parts of Germany and Switzerland were either forced or seduced into rejecting "Babylon," which had become the Protestant synonym for the successor of St. Peter.

The Catholic Church in the sixteenth century had desperate need of reformation. Unlike the nations that made this into a rebellion against the papacy, Spain became the spearhead for an authentic Catholic Reform in union with the Pope.

The Catholic Reform Movement became a European movement when Catholic Spain placed all its resources at the service of the Church. The long struggle with Islam closed with the victory at Granada in 1491. Columbus' discovery in the next year opened the door to making Spain a world power that was of paramount importance in the history of the Catholic Church.

When the Protestant revolt in Germany was brought to a halt, this was due in large measure to Catholic Spain.

Spain was the cradle of the religious order which became the chief instrument of reform. The key to this reform was faith in the Roman Primacy. Pope Leo X who condemned Luther was not personally a very holy man. But the Catholic Church believes that papal authority finally rests on the supernatural grace provided by Jesus Christ. It is not conditioned by the sanctity of Peter's successors in the papacy.

As we cross the Atlantic, during the historic upheaval in Europe, we see nothing less than a series of miracles of conversion among the Indians of North and South America.

The number of these conversions to Catholic Christianity is staggering. By the middle of the sixteenth century, no less than ten million American Indians had been instructed, baptized and received into the Catholic Church. In 1552, the University of Mexico was opened with papal approval and with academic qualifications that soon compared favorably with the great Catholic universities of Spain and Portugal.

Pontifical America In 1991, the Pontifical Committee of Historical Services published a two-volume work called America Pontifica. The English title would be Pontifical America. Its purpose was to bring to light what most people do not know, namely, how deeply and intimately the Bishops of Rome were associated with the founding of the New World.

By no means exhaustive, no less than 579 papal documents are given, in full quotation. These documents cover only the first one hundred years, from 1493 to 1592, after the discovery of America. They amount to some 700,000 words. Every reigning Roman Pontiff from Alexander VI to Clement VIII is included.

As you read these papal documents, all in Latin, you are struck by a number of facts. Taken together they not only justify the title, Pontifical America. They prove beyond doubt that, except for the Popes, there would not have been what we casually call the Discovery of America. Why not? Because it was the Roman Catholic faith of the first colonizers that laid the foundations for what is known as North and South America.

1. Propagation of the True Faith. Beginning with Alexander VI, the Popes keep insisting on the importance of propagating the one true faith. It must be the faith revealed by Jesus Christ, committed to the Apostles, and preserved in its integrity by the successors of St. Peter.

This faith must be preserved in its integrity. This means that bishops, priests and lay missionaries are to make sure there is no compromise with the non-Christian religions which the natives had professed for centuries before they were evangelized.

Belief in the Incarnation. God became Man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

Belief in the sacraments instituted by Christ. Specially emphasized was the sacrament of matrimony for the baptized and the indissolubility of sacramental marriage.

2. Emphasis on the Teachings of the Council of Trent. As we know, the Council of Trent was called in order to cope with the flood of errors propagated by the leaders of Protestantism. The Council lasted from 1546 to 1563, the longest in the Church's history.

This stress on Tridentine doctrine was providential. Before long, the European Catholics who had become Protestants – or their descendants – began to colonize on their own. Their colonization became Protestant, and therefore anti-papal, evangelization. The Protestants from England, Scandinavia and the Netherlands mainly settled in North America. Our own experience in the United States shows how deeply Protestant colonization had penetrated our culture, compared with what we still call Latin America.

3. Religious Countries. One of the remarkable aspects of the papal documents to the New World is the encouragement of what we now call consecrated life. By the end of the sixteenth century, no less than seventeen different religious orders were established under the direction of the Holy See.

4. Dioceses and Directives to Bishops. The Catholic faith spread throughout the Americas, the Popes created scores of dioceses, with resident bishops. The papal documents on this subject are extensive and detailed.

One thing stands out, however. The Roman Pontiffs made it clear that the Bishops were finally responsible to the Bishop of Rome. When we realize that this was the 16th century, with communications being so difficult, we are struck by the awareness on both sides – the papal and the episcopal – that the Catholic Church has only one central authority, namely the successors of St. Peter.

5. One of the surprises is that the Popes insisted on Ad Limina visits of the Bishops to Rome. The prelates were to report to the Pontiff on their dioceses, and make periodic trips to Rome. This could mean as much as two months sea travel, one way, between in crossing the Atlantic.

6. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. One prominent theme that typifies the Pope's directives to the New World is the insistence on a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

No less than 14 distinct Marian associations were established by papal decree or pontifical directive. The focus of these associations, called Confraternities, was to help the people to depend on Our Lady to keep them faithful to her Divine Son.

This was especially true after the revelations of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego, the Aztec convert, in 1531.

Epilogue What can we learn from our reflections on "The Popes and the Catholic Discovery of America." Many things, but especially one: that the future of both continents of the Western World is secure, provided we rely on the Mother of God to obtain the miraculous graces we need to remain true to our Catholic heritage.

Closing Prayer "O Immaculate Virgin Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church! You, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection; hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer. Mother of mercy, Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, to you, who come to meet us sinners, we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. We also dedicate to you our life, our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples, for we entrust to your care, Our Lady and our Mother, all that we have and all that we are. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church: hold us always with your loving hand."

"Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, we pray to you for all the Bishops, that they may lead the faithful along the paths of intense Christian life, of love and humble service of God and souls. Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole People of God, and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, strong in the faith, and zealous dispensers of God's mysteries. Grant to our homes, the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings, with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God."

"Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Fair Love, protect our families so that they may always be united, and bless the upbringing of our children. Our hope, look upon us with compassion, teach us to go continually to Jesus and, if we fall, help us to rise again, to return to Him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which gives peace to the soul. We beg you to grant us a great love for all the holy Sacraments, which are, as it were, the signs that your Son left on earth. Thus, Most Holy Mother, with the peace of God in our conscience, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which come to us from your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen."

A little about this wonderful loving man of God that you seem not to be impressed with....

http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Fr_Hardon/Fr_Hardon_002.htm
Biographical Sketch
of
Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
Father Hardon has been a priest for over 52 years, a member of the Society of Jesus for over 62 years.

He holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from The Gregorian University, Vatican City and several graduate degrees from various other universities.

He has taught:

Over 600 of his fellow Jesuits.
In six different Protestant seminaries.
Several large Catholic Universities.
In a large secular university for one year.

He is the author of over forty books, many booklets and innumerable published articles.

He has been a consultant to the Holy See for thirty-one years.

In 1995, when 81 and for the first time in history, he inaugurated full semester courses by teleconference and simultaneously began publishing them in beautiful albums of twelve audiocassettes each. They have proved to be eminently popular by filling a hunger for the truth through a media innovation that had not previously been explored.

A catechetical study program originally written by Fr. Hardon for the Holy See after the Holy Father requested Mother Teresa to educate her Missionaries of Charity to become catechists. The program has been expanded and adapted nationwide. There are currently two home study courses called The Basic Course (16 lessons) and the Advanced Course (36 lessons). The program has grown and spread into every part of the country. The laity are now encouraged to participate.

Another study program on Eucharistic Education is being written for home study complete with test sheets and lesson plans. It is designed to develop a small army of thoroughly educated honest to goodness, Catholics who will be intellectually equipped to teach the truth about the faith throughout the western world but especially in the United States and Canada. It has tremendous potential!

Father has over 2,000 unpublished manuscripts which several of his skilled volunteers are at present cataloging and editing. Projections estimate that this as yet unnamed massive project will contain from 5 to 7 volumes.

Soon to be in print is "Father Hardon's CATHOLIC PRAYER BOOK with meditations " a 488-page jewel that bids fair to bring America back on its collective knees. Also Father is reprinting his reference masterpiece, "THE MODERN CATHOLIC DICTIONARY." Both should be available in the fall of 1999.

In 1990 voices in the intellectual world were writing Father off. He had serious sight and hearing difficulties together with other ailments that would reduce his productivity to zero, they predicted. They failed to reckon with the fact that one major faculty does not age – THE INTELLECT !

Father gradually surrounded himself with many volunteers with a variety of talents and skills that has enabled him to magnify his amazing talents at a time when any normal human being would be consigned to a full care nursing home. Instead, supported by these volunteer arms and legs, minds, hearts, skills and abilities, he has proven to be even more the master teacher and the world class theologian with an encyclopedic mind. So he continues to use his amazing God-given talents to move hearts, build zeal, convert sinners and expose heretics. The final curtain is far from "going down."

He has other projects on the drawing board but that's an interesting footnote, which awaits the third millennium!

From: Who’s Who In America (p.1466):
HARDON, JOHN ANTHONY (Society of Jesus), priest, research educator; b. Midland, Pa., June 18, 1914; s. John and Anna (Jevin) H. A.B. John Carroll U., 1936; M. A. Loyola U. Chgo. 1941; S.T.D., Gregorian U., Rome 1951. Joined S. J. Roman Cath Ch., 1936, ordained priest, 1947. Assoc. prof. fundamental theology West Baden (Ind.) Coll. 1951-62, assoc. prof religion Western Michigan U., 1962-67, prof fundamental theology Bellarmine Sch. Theology, North Aurora, Ill. and Chgo., 1968-73; rsch prof Jesuit Sch. Theology, North Aurora 1973--; prof advanced studies in Cath. doctrine St. John's U. Jamaica, N.Y., 1974-88 vis prof comparative religion St. PaulU., Ottawa, Can., 1968-74 prof Notre Dame Inst. (a Pontifica Catechetical Inst.), Va., 1981-90; v.p. Inst. on Religious Life, dir retreats priests and religious; chmn. bd Cath. Voice of Am., Inc. Author: The Protestant Churches of America, 2d edit. 1968, rev edit., 1981, Christianity in Conflict, 1959, All My Liberty, 1959, rev. edit., 1981, For Jesuits, 1963, Religions of the World, 2d edit., 1981, The Hungry Generation, 1967, The Spirit and Origins of American Prostestantism, 1968, Religions of the Orient-A Christian View, 1970, American Judaism, 1971, Christianity in the Twentieth Century, 2d edit. 1972, rev edit., 1978, The Catholic Catechism, 1975, Holliness in the Church, 1976, Religious Life Today, 1977, Modern Catholic Dictionary, 1980, Salvation and Sanctification, 1978, Theology of Prayer, 1979, The Question and Answer Catholic Catechism, 1981, Spiritual Life in the Modern World, 1982, Pocket Catholic Dictionary, 1985, The Treasury of Catholic Wisdom, 1987, The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan, 1989, Pocket Catholic Catechism, 1989, Catholic Catechist's Manual, 1989, The Catholic Answer Book, 1989, Masters of the Spiritual Life, 1990, Great Marian Writers, 1990, The Catholic Family in the Modern World, 1991, History of Eucharistic Adoration, 1991, the Catholic Discovery of America, 1992, Memoirs of Fatima, 1992, The Real Presence, 1992, How to Make the Spiritual Exercises, 1993; editor: Gospel Witness, 1971; contbg. editor Challenge mag., London, Can., 1987--; cons. World Book Ency. Founder, dir. Marian and Ignatius Catechists, 1985--, Recipient Papal medal, 1951, award outstanding work in field history Cath. Press Assn., 1973, medal Slovak World Congress, 1978, St. Maxmillian Kolbe award in Mariology, 1990, Mem Cath Truth Soc., Soc. for Religious Vocations, Instituto Slovaco, Internat. Assn. Mission Studies, Fellowship Cath. Scholar (Cardinal Wright award 1984) Address: U Detroit Mercy Lansing-Reilly Hall Detroit MI 48221 Conviction is the basis of courage, certitude is the foundation of peace. The secret of achievement is to have the peaceful courage of possessing the truth and acting on this conviction in everything we do.

Fr. Hardon - His Impact
by Jay McNally

Credo
June 28, 1999

It only made sense that the first child of David and Jennifer Evich be named John Anthony, after the Jesuit priest, Fr. John Anthony Hardon of Detroit, who looms so large in their lives.

"Our wedding would not have happened without the spiritual direction of Fr. Hardon. It's the most interesting thing that ever happened in our lives," Evich said.

The Eviches, now living in northern Michigan's Lake Leelanau with their four children, were both born and raised Downriver and were married in their hometown by Fr. Hardon in 1992.

Like countless others, David Evich says his life was transformed after meeting Fr. Hardon, who, his admirers say, is to the art of Catholic teaching what Michael Jordan is to basketball.

Evich explained that it was in the beginning of 1991, when he was a clerk at a camera store, that a "long chain of events" began to unfold when a woman he did not know came into the store.

"She wanted to rent a video camera because she was going to take pictures of the stations of the cross. She began conversation about holiness of life and told me about these classes for Marian catechists and Ignatian catechists, and invited me to come with her."

Thus, Evich started to attend classes titled "Theology for the Laity" taught by Fr. Hardon at Domino's Farms in 1991.

"The room was just packed, week after week," Evich said. "Fr. Hardon spoke with an authority and a clarity that I had never experienced before. When he spoke about the faith it had an unmistakable ring of truth to it.

"The faith became real to me. It was no longer something that was inaccessible to me, or something shrouded in a long-ago, abstract sense. Everything changed: I looked at everything in view of eternity. The question became whether my life is pleasing to God. Before, it was whether my life was pleasing to me."

In short order, Fr. Hardon became the spiritual directors of the couple and encouraged them to marry, even though they were so poor neither owned a car.

"He gave us the courage to overcome the opposition to getting married," Evich said. "In the eyes of the world we had no business getting married, but the spiritual conditions were right. Fr. Hardon knew God had lots of money. And he was right.”

The experience of the Eviches illustrates, probably as well as any other, the dramatic – and largely untold – story of Fr. Hardon. The 85-year-old theologian and literary giant is most known for his prodigious output of 40 books, including his major opus, the 1975 Catholic Catechism: A Contemporary Catechism of the Teachings of the Catholic Church, published by Doubleday. That 623-page book is in its 26th printing by Doubleday and is still selling strongly at more than one million copies.

Fr. Hardon, theologian and author, has never lost what could be described, for lack of a better phrase, the "common touch." There are untold hundreds, perhaps even thousands, who consider him the most important person in their lives – not due to his writing, but based nearly entirely on their personal involvement with him as their confessor ands spiritual director.

"He is the holiest man I have ever met," explained Dan Burns, a Birmingham, Mich., real-estate entrepreneur who met Fr. Hardon in 1993 and has escorted him to Italy, India (three times, once for a month) and Haiti.

"I'm a big strong dude," Burns laughed. "Fr. Hardon only has one good eye and cannot lift anything over 10 pounds, so I've been his official valet, bodyguard, and food taster."

And, like everyone else who works with him, Burns says Fr. Hardon does little more than work and pray – or vice versa.

"Fr. Hardon constantly prays, even when he goes to the bathroom or is showering, and he is not only a daily communicant, but also goes to daily confession."

"He took a vow in 1937 or so never to waste time, and I've never seen him waste time. The last motion picture he saw was in 1939."

Even during layovers at airports and in trips in automobiles, "he is always reading, praying or dictating to me or an aide," Burns said. "He's usually working on his speeches and talks that he will be giving, or reading over his manuscripts.

"I say quite a few rosaries every day," Fr. Hardon explained in one of several interviews with Credo. "My favorite short prayer is the Hail Holy Queen. Another is the Anima Christi."

He acknowledged that he considers prayer his highest form of activity.

"I don't take vacations or recreation," he explained. "I pray. I mean it, I love it. I spend three hours every day in prayer, whenever possible before the Blessed Sacrament."

He said he advises those who ask how to improve their spiritual lives that "the single most important thing is to be loyal, faithful to the sacraments, especially confession. In the early Church, for the first 300 years, most Catholics heard Mass every day and went to confession at least twice a month. In other words, it's the sacraments that keep us alive as Catholics."

Sr. Jean Frances, currently of Ann Arbor, but formerly of Chicago, met Fr. Hardon in 1979, after he had founded the Institute on Religious Life, which seeks, she said, "to help sisters who are trying to follow their true charism." The institute was founded during a period when many traditional religious orders were undergoing radical transformations. Sr. Jean currently works on the editorial staff of Credo.

Sr. Jean recalls that Fr. Hardon would arrive by airplane in Chicago from New York, usually on Friday nights, then work nonstop until he left by plane the following Sunday.

"He set an atmosphere of urgency and diligence,” she said. "It was hard to keep up, but God gave us the energy and the desire because you always knew he was doing all he could for the Church and for the Lord.

"He is a real catalyst. He would offer a few words of encouragement and people would be off on a mission,” Sr. Jean explained.

She said, at that time, in addition to overseeing the various projects of the institute, two weekends a month every school year he typically would teach a class for nuns on Saturdays and for laity on Sundays.

According to Susan Schoenstein, who works three days a week running his Detroit office, Fr: Hardon gets more than 200 letters a week. "He has several people handle a lot of his mail, but he personally handles all the confidential mail," Schoenstein said.

Schoenstein started working six years ago for Fr. Hardon – as an unpaid volunteer, as do nearly all of those associated with him.

Over time, Schoenstein and her husband agreed that helping Fr. Hardon with his projects should be "a family apostolate."

In her role as, what she calls herself, Fr. Hardon's "girl Friday," Schoenstein schedules several other part time workers for his office and coordinates his work with several publishers and organizations.

Since 1991 Fr. Hardon has worked closely with Bill Smith of Bardstown, Ky., who formed a pro-life group Eternal Life that pays no salaries, but has distributed 20,000 sets of cassettes of Fr. Hardon's classes on eight different topics.

When asked why these tapes sell so well, Smith embarked on a long explanation that echoes what so many others say of him.

"I would say, first of all Fr. Hardon is a master teacher. He is very careful in structuring his words and each talk he gives is definitely a masterpiece. He seems to have an encyclopedic mind," Smith explained. "And, probably most important is that he is truly a very, very holy priest.

"And once people hear Fr. Hardon, they get hooked. Just today a man came out to see us and wanted to see Eternal Life. He and his wife, a Ph.D., were just converted because of Fr. Hardon. He wound up buying all eight of the albums.

“And because everyone who works with us does it for free – we have never paid a dime in salaries – we can put out the product for $35 that other groups might have to sell for $60 to cover their costs.”

Given the success of the cassette tapes, Smith said, he will soon publish Fr. Hardon's Catholic Prayer Book with Meditations. It is going to be 488 pages, pocket-sized, and we will have 10,000 copies.

"I would attribute his popularity to his thorough, or even profound, understanding of all phases of theology, dogmatic, moral and mystical," Fr. James Downey, executive director of the Institute on Religious Life, explained.

"He has had an impact in all areas of the Church life, especially in catechetics and religious life. He has written catechisms that faithfully present Church teaching in the contemporary idiom. And, although he claims he didn't found our institute – he says the Vatican did it, but it was at his suggestion – it has been very important in promoting the teaching of the Church for religious life and in giving guidance and support to religious who want to live an authentic religious life."

In his books and in his lectures, Fr. Hardon often speaks of discord within Christianity and within the Catholic Church and notes that there has always been division and conflict. He has said there is a de facto schism that has occurred in the United States between elements of the Church that are loyal to Rome and those that are not.

Nevertheless, he sees a "golden century" ahead in the next millennium.

"I really believe that the Catholic Church is getting stronger than ever. We have had, in the 20th century, the . largest number of martyrs of any century in Eastern Europe and in Africa," Fr. Hardon said. "Even though the number of ex-Catholics has been increasing, I think as things are improving because people have realized that the bottom line is to accept the papacy or reject the Catholic Church. So a number are going to reject the papacy. However, I don't think it will get any worse.

Fr. Hardon has worked with several offices of the Holy See as an advisor and mediator, although he rarely discusses the various "missions" he has undertaken on behalf of the Vatican.

"Most of that work has been done quietly, not publicized. Mostly, it has been two things: Keeping the Bishops faithful to the mission of Rome and working with people who are influential in the Church from causing any more damage than they have already done," he said.

Working with the bishops is of the utmost priority today, as it has been throughout history: and was raised in poverty by his immigrant out history: "The real crises in Church history are the bishops. As long as they’re faithful it’s all right: when they become unfaithful, things break apart.

Fr. Hardon was born on June 18, 1914, and was raised in poverty by his immigrant mother, Anna. His father, Anthony, died when he was less than one year old. His parents had come to Cleveland, Ohio, from Kosice, Slovakia, north of Austria.

Mrs. Hardon, a devout Catholic and a Third Order Franciscan, cleaned office buildings and supplemented her income by renting rooms in her small house. Fr. Hardon spoke Slovakian and Russian at home.

Fr. Hardon attended the Jesuit university, John Carroll, where he was engaged to a young woman and accepted to the Ohio State University Medical School before deciding on entering the Society of Jesus.

He earned a master's degree from Loyola University in Chicago and was ordained a priest in 1947. In 1951 he earned a doctorate in theology from Gregorian University in Rome.

Fr. Hardon has often been plagued with poor health. He is blind in one eye and recently had surgery on the other. Since last fall he has lived and worked out of a home for the elderly.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.