A Jesuit's Jesuit

Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, is not a child molester. He is not even a homosexual. If he were it's likely he wouldn't have run afoul of his superiors. What Father Fessio is is a great priest. He is a scholar, having earned his doctorate, along with his friend and classmate Christoph Schönborn, now Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, under the direction of Professor Doctor Joseph Ratzinger, now Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican.

Fessio is an entrepreneur who saw a need for the theologians he studied under Cardinal Ratzinger to be published in English and started Ignatius Press; which ignited a revolution in Catholic publishing becoming the premier publisher of Catholic books in English. Under the umbrella of Ignatius Press several Catholic Magazines are published including Catholic World Report and Catholic Dossier.

He is a teacher, having founded the Saint Ignatius Institute (SII), a great books program at the Jesuit University of San Francisco (USF). He is a pastor who is infinitely kind and understanding in the confessional, and a much in demand retreat master. Along with Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Schönborn, he founded Casa Balthasar, a house of discernment in Rome for young men who were turned away from American and European seminaries because of their orthodox beliefs.

His extraordinary energy, zeal and intelligence have brought him into prominence in the Church and a household name in Catholic circles around the world. He is also a fighter who took on none other than Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston and stopped the publication of the English language Catechism of the Catholic Church because of its theologically inaccurate "inclusive language" translation. The story goes that he and a linguist colleague stayed up all night for days correcting the text and feeding it into a fax machine to Cardinal Ratzinger in Rome. It was this corrected English text that was finally published.

Father Fessio's fame — and what some would call power — is not something he sought, but it grew because of the strength of his accomplishments, his boldness, quick wit and a happy warrior's joy in the face of the ruthless structures of dissent in the Church of the West.

In this he is also a prophet. While Catholic dissenters get all the secular media attention for their attacks on Pope John Paul II and the teachings of the Church, Father Fessio became a beloved priest because he stood for those teachings.

While Catholic dissenters like to pass themselves off as rebels and misunderstood prophets over their rosé and brie, it really doesn't take a lot of courage to oppose the Church in a world that rejects the Gospel. Nevertheless, some people still expect the Church to give her blessing to the sexual revolution — the tribute vice pays to virtue.

However, it has come to pass that a growing number of Catholics are demanding the authentic teachings of Catholicism and run into no small opposition in their dioceses, parishes and schools. And for this growing body of Catholics Father Fessio has emerged as a champion.

This apparently became too much for Fessio's leftist Jesuit brothers and superiors. Last year the newly installed left-wing president of USF, Father Steven Privett, SJ, fired most of the staff of the Saint Ignatius Institute placing it more under the authority of the dissident theology faculty of USF. This created a firestorm among SII alumni, many of whom have become prominent as Catholics in their professions. Undaunted, Father Fessio and his colleagues went to work and just last month announced the launching of Campion College, with campuses in San Francisco and Washington, DC featuring much of the former faculty of the SII.

For his efforts, Father Fessio has been "exiled." According to a letter from his Jesuit provincial, Father Thomas Smolich, Fessio is to assume duties of assistant chaplain at a small hospital in southern California, and ordered to have nothing to do with Campion College publicly or privately. He may continue his association with Ignatius Press. At this small hospital Father Fessio joins one of his Jesuit brothers. a priest in his 70s who was also uprooted from his long-time post, friends and family for being too "uppity" in his support of the Church.

But make no mistake. Perhaps Fessio's most admirable quality is his genuine humility. It is Christ who matters in his eyes, not himself. Serving the sick is by no means a "demotion" for him. As John Galten, former director of SII, now president of Campion College, and long-time friend of Fessio, once told me, "Father Fessio is a true priest. He is not in the least concerned with power or prestige. If the Jesuits finally 'got him' and exiled him to Siberia to minister to some little outpost he would be just as happy being a priest and serving the poor as he would anywhere else."

Be that as it may, a Jesuit friend told me that given who Fessio is, this could only be seen as a punishment. Punishment for what? Because Fessio is faithful to the Church, and boldly so, he is an embarrassment to his fellow Jesuits. While perverted or dissident priests get cover and protection, this, too often, is what happens to the really good ones. But Father Fessio is loved by the people. Despite decades of propaganda to the contrary, it seems that the Faithful in the pews like to see some testosterone in their priests after all.

So in this time when reports of Jesuits dying of AIDS and rampant homosexuality in the ranks, the term "a Jesuit's Jesuit" has taken a whole new meaning. But in the original meaning of the term, Joseph Fessio is indeed a Jesuit's Jesuit and a real priest. We have not heard the last of him.

John Mallon is contributing editor to Inside the Vatican magazine and an editorial consultant and contributor to The Daily Oklahoman editorial page. Read more about John here!