Tidings

>Will the U.S. Roman Catholic Church save ecumenical Protestantism? That could be the result if the Catholic Church in America decides to join the National Council of Churches. A 17-member study committee representing both the U.S. Catholic hierarchy and the council has spent two years examining the question. Last week the committee announced its conclusion: the U.S. Catholic Church, which already belongs to eleven statewide inter-church councils, ought to join the national organization. The N.C.C., in trouble with some member denominations for its social action, could use some new blood--and some new money. Its budget is down from nearly $20 million in 1970 to $17.6 million this year. The presence of the more theologically oriented Catholics might also act as a bridge to conservative Protestants still outside the N.C.C. Catholics, for their part, seem interested in reinforcing the flagging "faith and order" program of the N.C.C.--ecumenical discussions of theological issues that unite or divide the member churches. So far, there is no indication of whether the U.S. Catholic bishops will accept the recommendation.

> After St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus 438 years ago, his Jesuits became the clerical shock troops of the Counter Reformation, the loyal defenders of the papacy. Many members of the order still make a special vow of fidelity to the Pontiff. Lately, however, some of the most outspoken attacks on Pope Paul VI from within the church have come from Jesuits--attacks that their superior general now wants stopped. In a letter to the world's 31,860 Jesuits, made public last week, the Very Rev. Pedro Arrupe reminded them of their obligation to foster "love and respect for the person of the Holy Father." Pope Paul's public image has suffered "great damage," said Arrupe; "I felt deeply that some of us are partly responsible for this damage." Arrupe, who is known to be close to the Pope, argued that the "openness, charity and profound evangelical humility of Paul VI are such that they make all the more inopportune, unjust and intolerable the disrespectful way of some groups, including Catholics, in the world today."

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