After 400 years, the Jesuits leave Linz at the end of July because there are no descendants; From September, the Old Cathedral will be handed over to the Ukrainian Catholic community: “The farewell from Linz is very painful”, said the Jesuit Provincial, Father Bernhard Bürgler, in an interview with “Kurier” (July 16). A new exhibition in the former cathedral is currently highlighting the history of the Jesuit order in the capital of Upper Austria. The exhibit provides information about the order’s work in Linz from 1600 to 2023. The Jesuits held a farewell service together with Bishop Manfred Scheuer and Father Provincial Bernhard Bürgler.
In the current situation, the order saw no option but to withdraw from Linz, explained Bürgler. “We’re getting less and less and older, so we have to focus.” Jesuits worked in Linz for 400 years. According to the 63-year-old religious, this period was characterized by good relations with the diocese and the bishop.
Linz’s withdrawal is also associated with a concentration on the order’s profile and “space should also be made for some new things”. Furthermore, it is not a complete break with Linz, as the order will remain in the Aloisianum, a school in the Ignatian network in the association of Jesuit colleges in Austria and Germany.
youth and climate protection
In the future, the Jesuit order and province want to focus more on retreats for more justice, youth and climate protection. For the latter, the first step was taken with the opening of a socio-ecological transformation center called “Ukama”. “Several confreres live there who interact with other climate protection groups and who deal with this topic in terms of content. Also in terms of our spirituality,” explained Bürgler.
Father Jörg Alt, who has participated in the last generation protests and against whom criminal proceedings have already been launched, is considered the best-known Jesuit climate protection advocate in the German-speaking world. “I support it as a form of compromise. Of course it’s important to me that it’s non-violent and doesn’t harm anything or anyone,” Bürgler said of Alt’s commitment. In the dispatch, however, there are also different approaches and methods of climate protest, the provincial said.
The Central Europe Province includes 384 Jesuits in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Lithuania-Latvia, with headquarters in Munich. There are currently 50 Jesuits in Innsbruck, Graz and Vienna living in the Austrian region. Bürgler explained the decline of newcomers with the church crisis “in a crisis in our latitudes”, so it is not so easy “to get involved in an institution that is in such a situation”.
There are people who would like to be involved and appreciate the Jesuit spirituality, but don’t want to commit for life. Living the vows of poverty, celibacy, chastity, and obedience can also be more difficult for young people than it used to be. Furthermore, the proportion of non-Jesuits in religious institutes is increasing, they are “women and men in our spirit”.
As a response to this situation, the Order wants to reinforce its commitment to young people and has opened a “workshop of the future” both in Frankfurt and Innsbruck. Young people who are looking for their way in life can come there, explained Bürgler.
The “Jesuit” in the Pope
When asked about Pope Francis, with whom a Jesuit became pope for the first time in church history, although members of the order are not supposed to aspire to such positions as bishop, archbishop or cardinal, Bürgler said that Jesuits had a different approach to the church work, since all offices – even that of the Jesuit general – were limited in time.
It is noted that Francis is a “Jesuit type”, at the same time that he is not the reformer and “is not as progressive in theological positions as was thought or as one would like it to be”. However, the pope cannot implement many things right away, as the church is more colorful than it is perceived from the outside. “Of course he also has to deal with a lot of resistance, in Rome and beyond. It slows everything down.”
The Jesuits in Linz
The first Jesuit priests arrived in Linz in 1600: their duties were to preach and teach. In 1785, the Jesuit church became a cathedral. In 1909, Sé Velha was again entrusted to the Jesuits and became a church of sermons and confessionals.
After the order announced that it was leaving the state capital, the diocese of Linz, as the owner of the old cathedral, decided to hand over the church to the Ukrainian Catholic community, which had already celebrated in the parish church of the neighboring city. Ukrainian priest Andrii Kityk, who traveled weekly from Innsbruck to Linz to celebrate the liturgy, will move to Linz and will be hired by the diocese as parish priest.
Source: Kathpress