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A Hero, A True Jesuit, A Pro-life Warrior

05-22-2022Weekly Reflection

Father Michel Schooyans S.J. died May 3, at the age of ninety-two. He was a Jesuit from Belgium, a philosopher, and theologian who taught at Louvain University and in many other academic institutions throughout the world. He was especially relied on and esteemed by Pope John Paul II. Indicative of the current climate in Rome his death was passed over in silence. Here are some bullet points which appeared in a long article on the life of Father Schooyans at the website, La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, (the Daily Compass):

He knew how to describe with great precision the origins, proponents, and consequences of the “culture of death,” a phrase used often by Pope John Paul II. In his many essays he described the perversions of the so-called New World Order an anti-human ideology promoted by the U.N. for years with the themes: the environment, population, and development. He was a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Academy for the Social Sciences.

He had a great awareness of the grave, historical moment, which we are living in a true anthropological revolution being born in the West and being imposed by agencies of the U.N. This revolution is a profound death-wish which hates and destroys life. Abortion and euthanasia are promoted as human rights, when in fact they are social engineering tools of the powerful promoting a culture of death.

Schooyans defined the ideology of death which pervades international politicas as “terrorism with a human face.” It is well known - he said in the interview book The Idols of Modernity - how the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century, communism, fascism, and nazism, survived the regimes that inspired them. These ideologies have in common the rejection of any moral point of reference. One must be ready to die, or to put to death, if so required by the discipline of the Party, the purity of the race or the State. These ideologies, which flourished under the banner of communism, nazism and fascism, are always very fervent, and moreover, nowadays, they are supported by the shocking wave of neo-liberal ideology ".

Unlike the classic one, the new terrorism is all the more effective the more discreet it is. It draws on a set of disciplines that includes biomedical and demographic sciences, law and communication techniques. This terrorism benefits from logistical support and is financed by some of the most important international organizations. This new terrorism primarily affects people's intellectual and moral integrity. It appears to have a human face; seems to honor the truth; it gives the impression of valuing freedom, while in reality it seeks only to ensnare men in the mesh of the culture of death ".

How to respond to all this? Only the Gospel is a response to the "world disorder", the only possibility of putting the world back in order, said Schooyans, who also dedicated a book to this theme: L'Évangile face au désordre mondial. The message of the Church - he wrote - presents the simplicity and radicality of the Gospel: it is an invitation to Happiness. Happiness consists in loving. (…) It is necessary to give men back the joy of living and loving.

This new world order ideology has even entered the Church, Father Schooyans warned. Some moralists are committed to providing solutions seeking to please people, who want what they want, who resort to the opinions of these moralists. Fundamental moral principles are ignored or explained away for a desired result or to please the crowd. This has happened in the area of divorce and remarriage, euthanasia, abortion and contraception, and homosexuality, not to mention gender. Moralists are not independent agents and they are bound as are all Catholics by divine law and the norms of Scripture and Tradition, that which has been handed down by the Apostles and proclaimed authoritatively by the Church.

-Fr Schooyans was a true Jesuit, a hero, and a faithful disciple of the Lord. His wisdom and advice will be missed. Regarding him the words of the Gospel come to mind: Well done, good and faithful servant. Matt 25:33

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