{"id":29970,"date":"2015-04-22T09:41:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T14:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=29970"},"modified":"2015-04-22T09:41:54","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T14:41:54","slug":"crisis-at-the-pontifical-oriental-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2015\/04\/22\/crisis-at-the-pontifical-oriental-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"Crisis at the Pontifical Oriental Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>News out of Rome yesterday was that the general of the Society of Jesus has removed the rector, the vice-rector, and the two deans of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. The Pontifical Oriental Institute was founded in 1917 as a center for Oriental studies and entrusted to the care of the Jesuits in 1922.<\/p>\n<p>The Pontifical Oriental Institute has been a bastion for Oriental and Eastern liturgical studies since its inception. The institute has taught and employed some of the best minds in the field of liturgy, including Juan Mateos and Robert Taft. Its legacy is remarkable.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it\/articolo\/1351034?eng=y\" target=\"_blank\">Chiesa<\/a> reports that the past week has caused an \u201cearthquake\u201d at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. According to Chiesa, last week the institute mourned the \u201cmysterious death\u201d of one of its professors, Fr. Lanfranco Rossi. At the same time, the general of the Society of Jesus removed the entire executive staff of the institute. Chiesa reports that \u201cas of Tuesday, April 14, rector James McCann, vice-rector Massimo Pampaloni, and the deans of the faculties of ecclesiastical sciences and Eastern canon law, Philippe Luisier and Michael Kuchera, all Jesuits, have been removed from their positions.\u201d Chiesa\u2019s report has been confirmed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnews.com\/data\/briefs\/cns\/20150421.htm#head10\" target=\"_blank\">Catholic News Service<\/a>\u00a0and the changes to leadership have been listed on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unipio.org\/index.php\/homepage\/autorita-accademiche\" target=\"_blank\">institute&#8217;s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, a prominent Orientalist and Islamologue, has been placed as \u201cad interim\u201d pro-rector. Frs. Edward Farrugia and Sunny Thomas Kokkaravalayil have been appointed as the new pro-deans.<\/p>\n<p>The removal of the former executive staff and the announcement of their temporary and permanent replacements was made effective immediately. According to Chiesa, in the letter giving notice of the decision \u201cthe superior general of the Jesuits denounced the \u2018uncharitable\u2019 spirit that has split the teaching community, with grave harm to the institute\u2019s mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the deans and some professors of the institute had been requesting the removal of James McCann as rector. The general of the Society of Jesus sent an inspector to investigate and his report resulted in the dismissals. But the crisis at the institute seems to have been brewing for some time, as the article by Chiesa points out and rumors from Rome over the past few years have suggested.<\/p>\n<p>Stefano Parenti, a professor of Oriental liturgies, decried the state of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in the \u201claudatio\u201d he gave on the occasion of Taft\u2019s retirement ceremony in 2011:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Unlike today, at the end of the 1980\u2019s the Pontifical Oriental Institute was a place of excellence for the study of the Oriental liturgies, and of the Byzantine liturgy in particular. Whoever in the future takes on the burden of writing the history will have to assign responsibility for the actions that led to such a spectacular \u2018d\u00e9b\u00e2cle,\u2019 in a free-for-all massacre that, observed at a distance and with the detachment of someone who does not feel involved, sees a deserted arena without victors and without vanquished.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chiesa\u2019s article concludes by noting that \u201cthere are some who conjecture that the earthquake of recent days is only a prelude to a temporary closing of the institute, in view of a radical restructuring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A temporary closing of the Pontifical Oriental Institute would be a dramatic event in the life of an institution with a long and well-respected legacy. The Pontifical Oriental Institute has been an important place for the study of Eastern liturgies, and liturgical studies in general. It is our hope that it can regain its status as a premier institution of higher learning, especially in a time when Eastern Christians are experiencing a great deal of persecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News out of Rome yesterday was that the general of the Society of Jesus has removed the rector, the vice-rector, and the two deans of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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