Anton Anderledy
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Anton Maria Anderledy (3 June 1819 – 18 January 1892) was a Swiss Jesuit, elected the twenty-third
Superior General of the Society of Jesus
.
Religious and academic formation
Son of a director of the
St. Louis, Missouri, and was finally ordained priest (29 September 1848) there, by Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick
.
Missionary, Rector, Provincial
For two years (1848–50) Anderledy took care of the pastoral needs of the German migrants at
moral theology. From there he launched the well-known Theological journal Stimmen aus Maria-Laach. In 1870, Anderledy was called to Rome
as Assistant to the Jesuit Superior-General, for the German-speaking provinces.
General Congregation XXIII
Superior General
Pieter Beckx, 88 years old and infirm, had called a General Congregation in order that a vicar general (with rights of succession) be given him. Due to the great uncertainty of the political situation in Italy, General Congregation XXIII did not meet in Rome but at Fiesole (Firenze
) in 1883. The electors chose with near unanimity Anton Anderledy as vicar-general (and successor to be) of Pieter Beckx. The same congregation passed also a decree that condemned 'Liberalism in the Church' and strengthened theological and scientific formation in the society. It did express also strong support for the Gregorian University.
Vicar General, General
In January 1884 Anderledy assumed all the duties of the Superior-General as Beckx went into retirement in Rome. On Beckx's death in 1887, Anderledy became in title the
Superior-General of the Society of Jesus
.
- The few circular letters he wrote to the Society are largely on religious and spiritual themes: the canonization of Edmund Campion (and others), promotion of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and again canonizations of Alphonsus Rodriguez, John Berchmans and Aloysius Gonzaga.
- He expressed strong support to Pope Leo XIII, first by backing strongly (in a letter of 1884) the Pope's condemnation of freemasonry in Humanum genus, and later by condemning vicious anti-papal writings that were circulating in France.
- During this time, the Jesuits were banned in many of the nations of Tananarive(Malagasy, 1888), etc.
- He edited and published a new edition of Reuter's Neo-Confessarius, which he annotated.
Appreciation
- Anderledy's term is characterized by its brevity, coming as it does after his immediate predecessors' long terms of office. He also had to govern the Society while exiled from Rome: his headquarters ("Curia Generalizia") was at Fiesole (Firenze). This was a source of many inconveniences.
- In his handling of the Jesuits he was known for great firmness of character. He also showed a modern interest in scientific studies in Jesuit schools.
- In spite of very difficult circumstances [at one point all the Jesuit schools in France and Italy were confiscated and their staff sent into exile] the number of members of the Society continued to increase: from 11,481, when he was elected, to 13,275 in 1892.
References
- BAUMGARTNER, A., A.R.P. Antonius Anderledy, in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, vol.42 (1892), pp. 241–265.
- STAEHELIN, E., Der Jesuitenorde und die Schweiz, Basel, 1923.
- SYRE, O.J. (ed), Jesuiten, Graz, 1954.
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