Wlodimir Ledóchowski
Włodzimierz Halka Ledóchowski Gregorianum | |
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Włodzimierz Halka Ledóchowski
Early life
He was one of nine children of Count Antoni Halka Ledóchowski and the
Ledóchowski studied first at the
Superior-General of the Jesuits
After the death of Franz Xavier Wernz in August 1914, 49-year-old Ledóchowski became a candidate for the leadership of his order. He was elected the 26th General of the Society on 11 February 1915 on the second ballot.[3]
Despite the serial upheavals of the
He established the
Nazi era
Divided opinions
According to
Kertzer writes that there is evidence that in 1937/8 Ledóchowski personally intervened to water down an encyclical against racism that was being prepared for the Pope by a fellow Jesuit, the American John LaFarge Jr. Later discoveries of versions of the text for the planned encyclical and a series of interviews with living participants in the drafting of the document in the 1960s & 70s seems to confirm Ledóchowski's reluctance to see anything too critical of the then German/Nazi government published.[8][9]
Kertzer says: "Ledochowski viewed the Jews as enemies of the Church and of European civilization, and he would do all he could to prevent the Pope from slowing the anti-Semitic wave that was sweeping Europe".[10] Kertzer documents many other instances in which Ledóchowski, and the Jesuit order which he headed, led and manipulated the Vatican and the Church into supporting Mussolini and the infamous racist laws against the Jews.[11]
Support for Allied resistance
According to Jesuit historian Vincent A. Lapomarda, there was "no doubt" about Ledóchowski's concern to thwart
- "Even if he had at one time entertained, as alleged by one historian, the conception of a union of a Catholic bloc in Europe against the Communists in the East and the Protestants in the West, events had dramatically altered that vision."
Ledóchowski accurately surmised
Death
Włodzimierz Ledóchowski died in Rome on 13 December 1942, aged 76. After his funeral in the Church of the Gesù, his remains were interred in the Society's mausoleum at Campo Verano, on the eastern edge of Rome.[4]
Appraisal
Nicholas Murray Butler, who met Ledóchowski in 1930, later wrote that "in Rome I was told that Father Ledóchowski would rank as one of the two or three greatest heads of the Jesuit Order".[14]
See also
- Ledóchowski, a Ledóchowski family overview
- Ursula Ledóchowska, the canonized sister of Włodzimierz Ledóchowski
- Maria Teresia Ledóchowska, the beatified sister of Wúodzimierz Ledóchowski
- Michel d'Herbigny
References
- ^ Vincent A. Lapomarda; The Jesuits and the Third Reich; 2nd Edn, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press; 2005; p. 145
- ^ Valeria Bielak, "The servant of God – Mary Theresa Countess Ledóchowska", 2nd ed., revised and amplified the author, published by the Sodality of St. Peter Claver, Saint Paul, Minnesota,1944, p. 4
- ^ a b c d "LEDOCHOWSKI, Wlodimir, jesuit". Verlag Traugott Bautz (in German). Archived from the original on 27 April 1999. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ^ a b Slattery, Joseph A. (1 March 1943). "In Memoriam: Very Rev. Fr. Vladimir Ledochowski". Woodstock Letters. LXXII (1). Retrieved 19 October 2018 – via Jesuit Online Library.
- ISBN 9780198716167.
- ^ Kertzer, p. 235
- ^ Kertzer, p. 235
- ^ Passelecq, Georges; Suchecky, Bernard (1997). The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI. Harcourt Brace & Company. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via Washington Post.
- ^ Novak, Michael (19 October 1997). "Papal White Papers". Washington Post. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
- ^ Kertzer, p. 289
- ^ Kertzer, pp. 304ff. and Index p. 542-543
- ^ Vincent A. Lapomarda; The Jesuits and the Third Reich; 2nd Edn, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press; 2005; p.145-6
- ^ Vincent A. Lapomarda; The Jesuits and the Third Reich; 2nd Edn, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press; 2005; pp. 266-267
- ^ "Head of Jesuits is Dead in Rome". New York Times. 10 December 1942. Retrieved 12 April 2021.