The time has surely come to suppress this heretical, non-Catholic order

Melancholicus deliberately refrained from commenting on the affair of the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco giving holy communion to gays in drag since so many others have addressed the issues involved so much more eloquently than he could have. But there was also another reason: Melancholicus just wasn’t interested. That the archbishop gave holy communion in direct violation of Canon Law to a pair of ridiculous individuals who were publicly expressing their support for a lifestyle of manifest grave sin by dressing in drag and mocking the consecrated life should surprise no one; what more ought we to expect from a conciliar prelate?

Even though said prelate has already admitted he was wrong to do so, and has apologized to the faithful for the scandal caused, this has not prevented a fellow cleric from leaping to his defence in the secular press. This man is a professor of Moral Theology (!) at the University of San Francisco. He is, of course, a Jesuit.

From Lifesite:

Jesuit Priest Professor Says Archbishop Was Correct in Giving Communion to Transvestite 'Nuns'

San Francisco media finally reports on communion for transvestite 'sisters' scandal

By John-Henry Westen

SAN FRANCISCO, October 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The story of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" receiving Communion from the Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco has been major news since the occurrence on October 7. However, despite the fact that the story made it to Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, the local San Francisco media refused to cover it until today.

In a separate segment, O'Reilly railed at the local media for failing to cover the story. And it seems the verbal spanking had a salutary effect.

However, the San Francisco Chronicle which published a story entitled "Archbishop apologizes for giving Communion to gays dressed as nuns," also published today a puff piece promoting the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence".

Beyond that, the Chronicle was able to find a Jesuit Catholic Priest Professor willing to come out publicly saying that giving communion to the two transvestite 'sisters' was the right thing to do. Rev. Jim Bretzke, professor of moral theology at University of San Francisco, a Jesuit Catholic university, told the Chronicle: "While I can see Bill O'Reilly and others might be offended, the sisters do not meet the criteria the church has for denying Communion."

"The general sacramental principle is that you don't deny the sacrament to someone who requests it," said Bretzke in a statement clearly at odds with Catholic teaching on the matter as voiced recently by Pope Benedict XVI just prior to his being elected Pope.

While Bretzke admits that those who have been excommunicated cannot be given Communion, then Cardinal Ratzinger insisted that beyond excommunicated persons, those persons with "obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin" must be refused communion.

Trivializing the matter, Bretzke, who for this year is a visiting professor of theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said, "Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense . . . Even if these people were bizarrely dressed, the archbishop was following clear pastoral and canonical principles in giving them Communion. The default is, you give Holy Communion to one who presents himself."

Archbishop Niederauer himself admitted his giving Communion to the sisters was wrong. In an apology letter to Catholics after the event he wrote in reference to the 'sisters': "giving them Holy Communion had been a mistake. I apologize to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large for doing so."

Explaining, the Archbishop added: "Someone who dresses in a mock religious habit to attend Mass does so to make a point. If people dress in a manner clearly intended to mock what we hold sacred, they place themselves in an objective situation in which it is not appropriate for them to receive Holy Communion, much less for a minister of the Church to give the Sacrament to them."

Far from being an anomalous fruitcake, the contemptible Bretzke is emblematic of his order, at least in the United States. But Melancholicus has no good reason to hope that the Jesuits might be in better condition elsewhere. In Ireland they flirt with heresy every bit as much as their brothers on the far side of the Atlantic; in England they have sunk to such a state of depravity that — with the exception of one or two devout and honourable souls — St. Edmund Campion and the Jesuit martyrs of the Reformation would surely disown them.

The continued existence of the Jesuit order inflicts more harm than good on the ecclesiastical body politic. Melancholicus believes the time has come for the Church to suppress this aberrant and apostatical order — although actual suppression is probably unnecessary, since the ‘renewed’ and radicalized Jesuits are hardly attracting any vocations — the inexorable march of time will be sufficient to remove them from the scene.