In 2016, the premiere of the Spanish-Philippine movie "Ignacy Loyola", which was to bring the audience closer to the biography of this large saint. The problem is that the movie presented a completely fresh model of holiness popular after the Second Vatican Council, which was completely alien to the time of the counter-reformation.
I'm not going to focus on the first half of the movie where all the sins of young Loyola were shown. The most crucial is the image presented after his conversion. The Ignatians to whom the servant gave the lives of the saints underwent a profound change. He abandoned his own possessions, distributed all his wealth to the mediocre and took on a habit. Loyola was portrayed as a self-proclaimed preacher who taught without the approval of the Church. He's being chased for it by the obscurant Christmas Inquisition, who wants to burn him at the stake. The full Dominican order was portrayed in the movie as a collection of psychopaths oppressing devout people. Even 1 righteous Dominican reported in good religion to Loyola, so he was not blameless either.
Was it really?
The movie completely ignores the fundamental fact that the Jesuit order was created precisely to combat heresy, and it was he who started the period of counter-reformation to a large extent. So it was the Jesuits who pursued heresy, not the heresy.
Saint Ignatius Loyola did not preach any fresh teachings. His “spiritual Exercises” resembled the basic truths of catechism, teaching that man’s primary intent was to praise God. This is precisely what catechism teaches us. To all curious in actual Ignatian spirituality I urge the position “In the School of St. Ignacy” by Fr. Hardy Schilgen SI, it is completely free from psychology and the Catholic religion to look for itself.
The 2016 movie shows Loyola full of complexes and depressed. No place in the movie shows us St. Ignacy as a priest, while the most celebrated image depicts the counter-reformer in the presbyter's liturgical robes. Ignacy Loyola in the film: did not confess, did not execute any Mass, did not fight heresy. Sam was prosecuted for heresy and for his alleged innovation. Yes, the Inquisition was curious in all the works on spiritual subjects and the watchful eye examined Loyola’s writings. However, it is false to present them as any incredible news due to the fact that Loyola's writings were utilized to recatechise the heresy-dwelling societies of Europe.
It is amazing that the movie was created in cooperation with the Jesuits themselves. Do not Loyola's children truly see in their founder: a priest, a counter-reformer and a large servant of the Church, and alternatively a novelist who was plunged into depression and complexes?
This full movie presents a fresh image of holiness. The modern saint should be a revolutionary, activist – preacher, preferably as far as possible from the “ritualism” of the Trident Mass. The problem is that Loyola was not a revolutionary, but a servant of the altar. He wasn't an activist, he was a counter-reformer. He was most consumed with love for the Latin Mass. But specified holiness is no longer wanted by modern Jesuits.
Book available at https://sklep-wrawo.plRead also:
P. Krzemiński: Martyrdom of Mary according to O. Frederick William Faber
