Jesuits

Mary Poppins wafted into the Ahmanson Theatre on her magic umbrella Sunday evening, and even those who think they've outgrown her carpetbag of enchantment will have to admit that her timing is, to use one of her pet phrases, "practically perfect." The show, while not intended as a holiday entertainment, takes on a special glow as the days get dark early and merriment is placed on family to-do lists. (Sure, Mary can be a bit of a martinet, but wouldn't you rather jump into a painting with her than clock more overtime with Scrooge?

Not about to play devil's advocate, the University of San Francisco has finally pulled the plug on its 666 telephone prefix. The Catholic school suffered through bad jokes for years because of the number, known as the mark of the beast in the Book of Revelation, the 13th chapter of which reads, "Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. . . . Its number is six hundred sixty-six." (Rev. 13:11-18.

The Jesuits, the largest and most influential order of Roman Catholic priests, pledged to strengthen their commitment to social justice, reaching out to women and other lay Catholics. A series of documents climaxing a three-month international congress outlined activist Jesuit missions in a gamut of social and educational areas, but was careful not to place the 23,000-member order at odds with Vatican dogma.

The independent-minded Jesuits, the largest and most influential order of Roman Catholic priests, opened a worldwide congress here Thursday under papal injunction to be "totally and without reservation of the church, in the church and for the church." Addressing 223 delegates to the 34th congregation of the activist Society of Jesus, Pope John Paul II lauded the Jesuits for their global contribution to learning and education.

The Jesuit order has agreed to a tentative payout of $16 million to settle claims that one of its priests sexually abused nine Los Angeles children over 16 years ending in 1975. Mark Falvey was accused of molesting four girls and five boys between 1959 and 1975 at Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Hollywood. Falvey died 31 years ago and was never charged with a crime. "One of his victims, an 8-year-old girl, tried to commit suicide," said the lawyer for the victims, Raymond P. Boucher.

The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church has agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Eskimos to settle claims of sexual abuse by priests and missionaries in some of the world's most remote villages. Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced the settlement Sunday, calling it a record payout by a Catholic religious order. However, officials for the Jesuits -- formally called the Society of Jesus -- said there were "still many issues that need to be finalized."

The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church reached a $1.6-million settlement with the family of a priest who killed himself after accusing a Jesuit brother of molesting him, the family's lawyer said Thursday. On the second day of a trial assessing damages in the suicide of the Rev. James Chevedden, the California branch of the Society of Jesus agreed to pay the priest's family without admitting liability, said Mark Meuser, the family's attorney.

Re "Behind a Priest's Suicide," Column One, Aug. 6 It seems the Jesuits still haven't learned their lesson when it comes to clerical sex abuse. Not content to let deviates in their order abuse laypersons such as a mentally disabled dishwasher, they permitted one of their own, Father James Chevedden, who was recuperating from burnout after serving the order faithfully for decades, to be molested by placing him in the care of the same fellow Jesuit who had been convicted of abusing the dishwasher.

The California Province of the Society of Jesus agreed Wednesday to pay a total of $7.5 million to two mentally retarded men who said they were sexually abused for years by Jesuits at a retreat in Northern California, according to sources who participated in the negotiations. The settlement, which followed more than a year of talks between the Jesuits and attorneys for the two men, is among the largest out-of-court agreements of its kind reached by the Catholic Church.

In an escalating conflict between religious pluralism and Roman Catholic orthodoxy, the Vatican is investigating an American Jesuit theologian who proposed, in an award-winning book, that people can find salvation by means other than Jesus Christ. The Vatican placed the Rev. Roger Haight on leave last fall from his teaching post at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., during the investigation of his 1999 book, "Jesus Symbol of God."