A Discussion with Clemens Kascholke, nS.J., Jesuit Novice, Germany

With: Clemens Kascholke Berkley Center Profile

July 3, 2012

Background: In this exchange on July 3, 2012, in Berlin, Germany, Clemens Kascholke, nS.J., and Colin Steele discussed Ignatian spirituality, Kascholke's vocation and the life of a novice, and the state of the Catholic Church in Europe.

Please describe your sense of vocation.

I joined the Jesuits two years ago, and to be honest the globality of the order was the aspect that most drew me to it. The Society isn’t concentrated on a specific point or place, but sees the whole world as its mission. Of course, I was also motivated by an interest in consecrating my life to God and serving as a Catholic priest, but it was the spirituality and global mission and chance of serving in a variety of countries and cultures that really drew me to the Jesuits specifically.

What is it about global culture that you want to experience as a Jesuit?

I picture culture and learning as a kreisverkehr, a traffic circle, rather than an einbahnstraße, a one-way street. The West doesn’t know everything, and it’s important that we not only recognize that but also actively try to learn more about the way that others live and the wisdom that may be found in other ways of life. As a Jesuit, a big part of that for me is achieved through simple living, entering other societies as openly and unobtrusively as possible. One of my favorite guides for this is Fr. Pedro Arrupe, who spoke of the “civilization of sufficiency” (zivilisation der genügsamkeit), in which we critically determine how much each of us needs to exist and seek to obtain just that.

Culturally, openness to the world involves an opening to the God question, which, as my novice master put it, is a matter of changing one’s thinking from “I” to “you” to “we.” This implies an opening of one’s cognitional and moral horizons, which is described in Ignatian terms as learning to see with God’s eyes or finding God in all things. One begins suddenly to see God in the poor, in one’s neighbors on the street—and to want to work a little with God to walk with them and improve their lot.

In your mind, what’s the relationship between the intellectual and practical sides of Ignatian spirituality—the “finding of God in all things” and the “working a little with God”?

There’s a sort of dialectical relationship between the two, which in my case started with theory. For me, the process goes something like this: I read or learn something of the theory, which informs my service, which gives flesh to the theory, which I then re-examine based on experience. The question, of course, is how to keep the fire going, as it were. The work we do is immensely rewarding, but that doesn’t make it easy. It’s especially challenging when society seems to be moving backwards, as now when the gap between haves and have-nots is widening towards a sort of dual reality. As the two worlds of German society become increasingly segregated from each other, it’s our job to be the bridge between them, but it’s a farther and farther stretch.

How do you perceive the condition and mission of your vocation in the context of being one of the few new Jesuits in Europe at this point?

To live with a wife and family is a great prize and offers great opportunities for fruition, but a Jesuit vocation allows me to flourish in different but equally important ways. More importantly, it’s the right choice for me. We’re each called to discern our best way of proceeding through life, and for me that is to be a Jesuit. I’m also part of a Church that’s under stress in Europe right now, and it’s more important than ever that we engage in critical self-reflection in order to navigate between the extreme pulls of various constituencies in the Church. 

Vatican II construed the Church as a universal church of Christ, underway with all God’s people; I’m convinced we need to set about realizing that vision as best we can. Pedro Arrupe (again) and Alfred Delp, a Jesuit who resisted the National Socialist [Nazi] regime, are two of my role models in that respect—they were better than most at discerning the signs of the times and were unafraid to speak their minds in support of new or unpopular ideas. Today, the issues we must espouse that may not be as popular as they should be include social justice, ecological justice, and a proper conception of the freedom of the human person that does not give one license to extract what one can out of the economy and one’s neighbors. These are challenging times, and the Jesuits will have to keep doing what we’ve always done: going to the borders, seeking new ways and working tirelessly for faith and justice.

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