On
January 11, Jesuit Fr Jean-Yves Calvez died at the age of 82. He was an
influential social thinker whose engagements responded exactly to the large
movements in the Catholic Church and the world over the last fifty years.
Shortly
after he was ordained a priest in 1957, Fr Calvez published La pensée de Karl Marx, which provided a
clear and objective treatment of the German philosopher. It came out of his
studies in German intellectual history during the nineteenth century. The work
was as much studied in Communist cells as it was in Catholic circles. Fr Calvez
was then teaching social ethics, and the success of the book led him to engage
constructively with many Marxist intellectuals at a time when a small space for
reflectiveness had opened in communist circles. The book also enabled him to
enter into conversation with Russian Orthodox thinkers on social issues.
Fr
Calvez was studying Catholic Social Teaching before the Second Vatican Council,
and his collections of key documents on the social teaching of the Popes,
edited with Jacques Perrin, appeared from the start of the Council. These were
followed much later by a three-volume treatment of Christian thinkers about
society.
The
impact of Fr Calvez on Catholic attitudes was enormous but diffuse. He
inherited a view of Catholic Social Teaching as a body of abstract reflection
on principles, dominated by its opposition to political systems. He showed how
Catholic reflection was influenced by, and responded to, changing social
contexts. The change in emphasis can be seen in the title of his first book,
which referred to Catholic social teaching, whereas that of his last spoke of
social discourse. He also made clear that Catholic social teaching was about
human beings, and so involved solidarity with the poor as well as thought on
their behalf. His books, articles, introductions to papal and episcopal
documents and comments on issues of the day influenced generations of students
and teachers. Perhaps his indirect influence can be detected in the high place
given to social justice in Australian Catholic schools.
By
the end of the Vatican Council, Calvez had been elected as Assistant to Jesuit
Fr General Pedro Arrupe in Rome. He supported Fr Arrupe in his insistence that
familiarity and solidarity with the poor are an essential dimension of Jesuit
life, and helped respond to the conflicts and misunderstandings that this
emphasis gave rise to in the Society of Jesus. These conflicts echoed the
larger divisions in the Catholic Church following the Council, and were part of
the tension between the Papacy and the Jesuits.
In
his writing Fr Calvez developed his reflection on economic issues concerned
with development. He was particularly concerned with the impact on the
poor. He published a number of books on
this theme, and became a frequent visitor to Latin America where he was able to
experience the situations that he reflected upon. After returning from Rome to
France, Fr Calvez was made President of the French Provincials. His principal
task was to prepare for integrating the four Jesuit regions, each with their
own governance, into a single Province. From 1995 he edited the Jesuit cultural
magazine, Etudes, for ten years. He
continued to publish widely, and his reflections on Catholic documents on
social issues influenced the way in which the texts were received by readers.
In his last work, published in October last year, he revised his collection of
documents to include those of Benedict XVI.
As
a human being and Jesuit, he was simple, genial and convivial. The current
editor of Etudes, Pierre de
Charentenay, said of him, ‘He was a man of extraordinary modesty. He never
pushed himself forward, always refused awards, decorations and honorary
doctorates, saying that it was not in his vocation as a Jesuit to receive these
kinds of honours. He was always at the service of the church, a grassroots religious
who had an extraordinary but simple experience in his daily life.'
The
life of Jean-Yves Calvez is of wider interest in a time of increasing
ecological challenges, when our instinctive assumptions about the world will
need to be re-evaluated. He was deeply engaged in the great changes in church
and society over fifty years, but was able to see them in a broader context. He
was never trapped into polemic or denial, always ready to engage with people
with whom he disagreed. He could see them as persons and not as walking
ideologies. His constant concern was for the poor who were affected by change,
and his interest lay in entering their perspective.
He
will be greatly missed.
By Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ