Pope talks to Jesuits today about obedience to the Church

Slightly ironic, considering the recent comments made by a prominant Jesuit (and responded to here):

Pope Reminds Jesuits of Vow of Obedience

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI reminded members of the Jesuit religious order Saturday of their vow of obedience to the pontiff and said their main job was to interact with modern culture.

Benedict made the comments following a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in honor of the Jesuits, who are marking several anniversaries surrounding the founder of the order, St. Ignatius Loyola, and other prominent members.

Benedict told the prelates that Loyola was a faithful servant of the church.

"And it was from this desire to serve the church in the most useful and efficient way that the vow of special obedience to the pope was born," Benedict said.

More from the AP story.

Rocco has a complete english translation of the Pope's speech, which reveals (among other things) that the Pope expressed the point about loyality to the Church in a very strong and recurring way:

St Ignatius of Loyola was above all a man of God, who gave the first place of his life to God, to his greater flory and his greater service; he was a man of profound prayer, which found its center and its culmination in the daily Eucharistic Celebration.

In this way he left his followers a a precious spiritual inheritance which must not be lost or forgotten. As a man of God, St Ignatius was a faithful servant of the Church, in which he saw and found the spouse of the Lord and the mother of Christians. And from the desire to serve the Church in a more useful and effective way was born the vow of special obedience to the Pope, who he classified as "our first and principal foundation" (Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, I,162).

This ecclesial character, so specific to the Society of Jesus, continues to be present in your persons and in your apostolic activity, dear Jesuits, as you make yourselves able to encounter faithfully the Church's urgent necessities of each time. Among these, I find it important to mark out the cultural imperative in the areas of theology and philosophy, the traditional environs of the apostolic presence of the Society of Jesus, as well as the dialogue with modern culture, which boasts marvelous progresses in the scientific realm, remaining firmly marked by a pos[i]tive and relevant (materialista) science. ... It is good that this tradition be maintained and reinforced, given the growing complexities and vastness of modern culture.

I can't think of a better way to preface an actual call for obedience, specifically on matters of "dialogue with modern culture," than to remind the Jesuits of their "vow of special obedience to the Pope."