Some things don’t translate well. Plus, you can trust everything you read in the media, except what you read here on the Communio blog! Apparently, following the election of the Jesuit Cardinal of Buenas Aires as bishop of Rome has caused the Russian media to interpret what the word “Jesuit” means for the public. The word “iezuit” as it is used in some of the media outlets carries with it a derogatory connotation, and some would say restoring an older definition. Derision seems to have a currency. The words “Jesuit Pope” is translated into Russian as “Papa iezuit” which sounds like “Pope hypocrite.” But you can’t fall off the floor.
Dostoevsky popularized the word “iezuit” as inquisitor, monster and cunning in his novels; and during Soviet era the text books used the word as such, carrying the legacy with the inclusion of Jesuit as Vatican spy. All this is not lost on the Russian Orthodox Church, who, it is reported, one of the bishops publicly said on TV that Dostoevsky’s definition fits well with Jesuits and that the Spiritual Exercises are incompatible with the spiritual tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church.
I hope this thinking is not going to be a “new way” forward in relationships with Moscow and Rome.