Father Joseph Corolla is Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He is the author of Augustine of Hippo, the role of the laity in ecclesial reconciliation,

Catholic engagement with world religions, and three volumes of meditations on the priesthood,

conformed to Christ crucified. His new book is Engaging the Church Fathers in 19th century Catholicism,

the patristic legacy of the Skola Romana, our topic

today. Welcome, Father Carolla.

Thank you, Mark. Good to be with you.

You, we jump right into the book. You say, quote, 19th century liberalism aimed its particular

sights on the society of Jesus. Why the Jesuits in particular,

you even called them the quote, Victorian Ages boogeyman. That's right. What was the problem

there? Well, the Jesuits were the repeated victim of any social upheaval.

First of all, the Society of Jesus had been universally suppressed in 1773 and was restored universally by Pope Pius I'm 1814.

And that restoration was very important because what was desperately needed at the time

was a renewal of ecclesiastical studies in the life of the church after the French Revolution in

particular, and also just to stabilize the life of the church, intellectually, socially,

culturally, after the turmoil of just

constant wars for about 25 years, beginning with the French Revolution through Waterloo.

And so the Society of Jesus plays a key role in this, but the Jesuits are politically

conservative. They realize, first of all, that they need a strong

papacy to have their back, because in 1773, the papacy was not particularly strong, and that

led to their universal suppression by Pope Clement the 14th.

So they're interested in strengthening the role of the papacy in the life of the church.

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