FATHER JANSSENS, LED JESUITS FOR 18 YEARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000300030018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: October 6, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK
HERALD TRIBUNE
Approved For Release 2000/05/23,Cf IA-Vq?g, -00058R00
Special to the Herald Tribune ' em to ,'but nowhere elsel Dullese and ^Cardinal Spell-,l
ut . the world can meet to 1 c id d if fl t i
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- , gr a on, ne new many MIME
tiste Janssens, 74, leaden: of dangerous secrets but never :against Soviet-bloc countries.
the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) did the Gestapo find any." . , The accusation, voiced by a
for 18 years, died at the Jesuit Father Janssens Was born ,'Communist 'newspaper, ' In
headquarters yesterday". 12 in Malines, Belgium, on Dec. ,,Czechoslovakia, talked of "the
minutes after Pope,Paul VI : 22, 1889. He studied At Lou- ,;Vatican espionage service,
had visited him and given him vain tniversity' and at,,the r'which l`is directed' by the
a special blessing. Gregorian University. In 1-General of the Jesuit order,
Father Janssens, a Belgian, Rime. In 1920, a year after ' Janssens" Neither, he nor.
was the 27th superior general 'his ordination, he-was sent to '.'the Vatican dignified the
of Roman Catholicism's larg- Istanbul to work among the 'charge with a reply.
est religious order. He suffered White cusp ans who escaped Father Janssens' suffered.
a stroke which partly . para- from the Bolshevic revolu-: for many years from cats- 1
lized him Wednesday and his tion. He learned to speak racts and asthma. Finally, he
condition worsened yesterday Russian during his stay, lost the sight of one eye. He
as heart and lung complica- He returned to Louvain in accepted, ' grudgingly, the,,,
tions set in. . 1923 and taught canon law necessity fora Vicar General
Upon his death, the Rev. there iuntil he became head of' to help him but continued to
John L. Swain, a Canadian, the Jesuit institute at the work unsparingly at`themany
became sating head of the so unlverbity in 1929. He never tasks imposed by his y06-
iety until representatives of I thought much of his ability tion in the society.
Jesuit provinces ftom through-;'! In the Russian language but
i
r
?e uen n
ac
a new
a
her genera
.
rather Swain served as Vicar ' Flemish, French, German,
f Father Janssens for some Italian and. Latina He ad-
ears. . ':mitted to a ''passable knowl-
The Jesuits grew from about edge" of English and Span-
8,000 to 36;000 under his ` ish..
eadership. Its members staff. `T ELI.'C:TED
many U. S. Catholic educa-
Tonal establishments, includ Father'Janssens was elee-
ng Fordham University, New ted Superior General of the
r , , I -- meeting of 164 delegates from
FOILED GESTAPO all parts of. the world. He'
Father Janssens was an, succeeded.. the' Very Rev,
tustere Vladimir LedOchowsky, of
thuini man noted for his. -Poland, who.. died in 1942
e had a talent axea also foferr mis- but after ruling the. Order for
e had
irection which outwitted d 27 years. The' esui ,order war
he Gestapo time and again.;,
Jean Baptiste Janssene,
Apt ~m ~ldar , e eait~9Q~ / b l#, q-Ww.Q58R000300030018-6
upied by the Nazis during Loyola, a Spanish soldier
orld War II. who was later canonized,
He was head of the Jesuits Primary aim of the order
ii the Flemish part of the was to. be 'at the call of, the
ountry during those years. Pope for whatever work,:
idden in his office was a might be required. 'It was.;;
rhe, atlas ou which he pin-,'suppressed in 1773 under
ointed Allied advances, He pressure from European kings
new much about the Bel-, who conWlained that the
Ian underground. When Jesuits disturbed the public
erman agents called at the peace. ' It was restored , in
ig Jesuit House: in the cen-
t, 1814.
r of Brussels, they learned As the leader of the group,
othing, departed bewildered. Father Janssens exercised
"You should have seen what amounted to military
Is when the Gestapo came powers of command over
ere," one of his associates some 36,000 members, about
id after. the war. "The 20 per cent of: whom are
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