Американдық католик ділдары және теологы Джон Хардонның өмірі мен қызметі

American Catholic priest and theologian

John Anthony Hardon, SJ (June 18, 1914 – December 30, 2000) was an American Jesuit priest, writer, teacher and theologian. A candidate for sainthood since 2005, he is recognized by the Catholic Church as a Servant of God.

John Anthony Hardon was born in 1914 to a devout Catholic family in Midland, Pennsylvania. When he was a year old, his 27 year old father died in an industrial accident. After the accident Hardon was raised by his 26 year old mother Anna (née Jevin) Hardon, who never remarried "out of concern for the influence a possible stepfather might have on her son's vocation." Hardon later recalled that they only spoke Slav at home and contrasted it favorably to English which he held was "the worst language in the world to try to talk Catholicism in." Hardon was Anna's only child, and she supported him by cleaning offices in Cleveland, often working nights. Janaro reports that as a child Hardon was "willful and self possessed; he was determined that no one was going to tell him what to do";

At the age of six he was instructed by a Sister Benedicta who told her students "Whatever you ask Our Lord on your First Communion day, you will receive." Unwilling to leave Anna on her own, Hardon did not seriously consider the priesthood immediately after high school. Instead, "with the help of savings his mother had put aside specifically for his future" he attended John Carroll University, a Jesuit university in Cleveland. When Hardon confessed to LeMay that he felt he had abandoned his mother, LeMay told him "John, you belong in the Society of Jesus. What you are experiencing is a temptation. Put it out of your
mind." The same year, he received the Papal Medal. Hardon pronounced his final vows on February 2, 1953, including the Jesuit vow of unwavering fidelity to the pope. including Religions of the World (1963) Catholic Catechism: A Contemporary Catechism of the Catholic Church (1975), a volume on Catholic orthodoxy; and the Modern Catholic Dictionary (1980), a Catholic reference work published after the Second Vatican Council (1962 1965). He also contributed to six encyclopedias. Hardon was also a contributor to Catholic newspapers and magazines and was executive editor of The Catholic Faith magazine. He also served as an adviser to many Catholic organizations, including Catholics United for Faith. When she stated she did not know where to begin such an endeavor, the Pope referred her to Cardinal Ratzinger, who called upon Hardon to instruct her Missionaries of Charity. To fill this need for Mother Teresa's order, Hardon wrote a catechetical course which was adapted into home study courses for lay Catholics. In 1985 Hardon founded the Marian Catechist Apostolate, which uses these home study courses to provide catechetical formation to lay people to prepare them for catechetical ministry.

Hardon was known to be devoted to the Catholic practice of Eucharistic adoration, spending at least three hours a day praying before the Blessed Sacrament. He kept to a demanding work schedule, especially while assisting the 1992 Catechism. Once daily demands for his advice as a local spiritual director lessened around five or six pm, he would write and organize material and continue to work into the night (morning in Rome). During these hours he often received phone calls concerning details of the Catechism from Cardinal Ratzinger, who valued his advice. He had sympathy for those who strenuously objected to portions of Vatican II documents, "but he never for a moment accepted the premise that a schismatic act was ever justified." Hardon's health problems continued throughout his life. In 1981 he had a quadruple bypass. William J. Smith reported that in his final weeks, Hardon "suffered tremendous physical pain, but he made himself 'a true victim soul.'" Each year, Catholics in the Detroit area celebrate a memorial Mass for Hardon on December 30.

On February 2, 1994, Mother Teresa wrote a letter to Fr Bradley Schaeffer, the local Jesuit provincial, saying that she believed Fr Donald McGuire was innocent of sex abuse allegations against him. McGuire was later convicted, sentenced to prison, and defrocked. Mother Teresa stated in her letter that Hardon had explained "how he had established Father's innocence of the allegations against him. Hardon said that McGuire admitted imprudence in his behavior." In light of the later conviction and sentencing of McGuire, the role of Hardon in clearing McGuire has been drawn into question. In early 2012, Peter Jamison in the San Francisco Weekly reported on documents concerning McGuire, who was arrested in 2005 and found guilty of sexually molesting boys. The article reported that years before the arrest, during a visit to Saint John Vianney, McGuire admitted to Hardon to taking showers with his alleged victim, asking the boy to massage his body, and allowing pornography in a shared room while traveling. McGuire denied additional allegations that he had touched the boy's genitals and watched him masturbate. Hardon was apparently satisfied, and wrote to Schaeffer, McGuire's superior: Regarding showering, Fr. Don said that it was true, but the picture is not one of a lingering sensual experience. It was rather the picture of two firemen, responding to an emergency, one of whom was seriously handicapped and in need of support and care from the other Regarding the massages, Fr. Don said they were done with attention to modesty and were necessary to relieve spasm at the 4th 5th lumbar disc [above the buttocks] and the right leg, involving the sciatic nerve Regarding pornography Fr. Don said that there were Playboy and Penthouse magazines, which he neither got nor threw away I do not believe there was any conscious and deliberate sexual perversity I

I do believe Fr. McGuire was acting on principles which, though objectively defensible, were highly imprudn. . He should be prudently allowed to engage in priestly ministry. According to the report, McGuire went on to abuse more children after returning to ministry. He was dismissed from the Jesuit order in 2007. Writing for Catholic Culture, author and editor Philip F. Lawler stated that "the toxic influence of the [sex abuse] scandal has seeped into yet another aspect of Catholic life, tarnishing the memory of potential saints." Holding Mother Teresa guiltless concerning the case of McGuire, Lawler bemoaned "the same chain of evidence raises more serious questions about another beloved Catholic figure who is now a candidate for beatification: the late Father John Hardon, SJ." Robert McDermott, a former student of Hardon's, was the postulator for the cause until moving to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he serves as associate pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church. An effort is underway to establish a Father Hardon library and study center at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin.