Pope appoints Jesuit to influential position

Andrew Sullivan points us to this article in America: The National Catholic Weekly,

Pope Benedict has appointed Luis Ladaria, SJ, as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, replacing Archbishop Angelo Amato, who becomes prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Saints. Robert Mickens of the London Tablet reports: "The 64-year-old Spaniard is a specialist in theological anthropology and has taught at the Gregorian since 1979. The Pope knows him well, too, since he has been the secretary general of the International Theological Commission (of which the CDF chief is always president) since 2004 and was a member of the ITC from 1992-1997."

As far as I know, is the first time that a Jesuit has held this extremely influential position at the CDF, and is another indication of Benedict's esteem for the Society of Jesus.

I spent 4 years in Jesuit high school (after 8 years in Catholic grade school) and have a tremendous respect for the intellectual rigors of the Jesuits. I owe my love of learning, reading and intellectualism to the Jesuits. I also owe a lot of my sense for social justice to the Jesuits as well. So this promotion seems to me to be an objectively good development for the Catholic church and it's future.