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John Anthony Hardon (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.
A devout Catholic, Anna Hardon never remarried "out of concern for the influence a possible stepfather might have on her son's vocation." John Janaro, a Hardon biographer, described Anna as "a woman of deep faith, a Franciscan tertiary who embraced her poverty and her difficult circumstances with courage and grace." Anna "attended daily Mass and received Holy Communion" and her home "had sacred pictures, a family holy water font, and a good deal of spiritual conversation." Hardon later recalled that they only spoke Slavic languages at home. He contrasted it to English language which he believed 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"; but he was soon affected by his mother's example. Hardon would often recall that his mother told him that the very purpose of knees "are for kneeling to pray before God".
For added income Anna took in two young Lutheranism girls as boarders, who lived with the family for at least eight years. At one point, the three-year-old Hardon protested at having to abstain from meat on Friday, unlike "sisters". To solve the problem, Anna asked the girls "My boy is growing up: he's asking embarrassing questions. Would you mind either abstaining from eating meat on Friday or find yourselves somewhere else to board?" The girls choose to join the Friday fast with permission from their minister. Hardon's positive relationships with the two girls helped form his later religious thinking: "Years before the Ecumenical Movement I had come to respect and cherish Protestants."
At age six, John Hardon received religious instruction from a Sister Benedicta. She told her students "Whatever you ask Our Lord on your First Communion day, you will receive." Hardon later said that his first communion request was, "Make me a priest." Hardon then started attending daily mass with his mother. At age eight, he received his confirmation. Hardon later said that he called on the Holy Spirit to give him "the grace of martyrdom."
Unwilling to leave Anna on her own, Hardon decided not to pursue 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 in Cleveland. He decided then to become a medical doctor; however, he later said that the Jesuit Spiritual gift had a "profound impact" on him:
In his third year at John Carroll, under LeMay's guidance, Hardon decided to enter the priesthood. He changed his course of studies to include Latin, philosophy, and college theology, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1936.
Hardon later 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." Hardon continued regularly to correspond with his mother but to avoid temptation, he avoided visiting her for seven years until ordered to do so by his superior.
In 1949, the Jesuits sent Hardon to Rome to attend the Pontifical Gregorian University. While at the Gregorian, he was appointed director of the graduate library. His superiors tasked him with retrieving from borrowers a number of library books that the Vatican had recently declared as heretical. He recalled:
Hardon earned his Doctor of Sacred Theology degree from the Gregorian in 1951 with a dissertation on St. Robert Bellarmine: A Comparative Study of Bellarmine's Doctrine on the Relation of Sincere Non-Catholics to the Catholic Church. That same year, Hardon received a papal medal.
Interested in other faiths, Hardon began to study comparative religion. In eastern religions, he found "not only areas that were compatible with Christianity but also sections of thought that were clearly influenced in a direct manner by contact with the Christian message." He began using his extensive knowledge of Asian customs and religions to train missionaries for Asia.
While still teaching full-time at West Baden, several Protestant schools invited him to their campuses as a visiting professor. They included Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Indiana, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. According to author Paul Likoudis,
When Hardon became a visiting professor at Seabury-Western, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury in England sent a personal representative to the seminary to mark "the first time in history an Anglican/Episcopalian seminary had appointed a teacher who was a member of the once hated and feared Society of Jesus."
In 1962, Hardon joined Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to teach Roman Catholicism and Comparative Religion. Five years later, in 1967, he returned to Illinois to teach Jesuit Scholasticism at two Jesuit theological schools. He also served as a visiting professor at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario where he taught furloughed missionaries classes in missiology.
Hardon provided advice on liturgy to the participants in the mid-1960s to the Second Vatican Council in Rome. Hardon sympathized with Catholics who objected to some Council reforms, "but he never for a moment accepted the premise that a schismatic act was ever justified." He later worked for the Congregations for the Clergy in Rome to implement these reforms.
In 1974, Hardon was appointed as a professor at St. John's University in New York City at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Catholic Doctrine. He worked with the Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon, Ohio to write Christ Our Life, a series of religious textbooks for elementary students.
Hardon's most notable publication was (1975). Paul VI was displeased with doctrinal errors in the controversial Dutch Catechism, published in 1966. In line with his letter Solemni Hac Liturgia (Credo of the people of God), the pope requested that Hardon produce a new English catechism. By the time of Hardon's death in 2000, The Catholic Catechism had sold over one million copies.
Hardon published the Modern Catholic Dictionary (1980), a Catholic reference work. He also contributed articles to six encyclopedias. Hardon also wrote articles for Catholic newspapers and magazines and served as executive editor of The Catholic Faith magazine.
In 1972, Hardon founded Mark Communication in Canada and later the Pontifical Catechetical Institutes in the United States, to train religious educators. He also assisted those establishing similar organizations. Hardon in 1974 co-founded the Institute on Religious Life, an apostolate dedicated to increasing the number of men and women in religious orders.
Hardon founded several Catholic organizations, including Inter Mirifica (a name taken from Vatican II's decree on social communication) and Holy Trinity Apostolate in Sterling Heights, Michigan He also served as an adviser to many Catholic organizations, including Catholics United for Faith, an international lay organization to promote evangelism.
In the early 1980s, Pope John Paul II instructed Mother Teresa of Calcutta to have the Missionaries of Charity, her order religious order, evangelize the poor. Cardinal Josef Ratzinger asked Hardon to instruct the sisters on evangelism. Hardon wrote a catechetical course for the Missionaries. Hardon later adapted the Missionaries course into a series of home study courses for lay Catholics. In 1985, Hardon founded the Marian Catechist Apostolate, which uses these home study courses to prepare lay people for catechetical ministry.
Beginning in 1988, Hardon started recording lectures with Eternal Life of Bardstown, Kentucky. Due to his halting voice, Eternal Life digitally Hardon's recordings. Lecture topics included the Ignatian Exercises, the Apostles' Creed, the Eucharist, Catholic Sexual Morality, and Angels and Devils. Hardon's first lecture series was about artificial contraception. Hardon viewed it as having "greased the skids for the culture of death". By that, Hardon believed that it was the source for public acceptance of abortion rights for women and assisted suicide.
In 1996, Hardon helped establish the first Call to Holiness conference near Detroit.
Hardon's health problems continued throughout his life. In 1981 he had quadruple bypass.
Speaking with Hardon, McGuire admitted sharing a room with the boy during a trip. McGuire said he showered with him, asked him for a massage and had pornography in the room. However, McGuire denied touching the boy's genitals and watching him masturbate. After his interview with McGuire, Hardon sent a report to Fr Bradley Schaeffer, the local Jesuit provincial. In one excerpt, Hardon said:
On February 2, 1994, Mother Teresa, a longtime colleague of McGuire, wrote to Schaeffer, saying that she believed McGuire was innocent of sex abuse allegations. In her letter, she said that Hardon "had established Father's innocence of the allegations against him. Hardon said that McGuire admitted imprudence in his behavior." The Jesuits allowed McGuire to resume his ministry. After more reports of child abuse, the Jesuits dismissed McGuire from their order in 2007. He was convicted of child rape in 2009 and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Writing for Catholic Culture, author Philip F. Lawler stated that "the toxic influence of the [Catholic scandal]] has seeped into yet another aspect of Catholic life, tarnishing the memory of potential saints." Lawler stated that "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." Lawler was perplexed, asking: "Once McGuire had admitted to some degree of misconduct, after earlier blanket denials, why was Father Hardon ready to accept his later denials of the more serious charges?" Lawler concluded:
In 1984, he was summoned to a consultation with his Jesuit superiors and informed he would be forbidden to teach at any Jesuit institution, a prohibition lasting sixteen years until his death. He viewed this as persecution for teaching the faith, a "white martyrdom", and he would advise his listeners that they should be willing to suffer for the true doctrines of Catholicism.
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