6 a Moral Threat to Society? – the Jesuit Danger 1814–1961
6Amoral threattosociety? – the Jesuit danger 1814–1961 Afather and his “Jesuitism” From 1928 onwards,Heinrich Roos (1904–1977) was aJesuitfather in Copenha- gen. He was German-born, but had acquired Danishcitizenship. Ever since the Jesuits had been expelled from Bismarck’sGermanyinthe early1870s, Jesuit schools in Denmark had taught in both Germanand Danish. ManyGermans soughttoattend DanishJesuit schools, especiallyduringthe period whenthe or- der’sinstitutions werebanned in Germany.Roos taught at the school in Copen- hagen, in addition to holding aposition as philologist at the city’suniversity.¹ In February 1954,the Theological Association in Norwayapplied to the Min- istry of Justice on behalf of Roos for an exemption from the constitutional ban on Jesuits.They wanted him to visit the country to present alecture on the work and teachings of the Jesuits.² The issue of the exclusion of the Jesuits had been raised in connection with the government’sratification of the European Convention on Human Rights in 1951. Norwayhad expressed reservations about the clause on religious freedom because of the ban on Jesuits, which, at an international level, was problematic and controversial. In 1952, therefore, the government for- warded aproposal to repeal this last exclusionary provision from the Constitu- tion. It was in this context that Father Roos applied to come to Norway – but he was turned down. Giving his reasoning,Minister of Justice KaiBirgerKnudsen (1903–1977) in Oscar Torp’s(1893–1958) Labour Party government explained that it was
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