Steve Jobs |
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The new editor of the influential Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica has compared Apple co-founder Steve Jobs with St Ignatius Loyola and Pope Pius XI. Speaking on Vatican Radio, Father Antonio Spadaro SJ said that Jobs, like Pius XI, who founded Vatican Radio and built the Vatican train station, recognized the importance of expanding communication.
According to Fr Spadaro, Jobs, who died at the age of 56 on October 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, made technology part of the lives of millions and millions of people, not just technicians.
"Steve Jobs had something in common with Pius XI and that is that he understood that communication is the greatest value we have at our disposal today and we must make it bear fruit," the Jesuit told Vatican Radio, adding that Jobs had a "great ability to believe in dreams, to see life not only in terms of little daily things, but to have a vision in front of him. Basically, Steve Jobs' most important message was this, 'Stay hungry, stay foolish' - in other words, maintain the ability to see life in new ways."
The 'stay hungry' quote was from a commencement address Jobs gave at California's Stanford University in 2005. Follow the link below to listen to what he said. Some of the points he made echoed what the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius of Loyola, preached. In his Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius wrote that one way of making an important choice is to examine how one would go about making that decision if he knew he were about to die. Jobs told the new graduates in 2005: 'Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.'
Father Spadaro wrote in his blog: "In the cases of Ignatius and Steve, death isn't a bogeyman,' but is present as a reminder that in the face of death, the only thing that remains is what is truly important for each person. Acknowledging that he did not know whether the founder of Apple was a believer, he wrote that in the Stanford speech, Jobs was 'speaking simply about the interior disposition one must have when making important decisions in life, focusing on what counts. No one, believer or non-believer, can make choices in life if he thinks he's immortal."
Under the headline 'The talented Mr Apple,' the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano put news of Jobs' death on its front page. "Steve Jobs was one of the protagonists and symbols of the Silicon Valley revolution,' which brought changes not only in technology, (but) also a 'revolution of customs, mentality and culture,' it said. Jobs was 'a visionary who united technology and art,' the paper said. He was a man of 'talent, pure talent."
Source: Jesuit Communications |
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