A Jesuit Pope Named Francis

by Sue Rakoczy · March 25, 2013

The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, formerly Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, as Pope Francis is an extraordinary event in the history of the church. The cardinals could have elected another Latin American, from Mexico or Brazil, for example. pope. These too would have been historic choices. But they elected a Jesuit pope who chose the name Francis.

Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Society of Jesus, and Pope Francis, also a Jesuit, are seen together before celebrating Mass at the Church of the Gesu in Rome in this Jan. 3, 2014, file photo. Jesuits from around the world will meet in Rome beginning Oct. 2 to elect a new superior general. Father Nicolas, who turned 80 in April, plans to resign after leading the order since 2008. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

His Jesuit identity makes him unique not only because he is the first Jesuit pope, but because of the implications of having a pope formed in Ignatian spirituality. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was 22 when he entered the Society of Jesus in 1958. Thus he has lived the dynamic of Ignatian spirituality for 55 years.

What might a Jesuit pope bring to the church? Pope Francis is steeped in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. He has made the full 30-day Exercises at least twice and his yearly retreats would have focused on them. The central meditation of the Exercises is the Election, the choice to follow Christ totally in whatever state of life one lives. So thus we may expect that his papacy will focus on the following of Christ.

Pope Francis is already being commended for the simple life-style he led in Buenos Aires and for his option for the poor. In the Spiritual Exercises one is directed to pray for the Third Kind of Humility so that in order better to imitate and actually be like Christ our Lord, I desire and choose poverty with Christ poor, rather than riches. His choice of the name Francis in honour of Francis of Assisi who embraced Lady Poverty in a society preoccupied with wealth demonstrates not only a commitment to the poor, but the Ignatian sense of preferring poverty. He has already said, “Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.”

The foundation of Ignatian spirituality is to seek and find God in all things. It is a spirituality which embraces the world in all its joys and sorrows, injustice and desire for freedom. Pope Francis begins his ministry in a church and world whose signs of the times includes the unending sexual abuse scandals, radical poverty and injustice in society, including South Africa, grave internal scandals in the Curia, growth of the church in some areas and decline in others. Where and how will he find Christ in the 21^st century world and how will he act?

One of the great gifts of Ignatian spirituality is its emphasis on discernment and the Exercises contain The Rules for the Discernment of Spirits. Ignatian discernment involves attention to one’s affectivity either consoling feelings of peace and joy or desolate feelings of sadness and darkness of spirit in order to sense whether a possible decision increases or decreases faith, hope and love. Since Vatican II the Society of Jesus and others such as religious congregations of women have mined Ignatian wisdom to develop various processes of communal discernment.

Their experience is a resource for the whole church. This could be the most radical (going to the root) implication of a Jesuit pope. If Pope Francis began to teach the bishops and by extension all of us, how to make decisions using processes of communal discernment, we would begin to see a transformed church. If discernment was taken seriously, perhaps he would have the courage to listen to women who say that God is calling them to the ordained ministry or to gay and lesbian persons in committed relationships.Perhaps bishops would be selected in discernment processes and not through secret lists forwarded to the Vatican.

A Jesuit pope named Francis: we wait in hope.