A Jesuit Pope – HEAD FOR THE HILLS!
Actually, I hope this may be a good thing – from the perspective of a lapsed Catholic who experienced teaching at the hands of the Society of Jesus.
The Jesuits are – with considerable justification – regarded as one of the most intellectually rigorous orders – they put an extraordinarily high value on analysing things – including their own faith – both logically, and in line with information from other sources and while they are fundamentally conservative in many cases, if they are convinced that change is needed, they will embrace change with a vengeance.
A Jesuit Pope, it would seem to me, would be likely to analyse and revisit all the important teachings of the Church, and do so from a standpoint that acknowledges that the Bible is open to the interpretation of man, and may have been wrongly interpreted in the past. They will take the theology of the Church very seriously, but will also regard it as something that can be changed. And if they decide that some existing teachings are wrong, they will be able to explain why carefully and logically, in a way that other conservative sections of the Church are likely to respect.
They also, in my experience, take the line that Catholic teachings are for Catholic people – while a Jesuit Pope would expect Catholics to respect the teachings of the Church, including any statements of the Pope made in the proper way (especially ex Cathedra) they are also likely to understand that not everybody is Catholic and the Catholic Church can not impose its standards on non-Catholics.
One of my favourite stories, from my Jesuit education, is when a boy in my class – we were 15 – asked a Jesuit Priest who was teaching us about contraception. His response was along the lines of:
“The Church teaches that the use of contraception is a sin. It also teaches that sex outside of the sanctity of marriage is a sin. As a Priest, I certainly discourage you from having sex outside of marriage, and as a teacher, I will say that I believe you are all too young and too immature to be engaging in such activities. I hope you will consider such things carefully. But I’ll also say to you, this, – if you are going to sin, then for Christ’s sake, sin safely. If you’re having sex despite what the Church teaches you, you’re already sinning. It would be monumentally foolish to put yourself, or another at risk of earthly consequences of that in the hope of avoiding a sin.”
But the ‘Head for the Hills’ comment – a Jesuit is also implacable. Unmoveable. If he decides that something is right, he will do it (No, they are not all like this, but a huge number are). There are reason there has never been a Jesuit Pope before – and one of those is because a significant number of people in the Church heirarchy, know that it means a person who cannot be controlled if they believe what they are doing is right.
Every day of my Jesuit schooling, we had to say a prayer – that of the founder of the Order.
“Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve You as You deserve
To give and not to count the cost
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labour and not to ask reward
Save that of knowing that I do Your will”.
Almost everybody I know who went through a Jesuit education, still tries to live their life that way – even those of us who do not profess the Catholic faith. The actual Jesuits – who typically train for at least eight years, and sometimes as much as fourteen before they are ordained as Priests – have that attitude to an extent I find hard to believe.
Chocky's Child 
While I admire the qualities of 1) analyzing everything and 2) holding to what you believe with a vengeance, I wish it weren’t accompanied with some of the things about religion and specifically the Catholic church that make me so uncomfortable: the treatment of women, the abuse of children, the position on contraception. It is my opinion that we are at or above the carrying capacity of the earth, given the current state of technology, the environment, and people’s desires for comfortable lives, and thus it is vital to allow the use of contraception. Unfortunately, it seems that this new pope will hold strictly to the injunction against contraception – or am I mis-informed?
We have to wait and see. But there’s a couple of important things to consider. The Catholic Church is a heirarchy, of course, and if a Pope issues a ruling on a spiritual or theological matter, others are expected to take what he says seriously – especially in public – and not challenge it – unless it’s an issue where the Pope has actually said debate is welcomed. Some theological matters can be freely debated – others can’t, if the Pope has made a ruling.
Jesuits take a particularly strong line on this – they take a personal view of their loyalty specifically to the Pope, and to his rulings. St Ignatius went so far as to say (paraphrasing) “If the Pope says something is black, and we can see it is white, we must proclaim it is black,” What does this mean?
It means that Jose Cardinal Bergoglio would have agreed with the teachings of the Pope in public, but that Pope Francis is now free to express his own views publically.
Just because, as Cardinal, he took the official line of the Church, does not, in any way, mean he won’t change that line.
Will he? I have no idea. From the Jesuits I know, I would say that changes on an issue like contraception are perfectly possible. Changes concerning homosexuality are possible (although I would very much doubt it would extend to supporting marriage, I can see a move away from the idea that it is a sin). I can’t see ordination of women being on the table – I can certainly see widespread condemnation of abuse of women, along with sexual abuse of children being a major priority and a cleaning of the house on those issues. Abortion – the Church will remain opposed to it, I can’t see that changing, although I can see a possibility of a softening of the position in cases where a woman’s life is in danger.
The Church may make some quite radical changes under Pope Francis – but the Church will not radically change – any more than the acknowledgement of evolution made a radical change to the Church itself.