Papa Francis and grandpa Francis

We have a new Pope now. As a news junkie, my interest in the choice of the new Pope was intermittent at best, catching up with the election development on the web and on TV when I could, or when I wanted to. Didn’t even bother to check who the candidates were – just  a bunch of cloaked  father-figures, speaking in a variety of languages, who the media hounded to milk the papacy election event.

Given the sad state the Catholic church was in, my interest in the papal resignation and the election that followed was perfunctory at best – an organisation was seeking a head after its ill incumbent had resigned. It was not mystical or a particularly religious event as far as I was concerned.

Then the name was announced. And the fact that the new Pope was a Jesuit. The name Francis is dear to me – both personally and historically. My maternal grandfather’s name was Francis, named to honour Francis of Assisi, the saint of animals and the environment.

And thus my interest in both the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church – to which a chunk of my family belong – was piqued, again.

Of all the Christian saints, Francis is closest to my heart. It could possibility be that having a grandfather named Francis led me to delve more into the history and background of this particular saint more than others. Or it could be that I like to think Francis of Assisi as the paragon of the quintessential Christian – a follower of Christ, vowed to poverty and equality and compassion. With compassion heading the list – for compassion is not a forte of the Christian if the recipient is not a Christian.

So, are we actually going to see a different sort of papacy this time around? The past two predecessors were not so great, for the church at least. John Paul II did achieve celebrity status as a globe trotter and was popular while Benedict XVI endured a notoriety of sorts due his enforced conscription into the Hitler Youth and for sticking to the rule of the infallibility for the Church.

The Catholic Church has come under much attack and scrutiny under both these predecessors of Pope Francis. Lack of compassion for its followers, and for other branches of mankind, was one of its failings, with child abuse by the priesthood the most visible affront.

Now a Jesuit is the Pope, for the first ever. What does this entail for the Vatican, the Church and for the world?

The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is the ‘enlightened’ arm of the Roman Catholic Church. Set up as a near-military order by Ignatius of Loyola after a battlefield conversion in 1534, the order is evangelical and see education as the basis of doing greater good in society.

And they have been at loggerheads with the Vatican for generations over deep-seated issues like homosexuality, abortion, women deacons and the liberation theory (with some calling the last, Christian Marxism).

From the start the Jesuits saw the Church as being in need of reform, and were kept at arms length by the Vatican for centuries due to concern for their creedal opposition and reformative fervour. Now this bunch have come into the limelight. And Pope Francis is said to be bringing with him all accoutrements of the Jesuit brotherhood to the Papacy –  extreme vows of chastity, poverty and righteousness.

And he is not alone. There are several cardinals of Jesuit background around him: they had been appointed by his two predecessors during their terms in office. A veritable coup is one way of looking at it. The vindication of righteousness and truth is another way.

While the Vatican, throughout its history, has had the ear of those in power, the Jesuits were generally seen by these rulers as interfering busybodies with a social agenda. Many a times in history, it was only the Jesuits who stood between colonial powers hell bent of taking over countries in the ‘new’ world and the slavery of the natives of those countries.

Not to say they did it completely out of the goodness of their hearts, for the Jesuits have had a chequered history as well. They were responsible for the Inquisition in Portugese Goa (India) and have done a sterling job of garnering animosity for the Catholic Church in almost every places in the world. They are elitists of the highest order – in the “if I see something white, and the Church says it is black, we will deem it black’” kind of way.

As an evangelical order, taking the message to and converting the natives to Christianity is always the main agenda and they have done well in this area for centuries. They set up bases of operations around the world, running missions profitably and influencing the locals to a great extent, both through education and political influence. Sometimes their work has been suppressed and sometimes they have been exiled, losing everything they had built in the bargain. But they have been, and continue to be, an order of social and political importance around the world.

And they knew when to draw the line when it came to the things that mattered – compassion for all, education to break the stranglehold of Church doctrines on the masses, and “to prevent greed for money or power invading Jesuit circles”. The Nazi regime considered the Jesuits one of their most dangerous enemies (at a time when the Catholic Church was accused of not doing enough/remaining silent during the Holocaust). The Jesuits saved as many Jews and other ‘undesirables’ as they could during WWII.

Historically, some of their greatest struggles were against corruption, venality, and spiritual lassitude within the Roman Catholic Church.

So, is a Jesuit as the Pope exactly what the Catholic Church needs in this modern world? If Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were termed traditionalists, could Pope Francis be called ‘liberal’?

The man I knew personally as Francis, my grandfather, will always be remembered  with honour by me for one thing he did – he fought to get my mother educated. In a time (40s and the 50s) in Fiji when most rural Indian girls were raised only to raise a family, my grandfather fought this prevailing thought (and my grandmother, to boot) to get my mother educated. He sold a mattress and slept on the hard bed to pay the school fees to get my mother’s education going. Is the term liberal aligned with the name Francis? I personally think so.  St Francis of Assisi was definitely liberal, possibly in ways to make our modern day liberals feel like right-wing bigots.

Accordingly, seeing a Pope Francis on the papal throne (though he appears to shun such trappings) I envisage some positive changes coming through his tenure. Maybe it will be through benevolent tyranny, for that is how the Jesuits roll.

Maybe it will be through some hard dialogue, some intensive communication, but largely it will be through great action.

How the Church fares in the future will depend on how readily the hierarchy accept the Jesuit way of doing things – down the line, no quarters given, just follow in the footsteps of Jesus. It is not for fun that the Jesuits call themselves Friends of Jesus, and see the Church only as His bride.

It will be hardcore. With a lot of compassion thrown in.

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