What Would Pope Francis Do? Bringing the Good News to People in Need. Sean Salai, S.J.

       Introduction

       Joy

      We do well to keep in mind the early Christians and our many brothers and sisters throughout history who were filled with joy, unflagging courage and zeal in proclaiming the Gospel. (Evangelii Gaudium 263)

      “What if the next pope is a Jesuit?”

      With an impatient sigh, I turned from the projector screen to identify the fifteen-year-old student who had asked me this question.

      It was March 2013. Blue skies and 72 degrees of Florida sunshine awaited us outside the windows of our darkened classroom in Tampa. I, the all-knowing Jesuit theology teacher, did not want to spend much time speculating about a “Jesuit pope” during our lesson on the upcoming papal conclave. I wanted a cup of coffee.

      After all, I had four more sections of freshman boys to teach that day at Jesuit High School, and we hadn’t even gotten to the white smoke. At the rate we were going, our next pope might be elected before we learned how to count the votes.

      Maybe that explains why, rather than giving a nuanced answer, I loaded my intellectual guns and aimed to stop the question in its tracks.

      “That’s not going to happen,” I told the kid, using my most matter-of-fact teacher voice.

      Bang. I felt pretty good about myself.

      But the kid, one of my favorite students, quickly shot back: “Why not?”

      I sighed again.

      “It won’t happen because we Jesuits take a vow to avoid positions of honor in the Catholic Church whenever possible. We don’t become monsignors, and we don’t become bishops unless the pope insists. And there’s never been a Jesuit pope. St. Ignatius didn’t want us messing around with that stuff.”

      As I gave this answer, I could hear in my head all of the wisecracks from the Jesuit rec room, reassuring me in my certainty. “Hell will freeze over before a Jesuit becomes pope.” We’ve all heard that sort of thing before.

      If a Jesuit cardinal wasn’t seeking the papacy, but was following the Jesuit rule to avoid politicking, there was no reason for the other 114 cardinals to elect him. That was common sense. Right?

       The Election

      Yet my freshman theology student, who had a soft spot for underdogs, wasn’t going to let me off the hook about the slim possibility that a Jesuit might become pope.

      He spoke up again.

      “Who are the Jesuit cardinals? I just want to know.”

      Softening to his curiosity, I clicked through the list of cardinals on my computer and pointed out an Asian Jesuit who was not attending the conclave due to illness. Then I pulled up the Vatican website’s biography of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., the only Jesuit cardinal who would actually be attending and voting for pope. He was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

      After glancing at Cardinal Bergoglio’s photo and briefly reading some of his biography out loud, I told the class I was reasonably certain — as a fellow Jesuit — that this guy would not get elected.

      My hopeful student, of course, was not so sure. He asked: “But what if it happens? What if he gets elected anyway?”

      I just shrugged.

      In my four remaining classes that day, I repeated this whole ritual, showing my freshmen a photo of the Jesuit cardinal and denying he would be elected pope.

      According to the Gospels, St. Peter denied Jesus three times on one occasion. In five different class periods, I had denied that the Holy Spirit would ever pick a Jesuit to succeed St. Peter.

      By the end of the school day, I felt pretty satisfied. We had covered the basics of papal conclaves, and I had put the “Jesuit pope” silliness to rest. Or so I thought.

      A few days later, on March 13, we were watching the white smoke on a live feed in class when God decided not to heed my prediction.

      “Habemus papam!”

      Twenty-five teenage boys turned to stare at me in shock as Cardinal Bergoglio walked to the edge of a balcony in St. Peter’s Square, dressed in white as the newly elected Pope Francis.

      Television cameras from Tampa’s FOX and ABC news affiliates, invited to record our school’s on-the-spot reaction to the announcement of a new pope, captured our joyful surprise in the theology classrooms as students erupted in cheers. They also interviewed our students in the hallway after Francis appeared on the balcony.

      Asked his thoughts about having a Latin American pope for the first time in history, one of my students, whose great-uncle was a cardinal in the Dominican Republic,