President's thoughts on Pope Francis I

Thoughts from the Rev. Thomas B. Curran

When St. Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, also known as Jesuits, he wanted a distinctive mark of his community to be a life in companionship with all people. The early Jesuits captured this solidarity with the notion that “the world is our home.”  A Jesuit is bound especially in his love and service to the Holy Father.  To have Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a Jesuit, as the 266th Pontiff and the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, offers the Rockhurst University community, one of the 180 Jesuit institutions of higher learning in the world, a unique invitation to seek and find God in all things, people and cultures.

When Cardinal Bergoglio, known to his companions in Buenos Aires, Argentina as “Father Jorge,” selected the name Francis he indicated his way of proceeding:   “Preach the gospel always and if necessary use words.” 

May the simplicity, generosity and inclusiveness of St. Francis and Padre Francisco invite all of us to live simply, to give of ourselves generously, and love inclusively in imitation of the God who created us.

Thomas B. Curran