Please forgive my ignorance, but what is the difference between a Roman Catholic and other Catholics? Is it like the difference between say a Anglican and a Baptist?
I keep hearing that Pope Francis is a Jesuit. His actions so far seem to be appealing to protestants like myself. I am sensing that this is an unwelcome change to the Catholic faith.
The Jesuits were a group founded by Ignatius of Loyola, now a saint.
They take vows of poverty and are fiercely devoted to and successful at education.
Many, not the Society itself, many in it, fell into “Liberation Theology” which presents as a problem in that it encourages the clergy and congregations to work with the government. In this case, using government money to provide for the poor, where charity is best left up to the free will of the individual, this places the Catholic Church in government, but also, worse, communist territory.
They rejected, also, the teachings of Pope Paul I in his prophetic, really, required reading by anyone seeking reason, and an explanation of the mess we are in in regard to the sexes, Humanae Vitae.
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, rejected all of this getting involved with the gov’t business and was out of favor with the Jesuits, most likely not out of favor with the original Jesuit thinking.
He is very well received by most Catholics and every one I’ve spoken with in the past few days.
“Please forgive my ignorance, but what is the difference between a Roman Catholic and other Catholics? Is it like the difference between say a Anglican and a Baptist?”
No, there are eastern Catholic Churches (loyal to the Pope) that have their own hierarchies ad traditions (for example, for many of them their priests can be married). They are Churches in Ukraine, India, Iraq, Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, etc.; some are counterparts to Orthodox Churches that separated in 1054, while some have no Orthodox counterpart. They are Catholics, but not “Roman Catholics”.
Jesuits are a religious order in the western (Latin, or Roman Catholic) Church.
That said, there are 26 rites within the Church that have developed since Apostolic times, the largest of these is the Roman Rite, which you are, no doubt, most familiar with. These rites all believe the same Creed, but the expressions and chant style, etc., differ somewhat. No matter the rite, the Church believes and follows the teachings of Jesus.
The Jesuit (The Society of Jesus, to give it its formal name) order was founded by St Ignatius Loyola to teach the Gospel and bring Jesus to the far reaches of the globe. Many places in this country are named for the Jesuit missionaries who preached to the Native Americans. St Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, was the first Christian missionary in Japan, along the way he preached in India as well. Of course, there was already some Catholics there as St Thomas the Apostle went there after the death and resurrection of Our Lord.
The Jesuits are all highly educated men. My teacher had 7 languages and 2 doctorates. When the Jesuits are good, they are very good, but sadly, in the 60's and 70's many were sucked into Liberation theology, which is actually just warmed over Marxism. This was rife in South America. The current Pope was against this and so he was treated badly by many of the other members in Argentina. He was sent off to the hinterlands to teach and was very happy there until Pope Benedict called upon him to become a Bishop and ultimately, a Cardinal.
I hope this answer is helpful to you.
difference between a Roman Catholic and other Catholics? -- RC is a historical, confusing term. Basically all are Catholic i.e. belonging to Churches that acknowledge the Bishop of Rome as an earthly focal point are in the Catholic Church. This includes 22 rites like the Syro-Malabar, the Syro-Malankara, the Chaldean Catholic, the Maronite Catholic etc. and the largest is the Latin Rite
The term Roman Catholic can mean narrowly just Latin Catholic or widely all the 22 rites of the CAtholic Church. So, i prefer using the plain term Catholic
Is it like the difference between say a Anglican and a Baptist? - no, it's like say you have two southern Baptist groups and they have different ways of having a service. But they believe the same and hold together in the same grouping.
His actions so far seem to be appealing to protestants like myself. - that is good news, because he repeats the same teachings as Benedict and JP, but his style is simpler and if it warms the relationships between us, that's good :)
I am sensing that this is an unwelcome change to the Catholic faith. - of course that depends on who you ask, but to me at least, there is no change to core dogma which remains as it has been for 2000 years, the only change is a welcome one of ways of doing things.
just as JPII and Benedict warmed up relations with the Orthodox, let's hope Pope Francis warms up relations with varioius non-Catholic western Churches. Maybe we never completely see eye-to-eye, but at least we see the common points and stop sniping at each other.