The election of Pope Francis, the first member of the Society of Jesus to rise to the papacy, “has been one long infomercial” for the order, said Jesuit Father Brian Paulson, rector of the Jesuit community at Loyola University Chicago.

Members of the order hope that “the good example and holiness of Pope Francis will inspire young men to consider the Society of Jesus as a way to serve Christ and his Church,” Paulson said.

Certainly, the election of Pope Francis will bring new attention to the order and the work its members carry out as missionaries around the world as well as in education and on behalf of social justice.

Members of the order admitted that stereotypes abound about the society, but that critics often fail to consider the broad scale of work carried out by the world’s largest order of religious men.