Funny comment from a friend of mine...
 

One of my best friends is a Notre Dame alum. He is catholic and has a sense of humor. He just texted this to me: "I hope I can enlist you to root for ND against Georgetown in the Big East semis tonight. Jesuits are pompous jerks, and they deserve to lose."

He was kidding. Still found it funny. He is the same guy that when they played BYU, he said something to the effect of: If we can't beat those really too nice and accomodating mormons in football, then us cynical and ornery catholics are doing something wrong.

Jesuits tend not to be true believers.

I discovered this to be true when one of my Jesuit college professors invited me over for dinner one night and introduced me to his girlfriend and children.

Are they the liberation theology types?

Some have been but I think that like Communism liberatoin theology is pretty much kaput these days. On the other hand, a lot of Jesuits are specialists in and have a special devotion to the Classics and education in general which can lead to rejection of liberation theology's radical liberalism. This in addition to their wanderlust and exploratory tendencies in the 17-19 centuries is what they were known for. Jesuits were at the vanguard of Catholic expansion outside Europe, and mostly through establishing monestaries and schools, vs. hierarchical Catholic institutions. I understand it takes a great deal of study to become a Jesuit. Many of the religious orders you hear about like the Franciscans and the Benedictines are very old. But the Jesuits were established by Ignatius of Loyola at the heighth of the Renaissance. They are a secret combination that has had a somewhat tortured relationship with the Pope for various reasons. I visited Loyola's birthplace and the basillica bult in his honor in nothern Spain when I was there. It was worth the effort. He had been a noble, a soldier and an intellectual before creating the order after he was seriously wounded.

The Mission is a good moivie that touches on some of these themes.