VATICAN CITY (AP) — From ‘‘the end of the earth,’’ the Catholic Church found a surprising new leader Wednesday, a pioneer pope from Argentina who took the name Francis, a pastor rather than a manager to resurrect a church and faith in crisis. He is the first pontiff from the New World and the first non-European since the Middle Ages.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires who has spent nearly his entire career in Argentina, was a fast and fitting choice for the most unpredictable papal succession — start to finish — in at least six centuries.
Comments
You can pick a Pope, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick the Pope's nose.
Why don't the Glob and all its media brethren just send one reporter and one camera operator (still or video) to Rome to cover this story. All this nonsense of trying to elevate every bimbo and bombo in the media world to the level of papal expert is a total air dump. How many photos of black smoke coming out of a chimney does the world need? The 4,000 so called journalists who are gorging on so-so Roman food - most probably pizza with uncooked garlic atop - are doing nothing more than spreading their rumors among their own ranks. Che sciocchezza!!!
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All this mumbo jumbo is amusing to watch, isn't it? If the Italians put as much energy into the welfare of their country as they do into the papal election, they'd be a lot better off.
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Another pope that strongly believes in discrimination. Great!! Lets see how many more millions will leave the catholic church under his rule.
Bergoglio is seen an unwaveringly orthodox on matters of sexual morality, staunchly opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception. In 2010 he asserted that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-comments-on-gay-marriage-and-gay-adoption-2013-3#ixzz2NS3fxLoZ
My guess is, he's ethnic Italian. Argentina has a huge population of "Italians" which included the late Juan Peron. However, he'll be accurately viewed as Argentinian (or Argentine according to the Brits) by the world. If he was an American, he would be "Italian", and if Sean O'Malley was elected he would be "Irish".
Poof! Now he's infallible.
I'm worried that he's such a spring chicken.
All these posted comments have such a negative, if not a idiotic response. Let's give the guy a chance...read James Carroll's column, then be more generous in your opinions.
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I was truly happy to see him elected since there are 500 million Catholics in South America, and he is interested in the poor, but then I was stunned to read about how he wrote a letter to someone in the terrible period of dictatorship in Argentina (1970's) about how a baby of a murdered or kidnapped woman was going to a powerful family with his involvement in this illicit adoption!!! And several newspapers have reported that he did not stand up and speak out against the dictatorship and could have. I will wait for more to get out, but this early report is very discouraging.