We have a new Pope! Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina has taken the name Pope Francis for his pontificate. From what I hear, this is a man of service and humility.
The new pope is known as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed. He will also have a special connection to the almost half-billion Catholics who live in Latin America.
“There’s no one else in the house. He’s answering his own door. They didn’t show us into a nice little lounge, where you wait until the grand man comes in,” Small said. “He was just incredibly down to earth.”
He also takes buses to work, rejecting the limousines that some cardinals use. He cooks his own food (we’ll see if he can continue that tradition – I think he has a lot to do!) I was touched by how humble he seemed, and especially so when he asked for prayers before he bestowed his first papal blessing. I was very glad that the cardinal who early on publicly put himself up for consideration wasn’t elected. This is a big job for a wise man, not an egotistical one.
As to where he will lead the flock, we shall see. It does seem, however, that he is the type to disappoint the liberal media. He won’t be ushering in married priests and lesbian nuns any time soon:
Prior to his selection, CNN reported that Pergoglio is known as a “straight-shooter” who has no problem calling situations as he sees them. Potentially crushing dreams that he will take the church in a more liberal direction, he subscribes to the Catholicism’s most conservative wing…
On contraceptives and gay marriage, he has, in the past, taken strict, conservative stances. And he once called abortion a “death sentence” for the unborn.
And we’ll have to see where he goes with social justice.
In 2007, he said, “We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least. The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”
Personally, I don’t see poverty so much an unequal distribution of wealth as it is unequal distribution of freedom. There will always be poor, there will always be rich, but to move between the two requires freedom, economic and political.
This Pope is also going to be called on to clean out the Curia and to reform the problems in the Church. Yes, he will be busy, busy, busy.
God bless Pope Francis, and may God’s wisdom shower down upon him.