Argentina's Jorge Mario Bergoglio will lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
Chosen on Wednesday by a gathering of Roman Catholic cardinals, the 76-year-old former archbishop of Buenos Aires will now be known as Pope Francis.
He is in some ways a history-making pontiff – he is the first from the Jesuit order which is “noted for its educational, missionary and charitable works, once regarded by many as the principal agent of the Counter-Reformation and later a leading force in modernising the church,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He is also the first pope not to come from a European country in about 1,200 years although he was born in Argentina to parents of Italian descent. He is revered for his outreach to his country’s poor.
He is said to be living in a small flat – eschewing a formal bishop's residence and had given up a limousine for the bus.
Although he hails from the country that was the first in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriage in 2010, he is known to back the Vatican’s traditional positions on abortion, gay marriage, the ordination of women and other major issues.
According to the National Catholic Register, Pope Francis had in 2010 vigorously opposed same-sex marriage and gay adoption saying that if legalised, it will “seriously damage the family.”
“[T]he Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family," he wrote to the four monasteries in Argentina. "At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.”
He added: “Let us not be naive: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan. It is not just a bill (a mere instrument) but a ‘move’ of the father of lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”
In a New York Times profile, the new Pope is regarded by many in his country to be a “passionate defender of the poor and disenfranchised.”
The Times reported: “In 2001 he surprised the staff of Muñiz Hospital in Buenos Aires, asking for a jar of water, which he used to wash the feet of 12 patients hospitalized with complications from the virus that causes AIDS. He then kissed their feet, telling reporters that ‘society forgets the sick and the poor.’”
Like his predecessor Pope Benedict who resigned last month, the new Pope reportedly believes that condoms "can be permissible" to prevent infection although he opposed the government's distribution of free contraception.
In 2012, he delivered a blistering attack on priests who refuse to baptise children to unmarried women, calling them “today's hypocrites.”
"In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don't baptise the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today's hypocrites. Those who clericalise the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it's baptised!"
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“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
Before condeming the act of gay people, do something first to those clergy or priests who abuse these little ones(children).
friend who in the final months of his life asked me to assist his
mother at the airport. she flew from texas to california many
times and always came to me to check in. one day she asked
me, "why did one of R's friends ask me "when did R know he
was gay?" he could not be like that he was raised catholic."
stunned because i thought she knew i replied, 'mrs g. your his
mother doesn't your religion say god does not make mistakes?
mrs g. replied "yes" but i know he was different." so, i say,
mrs G. god makes many people, so your son, was not a mistake.
***i hope pope francis who doesn't agree with gay marriage
has the ability to change the catholic culture so they know
gay people are god's creations too.***
look, no matter how high is he, none could ever judge and say this is wrong wrong wrong in the name of God.
none has the right to speak on behalf of God.
and once they judge, they're already wrong.
just another today hypocrite
Don't delude yourself that this pope is only against the concept of 'marriage' (which they see s a 'sacrament'), to acceptance of a civil union between same sex couples. He is playing the fear-monger.. that recognizing any union between same sex couples is the start of the 'destruction' of the 'family unit'. He even says this idea is the devil's idea. What other proof do u need?
This pope like all others, do not understand Christ's message of inclusiveness & preferential option for the outcasts of society - like gay people, ppl living with HIV/AIDS. The church hierarchy & the protestant rabid right are no different from the Pharisees.
I've given up on the church & the clergy. I go for weekday mass when its quiet & focus on acting on my informed conscience. I'd rather be called a 'humanist NGO' than a hypocrite.
1) 'By definition marriage involves 2 sexes'.. who's definition? the very society that only recognizes any union as being only between a man & a woman? I think you are missing the point completely on this pope & his church. They oppose ANY union between a same sex couple, whether u call it marriage or otherwise. Get that through your head.
2) 'please project a decent image to the public' - I think its people like you who accept the hegemony of heterosexist societies in defining what is socially acceptable unions between human beings, who are the ones who need to project a more gay affirming image. So stop hating yourself & stop exhorting other gay people to accept anything less.
So happen in today's weekday Mass reading on John Gospel 8:1-11 reflection it reads (Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.)
Now tell me, in this modern world context, who then is the Scribes and Pharisees?
God's hands~
God's mind~
God's heart~
in the end.. only kindness matters :)
What is your point? I can similarly use the passage to condemn the pope & the clergy for being the 1st to cast stone at sinners, homosexuals, the lepers of modern day society. Jesus UNDERSTANDS the sinner... the pope & the protestant churches don't bother to understand homosexual ppl. Its easier to cite a few archaic scriptural passages, not bother to get to know gay ppl, ignore the growing body of science, and just throw the lot of us to the modern day stake.
I converted at the age of 18 to Catholicism - i wasn't born into a family of catholics. I learnt about the faith deeply as an adult & took the conscious decision to convert then.
I continue to love God & try to love my neighbor as myself, & to respect every human person made in the image of God in his infinite wisdom. The pope n his lot shd do the same & accept the diversity of God's own creation.
I can do without the pope, pageantry & prejudice if he continues in his homophobia. My conscience is clear n i sleep very well at night.
:-)
Look at this pitiful face, just another image of a puppet.
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