Comments (20) (Please sign in to comment)

1. 

   Radish said, 2 months ago

   Or maybe he will just keep his mouth shut like he did in Argentina when the police state comes for your family.
2. 

   motivemagus said, 2 months ago

   By my count, he will ignore five of the eight outright, may address two, and one I don’t know.
3. 

   Godfreydaniel said, 2 months ago

   As someone who was educated by the Jesuits, I feel a certain sense of pride in the selection, but I was definitely hoping for someone about fifteen years younger. Even then whoever it ended up being would probably ignore most of the birds.
4. 

   BillH77 said, 2 months ago

   Old Pat is getting long-in-the-tooth and does not comprehend that most other nations don’t like the extreme liberalism of Western Catholics. In liberal places, like France, the churchs are empty. In Latin America the churches protect the poor and are strong. My guess is Francis I could give a fig about Women Priests and Gays. The church chose well. And most critics are America, degenerates and corrupt at heart.
5. 

   Respectful Troll said, 2 months ago

   @Radish

   Radish, I’m not a Catholic. I do remember the Pinochet regime, though only through tv and news magazines… a few movies.
   I recall last years “mother’s protest” where women who lost sons, brothers, and husbands to the abuses of the 60’s, 70’s, and ‘80s. Women still looking for answers to what happened to the “disappeared”.
   ^
   I have heard of Catholic ’villains and heroes" from that time. I recall a priest gun downed by police in his chapel, but not when.
   That said, during WW2, priests in Italy and Germany walked a fine line between the Gestapo and the church’s ability to help people during the war. One man’s hypocrite was another man’s rescuer.
   ^
   You obviously know more about this than I ever will, and my issue with the new pope is how he encourage catholic republicans to ‘protect the poor’.
   As I hear more about his time in Argentina, it is my hope he will use his platform to speak to the abuses in Argentina. Perhaps, in this way, he’ll be able to redeem himself in the eyes of people like yourself. I look forward to hearing your opinion on him over the next year.
   Sincerely,
   C.
6. 

   Richard S. Russell said, 2 months ago

   Meanwhile, deep in Sicily, Italy’s 2nd most vile, venal, corrupt, and contemptible organization was also picking its new leader — a godfather for the 21st Century — but at least the Mafia had the good grace (or at least the shame) to do so in secret, not a flamboyant public spectacle.
7. 

   artexc said, 2 months ago

   Men in lace dresses, interior decorators, smoke and bells.
8. 

   edinbaltimore said, 2 months ago

   Bill: and in Africa an ultraconservative Episcopalian bishop, egged on by ultraconservative American evangelicals, is backing African governments who not only want to outlaw homosexuality, but also want the death penalty for it. Meanwhile, what did JESUS, not Leviticus, Not (un)Saint Paul, ACTUALLY say about homosexuality?
9. 

   Chillbilly said, 2 months ago

   This was a hollow selection. Compare the Argentine’s handling of charity with the liberation theologists of Central America—people who gave their lives for the poor—and he comes up a little hollow and even ambitious.

   
   Of course, allowing liberation theologists into the door of the Vatican would be heresy.
10. 

    hippogriff said, 2 months ago

    Respectful Troll: It took you awhile, but you finally blew it. Pinochet was the US supported dictator of Chile, not Argentina. The US supported dictatorship in Argentina was a junta mainly of admirals and self-destructed in the Falklands/Malvina War,
11. 

    Orthodox Catholic said, 2 months ago

    Once again Oliphant shows what a classless jerk he is. You don’t address the Holy Father in such disrespectful terms.
    <>
    And, no, Mr. Oliphant, the Holy Father is not going to change the Church to meet your desires. We have another Catholic pope, imagine that!!!
12. 

    kamwick said, 2 months ago

    @Orthodox Catholic

    Geez what a whiner…
13. 

    kamwick said, 2 months ago

    Who in their right mind would want to lead a dysfunctional, out of touch and frankly not very ethical organization?
14. 

    jaimeaut said, 2 months ago

    Francisco was Franco’s name.
    The consistent points of his policies, termed as Francoism had at its core authoritarianism, nationalism, integralism, conservatism, and a frontal rejection of anticlericalism and leftist politics. “Wikipedia”
    Coincidence?
15. 

    Orthodox Catholic said, 2 months ago

    @kamwick

    Feeding the hungry? That’s dysfunctional? Caring for the poor? Dysfunctional? Oh, I know, it must be all those hospitals and orphanages that make the Catholic Church dysfunctional.
    <>
    Here is your “dysfunctional Church” at work:

    http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h177/IrishEddieOHara/PopeFrancis_zps390945dd.jpg
16. Load the rest of the comments (5).