Was I surprised at who that bunch of red clocked dudes
elected as the new pope? A little bit.
My main surprise was that they picked someone who is 76
years old. I thought they were looking for youth and energy but obviously they
were looking for someone looked upon as “holy”.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio is from Argentina and did not really
spend much time at the Vatican so let’s say he is an “outsider” as opposed to
the “insiders” who many consider corrupt and out of touch with real people.
He is a “Jesuit” or a member of the Society of Jesus (SJ)
founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.
I mentioned people wanted a pope that could “evangelize”;
spread the faith. Jesuits are known as teachers and intellectuals and run many
schools in many countries.
Jesuits also had problems taking orders from the pope or
from anybody else. They had to take a vow of obedience to the pope to stop the
pope at the time from excommunicating the whole order.
Jesuits take a vow of poverty and are therefore different
from regular priests who do not and as you have seen, some cardinals live the
life of Riley or the life of a prince of the church with everything a prince
needs to live a princely life.
Bergoglio is Argentinian from Italian parents that emigrated
from Italy to Argentina…interesting.
He did not enter the priesthood in his youth as many do but
actually received a degree in chemistry first…a definite plus; experience in
the real world.
He took the name POPE FRANCIS I after Francis of Assisi who
started the Franciscan order of monks. Remember I mentioned Sean O’Malley as
possible pope. He was a Franciscan Cardinal and if he was elected pope and took
the name of Francis; that would have been something!!!
Taking the name of FRANCIS for the first time in history was
definitely symbolic. Francis after all was originally a rich, spoiled kid who
then adopted a life of poverty and service to the poor. He founded an order
that through the years got a little out of hand and he had to bring it back to
their original purpose of serving the people; something he now has to do with
the Catholic Church / Vatican.
Francis is a conservative as are all the cardinals appointed
by John Paul and Benedict but I will reserve my judgment until I see how Francis
works; he may be a “sleeper reformer”.
His age will hinder him as will the fact that he has only
one lung since teenage years. I expect him to do the best he can for a few
years and then retire like Benedict did; we may actually have a bunch of
retired popes living all at one time like our presidents do.
The cardinals obviously did not want some young punk pope
living for a long time. They would prefer older guys living for just a little
while so there will be someone fresh all the time like a 2 year lease on a car.
We shall see if the Holy Spirit really moved them or just
political savvy; I would suspect the latter.
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