A new era begins with Pope Francis I

What happened

The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church signaled their eagerness to open a new chapter this week by electing Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, as pope, putting the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics under the direction of a pontiff from the New World for the first time in Christianity’s 2,000-year history. Bergoglio, 76, is also the first Jesuit to lead the church and the first to take the name of Francis, for the saint devoted to the poor. “I would like to thank you for your embrace,” said the 266th pope, as he spoke from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to thousands of faithful cheering below. After a prayer for his predecessor, Benedict XVI, the new pope invited Catholics to “pray for the entire world,” adding, “I hope that this path for the church will be one fruitful for evangelization.”

Francis, who was born to Italian immigrant parents, is known as a humble man who led an austere life in Argentina. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he chose to stay in a simple downtown apartment rather than live in the church’s ornate mansion, and rejected a chauffeur-driven limousine in favor of taking the bus to work. Bergoglio also won praise from moderates in the church for placing an emphasis on social justice and aid for the poor. He made headlines in 2009 when he chastised the Argentine government as “immoral, illegitimate, and unjust” for failing to tackle the country’s soaring inequality.

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Francis, who finished second in all four rounds of balloting during the 2005 election of Benedict, is expected to set a new tone for a church battered by sex-abuse scandals, corruption in the Vatican, and declining attendance at Mass. But he comes from the same conservative theological traditions as his predecessor and John Paul II, and staunchly opposes contraception, abortion, and same-sex marriage.

What the columnists said

As a member of the famously liberal Jesuits, Bergoglio is an “outsider,” said Michael Potemra in NationalReview.com, and thus is a good choice to clean up the mess the church is currently in. It’s no coincidence he chose the name Francis. Not only does it indicate a break in tradition—he’s the first pope in over 1,000 years to choose an original name—but it is a clear tribute to St. Francis of Assisi, who was called by Jesus to “rebuild the church.” As the humble son of working-class parents, said Olga Khazan in TheAtlantic.com, Bergoglio will “reach out to common people”—exactly what the church needs in an age of dwindling congregations and a shrinking priesthood.

But those hoping for a charismatic pope like John Paul II may be out of luck, said John Otis in the HoustonChronicle.com. Bergoglio dislikes traveling and giving interviews, and speaks quietly, after losing a lung as a young man. His parishioners in Buenos Aires used to say they had to “strain to hear his voice.” And liberal Catholics will be disappointed by the new pope’s doctrinal intransigence, said Eliza Shapiro in TheDailyBeast.com. He opposed Argentina’s move to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010, calling it a “destructive pretension against the plan of God.”

Bergoglio may be “basically conservative,” said John L. Allen Jr. in the National Catholic Reporter, but he’s not “insensitive to pastoral realities.” He has publicly criticized priests who refuse to baptize children born out of wedlock, and shown “deep compassion” to AIDS victims, even stooping to kiss and wash their feet.

Despite all the hoopla, said Garry Wills in NYBooks.com, the selection of a new pope means little. The role of the pontiff is becoming “increasingly irrelevant,” a historical relic of a hierarchical church no longer in touch with its followers. The idea of a man with a monopoly on God’s word is an invention of medieval church leaders, and modern, educated Catholics do not accept it. That’s why so many of them “pay no attention to papal fulminations” on contraception, gay rights, artificial insemination, and women’s equality. No matter what Francis I does, he will ultimately be both “ordinary and ignorable.”