BREAKING NEWS: POPE FRANCIS I - Jorge Mario Bergoglio - Argentina

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Stomach in knots. This may affect the rest of my life.

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Who?

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I like the sound of a Jesuit.  But is he ok?

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Who?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Bergoglio

Not promising, but could be worse.

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The front page of the Huffington Post is just ridiculous right now.  Blatant anti-Catholic agendas like that are the best way to get lite Catholics like me worked up into a zealous pro-Catholic frenzy...

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I'm kind of glad the HuffPost coverage is what it is. Those were the things I was wondering about, so now I know that there's nothing positive to look for in this...as expected.

So you don't think it's trolling to suggest that Francis was behind the murders of liberal Argentine priests?  You don't think it expresses an agenda to put his position on gay marriage in big red letters (a position we all know the church has right now) as if it's the #1 issue of the church, rather than what sets him apart from other cardinals?

Come on...

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Wow, that was rude...I'm right here. I didn't see whatever that was about the Argentine priests and don't particularly care. Things like contraception, abortion, and gay marriage are the chief issues I care about. There's not much in my life affected by the Pope, so the broad issues surrounding perpetuated bigotry at the cost of lives take precedence for me. Not all of us drink the Kool-Aid, so the bottom line is much appreciated.

Francis did not order the deaths of Argentine priests.  It is blatant sensationalism and lies for the Huffington Post to insinuate he did.  You can't say "I'm right here" and at the same time say "oh, actually I didn't see that."

As for abortion, gay marriage, and contraception, obviously whoever the new pope was would be against those.  The contraception ban will almost certainly fall in the next 30 years or so, but it won't be on a pope's first day, and it will probably be from a pope who had previously fallen in line on the issue.
Gay marriage will probably never come, but I would expect to see Episcopal-style gay blessings by the time we have a pope born in the 1980s or so. Regardless, we all knew what the new pope would think.
And the Church will probably oppose abortion 500 years from now, so it's not worth even wondering what any potential pope would think about it.

So yes, the Huffington Post chose 1 line of complete BS and 3 wedge issues that were givens, rather than relevant information that we might not have known (for example, he's super pro-labor, or even that he apparently likes hand-waving and silly guitars).

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Like I said, those were the relevant issues for those of us not involved in the nuances of intra-Catholic goings on. I didn't see that stuff about killing priests or whatever and I have no particular interest in going back and looking at it because I don't care. The "wedge" issues, things that should have been taken care of decades ago, are the only things I find really relevant and until they make any progress on them I won't care who the pope is. Those are the things they can really change by coming into the 20th century let alone the current one.

No denomination of Christianity supports abortion, so I don't know what you could have possibly expected there.
Very few support gay marriage (Episcopals are moving toward gay blessings, and there are a few small denominations that have it), but how is that a 20th century issue?  Gay marriage was a fantasy in this country until 2003, which is clearly in the 21st century.

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What's up with the outrage about rational people speaking out against the irrational and inhumane views someone in a position of power holds? The new pope, the last one, and probably the next one, deserve to be criticized for their oppressive views on gays and their harmful views on contraception. He may care more about the poor than previous popes, which is great, but he manifests that by criticizing capitalism? Wealth creation should be encouraged along with redistribution to the needy. I don't really see what there is to like about him and why he should be shielded from criticism.

Because he has a really interesting whole life story that can't be summed by up 'HE'S AGINST ABORTION LULZ" or "HE TORTURED LIBRAL PRESTS LOL!", but those two "stories" are all that his detractors even want to talk about.

It would be one thing if he were a professional troll with no character whatsoever like Timothy Dolan, but that does not appear to be case.

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Wow, that was rude...I'm right here. I didn't see whatever that was about the Argentine priests and don't particularly care. Things like contraception, abortion, and gay marriage are the chief issues I care about. There's not much in my life affected by the Pope, so the broad issues surrounding perpetuated bigotry at the cost of lives take precedence for me. Not all of us drink the Kool-Aid, so the bottom line is much appreciated.

As for abortion, gay marriage, and contraception, obviously whoever the new pope was would be against those.  The contraception ban will almost certainly fall in the next 30 years or so, but it won't be on a pope's first day, and it will probably be from a pope who had previously fallen in line on the issue.
Gay marriage will probably never come, but I would expect to see Episcopal-style gay blessings by the time we have a pope born in the 1980s or so. Regardless, we all knew what the new pope would think.
And the Church will probably oppose abortion 500 years from now, so it's not worth even wondering what any potential pope would think about it.

As a non-Catholic, could you help me out here? Why do you believe the hierarchy is moving slowly towards SSM and contraception, but not abortion?

Because lots of other similar-style Christians (Episcopals, Lutherans, etc.) have come around on contraception and are starting to move toward some kind of gay recognition.  None of them are changing their minds on abortion any time soon, though.

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Alright, I hate to intrude on conversation, but:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/03/pope-francis-supported-civil-unions-as-cardinal/

I figured this was worth sharing.

OK, I'm officially 100% on board the Francis train.

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Alright, I hate to intrude on conversation, but:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/03/pope-francis-supported-civil-unions-as-cardinal/

I figured this was worth sharing.

Funny how the Huffington Post is ignoring this.  Guess it doesn't fit their rabidly anti-Catholic agenda.  What a joke newspaper.