Seriously, did anyone really expect a Pope who endorses same sex marriage?

[cali]

I doubt there's a single Cardinal who does.

Bergoglio appears to be an improvement on Ratzinger.

Is he anti-gay? Yes. Although he's preached tolerance for GLBT folks, he belies that stance with comments he's made about marriage equality and GLBT folks having children. So, yeah, that makes him a bigot.

He has also made a comments against neo-liberalism and market economies. He is not, however, an adherent to liberation theology.

His pastoral work with the poor is of long duration.

He eschews the trappings of being a Cardinal. He lives very simply and takes public transportation.

<snip>

Like other Jesuit intellectuals, Bergoglio has focused on social outreach. Catholics are still buzzing over his speech last year accusing fellow church officials of hypocrisy for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.

"In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don't baptize the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage," Bergoglio told his priests. "These are today's hypocrites. Those who clericalize 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 baptized!"

Bergoglio compared this concept of Catholicism to the Pharisees of Christ's time: people who congratulate themselves while condemning others.

<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/argentina-pope-cardinals-sandri-bergoglio-very-different-papal-candidates_n_2805693.html

I think he'll be an interesting figure to watch.

He also said this:

"Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities,"

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. My thoughts exactly.

Whoever they chose certainly would have held exactly the same opinion as this guy. No surprise here at all. He's probably no worse than any of the rest of them.

[LittleBlue]

2. I was surprised that people were outraged

The new pope is anti-gay? And bears shit in the woods???

I've got $5,000 on the next pope being against gay marriage and gay adoption. Any takers?

[The Straight Story]

3. folks expected him to ride out on a unicorn farting condoms and doing harlem shake

I am not catholic, not progressive enough for me, and thankfully have a choice which religion (or none) I choose.

For those in our big tent who are I am glad they have a new leader, and just like with ours, you don't always get the progress you want when you want it (*cough* single payer) but you keep voting for the same party because you know change comes slowly.

[Gravitycollapse]

4. No intelligent, moral person can oppose gay rights.

I have nothing but contempt for this new Pope. Just like the last one.

[HERVEPA]

6. Yup

[ismnotwasm]

5. My daughter is Catholic

I love her, and am very glad she takes a lot of the church with a grain of salt.

The church has backed itself in an ideological hole on Gay rights. I'm not religious and certainly no Jesuit, but I've read enough about the biblical 'justification' for this hateful bigotry to know there is a way out of it, from accepting that the prohibitions were more against the practices of other religions to the possible misinterpretations of the actual writings.

I don't understand the Catholic position. It influences so many people, yet it continues to cause harm when it could choose otherwise.

Maybe we'll see, not change, but a creaking out of a dogmatic hole, a beginning of a beginning of change.

[Johonny]

7. If like John Paul II he spends most of his time talking about poverty and 3d world debt

he could be slightly more positive than what we have. Most Americans views of the recent catholic church are heavily biased because the American church ignores the vast majority of the message about poverty and focuses on the Gay and women hating. Ratzinger did the church no favors allowing that message to dominate his message to the western world. Mostly as a response to blaming gays for pedophilia as if somehow they were linked. That's why he was seen as a huge step back to John Paul II. When John Paul II came to the US it was to shame us not over contraception but our lack of generosity to the worlds poor. A message people like Scalia kindly ignore completely to focus on issues the Pope really had no focus on.

I think if the new Pope moves the church back from telling people who to hate and more to telling people to share and be kind to the poor he will have moved the church back towards a positive direction. The whole church desperately needs to move out of the 18th century on woman and sexuality if it is ever going to be taken seriously on these issue every again.

[Yo_Mama]

8. Apparently so....

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this spectacle. Yes, the Pope is orthodox Catholic. What else could one expect?

[yellowcanine]

9. If he gives up the red shoes in favor of Jesus sandals I might be convinced of his humility.

Or hiking boots.

[jeff47]

10. Lived so simply that he apparently helped hide political prisoners on his private island.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022501213

[HockeyMom]

11. If they cannot accept condoms for AIDS,

or BC, how can you expect them to accept gay marriag?. Marriage is for MAKING BABIES and as many as GOD, and the church, wants.