Pope Francis, the reformer?

[Mira]

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the seventy-six-year-old Archbishop of Buenos Aires, is the new Pope—the first Jesuit and the first Latin American ever to hold that job. He has chosen to take the name Francis, as befits the apparently gracious and humble man who, as everybody now knows, eschewed his archbishop’s limo for a public bus and his archbishop’s palace for a small apartment, and urged his flock to stay home, in Argentina, when he became a cardinal, eight years ago in Rome, and to give the money they would have spent for plane tickets to the poor instead.
He is also a reformer, but make no mistake about the meaning of “reform” to Bergoglio or the hundred and fourteen other cardinals who yesterday sent up a puff of white smoke to announce his election to the papacy. They may be known as the “young” cardinals—being under eighty, the only ones eligible to cast ballots in a papal conclave. But it’s worth remembering that all of them were appointed by the last two Popes, and that, when it comes to any interest in loosening the doctrinal strictures that most lay Catholics would call “reform,” they were appointed mainly for their intransigence in the face of change.

That means that you will not see women in the priesthood anytime soon; or married clergy; or an end to the bans on divorce, abortion, and contraception; or a reprieve for the nuns in trousers who go forth to give food, music, and solace to the poor; or even an acknowledgement that “unrepentant” gay and lesbian Catholic men and women might, conceivably, get to heaven. (The best that the church has managed to come up with by way of reform of its social doctrine is to “permit” the use of condoms—not for contraception, but in cases where one partner in a married couple is H.I.V.-positive, to prevent the spread of the disease).

Reform, to the cardinals of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, involved one thing when they chose Bergoglio: removing the taint of scandal that hangs precipitously low over the Church of Rome—the scandal of widespread pedophilia, of Vatican banking fraud, of money-laundering schemes that can edge into high farce when, say, a priest known to the local press as Don Bancomat (Italian for an A.T.M. machine) was accused of raiding missionary funds meant for Africa, and handing the cash to one Diego Anemone, a Roman contractor, supposedly close to Silvio Berlusconi, whose various shenanigans are also said to have involved Guido Bertolaso, the former head of Italy’s Department of Civil Protection, prostitutes, and government contracts; Bertolaso has denied wrongdoing. (The rest of that story would take a Goldoni to unravel.)

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/03/how-clean-will-the-new-pope-be.html?printable=true¤tPage=all#ixzz2NWU1cr00

[mulsh]

1. Perhaps the writer should research the Jesuits for the source of Francis name

It's more likely that he chose Francis because of St. Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the order, rather than St. Francis of Assi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Xavier

[glinda]

2. Surely he did but maybe did not exclude the other. We will see what happens.

Do not expect great changes. Best people can hope for is cleaning house and walking the walk with the most in need if Evangelicizing is not the main focus.

[Brigid]

3. I can easily imagine . . .

The new Holy Father saying of the Vatican and the Curia, "This place needs an enema," and then getting busy doing just that. But as entrenched as Vatican bureaucracy is, that may take up most of his time and energy during his pontificate.

[Catherina]

4. I love the name he chose

Pope Francis chose his name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi because he is a lover of the poor, said Vatican deputy spokesman Thomas Rosica.

"Cardinal Bergoglio had a special place in his heart and his ministry for the poor, for the disenfranchised, for those living on the fringes and facing injustice," Rosica said.

St. Francis, one of the most venerated figures in the Roman Catholic Church, was known for connecting with fellow Christians, Rosica added.

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI recounted how St. Francis was born in 1181 or 1182 as the son of a rich Italian cloth merchant, according to the Vatican website.

...

In a famous episode, Christ on the Cross came to life three times in the small Church of St. Damian and told him: "Go, Francis, and repair my Church in ruins," Pope Benedict XVI said, according to the Vatican's website.
"At that moment St. Francis was called to repair the small church, but the ruinous state of the building was a symbol of the dramatic and disquieting situation of the Church herself," Pope Benedict XVI said. "At that time the Church had a superficial faith which did not shape or transform life, a scarcely zealous clergy, and a chilling of love."

...

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/13/world/pope-name/index.html