New Pope - Same As The Old Pope

The catholic cardinals had a tough decision to make. Should they choose another pope from the developed world and try to slow the disintegration of the church in that area, or should they choose the new pope from the third world, where the religion still has some vitality and relevance, and try to keep the first world problems from developing there. They chose the latter. The new pope is Jorge Mario Bergoglio (who chose to be called Pope Francis I) of Argentina -- the first pope to be chosen from the third world, or anywhere in the Americas.

The cardinals knew that choosing a pope from one of the developed nations would do them little good, because the only way that would have helped would be if they chose a young radical, who would alter church dogma and bring it in line with 21st century morality and ethics -- and the cardinals weren't about to do that. They don't want any changes to their 1st century dogma and rules, because that might lessen their own power base (something very few individuals and no groups have done of their own free will throughout history). So they chose to play to their base in the third world.

Will this mean any changes for the catholic church. Probably not. Pope Francis I has been known to speak out on behalf of the poor in the past, but not to the point of seriously calling out church and political leaders on the matter. He is generally regarded as a church conservative -- someone who will make third world catholics happy (because he is one of them), but who will not rock the boat by making significant changes.

We can expect the church to continue policies to keep women in a second-class status -- with no opportunity to enter the priesthood or the church hierarchy, a continuing attack on women having control over their own bodies, and a continuing attack on allowing women access to contraception. The patriarchy will continue to exclude women (and support the political war against women by right-wing politicians).

The church will continue to oppose same-sex marriage and equal rights for the LGBT community. Pope Francis I is an open and unrepentant homophobe. And don't expect the Vatican to admit its complicity in protecting pedophile priests, and hurting innocent children by shuffling those priests to new churches (where they had new and unsuspecting victims available). They will continue to ignore the problem, and punish any church official who tries to do anything about it.

This choice makes me think of the lyrics from The Who's song Won't Get Fooled Again, which says, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." I hope I'm wrong, but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath waiting for any changes.

UPDATE -- Seems like this pope may have as sordid a past as the last one. Pope Francis I has been accused of being a tool of the brutal fascist military regime that used to rule Argentina (during the time when about 20,000 of Argentina's citizens just disappeared).

The inimitable Mrs. Betty Bowers (America's Best Christian) seems to have hit the nail on the head: