Meet the new Catholic boss: Same as the old bosses – Pope Francis

In case you missed it, the Roman Catholic Church has a new pope: Pope Francis. Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio took the name of his patron saint, Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis is not only the first Jesuit to be Pontiff, but he is the first pope from the Americas and the first Hispanic.

• My friend Kelly is the first person I know to invoke the words of Sgt. Hulka from the movie, Stripes: “Lighten up, Francis.”

Here’s a little commentary on Wikipedia: just seconds after Cardinal Bergoglio was announced as the new Pope, Wikipedia had already changed his page on that site to reflect his new status. Dang, those people are fast.

Now the speculation is what does his selection mean for the church? He isn’t considered a great reformer; his views on same-sex anything are rigidly orthodox, as are his views on celibacy and the role of women in the church.

Like many Jesuits Pope Francis is an evangelical. One of the changes people foresee is his influence evangelizing the world, especially South America where other faiths have been converting citizens. Church membership has been growing in South America and that is due to the evangelism of Pope Francis and his fellow Jesuits. The church is hoping to continue that trend, not just in the Third World, but everywhere: Europe and North America.

The church has been declining in Europe and the U.S., for a variety of reasons, not the least of which more people are becoming secular. Most people see belief in a deity as quaint, a holdover from a time when humans had little understanding of our world. The Earth didn’t come into existence 6,000 years ago, created in six days by some guy in the clouds.

The story of Noah and the Great Flood is one that can be found in religious cultures that predate Judaism. Same with the story of Jesus, the main character on which Christianity is based. As we gain more knowledge of our natural world some of us, if not most of us, lose faith in religious teaching.

As a Jesuit Pope Francis knows this. He himself is a chemist by education, as well as a theologian. Although Jorge Mario Bergoglio made the decision to be a priest while a teenager, he wasn’t ordained until he was 32 years old. Makes you wonder what caused him to delay getting into the priesthood.

He is a strong advocate for the poor so some speculate Pope Francis will usher in another era of “Liberation Theology.” Pope John Paul II, himself a refugee of sorts from Soviet-controlled Poland was a big advocate for freedom. Like in most Soviet block nations, Poland did not look kindly on religions. That was a big influence on what became a priority in the Vatican.

But that isn’t likely either because he wasn’t too keen on “Liberation Theology” when the junta ruled Argentina. Although no one claims Bergoglio was in bed with the political leaders during the “Dirty War,” he didn’t oppose the regime openly either. In fact some Argentinians still question Bergoglio’s involvement during those dark years.

But, in 2007 he said, “We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least.” “The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”

He could have been speaking to life in the U.S., but it was to a meeting of Latin American bishops.

The way Pope Francis made his name was by challenging Argentina’s last two presidents, Nestor and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Bergoglio was seen as a leader of the opposition to the husband and wife rulers. But he lost that battle; Bergoglio was strongly, even vehemently, opposed to same-sex marriage equality, a policy that the Kirchners pushed and saw pass into law.

Pope Francis’s great strength, Catholics hope, will be to increase church membership, promoting its brand of worship, rather than just trying to enforce the rules and keeping in check a restless and discontented flock.

Here in the U.S. that probably won’t be enough to increase membership. Those Catholics who do remain religious are looking for major changes in church doctrine and as long as the church opposes the views of the people on things like women in the priesthood and celibacy, there’s not much hope a new pope will grow the church in the U.S. It will be business as usual. Membership will continue to decline here. Educated people, like in the U.S., are tired of a bureaucracy that is 2,100 years in the making and 1,500 years out of date.

Not to mention the inequity in the priesthood itself. Unlike their brethren in the Roman Catholic Church, priests from the Eastern Catholic Church are free to marry. That doesn’t sit well with many Catholics, especially here in the U.S. where we are grappling with our own definition of equality.

Then there are the child abuse scandals. Neither Benedict XVI or John Paul II did much to correct the decades of wrong did by the priests or to even address the suffering of the victims. Just this year retired Bishop Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles, CA was removed from any administrative duties, as were several of his former subordinates, for their roles in the cover up of child molesters.

This is a scandal that won’t go away any time soon. The Church has paid out over two billion dollars in settlements and the number of victims is well over 10,000. Several dioceses around the country have either sought protection through bankruptcy or filed for bankruptcy due to the criminal activity of the church’s priests, including the archdiocese here in San Diego.

The TV talkers aren’t talking much about any of that. The main topic for them is the historic magnitude of Pope Francis: the first Hispanic, first Jesuit and the first from the Americas.

The Pope chose the name of a saint that was canonized for his devotion to the poor, which included living in poverty with those he ministered. That apparently sends a positive message to those looking for a champion of economic and political equality. Some see his selection as an indicator of the power of the Hispanic community. Nearly half of the Catholic Church’s adherents live in Central and South America. And his being a Jesuit is a signal that the church will become evangelical, promoting the faith and education.

But for many Catholics and former Catholics, he looks to be the same old same old. Yeah, he’s different, but how will that translate to reforms that are important to the people in the U.S.?

In a month the selection of the Pope will be forgotten news, at least here in the United States. We will go back to our daily lives and those who still attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation, they may hear something during the sermon that comes from Rome, but will it make any real difference in their lives?