Pope Francis

Pope Francis of Argentina is the current pope, elected by the cardinals on March 13, 2013. He inherited a Catholic church that is out of control in many ways, and to solve those problems, he'll have to work miracles. Only time will tell if this one is a miracle worker. Francis is a Jesuit which may be good or bad.

Good and bad
Francis rose through the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church to become Cardinal and later Pope. He's certainly a social conservative, but he's not completely crazy as he is a liberal  on economic  issues, like poverty. Did you expect anything better from any new Pope?

Poverty
Francis is sympathetic to poor people but opposes contraception. Well discouraging contraception adds to Overpopulation and poverty. If Francis really cares about poor people his opposition to contraception is seriously misguided. "'Pope Francis will soon meet with the ex-Pope, but not with President Obama who is skipping the papal installation. (...) Is Francis planning to continue the ex-Pope’s anti-contraception insurance crusade to undercut President Obama’s health insurance plan that mainly helps the poor?"

The new pope's concern for poor people may well be sincere but it's unclear if he actually will help poor people. The risk is that in the Third World large numbers of uneducated and partially educated poor people will support Francis and the Roman Catholic Church because they appear to be on the side of the poor.
 * 1) At first some poor people will do better with Roman Catholic help and the Church will look for good publicity over this.
 * 2) Later when the effect of Roman Catholic teaching on contraception works through the system there will be very many large Roman Catholic families in the Third World. Many of these families will be desperately poor and desperately miserable.

In Argentina the present government officially provides free contraception for all citizens and this benefits primarily poor people since better off people can afford contraception. Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis opposed this free contraception, the law is regularly disregarded and broken at least partly due to Roman Catholic opposition.
 * 1) What can Francis offer poor Argentinians where yet more children will plunge them even deeper into poverty?
 * 2) The best he and fellow Roman Catholics offer is exhortations to abstinence. Well if exhortations to abstinence worked we wouldn't see one sex scandal after another involving supposedly celibate Roman Catholic priests.

Liberapedia doesn't know if Roman Catholic concern over poverty under the new pope is sincere or is a cynical plan to get converts from the Third World and from poorer sections of the Developed world. After all more educated people in industrialised nations are turning against religion and Roman Catholicism.

Cynical capitalists will most likely respond to pious condemnation with 'Business as usual'. Readers are advised to check over the coming months/years how far Pope Francis actually moves the Roman Catholic Church in directions that help poor people.

Women's choice
Francis is Pro-life and believes women should be forced to carry babies they don't want. Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi both are Pro-choice and have problems with the new pope over this.

Sexual sin
Francis believes Homosexuality is a sin, he accepts Civil unions but not Gay marriage or gay adoption. Many Christians prefer civil unions to full marriage.

Media
Francis "urged the media to get to know the Church with its 'virtues and sins'" Does Francis really want people to know about how Pope Pius XII failed to take a stand against mass murder in Croatia during World War II although he knew many Roman Catholic clergy and laity were involved in those murders. This was one of many failures to act or take a stand against Genocide. That's just one load of sins by the Roman Catholic Church that aren't widely known.

What Francis seems to mean is, 'get to know the Church with its virtues and those sins that we can't prevent you knowing, overlook the ugliness and share what we claim is the Church's "focus on 'truth, goodness and beauty'."

Speculation
''When Bergolio has been pope longer we'll know more, as of mid March 2013 we speculate and later we'll know how far speculation was accurate. ''

At 76 Francis is past the typical retiring age and may be too old to sort out Corruption in the Vatican. Is that what corrupt cardinals who elected him hope?

His purported links to a supposed anti-Marxist group may make him unpopular with the radical left. They say he criticises capitalism and the free market too which could make him unpopular with the Right as well.

Child sex abuse
The Washington Post suggests Francis is tainted by the Priest Child Molestation Scandal but claims he mended his ways at least partly. But during most of the 14 years that Bergoglio served as archbishop of Buenos Aires, rights advocates say, he did not take decisive action to protect children or act swiftly when molestation charges surfaced; nor did he extend apologies to the victims of abusive priests after their misconduct came to light.

Another source says something similar. "It does not appear, however, that Pope Francis had earlier distinguished himself either as a senior Latin American bishop by condemning Fr. Maciel’s blatant abuses over many years, nor as a Jesuit has he seemingly to date clearly spoken out on the well reported extensive abuse of Native American children by some Jesuits." Most/all clergy high up in the Roman Catholic hierarchy have done stuff they shouldn't in a big way.

The Church tries to paint its popes whiter than white, we need to check carefully and research what they're really like.

Just over 3 weeks into the papacy Francis promised to see that perpetrators of child sex abuse are punished but at least one abuse survivors' group is unconvinced much will be done. Liberapedia advises readers to check how far words lead to action. A year from now we will know a great deal more.