I read up on that in Wiki today. Nothing against him was ever proved, but now when he’s sitting where he is, there will be reporters looking for the big scoop.
Rumors were that he housed secret prisons and helped army and police officials adapt children of the “disappeared”. This was investigated in Argentina and no prosecution took place.
Estimates of deaths range from just over 9,000 to 30,000.
All cardinals get appointed to be “members” of various congegations and commissions; you can’t avoid it, but it doesn’t make you a curia insider. The people who run the show are the secretaries, president, prefects, etc of these bodies, and they report to the pope, not to the members. “Member” is basically an unpaid part-time advisory position; it does bring you to Rome from time to time, but your day job is running your diocese in your home country.
This guy is not a curia insider. That means that, on the one hand, the people who know where the bodies are buried will probably have nothing on him. On the other hand, he may lack the knowledge and/or the skills he would need to take on the curia effectively, and work real change. Time will tell.
It’s not just set high, it’s set . . interesting. Francis was a radical, a mystic, and arguably a heretic. He didn’t minister to the poor, he became poor, an encouraged others to follow suit. He was never ordained: he was very clearly an outsider, and arguably the Mendicant orders were only given official endorsement in an attempt to establish some sort of control over a movement that looked to pose a serious threat to the church otherwise.
I meant, mainstream married priests, not a handful of rare exceptions.
I would. I’d be very surprised. The church moves at the pace of a snail on Nyquil. It ain’t gonna be happening any time soon.
Of course, Francis could surprise us all and declare Vatican III. (No one expected John XXIII to do what he did!) We just don’t know.
I thought that was your joke. Just in case—culus is “ass” or “asshole”.
I might say ecce novus papa; cum priore idem est, but IANFILC (I am not fluent in Latin composition.) Nothing wrong with idem qui, though for quod you’d need a neuter.
I’m not counting of Banquet of Chestnuts, part II.
Well, he was elected on March the 13th: exactly 232 years after Herschel discovered Uranus.
IIRC, as far as sex scandals go the Third World has been more into having scandals where priests raped nuns instead of kids, then coerced them into getting abortions. Probably because that’s where most of the young nuns are.
Are you saying that Argentina is Third World?
Maybe somebody told him to lighten up.
Yes, or so I’ve always understood.
Ah, interesting, I never saw the term defined before.
Though that’s the origin of the term, most people wouldn’t consider Mozambique or the Congo a first-world country, nor Argentina and Sweden third-world countries. One of those maybe-technically-correct-but-more-confusing-than-it’s-worth things.
Yes. And furthermoer, by that definition the original claim (“the Third World has been more into having scandals where priests raped nuns instead of kids, then coerced them into getting abortions”) doesn’t stand up so well.
I think the truth of the matter is that claims about priests raping nuns and forcing them to have abortions mostly refer to Africa. The ones I’ve heard do, anyway. You could argue that most or all of the African countries concerned are Third World in the underdeveloped sense, if not in the political sense. But, whever senses you use, it may be a bit of a stretch to suggest that they are particularly relevant to the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, which is not in a country normally regarded as underdeveloped, and is nowhere near Africa.
“First Jesuit Pope” according to our local news. I always thought Ratzinger was Jesuit?
Nope. Not a member of any religious order.
Most of the scandals in Latin America have to do with liberation theologists vs. right wing governments. (Think of Archbishop Romero) They’re more about politics than they are about sex.
According to Wikipedia, he taught literature and psychology for two years at a Catholic high school in Santa Fe (Argentina), and the same in Buenos Aires for another year, after joining a Jesuit seminary but prior to his being ordained a priest. Not exactly the age group or position of authority that tends to be associated with Church sex abuse scandals, and if he engaged in any improprieties during his time there then they have not come to the attention of the Wikiverse.
I’m not a Catholic in any way, shape, or form, but as far as I can tell he looks like a pretty decent guy. I don’t agree with his stance on gays, abortion, birth control, or euthanasia (not that there’s ever going to be a pope I agree with on those matters), but his interest in social justice and the plight of the poor seems to be genuine, and he seems like the kind of guy who would be able to reign in corruption and worldliness within the Church. Color me cautiously optimistic.
Har har, I thought exactly the same thing 