Pope Francis (1936- ), the first pope of that name, is the new head of the Catholic Church. He was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1999 to 2013. He is the first pope from the Americas, where nearly half of all Catholics live, the first from the global South, and the first Jesuit. He is named after St Francis of Assisi, whom God told to rebuild the Church.
In 2010 there were 1.2 billion Catholics. Where they lived by continent:
- 28% South America
- 26% Europe
- 20% North America
- 13% Africa
- 12% Asia
- 1% Oceania
Despite this, 53% of the cardinal electors who vote for pope are from Europe. Like it was still 1936 or something.
- The last African pope: Pope Saint Gelasius I, a Berber, in 496
- The last Asian pope: Pope Saint Gregory III, of Syria, in 741
- European popes all the way from 741 to 2013
- Italian popes all the way from 1523 to 1978
Bergoglio is Argentine by birth, Italian by blood - his father and his mother’s family come from Italy.
In 1958 he joined the Jesuits, a powerful religious order of priests in the Church, strong on teaching and missionary work. They take a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. They run universities and tend to be left-leaning.
In the 1960s Bergoglio taught high school and became a priest.
In the 1970s he studied theology and became a professor.
From 1973 to 1979 he was the head Jesuit in Argentina. He opposed the move of Jesuit priests into liberation theology, which seeks to free the poor from injustice.
Videla
In 1976 Jorge Videla overthrew Isabel Perón. He cracked down on the left. Thousands disappeared, many never to be seen again. People were tortured, thrown from planes, all of that. Two bishops were killed. So were many priests. The Church remained silent.
Among the disappeared were two Jesuit priests who worked among the poor, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics. They were secretly thrown into prison and tortured. Yorio says Bergoglio could have stopped the government but chose not to. Bergoglio says he worked behind the scenes to get them freed – which they were five months later.
Some say Bergoglio worked with the government, that he even kept prisoners at his holiday home on the island of El Silencio. Bergoglio says he helped to hide people from the government. Either way, he remained silent till years later when he apologized for the Church not taking a stronger stand against the government in that terrible time.
Later as archbishop he opposed the government on abortion, euthanasia, free contraception and same-sex marriage.
In 2001 Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal, one of the top men in the Church. He and Bergoglio have pretty much the same views.
In 2005 when John Paul II died, the voting for the new pope was deadlocked between Bergoglio and Cardinal Ratzinger. Bergoglio gave way and Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis is 76 and is missing part of his lung - removed in 1969 to save his life. When Ratzinger became pope he was 78 and had a pacemaker.
See also:
One can be supportive of the poor without being supportive of Liberation Theology. I think he’s taken a lot of positions that would really tick off capitalists on the right.
I don’t care for his position on contraception or gay rights, of course. And while IM pro-choice, I’m never going to expect to have a Catholic organization to come out as being in favor of abortion. But the Catholic Church’s position on these is not the same hate-filled animus that some fundamentalists have, and it would be mistaken to lump them together.
I could see Jesuits coming up with an intellectual framework for why Jesus is not opposed to homosexuality, as has happened with many mainstream Protestant denominations, and that’s what I’m hoping we’ll see a kernel of in the future.
Ah, both Popes are now Jesuit. That’s a first.
Reblogged this on oogenhand and commented:
Tim Wise has a point.
Artie Johnson’s voice, “Very interesting.”. Popes seem more and more like politicians and less and less like men of God, just like minsters and preachers many churches.
Let me guess: At this rate, the next pope to come from Africa will also be Italian by blood, right?
@ brothawolf
Can you tell me the time before now that Popes were not politicians?
Sorry for being stupid, but who had a pace maker, The new guy or the J. Ratzinger? As someone who writes a lot, those kinds of sentences bother me as it is ambiguous. Probably the new guy.
Re-read suggests that it is the new guy. Carry on.
OOOPS.
Abagond just changed it to clarify that J.R. was the one with the pace maker. Sorry if I am being annoying.
There’s never been a “colored” pope.
Berbers descend from Europeans and are categorized as white by the U.S census bureau, and Syrians are also categorized as white.
Bergoglio is of Italian origin, he’s not really a south American.
The Vatican would never elect a non-white person as the pope.
Didn’t know much about him. My church growing up was St. Francis of Assisi. Some around here has St. Francis statues on their lawn. He is a very popular Saint.
Aba
Research the history, the real one, of the Jesuits. Where they come from, their ties to Jewry and what the future holds for those that follow them. Every step, from Ratzinger’s resignation to the (s)election of this new “Spiritual leader” was planned very carefully.
More to come this year.
I’m sure
Berbers descend from Europeans and are categorized as white by the U.S census bureau, and Syrians are also categorized as white.
People on this blog continuously claim that berbers are black. Now berbers are suddenly European. haha
Bergoglio is of Italian origin, he’s not really a south American.
People on this blog continuously complain that whites don’t view them as real Americans. And now Italians are suddenly “not really south American.”
I realize one person said it. And everyone else will say, “Just because I didn’t denounce it doesn’t mean blah blah blah”. Yeah, if the shoe had been on the other foot you all would be screaming. But what do I hear now? CRICKETS!
People ask why I read this blog? For the comedic value! haha
@ Churchs
You are jumping the gun. It has only been three hours, not even a full 24 hour cycle. Now if anyone says anything you can say it was because of your comment.
In any case not all comments get responses, especially if some troll comes along and sucks all the oxygen out of the room.
@Churchs The berbers descend from the Vandals of Europe, they later mixed with Arabs and Africans.
Berbers are from North Africa and the U.S census bureau categorizes North Africans as white.
The reason why I don’t consider Pope Francis “South American” is because he isn’t an Amerindian.
The Vatican only elected him cause of his Italian ancestry, they would never elect a Mestizo.
Argentinians don’t even view themselves as south American, they think of themselves as European.
@Churchs if you don’t believe that berbers are white than look up Zinedine Zidane or Kareem Benzema.
Since when did the US census bureau have the authority to categorize anybody as anything? and since when are North Africans white??? Preposterous…
@brothawolf
What the hell is a man if god?
Seriously.
What does it look like? What does it do? Are you a man of god brothawolf?
nothing says ‘spring’ like a simple white cassock!
I think it’s a title of the Pope, more or less.
@ Abagond
Exactly. I only saw Cyrus’s comment after Churchs already made his/hers. Unlike Churchs, I actually have a life and can only come onto this blog about every 24 hours. According to Churchs’ comment, it’s my job to patrol this blog and denounce every comment I disagree with within a 3 hour time frame. Otherwise, my silence is “comedic value”. I mean, seriously? I never knew a comedian whose best lines were silence. It must be an easy job, I guess.
Also, what Churchs fails to see is not that “Italians are not real South Americans”. The point is that “nonwhites are not real Catholics or real South Americans”. Of all the choices for pope, it had to be from one of the whitest parts of Latin America. Mestizos, Indios, and Negros need not apply because they’re not “real Latinos”. Just watch any telenovela and compare the show’s white, blonde, blue-eyed stars to the brown commoners of Latin America. Now that’s comedic value.
churchs is on some other ish *iggie*
@ abagond
Okay. It’s been well over 24 hours. Now what?
Chruch’s you kind of poisoned the well.
But anyway
There is obviously a difference between saying that Black people—who have been in the U.S. at least since the 1620s—are not yet accepted as “real Americans” and pointing out that the First South American Pope was born of an Italian Father (who was born in Italy) and a Mother (born is Buenos Aires) of two Italian parents. The Pope is a VERY recent transplant to Latin America from Europe.
In fact, every Pope to date has been European. So when you elect someone of pure and recent European ancestry and call him the First Latin American Pope, it is likely that someone will wonder if he would be Pope at all if not for his European parentage.
ahh…. contemporary background info on a current event ,by a “sympathetic” african american – with open public commentary – free just like radio and local tv ,but you get your own personal copy,can have direct input and there’s no time restriction – and they say the future is’t getting better.
@King
“In fact, every Pope to date has been European. So when you elect someone of pure and recent European ancestry and call him the First Latin American Pope, it is likely that someone will wonder if he would be Pope at all if not for his European parentage.”
Whether his European ancestry helped him or not is a different issue. Is he a South American? Or someone who is kinda, sorta, but not really a South American?
I didn’t know blood had nationalities.
I’m joking. I know. That’s what “nations” supposedly built on. “La Mère Patrie”, the official reproducer of the male patriots.
I would prefer it (blood) with bracket around, but hey…
Dauphine is discovering the classifying power of the US census bureau. (You’re probably not but this classifying thing really does have power and foreigners learn about it the weirdest way even before they set foot on American soil. It’s a very strange first “door” on Amerikkkan culture).
Point is, “races” are the Europeans’ creations, so we should just expect that they are ordered, changed, replaced and denied as long as they suit the ever renewed goals of the Euro-American power.
Everyone plays with them, Cyrus said the Pope is not South American because he is not Native…
If this Pope is Italian, then are we going to check everyone’s “national blood” to decide whether they are from here or there or are from here and there at the same time ? Today’s “blood” is DNA and is going to make things VERY complicated. Starting with the fact that the human groups DNA research targets are PRE-determined, very often following Euro-decided “ethnic” groups… So your DNA falls in them “if and only if” they pre-exist in the data pool…