What We Know About Pope Francis

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/13/new-pope-thirteen-key-facts

What we know about Pope Francis

• He likes to travel by bus.

• He has lived for more than 50 years with one functioning lung. He had the other removed as a young man because of infection.

• He is the son of an Italian railway worker.

• He trained as a chemist.

• He is the first non-European pope in the modern era.

• He claims that adoption by homosexuals is a form of discrimination against children but believes that condoms "can be permissible" to prevent infection.

• In 2001 he washed and kissed the feet of Aids patients in a hospice.

• He speaks fluent Italian, as well as Spanish and German.

• Until now he has been living in a small flat, eschewing a formal bishop's residence.

• He told Argentinians not to travel to Rome to celebrate if he was appointed but to give their money to the poor instead.

• He is believed to have been the runner-up in the last papal conclave in 2005.

• He has co-written a book, in Spanish, called Sobre el Cielo y la Tierra (On Heaven and Earth). You can buy it on Kindle.

• Though conservative on church doctrine, he has criticised priests who refuse to baptise babies born to single mothers

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/cardinals-elect-pope-francis-i-former-cardinal-jorge-mario-bergoglio
Joshua  McElwee writes in National Catholic Reporter;
"Bergoglio has supported the social justice ethos of Latin American Catholicism, including a robust defense of the poor.
"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," Bergoglio said during a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007. "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."

At the same time, he has generally tended to accent growth in personal holiness over efforts for structural reform.

Bergoglio is seen an unwaveringly orthodox on matters of sexual morality, staunchly opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception. In 2010 he asserted that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children, earning a public rebuke from Argentina's President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Nevertheless, he has shown deep compassion for the victims of HIV-AIDS; in 2001, he visited a hospice to kiss and wash the feet of 12 AIDS patients.
Bergoglio also won high marks for his compassionate response to the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires of a seven-story building housing the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association and the Delegation of the Argentine Jewish Association..."

Young Progressives Share First Impressions
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/young-progressive-catholics-react-pope-francis-election

Bridget Mary's Response;
What we know about Pope Francis gives me cause for hope that he is compassionate and oriented to
the priesthood of the people who blessed him first. What we know about Pope Francis gives me hope that his first response to people in painful situations will be compassion, not more canon laws. His openness to condoms to prevent infection is one example and his challenge to ultra conservatives to give communion to single Moms is another positive sign that his bottom line is what would Jesus do?
I also see his solidarity with the poor and his naming social sin as a core issue in the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Social justice will again rise to the top of the institutional church's agenda.
I hope that he will be open to women's unequal status in the church as the elephant in the living room that he will address as Pope. Gender justice is an integral part of the social justice teaching of the church. Now more than ever, we need women as equals and partners in all areas of the church's life including the priesthood. A good first step is to life the automatic excommunication of Roman Catholic Women Priests.  Bridget Mary Meehan, www.arcwp.org
sofiabmm@aol.com