Pope Francis &
Latin America
Stop the presses, hold the front page....... Pope Francis
has only one lung.....is one of the headlines whirling around Jorge Mario
Bergolio of Argentina.....if that is anything that can detract from the fact
that he was elected in a swift five votes from a conclave of 115
cardinals.
This new 76-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church was
something of a surprise as the new pope and was not foreshadowed prominently on
the short list of various experts, though he was said to be the runner-up to
retiring Pope Benedict in the 2005 conclave.
And even with just one lung he begins his papacy in good
health. Pope Francis had one of his lungs removed when he was a teenager because
of an infection but the medical professional says very strongly that his
condition will not hinder him as pope but it's agreed he will have to be more
careful and try to avoid people who are ill so that he doesn't contract any
respiratory ailments or pneumonia.
As a result of his election as pope and the recent
development of the death of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chevez some are predicting
a turning point for Latin America.
Many see Pope Francis as truly a man of the people. He is
said to be humble, self-effacing and focused on issues of economic and social
justice and with his great concern of alleviating poverty his Gospel focused
Catholicism could easily replace the fraudulent Chavez as the voice of the poor
in that neglected regions where a plurality of the world's Catholics
live.
Pope Francis is theologically orthodox and socially
conservative and has opposed Argentina's gay marriage laws, has been fiercely
pro-family and is known as an advocate for the poor. He is the first
non-European pope in modern times and the first from a developing
country.
May God bless this master conciliator who will be adroit at
healing many of the rifts and scandals that have dogged the Vatican in recent
years.
No comments:
Post a Comment