Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis
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VATICAN CITY (AP) - Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope Wednesday, becoming the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Francis, associating himself with the humble 13th-century Italian preacher who lived a life of poverty.
Looking stunned, Francis shyly waved to the crowd of more than 100,000 people who packed a rain-soaked St. Peter's Square for the announcement, marveling that the cardinals needed to look to "the end of the earth" to find a bishop of Rome.
In choosing a 76-year-old pope, the cardinals clearly decided that they didn't need a vigorous, young pope who would reign for decades but rather a seasoned, popular and humble pastor who would draw followers to the faith and help rebuild a church stained by scandal.
The cardinal electors overcame deep divisions about the future of the church to select the 266th pontiff in a remarkably fast, five-ballot conclave.
Francis asked for prayers for himself, and for retired Pope Benedict XVI, whose stunning resignation paved the way for the conclave that brought the first Jesuit to the papacy. Francis also spoke by phone with Benedict after his election and plans to see him in the coming days, the Vatican said.
"Brothers and sisters, good evening," Francis said to wild cheers in his first public remarks as pontiff from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica.
"You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth, but here we are. Thank you for the welcome," he said.
In one of his first acts as pope, Francis on Thursday morning planned to visit Benedict at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.
American Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Wednesday night at the North American College, the U.S. seminary in Rome, that Francis told fellow cardinals following the conclave that made him pope: "Tomorrow morning, I'm going to visit Benedict."
The visit was significant because Benedict's resignation has raised concerns about potential power conflicts emerging from the peculiar situation of having a reigning pope and a retired one.
No such worries troubled people in Francis' home continent.
Latin Americans burst into tears and jubilation at news that the region, which counts 40 percent of the world's Catholics, finally had a pope to call its own.
"It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar at the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico.
Bergoglio had reportedly finished second in the 2005 conclave that produced Benedict - who last month became the first pope to resign in 600 years. The speed with which he was elected pope this time around indicates that - even though he is 76 and has slowed down from the effects of having a lung removed as a teenager - he still had the trust of cardinals to do the job.
After announcing "Habemus Papam" - "We have a pope!" - a cardinal standing on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday revealed the identity of the new pontiff, using his Latin name, and announced he would be called Francis.
The longtime archbishop of Buenos Aires is the son of middle-class Italian immigrants and is known as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed.
He often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina's capital. He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the church.
Catholics are still buzzing over his speech last year accusing fellow church officials of hypocrisy for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.
In a lifetime of teaching and leading priests in Latin America, which has the largest share of the world's Catholics, Bergoglio has also shown a keen political sensibility as well as the kind of self-effacing humility that fellow cardinals value highly, according to his official biographer, Sergio Rubin.
Bergoglio, who as a teen lost a lung to infection, showed that humility on Wednesday, saying that before he blessed the crowd he wanted their prayers for him and then he bowed his head amid the silence from the crowd.
"Good night, and have a good rest," he said before going back into the palace.
Cardinal Dolan gave an inside glimpse into the drama of the conclave in his talk at the American seminary.
When the tally reached the necessary 77 votes to make Bergoglio pope, Dolan said, the cardinals erupted in applause. And when he accepted the momentous responsibility thrust upon him - "there wasn't a dry eye in the place," the American cardinal recounted.
After the princes of the church had congratulated the new pope one by one, other Vatican officials wanted to do the same, but Francis preferred to go outside and greet the throngs of faithful. "Maybe we should go to the balcony first," Dolan recalled the pope as saying.
In choosing to call himself Francis, the new pope was associating himself with the much-loved Italian saint from Assisi associated with peace, poverty and simplicity. St. Francis was born to a wealthy family but later renounced his wealth and founded the Franciscan order of friars; he wandered about the countryside preaching to the people in very simple language.
He was so famed for his sanctity that he was canonized just two years after his death in 1226.
St. Francis Xavier is another important namesake. One of the 16th century founders of the Jesuit order, Francis Xavier was a legendary missionary who spread the faith as far as India and Japan - giving the new pope's name selection possibly further symbolic resonance in an age when the church is struggling to maintain its numbers.
Francis will celebrate his first Mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, and will be installed officially as pope on Tuesday, according to the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Lombardi, also a Jesuit, said he was particularly stunned by the election given that Jesuits typically shun positions of authority in the church, instead offering their work in service to those in power.
But Lombardi said that in accepting the election, Francis must have felt it "a strong call to service," an antidote to all those who speculated that the papacy was about a search for power.
In an interesting twist the Jesuits were expelled from all of the Americas in the mid-18th century. Now, a Latin American Jesuit has been elected head of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church.
Pope Tweet:
Tens of thousands of people who braved cold rain to watch the smokestack atop the Sistine Chapel jumped in joy when white smoke poured out a few minutes past 7 p.m., many shouting "Habemus Papam!" or "We have a pope!" - as the bells of St. Peter's Basilica and churches across Rome pealed.
After what seemed like an unending wait of more than an hour, they cheered again when the doors to the loggia opened. The cheers became deafening when Bergoglio's name was announced.
"I can't explain how happy I am right now," said Ben Canete, a 32-year-old Filipino, jumping up and down in excitement.
Elected on the fifth ballot, Francis was chosen in one of the fastest conclaves in years, remarkable given there was no clear front-runner going into the vote and that the church had been in turmoil following the upheaval unleashed by Benedict's surprise resignation.
A winner must receive 77 votes, or two-thirds of the 115, to be named pope.
For comparison's sake, Benedict was elected on the fourth ballot in 2005 - but he was the clear front-runner going into the vote. Pope John Paul II was elected on the eighth ballot in 1978 to become the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.
Patrizia Rizzo ran down the main boulevard to the piazza with her two children as soon as she heard the news on the car radio. "I parked the car ... and dashed to the square, she said. "It's so exciting, as Romans we had to come."
Bergoglio's legacy as cardinal includes his efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina's murderous 1976-83 dictatorship. His own record as the head of the Jesuit order in Argentina at the time has been tarnished as well.
Many Argentines remain angry over the church's acknowledged failure to openly confront a regime that was kidnapping and killing thousands of people as it sought to eliminate "subversive elements" in society. It's one reason why more than two-thirds of Argentines describe themselves as Catholic, but fewer than 10 percent regularly attend mass.
Under Bergoglio's leadership, Argentina's bishops issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church's failures to protect its flock. But the statement blamed the era's violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.
"Bergoglio has been very critical of human rights violations during the dictatorship, but he has always also criticized the leftist guerrillas; he doesn't forget that side," Rubin said.
Bergoglio's own role in the so-called Dirty War has been the subject of controversy.
At least two court cases directly involved Bergoglio. One examined the torture of two of his Jesuit priests who were kidnapped in 1976 from the slums where they advocated liberation theology. One accused Bergoglio of effectively handing him over to the junta.
Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them - including persuading dictator Jorge Videla's family priest to call in sick so that Bergoglio himself could say Mass in the junta leader's home, where he privately appealed for mercy. His intervention likely saved their lives, but Bergoglio never shared the details until Rubin interviewed him for a 2010 biography.
Rubin said failing to challenge the dictators was simply pragmatic at a time when so many people were getting killed, and attributed Bergoglio's later reluctance to share his side of the story as a reflection of his humility.
Bergoglio also was accused of turning his back on a family that lost five relatives to state terror, including a young woman who was 5-months' pregnant before she was kidnapped and eventually killed in 1977. The woman's child, who survived, was given to an "important" family.
Despite written evidence indicating he knew the child had been given away, Bergoglio testified in 2010 that he didn't know about any stolen babies until well after the dictatorship was over.
Unlike the confusion that reigned during the 2005 conclave, the smoke this time around has been clear: black during the first two rounds of burned ballots, and then a clear white on Wednesday night - thanks to special smoke flares akin to those used in soccer matches or protests that were lit in the chapel ovens.
The Vatican on Wednesday divulged the secret recipe used: potassium perchlorate, anthracene, which is a derivative of coal tar, and sulfur for the black smoke; potassium chlorate, lactose and a pine resin for the white smoke.
The chemicals are contained in five units of a cartridge that is placed inside the stove of the Sistine Chapel. When activated, the five blocks ignite one after another for about a minute apiece, creating the steady stream of smoke that accompanies the natural smoke from the burned ballot papers.
Despite the great plumes of smoke that poured out of the chimney, Lombardi said, neither the Sistine frescoes nor the cardinals inside the chapel suffered any smoke damage.
Looking stunned, Francis shyly waved to the crowd of more than 100,000 people who packed a rain-soaked St. Peter's Square for the announcement, marveling that the cardinals needed to look to "the end of the earth" to find a bishop of Rome.
In choosing a 76-year-old pope, the cardinals clearly decided that they didn't need a vigorous, young pope who would reign for decades but rather a seasoned, popular and humble pastor who would draw followers to the faith and help rebuild a church stained by scandal.
The cardinal electors overcame deep divisions about the future of the church to select the 266th pontiff in a remarkably fast, five-ballot conclave.
Francis asked for prayers for himself, and for retired Pope Benedict XVI, whose stunning resignation paved the way for the conclave that brought the first Jesuit to the papacy. Francis also spoke by phone with Benedict after his election and plans to see him in the coming days, the Vatican said.
"Brothers and sisters, good evening," Francis said to wild cheers in his first public remarks as pontiff from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica.
"You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth, but here we are. Thank you for the welcome," he said.
In one of his first acts as pope, Francis on Thursday morning planned to visit Benedict at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.
American Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Wednesday night at the North American College, the U.S. seminary in Rome, that Francis told fellow cardinals following the conclave that made him pope: "Tomorrow morning, I'm going to visit Benedict."
The visit was significant because Benedict's resignation has raised concerns about potential power conflicts emerging from the peculiar situation of having a reigning pope and a retired one.
No such worries troubled people in Francis' home continent.
Latin Americans burst into tears and jubilation at news that the region, which counts 40 percent of the world's Catholics, finally had a pope to call its own.
"It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar at the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico.
Bergoglio had reportedly finished second in the 2005 conclave that produced Benedict - who last month became the first pope to resign in 600 years. The speed with which he was elected pope this time around indicates that - even though he is 76 and has slowed down from the effects of having a lung removed as a teenager - he still had the trust of cardinals to do the job.
After announcing "Habemus Papam" - "We have a pope!" - a cardinal standing on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday revealed the identity of the new pontiff, using his Latin name, and announced he would be called Francis.
The longtime archbishop of Buenos Aires is the son of middle-class Italian immigrants and is known as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed.
He often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina's capital. He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the church.
Catholics are still buzzing over his speech last year accusing fellow church officials of hypocrisy for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.
In a lifetime of teaching and leading priests in Latin America, which has the largest share of the world's Catholics, Bergoglio has also shown a keen political sensibility as well as the kind of self-effacing humility that fellow cardinals value highly, according to his official biographer, Sergio Rubin.
Bergoglio, who as a teen lost a lung to infection, showed that humility on Wednesday, saying that before he blessed the crowd he wanted their prayers for him and then he bowed his head amid the silence from the crowd.
"Good night, and have a good rest," he said before going back into the palace.
Cardinal Dolan gave an inside glimpse into the drama of the conclave in his talk at the American seminary.
When the tally reached the necessary 77 votes to make Bergoglio pope, Dolan said, the cardinals erupted in applause. And when he accepted the momentous responsibility thrust upon him - "there wasn't a dry eye in the place," the American cardinal recounted.
After the princes of the church had congratulated the new pope one by one, other Vatican officials wanted to do the same, but Francis preferred to go outside and greet the throngs of faithful. "Maybe we should go to the balcony first," Dolan recalled the pope as saying.
In choosing to call himself Francis, the new pope was associating himself with the much-loved Italian saint from Assisi associated with peace, poverty and simplicity. St. Francis was born to a wealthy family but later renounced his wealth and founded the Franciscan order of friars; he wandered about the countryside preaching to the people in very simple language.
He was so famed for his sanctity that he was canonized just two years after his death in 1226.
St. Francis Xavier is another important namesake. One of the 16th century founders of the Jesuit order, Francis Xavier was a legendary missionary who spread the faith as far as India and Japan - giving the new pope's name selection possibly further symbolic resonance in an age when the church is struggling to maintain its numbers.
Francis will celebrate his first Mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, and will be installed officially as pope on Tuesday, according to the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Lombardi, also a Jesuit, said he was particularly stunned by the election given that Jesuits typically shun positions of authority in the church, instead offering their work in service to those in power.
But Lombardi said that in accepting the election, Francis must have felt it "a strong call to service," an antidote to all those who speculated that the papacy was about a search for power.
In an interesting twist the Jesuits were expelled from all of the Americas in the mid-18th century. Now, a Latin American Jesuit has been elected head of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church.
Pope Tweet:
HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM
— Pontifex (@Pontifex) March 13, 2013
Tens of thousands of people who braved cold rain to watch the smokestack atop the Sistine Chapel jumped in joy when white smoke poured out a few minutes past 7 p.m., many shouting "Habemus Papam!" or "We have a pope!" - as the bells of St. Peter's Basilica and churches across Rome pealed.
After what seemed like an unending wait of more than an hour, they cheered again when the doors to the loggia opened. The cheers became deafening when Bergoglio's name was announced.
"I can't explain how happy I am right now," said Ben Canete, a 32-year-old Filipino, jumping up and down in excitement.
Elected on the fifth ballot, Francis was chosen in one of the fastest conclaves in years, remarkable given there was no clear front-runner going into the vote and that the church had been in turmoil following the upheaval unleashed by Benedict's surprise resignation.
A winner must receive 77 votes, or two-thirds of the 115, to be named pope.
For comparison's sake, Benedict was elected on the fourth ballot in 2005 - but he was the clear front-runner going into the vote. Pope John Paul II was elected on the eighth ballot in 1978 to become the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.
Patrizia Rizzo ran down the main boulevard to the piazza with her two children as soon as she heard the news on the car radio. "I parked the car ... and dashed to the square, she said. "It's so exciting, as Romans we had to come."
Bergoglio's legacy as cardinal includes his efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina's murderous 1976-83 dictatorship. His own record as the head of the Jesuit order in Argentina at the time has been tarnished as well.
Many Argentines remain angry over the church's acknowledged failure to openly confront a regime that was kidnapping and killing thousands of people as it sought to eliminate "subversive elements" in society. It's one reason why more than two-thirds of Argentines describe themselves as Catholic, but fewer than 10 percent regularly attend mass.
Under Bergoglio's leadership, Argentina's bishops issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church's failures to protect its flock. But the statement blamed the era's violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.
"Bergoglio has been very critical of human rights violations during the dictatorship, but he has always also criticized the leftist guerrillas; he doesn't forget that side," Rubin said.
Bergoglio's own role in the so-called Dirty War has been the subject of controversy.
At least two court cases directly involved Bergoglio. One examined the torture of two of his Jesuit priests who were kidnapped in 1976 from the slums where they advocated liberation theology. One accused Bergoglio of effectively handing him over to the junta.
Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them - including persuading dictator Jorge Videla's family priest to call in sick so that Bergoglio himself could say Mass in the junta leader's home, where he privately appealed for mercy. His intervention likely saved their lives, but Bergoglio never shared the details until Rubin interviewed him for a 2010 biography.
Rubin said failing to challenge the dictators was simply pragmatic at a time when so many people were getting killed, and attributed Bergoglio's later reluctance to share his side of the story as a reflection of his humility.
Bergoglio also was accused of turning his back on a family that lost five relatives to state terror, including a young woman who was 5-months' pregnant before she was kidnapped and eventually killed in 1977. The woman's child, who survived, was given to an "important" family.
Despite written evidence indicating he knew the child had been given away, Bergoglio testified in 2010 that he didn't know about any stolen babies until well after the dictatorship was over.
Unlike the confusion that reigned during the 2005 conclave, the smoke this time around has been clear: black during the first two rounds of burned ballots, and then a clear white on Wednesday night - thanks to special smoke flares akin to those used in soccer matches or protests that were lit in the chapel ovens.
The Vatican on Wednesday divulged the secret recipe used: potassium perchlorate, anthracene, which is a derivative of coal tar, and sulfur for the black smoke; potassium chlorate, lactose and a pine resin for the white smoke.
The chemicals are contained in five units of a cartridge that is placed inside the stove of the Sistine Chapel. When activated, the five blocks ignite one after another for about a minute apiece, creating the steady stream of smoke that accompanies the natural smoke from the burned ballot papers.
Despite the great plumes of smoke that poured out of the chimney, Lombardi said, neither the Sistine frescoes nor the cardinals inside the chapel suffered any smoke damage.
God bless the trolls that post on KOMO for making me so curious about their complaints that I researched for myself, and found out the Church and Christianity is nothing at all like they post here. I only wish the posters would actually do their own research before spewing out such nonsense! If you have a complaint about the faith of a third of the world's population (Christian), at least make sure of your facts, and post a legitimate complaint!Â
When I looked at the biographies of the cardinals, I was surprised that the great majority have Ph.d.'s. Most people aren't aware that your typical Catholic priest has an advanced degree (ours went to law school). Many priests work in their area of expertise as lawyers, scientists, historians, etc. These men aren't your non-denominational start-ups. Watching the election yesterday was like watching a presidential election, only my guy won! My guy will always win! Joyful!
I like the 2,000 years of history, the continuity of belief, the systemic application of reason and logic to life's hardest questions. Yes, I like the so-called "dresses and funny hats", too. Lots of men around the world wear long coat-like garments or in Pacific Islander/SE and SW Asian countries, skirt-like garments. Heck, men wear skirts in Seattle, and basketball players and young men wear culottes. So what? Â I like that the Church is in virtually every country of the world, that I could go into any Catholic church anywhere in the world, at any time and know I was welcome and a participant in full standing. And that I would be treated as such without question.
In this time of terrible ideological division, where opposing forces of nationalized hatred and human-invoked terror can wreak havoc in any city at any time anywhere, Â isn't it good to know there is one institution in place at all times and everywhere that can step in and help whenever and where ever needed? The Church is distributed world-wide everywhere, and unlike the more densely- sited religion of 1/5 of the world's inhabitants (densely sited because you won't have freedom of religion in most of those countries - think about that), you won't get beheaded if you change your mind about believing.
So at this point, you have about 1/3 of the world as Christians and 1/5 Muslims and most of the rest of the world practicing in smallish pockets of other fairly densely-sited, non-global religions or non-faith (which turns out to be a fairly tiny, TINY portion of the world and there is NO evidence that non-faith can be a productive component of world peace; rather it appears non-faith based governments have presented the most oppressive, murderous systems in history, from Hulagu through Hitler, Stalin and Mao, etc.), with increasingly strident talk from Islamic leaders and atheist leaders, with European secularization losing to an influx of Muslim immigrants and refugees, and the social tension that is causing in France, England, Germany and Italy, the 21st Century may well be the century when you will need to take your stand. Who will you stand with? Where will the unity come from? Which global group can provide you with community, stability, safety and freedom? Can the tiny percentage of progressives, secular humanists and atheists really provide you with any assurances whatsoever about your future?Â
@Juliana
You like the Bible and all the cherry picked statements? Â How about this one?
 http://i.imgur.com/sFQ7k8N.jpg
@Juliana There is as much proof for Santa Claus as there is for the multitude of gods... none!  If people are going to make claims, they should furnish proof or shut up. Â
@Juliana "there is NO evidence that non-faith can be a productive component of world peace; rather it appears non-faith based governments have presented the most oppressive, murderous systems in history"
More people have been killed in the name of God than every non religious war in the history of the world combined. Â Get off your soap box.Â
P.S. Hitler was raised CatholicÂ
what a circus
I'm not Catholic or really religious but it was interesting watching all of this happen over the last week or two. It's not everyday we get to witness this. Â
Religion is just a crutch for the weak.
@hinterland and your facts to support this are????? What do you mean by crutch? Is this because we "believe" what 12 men said they saw 2,000 years ago? Yet most people believe 12 man juries can send a man to his death or life long incarceration. Note that I put the word believe in quotation marks, this is the hardest thing that Christians struggle with. There are three things that novice Christians need to do to get started. 1. believe that the carpenter from Nazareth was who he claimed to be. Mathew 16:13, 2. Be truly sorry for the things that we have done wrong, if you are not sure what I am talking about look at the ten commandments in Exodus. 3. Be baptized, here is where you start a theology argument, read all you can about John the Baptist. Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. Is in immersion, sprinkling, spit on etc, etc, etc. Discussions (why are we on KOMO) about a subject are educational if we have facts. So I ask again why is it a crutch?
I expected weeks of dark smoke before white smoke
He's actually the son of Italian immigrants, so he's not really of Latin American ethnic/racial background.
@Sanctuary He was born in Argentina.  Doesn't that make him Latin American by definition? Â
@Sanctuary Well you have the accidental discovery by Columbus in the 15th century and the 16th century conquistadors to give thanks for their conquest of the America's
At first one would say, so what, I'm not catholic - however the catholic church controls as much as 25% of the worlds charities responsible for children - and what has the church done about abusive priests?
I felt like I was watching the selection announcement for the next Olympics Country. Anyway, congratulations to the new Catholic CEO,... here's to religious free enterprise and good profits. I wonder if Jesus came back if he would recognize the institutional church without someone telling him of its history; not much left of what he originally preached. "Love your neighbor as yourself," "the Kingdom is within you," and all that.
@albion Amen, however the institutional church maintained the Bible for over a century. We now have printing presses and everyone checks them for mistakes. With the internet you can compare the modern version of Isaiah to Isaiah in the dead sea scrolls and see that it has not changed. In the Koran (Quran) it has. Have you read the juvenile Gospels? So the institutional church is necessary. The Koran was handed down by word of mouth and was diluted. The other problem Christianity has is that we allow any appliance salesman to start a Christian church and interpret the Bible his way and do not do our own research.
@whitewings2003Â @albion The problem is that most of the doctrinal modifications and additions were put in place during the first couple of pre-institutional centuries AD. And the first council of Nicaea in 325 AD made doctrinal decisions about what was biblical and what wasn't more based on proto-institutional needs than on historical accuracy. The biblical Jesus doesn't much resemble the historical Jesus who was a charismatic (and pious) Jewish preacher/healer in line with a number of other men of his time (including John the Baptist). So the institutional church maintained a bible, perhaps we could call it the Catholic bible. And protestant/evangelical offshoots today are worshiping a Catholic religion variant not a Jesus religion. Orthodox Christianity is historically closer, but even it suffers from these modifications at the source.
This doesn't make today's "Christianity" as a devotional practice any less valuable for true practitioners. Bhakti Yoga (devotional yoga) practitioners in the east have always known that their objects of worship were step-ladders to be discarded when one reaches enlightenment. In the west, we often confuse the ladder with the goal, and then think other ladders (like Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, paganism, etc.) are invalid. This is incorrect; they are all valid ladders to spirit if practiced in good faith.
re: your comments on Islam. I have no doubt that the Koran has been modified as much as the bible has.
Who cares? Maybe the news media will quit jumping all over this non event. Why should choosing the head of a church receive so much ink and time.  Ridiculous!
@kangaroo You are forgetting he is also the head of a nation. It is as important as who the next head of Venezuela will be. If you do not believe that the Vatican has power then you need to re-read history. Why didn't Hitler take over the Vatican and all of its wealth?
@whitewings2003Â @kangaroo Because Hitler was too busy exterminating Jews?
ssel erac dluoc i yaw elbissop on si ereht. But hey - good for them, and him...
How they really elect the Pope!
http://i.imgur.com/P72mVGv.jpg
@Sissy That's in Jerusalem
pope f money is confused. he says he wants to fight poverty AND fight birth control? maybe we should also try to irradicate malaria with puddles of standing water!
How is the church going to push the whole kidnapping of those two Jesuit priests he was part of, under the carpet?
Good!  Not a Catholic myself, but I went to Seattle University. Looking back, I'm sure glad I didn't go to a state school. The Jesuit humility, love of people and their ethic of serving others impresses me to this day. Those old guys really cared.
Gonzaga grad myself..back when the jesuits had it
Great, yet another old fart in a dress speaking for a fictional deity with millions of mindless followers. There truly is no hope for the world.
@TheChosen Where are your facts?
@whitewings2003 @TheChosen Well he was wrong, on one part.  He should have said a billion, not millions.  He does look like and old fart, he does wear a dress, and is that a petticoat too?  And can you prove that the deity he mentions is real.  No?  I thought so.  R U Catholic?
White smoke coming from the #Vatican is actually the altar boy signalling SOS.
that or they fired up a giant bong to celebrate picking the next pope.
Pontifex Franciscum orationem ducere ecclesia est secundum humilitatem Domini nostri Jesu Christi pia diligatis invicem
@EMDF9A Amen, I took Latin in high school 60 years ago, I had to use google translate, again I say Amen.
So you are telling me with all of today's technology available to spread news, internet, Facebook, Twitter, Radio, Television, these people go with......... smoke signals.Â
@The206 They like their symbolism and rituals... I'm okay with that. What is really amazing to me is the parallels to some very pagan doctrines.
@Susabelle @The206 Not really when you consider they adopted a lot of pagan celebrations and ways to help convert more people back when paganism (in its many forms) was the dominate religion of the time. There's a reason nearly every major christian holiday falls close to a pagan one.
@MoonDragonWitch @Susabelle @The206 I certainly agree. The early church was very good at that. Even Ground Hogs day is a pagan tradition...
@Susabelle @The206 No what is really amazing is they have been able to run a multi-billion dollar corporation for so long and still don't pay any taxes.  Now that is truly amazing.Â
@The206...you can't be this ignorant? Vatican City is a country.
@The206 @Susabelle Whats amazing is how many millions of schools, orphanages,hospitals, they operate around the world compared to atheists. If you look at nuns, priests, 98% of them live in poverty along side the poor.
@The206 @Susabelle It has been so for a thousand years... but if they do not get with it soon, they will go the way of Ancient Rome.
**heinous manner, DYAC!!
Good luck to the guy and all the best to Benedict too.
KOMO4, best hate speech forum on the web. Attracting ignorant trolling from all over western Washington. All the littlest minds with their pithy little brain f*rts. By the way, in Europe they do call the Pope by his last name as well, so Pope Bergolio. The Church is perhaps history's greatest patron of the sciences, then and now. Some of the greatest writers in history have been Catholic nuns; but it's true the Church doesn't sanction slutty behavior, by men or women. On the other hand, you won't get beheaded when you confess your sins, either. And while a tiny percentage of priests acted out in a curious manner, there are far more ministers, teachers, coaches, step dads, uncles and neighbors who still do the same thing everyday. So maybe put some effort into that. In 2010, over 1,500 tiny kids were murdered by their families. Maybe pay some attention to that, tools.No single agency in the world provides as much medical care, social services or as much quality education as the Church. What does your secular humanist group do for anyone? At what cost?Go read a book or something, trolls. I'm celebrating today.
whatever. it is a 'religion' created by man and has misled millions who blindly follow.
@run4fun and your facts are??? Or are you throwing kindling on the fire?
@run4fun Yes because in order to be intelligent you must believe that nothing exploded billions of years ago and from a rock we have vegetaion and people. This reminds me of a princess who kisses the frog story, when the frog turns into a prince. Only in humanistic view, the story is true only if you allow billions of years and we shall evolve from prehistoric bacteria, amoeba, lizards, monkeys, to humans..So if it takes billions of years you would call it science but if it were to happen quickly you would call it a fairy tale..
@Juliana "What does your secular humanist group do for anyone?"  - Pays taxes
@The206...conisdering that 20% of the world are Catholics and probably about 1% are atheists...Catholics are paying a lot more in taxes than you and your buddy atheists are!
@The206 @Juliana Congratulations on supporting our useless bloated government.
@Juliana"The Church is perhaps history's greatest patron of the sciences, then and now" Are you kidding me? they suppressed scientific thought as heretics for centuries!! You would be excommunicated and/or burned! And modern times is only moderately different when they lost the power to dictate. Did you forget the whole world is flat thing?
"And while a tiny percentage of priests acted out in a curious manner," Curious manner? Curious? It was not curious it was rape! Â and sexual abuse!
I have nothing against the modern day Catholicism, other than disagreeing with the continued repression of others especially considering Jesus' teachings and will also admit they have brought health and arts to many parts of the world, but historically it was imposed upon native populaces NOT given charitably!
I have nothing against this pope and certainly hope he can effect change and bring about the loving teachings of a good portion of the bible but please do not preach about the history of the church, for it is not without a good amount of blood on its hands!
@Susabelle...please name a scientist that was burned by the Catholic church? There were probably about a million killed by atheists in the USSR and China alone just in the last 100 years!
So your defense for the leadership of your moral authority organization's protection of pedophiles is ...other people do it too? Really? This is like arguing with a 12 year old. "Timmy does it too"
I can only assume the standards for credible moral authority must be much lower for you than they are for me. But if you think the leaders of a religious organization can conciously choose to hide and support child rapists...and stil be a good source of moral insight, well...more power to you.
@Juliana I was wondering if the apologists would show up. Equating the fact other non-religious people do bad things to some kind of excuse for Catholics (or any other group, for that matter) is scary thinking. Remember that these religious leaders hold themselves to a standard that encompasses not only this life, but any afterlife if one exists. So by their own morals they should be holding themselves to the absolute highest standards.
As far as education, encouraging people to have as many kids as they can or not to use contraception is about as anti-educational a thing as one could do.
@Just_Mike...do you also condemn the 1000s of public school teachers who molest and demand the end of public education because of them? A kid is 100 times more likely to be molested by their public school teacher than by a priest!