World Mostly Cheers New Pope Francis

By Oren Dorell
The Advertiser
March 13, 2013

http://www.theadvertiser.com/usatoday/article/1984231

A nun and faithful celebrate after Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Pope, outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires

With the pealing of bells and the honking of horns, Catholics across Latin America welcomed and cheered their new pope as a people's pope who will understand their needs.

Horns honked in his home country of Argentina, where until Wednesday Pope Francis was known as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Bells rang in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo. In Mexico, where people wiped their eyes with tears of excitement at the news, Bishop Eugenio Lira said the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires made it clear from his first address to the crowds that thronged the Vatican that his approach will be a departure from his predecessors.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing, when he started saying, 'Good afternoon,' just like someone saying hello to a friend," said Lira, the secretary-general of the Mexican Conference of Bishops. "He will certainly be the pope who is closest to the people of Latin America. He knows the problems of Latin America very well."

Francis is the first pope from outside Europe in modern times, the first Jesuit and the first from Latin America.

Soledad Loaeza, a political science professor at the Colegio de Mexico who studies the church, said an Argentine pope was the logical choice. "First, Latin America is the most important region in the world for the church," but one where evangelical churches have been making inroads. "It may also be an attempt to stop the decline in the number of Catholics."

For church leaders seeking growth, instead of the aging, declining congregations in Europe or the United States, "there are only two regions," Loaeza said: Africa and Latin America.

Several European newspapers echoed that sentiment.

"In the tradition of St. Francis of Assisi, the world church will probably have to adjust to a profound change of direction," said the German daily Die Welt. That "will be chiefly influenced by the problems and dynamics in the Catholic world outside of Europe, especially in Africa and Latin America."

Polish Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, the secretary of the Polish conference of Bishops, told the Polish news agency PAP that the cardinals' choice was "a big surprise" and a signal that they hope Francis "is a person who will bring change" to the church.

French paper Le Figaro said the choice of an Argentine Jesuit "marks a turning point in the history of the Catholic Church." Though it said Jorge Bergoglio is "not a man of revolution but rather it seems a man of transition." His appointment shows the church is opening up on some social issues, the paper said.

Not everyone was congratulatory, however.

The British paper The Guardian re-ran an article from January 2011 by journalist Hugh O'Shaughnessy that described the collusion of Argentine church leaders, including Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, with a brutal dictatorial regime backed by the West that was responsible for the disappearance and murder of thousands of Argentines

The article, with the headline "The Catholic Church was complicit in dreadful crimes in Argentina. Now it has a chance to repent," O'Shaughnessy cites work by Argentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky, who wrote that Bergoglio worked with the Argentine navy to hide political prisoners from a visiting group from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate," O'Shaughnessy wrote.

Yet, when former officials of that regime were convicted in 2010 of 31 murders in 1976, "What one did not hear from any senior member of the Argentine (church) hierarchy was any expression of regret for the church's collaboration and in these crimes," O'Shaunessy said.

The London-based Catholic Herald newspaper says Bergoglio's supporters have said that he tried to negotiate behind the scenes for the detainees, and cited a spokesman for the cardinal calling the accusation "old slander."

In Cuba, where bells rang across the capital city of Havana, parish priest Gregorio Alvarez said he believes Pope Francis' background could lead the church to focus more on the ills afflicting humanity, and less on internal issues.

"One hopes that the church will be closer to the problems of humankind and not only the problems of the church," Alvarez said at the Jesus of Miramar Church in a leafy western suburb of Havana.

"Being Latin American gives him an advantage. He understands the problems of poverty, of violence, of manipulation of the masses," Alvarez said. "All that gives him experience for the job. â?¦ He's one of the family."

The Buenos Aires Herald noted that he was the oldest of the most likely candidates considered in the five ballots Tuesday and Wednesday at the secretive Conclave in the Vatican.

Elsewhere, people celebrated in a mood that was jubilant and familiar.

At the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico, church secretary Antonia Veloz exchanged jubilant high-fives with Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar.

Cruz said he personally favored the Brazilian candidate, but was pleased with the outcome, saying the new pope would help revitalize the church.

"It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Cruz, wearing the brown cassock tied with a rope that is the signature of the Franciscan order. "Everyone from Canada down to Patagonia is going to feel blessed. This is an event."

In Panama City, public relations executive Nelsa Aponte said with teary eyes, "This made me cry; I had to get out my handkerchief.

"We have a new pastor, and for the first time, he is from Latin America," Aponte said.

Armando Connell, 54, a doorman at a luxury hotel in Panama City, expressed hope that "the new pope will be closer to us, and will show more concern about the poverty many of us suffer."

In Mexico City, pediatrician Victor De la Rosa, 64, said the decision "is going to allow Latin America to be more involved in the church's decisions, above all in modernizing the church."

Across the world in the overwhelmingly Catholic Philippines, people stayed up and waited for the announcement, said brand manager Mary Louise Liao. "I've never heard of Bergoglio" until now, Liao said. "People seem hopeful about the kind of impact he'll make."