The new "pragmatic" pope

There's an article in the NYT today about how Pope Francis dealt with gay marriage when he was a cardinal in Argentina. The refreshing message is that this pope is not the old pope. Where Benedict would never bend on any matter, Francis understands the art of compromise.

“The melody may be the same, but the sound is completely different,” Alberto Melloni, the director of the liberal Catholic John XXIII Foundation for Religious Science in Bologna, Italy, said of the two. 

Much to the horror of Argentina's bishops, Bergoglio (Francis' maiden name) suggested a way out of the impasse the church had reached with the Argentinian government, which was committed to allowing gay marriage.

Faced with the near certain passage of the gay marriage bill, Cardinal Bergoglio offered the civil union compromise as the “lesser of two evils,” said Sergio Rubin, his authorized biographer. “He wagered on a position of greater dialogue with society.”

But the bishops who served on Argentina's Bishops Conference would have none of it, and overruled him. It was the only time Bergoglio lost a round during his six years as head of the Conference. But now he's the popeyguy, the man whom no priest can cross. However, the article cautions that decent people we shouldn't get our hopes up.

There was little ambiguity in Cardinal Bergoglio’s vehement opposition to the gay marriage law, which was approved by the Senate in July 2010. In the months between the bishops’ meeting and the Senate vote, the cardinal, in a letter, called the bill a “destructive pretension against the plan of God.” 

So in the end, what have we learned? Bergoglio was a good guy, and he was a bad guy. But at least he reached out to the gay population in some way. The article relates the experience of a gay activist who met with him on more than one occasion. He said the pope always treated him with respect. I like that.

More about the new pope

I knew the popeyguy (I've already given up on the name frankenpope) was against gay marriage. But I didn't know this:

But the most potentially sensitive talks could come with [Argentina's president] Fernandez after years of open tensions over the then-archbishop's strong opposition to initiatives that led Argentina to become Latin American country to legalize gay marriage. He also opposed — but failed to stop — Fernandez from promoting free contraception and artificial insemination. 

Sometimes I forget that the church is against anything that has to do with sex. I hadn't even thought about contraception and artificial insemination. And I didn't know the church opposed the latter. What is wrong with them? A method to help women conceive is evil? Oh, that's right -- it brings vaginas to mind. Can't have that.

I've been reading stories about the new popeyguy and he seems sincere, direct and kind. He's a big improvement over Benedict, in terms of personality traits. To put it simply, as he would, Francis is friendly. That's something no one would say about the previous popeyguy.

But here we are with another pope who is the enemy of gay marriage. And we still have no clue why the church is so opposed to GLBT people. Certainly their explanations make no sense. They're words without meaning, as you know if you've ever listened to one of them argue about the topic. This vendetta, so much a part of the church, remains unexplained.

They would know

AP headline today: Argentine Gays Not Thrilled with New Pope. I can't think of anyone better qualified to tell us about the new guy.

Nearly three years before Argentina became known as home to the first Latin American pope, it made history as the first country in the region to approve gay marriage — an action that then-Cardinal Bergoglio actively opposed. 

Esteban Paulon is president of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals. He says Bergoglio waged a "war of God" against a gay-marriage proposal headed for Congress.

There's not much more to the "story" -- it tells us nothing we didn't already know. Frankie the popeyguy will be at least as awful as the last guy. And let's face it, if Frankie was a decent man operating in a world where some countries want to kill gays on sight (that would be the world we actually live in, BTW) -- he'd speak up for gay marriage rather than oppose it.

But Roman Catholic priests know nothing of morality. They reveal this every day.