In reply to Bruce Hooker:
> (In reply to mkean)
> On the other hand to become pope maybe he has been hiding his hand a bit? The choice of the name Francis, his own choice, is said by Vatican watchers to be highly significant as St Francis was a friend of the poor, as was JC himself according to the bible, for what that's worth.
>
> I do hope I'm not going to get converted on the road to Damascus, that wouldn't do at all.
its ok, he comes with the usual baggage that recent candidates for the role all seem to have...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/14/pope-francis-argentina-military...
"In February, a court noted during the sentencing of three former military men to life imprisonment for the killings of two priests that the church hierarchy had "closed its eyes" to the killing of progressive priests.
As head of the Jesuit order from 1973 to 1979, Jorge Bergoglio – as the new pope was known until yesterday – was a member of the hierarachy during the period when the wider Catholic church backed the military government and called for their followers to be patriotic.
Bergoglio twice refused to testify in court about his role as head of the Jesuit order. When he eventually appeared in front of a judge in 2010, he was accused by lawyers of being evasive.
The main charge against Bergoglio involves the kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Orland Yorio and Francisco Jalics, who were taken by Navy officers in May 1976 and held under inhumane conditions for the missionary work they conducted in the country's slums, a politically risky activity at the time.
His chief accuser is journalist Horacio Verbitsky, the author of a book on the church called "El Silencio" ("The Silence"), which claims that Bergoglio withdrew his order's protection from the two priests, effectively giving the military a green light for their abduction."
so there should be no need for you to worry about that trip to damascus any time soon...
gregor