Gave up the fancy address and got a small apartment. The first Pope Francis sounds like he might be a breath of fresh air.

But if they must have a pope, this guy seems okay..You can't tell by appearances, but he doesn't look like a pedophile.

There've been many people of different religions who helped their people, well, not many, but there have been 1 or 2. And Catholics need help at this time. They're almost like the Republicans in their desire to improve their "party." A lot of dissatisfaction.

We'll see how it goes. As it stands, there are no priests that I know of running abortion clinics, so it's difficult to find the leader that will please ALL Catholics.

Wanna clue me in?

People that know me know I'm kind of liberal and have a live and let live belief. If I meet anybody like the ones I see on Bible TV, I ignore them - and don't watch them on TV either....

But I can't get past the homophobia and misogyny that the church still absurdly clings to, and which he appears to embrace, so no, I don't think he's an okay guy.

I always thought that St Francis would have been a cool guy to know.

Also heard this is the first Jesuit to become a Pope?? I'll have to look into the significance.

I will say that the last 'dark horse' Pope that I can remember was the first John Paul. He seemed like a very kind, good, and somewhat progressive man, and look what happend to him.

No guarantee that he is taking his name from Francis of Assisi. If he were to run the Church like St. Francis of Assisi might have, the world would be a better place. But, I doubt that is going to happen, especially if the accusations of his homophobia are true.

Expressing shock that the new pope is anti-gay is like expressing shock that water is wet.

Pro-animal, pro-environment, anti-poverty? Not bad if he focuses on those things.

Makes my apartment hot in the summer. But I still won't be disappointed when it sets in the west tomorrow.

We had a roughly similar chance of getting a pro-gay pope.

One thing is governed by natural law
The other is a conscious decision to say and apparently believe crappy things about gays.

They could have done a lot worse. A lot of these cardinals don't live the way they expect their diocese to live.

Anti-poverty is a big stick to carry. It'll keep him from being criticized too harshly...once he starts distributing a lot of the church's wealth.

He may expect the clergy to live a more humble life, and maybe he'll get murdered.