What do you think of the newly elected Pope Francis I

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As above.

Old. Unremarkable. Probably be dead soon anyway.

An Argie - how timely.

Meet the new Boss ("Frankie the Inquisitor") ... Same as the old Boss ("Benny the Enforcer") ...

It's interesting since he's from Argentina. Don't have many thoughts beyond that.

Hate 'em.

I think it is to appease the Italians. He is from Italian heritage.

I wonder if he will stick to his Jesuit roots. I've always equated the Jesuit as powerful and influential.

But apparently he lives a simple, life and very focused on the poor. I wonder if he will be able to maintain that.

In terms of being a reformer, he is conservative and evangelical.

To me it seem like a safe choice, because whilst new world, he is the most European of new world. It seems to me like a reluctance to relinquish power to the places to where there are the most Catholics.

He's only just been inaugurated today, and a reason has been found to kick the Pope already:

Well, I guess Frankie goes to Holywood (*lame joke rimshot sound*).

He has been Pope for two hours. With that being said, he is probably dead scared right now as no one really wants to do the job and he knows being elected is basically a death sentence as in his life expectancy is probably another 10 years.

An interesting tidbit, he was nearly elected in 2005, but he asked his cohorts to not vote for him.

See this from the Manchester Guardian article:

But the cardinals' choice risked running into immediate controversy over the new pope's role in Argentina's troubled history. In his book, El Silencio, a prominent Argentinian journalist alleged that the then Jorge Bergoglio connived with the Argentine navy to hide from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission political prisoners of the military dictatorshop.

First an ex Nazi pope, then a pope who was in thick the Junta.

What next?

ruveyn

Let's give this guy a chance to reign. Based on taking the name Francis for the first time ever, he has indicated he intends to do things differently. Let us see.

"Steady as she sinks!"

Even for a body as risk-averse as the College of Cardinals this strikes me as a monumental non-decision.

He is relatively old--at 76 he will be little more than a caretaker. He has only a few years until he likely faces health challenges comparable to those of his predecessors.

He is an arch-conservative--even within the somewhat artificial understanding of liberal and conservative that is currently in place in the Roman Catholic Church.

By electing a Latin American, the Church appears to have washed its hands of any attempt to reengage with lapsed Catholics in Europe and North America. The Church appears to intend to maintain the inflexibility and orthodoxy that have made it successful only in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia. These will continue to be the heartland of the Church going forward, and she will pass out of even the limited relevance that she has in the world's centres of political and economic power.