Habemus Papam! New Pope Elected

Posted March 13, 2013, 2:06 p.m.
Updated May 6, 2024, 7:37 p.m.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Aibdescalzo, CC-BY-SA)

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, 76, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been elected Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. Bergoglio has taken the name Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi. He is the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit pope, and the first to take the name Francis. He is also the first non-European pope in about 1,200 years.

The election was announced at 7:06 p.m. in Rome (2:06 p.m. Eastern) with traditional white smoke from the chimney of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel and bells ringing in Saint Peter’s Square. The dean of the College or Cardinals announced the name of the new pope just over one hour later.

Pope Benedict XVI stepped down at the end of February, becoming the first pontiff to resign in nearly six hundred years. The conclave to select his replacement began on Tuesday. Popes must be elected by a two-thirds majority of cardinal-electors, a threshold that was met on the fifth ballot cycle.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.

Quotes

Genesis and science are both correct. When one asks if six days or fifteen billion years passed before the appearance of humankind, the correct answer is ‘yes.’

A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

All power intoxicates weak man; and its abuse proves, that the more equality there is established among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign in society.

Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.

Objective does not mean ‘known by all’ or ‘believed by all.’ Even if everyone believes a lie, a lie is still a lie.

For he will render to every man according to his works: to those . . . who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

Now, if no other work were commanded but chastity alone, we would all have enough to do with this one; so perilous and raging a vice is unchastity.

An unjust law is no law at all.

The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.

If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.

Economic policies need to be analyzed in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the hopes that inspired them.

As an ancient axiom states, the Church makes the Eucharist, and the Eucharist makes the Church.

Absolute, peremptory facts are bullies, and those who keep company with them are apt to get a bullying habit of mind.

Since exact science derives its exactness from measurements, the application of quantities, it is limited to matter; and since science is limited to matter, it has no philosophical or religious implications whatsoever.

Regardless of our policies, practices, or institutions—whether they are wise or unwise, noble or ignoble—there is simply not enough to go around to satisfy all our desires to the fullest.

All generalizations are false, including this one.

The politicians regard the public as a cow to be milked. . . .

It cannot be said often enough: Well-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from start-ups, which come from smart, creative, inspired risk takers.

A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses.