The National Catholic Reporter provides a most interesting profile of the new pope … Francis, the first Latin American Jesuit pope.  He is a man of contradictions: a conservative on sexual and gender equality matters, as expected (no one less conservative could have been elected by the conclave of cardinals, almost all of whom were appointed by Benedict XVI and John Paul II).  But he is a champion of the poor who lives simply, rides the bus, and kisses and washes the feet of AIDS patients.  And what to make of the rumors surrounding his involvement with the Argentine military junta of the 1970s?

Read the profile here.