When Francis Was Still Jorge

Oliver Wiseman — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 18:07:33 +0000

Author:Paul Johnson

Adept at keeping out of trouble: Pope Francis at his inauguration (photo: Austrian Foreign Ministry CC BY-SA 2.0)

The objection to Cardinal Bergoglio’s election as pope in 2013 was, and is, not to his person but to his nationality. Anyone who comes from Argentina is bound to bring with him liabilities and dangers. The original settlers from Spain “solved” the indigenous Indian problem by exterminating them. The country then became a virtual British colony, capital and expertise from the UK financing its superb cattle-breeding estancias, building its excellent railway system and making it, thanks to the invention of refrigerated ships built in Britain, the largest meat-exporter globally in history. In the 1930s it was the ninth richest country in the world, and as large a focus of immigration (chiefly from Italy) as the United States.