The challenge of the papacy

The sharp knives of politics have prepared the new pope well, say Joshua Goodman and Juan Pablo Spinetto.

AS CARDINAL Jorge Mario Bergoglio prepares to take over a Catholic Church rocked by sex-abuse scandals and allegations of corruption, the sharp knives of Argentina’s politics will have prepared him well.

Now known as Francis, and the first non-European pope in over 1,200 years, he frequently clashed with president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, criticising her government’s record in tackling poverty and leading protests against her proposal to legalise same-sex marriages.