Pope Francis Cover Story: The Times They Are A-Changin' | Culture | Rolling Stone:
The touchingly enduring Mr. Smith Goes to Washington/Bulworth/Aaron
Sorkin fantasy in which a noble political figure finally tells the
American people the truth tends not to happen in real-life democracy,
you may have noticed. There's too much money, too many special interests
infecting electoral politics. Such a scenario could probably take place
only in an arcane throwback of an institution like the Vatican, where
secret ballots and an utter absence of transparency made the rise of an
unknown quantity like Bergoglio possible. Had the race instead been for
an obscure House seat in Kentucky, the opposition research team would
have reduced his campaign to rubble within a couple of weeks.
By all accounts, the papal conclave that elevated Bergoglio assumed
it was electing a fairly anodyne compromise candidate. Cardinals liked
the idea of a pope from Latin America, one of the Church's leading
growth markets. They also responded well to a stirring three-minute
speech Bergoglio gave during the conclave, in which he said the Church,
in order to survive, must stop "living within herself, of herself, for
herself."
But he gave no other indication that he'd be any kind of change
agent. In the days after his election, most newspapers described him as a
safe, conservative choice. Bergoglio himself had already picked out a
retirement spot back home in Argentina, where he fully expected to
return after participating in the conclave as a voter.