Much of the world has been lauding the red-caped-club for their “enlightened” decision to make Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio their new leader. Bergoglio is the first Pope from the Western Hemisphere. World leaders are rejoicing. They declare, “The Catholic Church has finally broken with tradition and put someone different in charge.” “The reign of Benedict the Horrible is finally over.” “The Church will now reach out to the disenfranchised and begin to rebuild its institution for the betterment of society.” Maybe the world will actually become a better place. If you believe that, please stop reading now. You don’t deserve that privilege.

Let’s review some facts. About 17% of the world claims to be Catholic. However, many of those Catholics are not good Catholics. Not good, in the sense that they do not follow the directives of their leaders very well. Fact: The Catholic Church prohibits contraception, abortion, and homosexuality. Fact: Many Catholics use contraception, do not oppose abortion, and accept gays. Now consider the fact that many Catholic priests have been convicted of raping and sodomizing young children. In the past few decades the Catholic Church has been besieged with lawsuits for the impropriety of its leaders. The sex abuse scandals that have surfaced are so large that many dioceses cannot even sustain themselves due to the settlements and convictions made against them. Case and point: The Milwaukee Archdiocese recently declared bankruptcy to avoid having to pay their unfortunate victims any restitution. Many Catholics are losing faith in the Catholic institution and are choosing to leave their churches for something else. They are disillusioned and feel betrayed by the very institution that is supposed to guiding and nourishing them. In other words, the sheep are finally waking up and leaving their flock for greener and less harmful pastures.

The Catholic Church is aware of the mass exodus of its parishioners. However, rather than adapt to reality and its newly enlightened members, the Church has chosen to do as it always does and ignore common sense and common decency and continue to spew its anachronistic, hurtful, virulence at those who it should instead be embracing. The election of Bergoglio is no exception. For starters, let’s just make a couple of things clear. The Catholic Church will never allow abortion, gays, or anything else that it feels will loosen its controlling grip on the asinine sexual morality it preaches. That said; let’s look at the new Pope.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, DBA Pope Frances, is a church conservative on many issues. Like all of his costumed predecessors he believes women are the source of original sin. It is doubtful if he would ever support women priests. He has also been quoted as saying,

” …same-sex marriage attacks God’s plan.”

And that,

“…gay people adopting children is an act of discrimination against children. “

He has referred to the pro-choice “movement” as a

“culture of death.”

Really? “Lighten up Frances!” He has also repeatedly opposed the free distribution of contraceptives in Argentina.

As freethinking, rational, non-believers, we must be extremely vigilant not to allow the misinformation and ill-begotten pretense of reform to obfuscate the truth that, new pope or not, the Catholic Church is, and most likely will remain, a divisive, harmful monster that prevents people from living good, moral and meaningful lives.