World’s media weigh in on new pope

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Not all of the world's media and political animals appear ready to lay down at the feet of Pope Francis.

LONDON -- Pope Francis had a hearty welcome from revelers in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, but not all of the world's media and political animals were waiting with open arms to receive the new pope.

Away from the joyful cries of celebration that accompanied Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Wednesday-evening transformation into the leader of the Catholic Church, there was backlash in some corners, perhaps inevitably, to the new 76-year-old pontiff.

Not all of it was serious. Particularly in Britain, where media overlord Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper The Sun led the way. When the message arrived that Francis, an Argentine, was to succeed Benedict The Sun swiftly brought to bear two issues that are never far from an Englishmen's heart: The ongoing dispute with Argentina over the Falklands Islands and the still-smoldering loss to the Argentina national soccer team in a quarter-final game at a FIFA World Cup match in 1986.

"It also emerged last night that the new pope wants Britain to hand back the Falklands," The Sun's Rome correspondent, Nick Parker, breathlessly wrote from a frenzied St. Peter's Square on Wednesday night. "He even backed his country's soldiers in their doomed bid to snatch the islands in 1982."

The story was headlined "Hand of God" in homage to the incident in Mexico where Diego Maradona punched the ball into the England goal with his hand, sending the soccer legend's team to eventual World Cup glory. Maradona's hand, God-like or otherwise, has left a near 30-year-old Argentina-related bad taste in the mouths of British everywhere.

No matter how good a pope Francis turns out to be, the British were always going to give an Argentine a hard time.

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  • Pope Francis speaks from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
  • Argentine women scream in St. Peter's Square as they listen to the announcement that the newly elected pope is Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina.
  • Argentina's Jorge Bergoglio, elected Pope Francis waves from the window of St. Peter's Basilica's balcony after being elected the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • A woman waves a U.S. flag as she celebrates near St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
  • Newly elected Pope Francis appears on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.
  • The crowd reacts as Pope Francis speaks from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.
  • Payton Kovanda, Grace Thomas and Becky Barjas, left to right, wait for the televised appearance of Pope Francis while watching with other second-graders at St. Paul Catholic school in Valparaiso, Ind.
  • A crowd gathers in St. Peter's Square on the second day of the conclave in Vatican City.
  • Pope Francis and some cardinals pray from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.
  • Faithful react after the announcement that their Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope Francis, at Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires.
  • People stand in St. Peter's Square as they listen to newly elected Pope Francis, the former cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina.
  • Women in Buenos Aires react after hearing on the speakers at the Metropolitan Cathedral that their Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as the new pope.
  • Pope Francis appears on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on March 13 in Vatican City. Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the 266th pontiff, the first from the Americas.
  • Pope Francis addresses the crowd after the announcement from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.
  • White smoke, a sign that cardinals have elected a new pope, emerges from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
  • Thousands of people cheer as white smoke rises from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
  • White smoke billows from the chimney.
  • Crowds cheer as white smoke appears from a chimney on the Sistine Chapel.
  • People on St. Peter's Square watch as white smoke rises from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel.
  • People celebrate the selection of a new pope on St. Peter's Square.
  • Women celebrate the selection of a new pope.
  • White smoke billows from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The 115 voting cardinals took five votes over two days to reach their decision, which required a two-thirds majority.
  • Black smoke billows from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel after the College of Cardinals failed to elect a new pope during morning voting in Vatican City. A conclave of cardinals is choosing a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who stepped down as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • Nuns wait for the chimney smoke in St. Peter's Square on the second day of the conclave to elect a new pope. Seventy-seven of the 115 cardinals must write down the same name to elect one of their members as the 266th pontiff.
  • People shelter under umbrellas while they wait in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.
  • A woman holds a rosary as she watches a chimney. White smoke will signal that a decision has been made.
  • A woman looks at a chimney as she waits for a release of smoke.
  • Black smoke billows from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, indicating that no decision has been reached during balloting on the second day of voting.
  • People react to a release of black smoke at St Peter's Square.
  • A woman holds a rosary and prays.
  • A woman prays as she waits for a release of smoke at the Vatican.
  • Nuns pray on St. Peter's Square on March 13.

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On a more serious note, Britain's Evening Standard newspaper, like many other news organizations across the U.K and the world, honed in on critics of the new pope who allege that he failed to adequately confront those involved in Argentina's military junta between 1976-1983. This was a dark period in Argentina's near-history that saw thousands of people kidnapped and murdered in what came to be known as the Dirty War.

"There's hypocrisy here when it comes to the church's conduct, and with Bergoglio in particular," Estela de la Cuadra, a human rights activist for the Plaza de Mayo group, told the Evening Standard. "There are trials of all kinds now, and Bergoglio systematically refuses to support them." The pope's biographer, Sergio Rubin, has argued that "this was a failure of the Roman Catholic Church in general," not just Bergoglio's. Bergoglio has kept mostly quiet on the matter.

Another place where Bergoglio has faced criticism is from his own government.

In the past, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has spoken harshly of Bergoglio's stances on a range of issues around same-sex marriage and contraception.

She sent her congratulations to the new pope, of course, but her endorsement -- "We wish him well, as he takes the reins of the Church, a fruitful pastoral mission" -- was in stark, emotively-weak contrast to acknowledgements sent from President Obama ("warm wishes"), U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon ("heartfelt congratulations"), British Prime Minister David Cameron ("a momentous day") and other world leaders.

In a show of stereotypical Germanic pragmatism, the German newspaper Die Welt suggested that the election of the new pope would likely mean that, "In the tradition of St. Francis of Assisi, the world church will probably have to adjust to a profound change of direction." Leaders of the different faiths, meanwhile, appeared to embrace the selection of Pope Francis, albeit with caution.

REACTION: What non-Catholics think of the new pope

In Asia, the Chinese struck a more straight-talking political tone on Thursday. Hua Chunying, a China Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Beijing, told the New York Times that the Vatican "must stop interfering in China's internal affairs, including in the name of religion."

POPE FRANCIS: The Vatican transitions to a new pope

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