According to AP, while the appointment of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope has filled many in Argentina with pride, members of the gay community are vehemently opposed to him. . .
Nearly three years Argentina became known as home to the first Latin American country to make
history as the first country in the region to approve gay marriage. It was an action that then Cardinal Bergoglio actively opposed.
The gay community here remembers Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, as the man who launched "a war of God" against the move to approve gay marriage. Before the Argentine Congress approved gay marriage in July 2010, some provinces in the country and individual judges had already begun allowing it. With that reality and the pro-gay marriage stance of President Cristina Fernandez, Bergoglio urged his bishops to lobby for gay civil unions instead. It wasn't until his proposal was shot down by the bishops' conference that he publicly declared a "war of God". The church lost the issue altogether.
Argentina hasn't suffered any commotion with the gay-marriage law. ... It would be difficult for
him to now argue that it leads to chaos or discord. It hasn't destroyed the family, and the anti-Christ hasn't arrived.
Note also- Bergoglio served as head of the Argentine conference of bishops for several years and was a die-hard opponent of abortion. He argued against sex-education laws that permit free access to contraceptives and allow Argentines to determine their gender based on their self-identity instead of their biology.
In any case, any real reform of these issues would not be up to Pope Francis alone, but would
rise or fall only after an internal Vatican debate between diverse factions.
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