Habemus Papam! 13 March 2013
At the outset, these are only my personal reflections on the election of Pope Francis I (Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina) today, 13 March 2013. As a Protestant, and a Presbyterian, I affirm wholeheartedly the 1788 American edition of the Westminster Confession of Faith’s clear statement, “There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof” (25.6). This will disappoint my Catholic friends, no doubt, but it is what I affirm and agree with; and I believe that both Scripture and the earliest traditions of the Church teach the same. But now I speak to my Protestant, Evangelical and Independent friends, recognizing that I may likely dissatisfy many. There is a hard reality we must acknowledge, no matter what we may prefer or profess. The “Pope of Rome” is the human face of Christianity in the eyes of the world in which we live. If he is an abysmal failure, immoral, weak, or injudicious, all of Chri...