Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: A puff of white smoke from the chimney over St Peter's in Rome has marked a momentous change for the world's largest religion, the Catholic Church. A new pope has been elected and he's Argentinean Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first non-European to take the position in more than a thousand years.

He's a self-styled man of the people who's taken the name Pope Francis after the saint who embraced a life of poverty. And he's a social conservative, toing the Church line on issues like abortion, birth control and gay marriage.

I was joined from Rome by the veteran Vatican watcher Father Thomas Reese.

Father Reese, we've heard a lot today about the modest life of this new Pope, that he lived in a small apartment, he took a bus to work and that he has forgone many of the luxuries afforded to bishops. Is that the sort of lifestyle that you can have in the Vatican?

THOMAS REESE, AUTHOR, INSIDE THE VATICAN: Well, that is a very good question because he has lived a simple lifestyle. Even his taking into the name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi indicates that he is gonna want a live a simple lifestyle. St Francis of Assisi was known for his life of poverty. This gonna be a challenge in the papal palace, but I think he's up to it. I don't think this is gonna be a pope that wants to wear silks and furs. This is gonna be a pope who wants to be with the ordinary people.

LEIGH SALES: What is the significance for the church of having its first Latin American pope?

THOMAS REESE: This is quite significant. For the first time we've had a pope from outside of Europe. And I think this sends a message to the whole world that this is no longer a European church, this is a global church where much of the Catholic population now is in the south, in Latin America, in Africa. So this is a very significant symbolic message from the cardinals that we are now a global church and not simply defined by Europe.

LEIGH SALES: One of the major issues for Pope Francis is to help the Church heal from and move forward from and deal with their sexual abuse crisis. How do you anticipate that he will approach that?

THOMAS REESE: Well, the American bishops, especially Cardinal George, made it very clear that they wanted a pope who supported the policies that had been put into place by Pope Benedict, namely, zero tolerance for sexual abuse of children. Any priest, any priest involved in sex abuse must be dismissed from the priesthood and not allowed to act again as a priest. This was a awful, awful experience for these poor young people and the Church needs to get down on its knees and apologise, apologise, apologise, and I think the new Pope will stick to that policy.

LEIGH SALES: What do you think are the other big challenges for him that he faces immediately?

THOMAS REESE: Well of course the biggest challenge that the Pope and the Church faces is how to make the Gospel message attractive and understandable to people in the 21st Century. I don't think we can continue to just quote theologians from the 13th Century and think that people in the 21st Century understand what we're saying. Pope Benedict actually put it quite well. He said that Christianity should not be presented as a series of "Nos", you know, like a nagging parent, "No, you can't do that, no," but should be presented as a "Yes", a yes to Jesus Christ, a yes to his gospel of love, a yes to compassion for the poor and to work together for justice. This is an attractive message and I think often our churchiness gets in the way of this message of Jesus.

LEIGH SALES: Is it hard for the Church to relate to people in the 21st Century when it has conservative positions on things like birth control?

THOMAS REESE: Well, there's no question that Pope Francis is in the same line in terms of theology and position on doctrine that were his predecessors, Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict. We're not gonna see a change on women's ordination, gay marriage or birth control or any of those kinds of things. On the other hand, he is extremely progressive when it comes to economic issues, to social justice. He's very concerned about the impact of globalisation on people in the Third World. He saw what it did to people in Argentina and he fought the Government when they were trying to cut benefits for poor people. So, you know, he's conservative on doctrinal - these issues, but he's very liberal and challenging and prophetic on these economic issues.

LEIGH SALES: Father Thomas Reese, we very much appreciate you making time to join us from Rome. Thank you.

THOMAS REESE: Thank you.

EDITOR'S NOTE (15 March): The opening line of this story originally referred to St Paul's, that has been corrected to read St Peter's.