Better a sectarian traditional Pope than a squishy conservative evangelical

In electing the Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope, the Roman Catholic cardinals demonstrated their steely backbone and chests of granite, against the liberal post-modern crowd. From the little that I've read, Pope Francis is a principled theologian anchored in the conservative wing of the Catholic church. That means that he is pro-life, anti-homosexual, anti-liberation/Marxist theology and reliably conservative on every other hot-button social issue that animates the modernist fashonista of the Labour leaning, Guardian reading, muesli eating, rooibos drinking variety. As a thoroughgoing biblicist, it is comforting to know that one massive part of Christ's Church (in painful contrast to almost all major Protestant denominations) has the will to stand against the prevailing winds of pomosexual gunk that now clogs the river that is Western civilization. This is not to say that I'd ever be tempted to cross the Tiber and start fondling a rosary - not at all. Peter Leithart and Doug Wilson have given us have very good grounds for firmly remaining in the Protestant camp. However given Francis' record of promoting a culture of life (and against abortion, euthanasia, cloning and human egg harvesting), a culture of the family (and against homosexuality and all other extramarital sexual license), and a culture of liberty (and against political tyranny) I for one would be happy to count him a brother and a friend (A seriously mistaken brother in many ways but a brother nonetheless and good servant of Christ, faithfully fighting the horrendous evil that abounds in our culture today). Far better I think to be battling society's widespread immorality with a sectarian traditional Pope than with a squishy conservative evangelical. Let us pray that Francis continues to fight the good fight.