"I told you I would willingly give you a blessing. Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God. May God bless all of you" - presages a more open Church bureaucracy.

It'll be interesting to see how he addresses social issues as Pope.

ones who didn't agree with his 'zero tolerance' stance on sexual abuse. It's an essential reform. Next may be because of an emphais on Francis of Assisi, a return to helping the 'least of these.'

I have found Catholics to be the most reliable allies advocating for the poor, sick, disenfranchised and disabled, especially those marginalized to the point of treating them as disposable by other groups in society.

The emphasis on seeing all life on Earth as valuable will be very important in a world with a changing climate, more people and less resources. The austerity that is being advocated is not about starving the helpless, but forcing those who reaped unjust profits to quit their persecution of the poor. It is a start. And humanity is going to need all the help it can get from any source.

Catholics do provide enormous resources for those most in need and often fill the holes that the government leaves open.

That is where the RCC needs to focus itself at this point if it has any hope of regaining some credibility.

the RCC in a new direction. I would be happy just to see the emphasis switch away from politics and towards issues of social justice and christian mission to help those most in need.

"emphasis switch away from politics and towards issues of social justice and christian mission to help those most in need"

And it's not as if there aren't Catholic groups already doing work in those areas. I'm sure he's aware of that.

He has lived very simply and appears to have dedicated himself to the poor. I hope this is all true.

and focuses on social justice rather than other nonsense, then he could help impact the world. I trust he has read and / or been influenced by some Latin American liberation theologists like Paolo Freire.

Sure playing down the social issues and puts more emphasis on economic justice would be very welcome. But as long as that is his stance on marriage equality he's no "radical progressive".

But given that he is well ahead of the last two Popes on economic and environmental justice, zero tolerance for pedophiles and curial reform, I'm cautiously optimistic that he can change his mind on gender issues.