what he might do now that he s pope? well, michael, you make a very good point. you cannot always draw a straight line between positions that cardinals take and what they do once they re elected to the papacy. you might remember eight years ago when cardinal ratzinger was then elected as pope benedict xvi, we spent a lot of time on air talking about how cardinal ratzinger taken a hard line of turkey joining the european union on the grounds that that would somehow water down the christian identity of europe. yet once he became pope he upheld the official vatican position, which was neutrality on the idea of turkey joining the eu as long as certain human rights guarantees were upheld. we don t really know right now what this bit of background about pope francis means in terms of what he will do as pope except to say that it does seem like on the very contentious issue of gay marriage which is of course front and center on the culture wars in the west, in
at the vatican, new insight on pope fran tis cis on the iss same sex marriage. the new york times is reporting the pope has a practical side on this divisive issue. and he may be actually open to the notion of civil unions. john allen joining us again from rome. good to see you again, john. new york times reporting that then-cardinal bergoglio in 2010 quietly suggested the church come out in support of civil unions. at the same time he was publicly leading the charge against same sex marriage in argentina. so it s an amazing revolution. explain exactly what he said and why he kind of changed his stance. well, hello michael and fredricka. yes. what we know is new york times is reporting today that there was a meeting of the bishops of argentina ahead of a national debate on same sex marriage in which then cardinal jorge mario
obedience. that s cardinal bertoni, secretary of state of the vatican. now, pope francis had apparently sort of stripped this ceremony down as well. it s just six cardinal, i believe, who will do this, symbolically for the rest of the college of cardinals. two from each of the orders of cardinals. two cardinal bishops, two cardinal priests, two cardinal deacons. again this was every single cardinal in previous papal inaugural masses. this is cutting it down a great deal. trimmed down. and he s receiving them and greeting them as much as they are greeting him. i want to go to john thavis in rome having covered the papalcy for 30 year. this is one of those changes that pope francis has made.
in the brand-new season that just got underway last night. meet the contenders among the dozens of contestants coming up in the skinny. that was a nasty move. she was great. don t ask me her name. she is on the disney channel. alexa would know her. but first we talk about an historic day at the vatican as leaders from arend the world attend pope francis s inaugural mass. there is heartfelt joy for millions of roman catholics for the new hope and there are serious questions about his past. abc s ron claiborne reports from rome. reporter: on the one side the new hugely popular pope. on the other his old nemesis president of native argentina. they sat together like old friends. christina kirchner stand for a new view of a changing world, embracing gay marriage, sex education in schools, free contraceptives in hospitals. when he was a cardinal in argentina, kirchner described
harshly criticized and that this critic was also, maybe had some skeletons in his closet with regard to his own behavior during the dirty war and this critic is the one keeping this allegation most alive and making it most bow siff rourousely. the cardinal at the time said he did work behind the scenes in order to assist and even free people. that said, it s very appropriate that we have the situation of countries all over the world elevated to global awareness and that it s great that we have popes from those countries to do that. one of the most wonderful things about any time you spend at the vatican is that you break out of your own limited understanding of the catholic church and you come into contact with people who have grown up with a really