Papa Francisco and other religions of Buenos Aires

Hello all, it's been a while since my last blog post, so I figured I would do a brief one just to get back into it.

A quick update on general life: Things are going well. My mornings from 10-1 are spent at school, and usually after a lunch with classmates the afternoons are spent reading/doing homework at a park close to my house. At times, I know I should be spending the afternoon to go see more of the city, but it's just so nice at the park, and I have met some cool people there.The nights either last until I finish my homework, or until the sun comes up. Earlier this week I was at a friend's house and it was 2:30 am. Some people were trying to mobilize for the boliches, but others were insisting "It's still early, the night is young!"

So after a full night of sinning, where do you go to cleanse the spirit?

Argentina is mostly Christian (67%), but has a significant non-religious population (15%) and Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism also enjoy a strong following. Judaism has the largest following in Argentina than any other Latin American country.required the president to be Roman Catholic. Citing the text from 1853 it was "to keep a pacific relationship with the Indians and promote their conversion." Buenos Aires is the old stomping grounds of the current Pope: Papa Francisco.

The seventh largest congregation of Church of Latter Day Saints can also be found here (shout out to Keaton). They estimate only about 20% of these religious folks are regular church goers. The numbers are rough, and I always suspect that the percentage of non-religious is higher than surveys really show. The most popular style of prayer here is Roman Catholic Christianity, and the Argentine Constitution requires the government to support Roman Catholicism economically. In fact, before 1994 the Constitution

Who is this twitter friendly, selfie taking, dare I say: hip Pope?

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the first Pope from the Americas and upon his election chose the papal name of Francis for Saint Francis of Assisi who did some important church reorganizing, dabbled in poverty, and worked to bring an end to the crusades in the early 1200s. He was also the first person in recorded history to receive the "stigmata," a grisly demonstration of devotion. Pope Francis is known for his humility, concern for the poor, and his non traditional stances on homosexuality. To clear things up, he still affirms all of Catholic doctrine on abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. He maintains the doctrine against homosexual acts, but says gays should not be "marginalized." So he's not that progressive. I mean he's still Pope, right?

Still, the world is excited about this Pope. Time and Fortune named him person of the year.

And to think he used to be a nightclub bouncer.

So yeah, that's a little something about the Pope. Hope you enjoyed it, and I will continue writing some more this week. I would really like to do a post about Argentine music, art, and film but it's going to require some collaboration with Argentines because those topics are so involved I don't want to misrepresent them.