Pope Argentinus I, The Musical: Ragtime Meets Tango

Since 1998, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio [2] has presided over Buenos Aires [3]’s Catedral Metropolitana [4] (pictured above), but now he’s moving onto a bigger stage. Though he's the first Latin American cleric to become Pope, it’s worth mentioning that, having been born of an Italian immigrant father in the Argentine capital, he would be at least eligible for Italian citizenship so, in that sense at least, he’s something of a compromise choice for traditionalists.

I am not religious, in fact I’m irreligious, but it’s impossible to ignore the ascension of an Argentine pope who threatens to upstage President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner [5] (who has her differences with the church in general and the newly named Pope Francis I in particular. Without audio-visual resources to do so here, I’ll refer you to my own SouthernCone Travel blog [6] for musical observations from satirist Tom Lehrer [7] which, though half a century old, still deserve a listen. Popes may replaceable, but Lehrer is timeless.