As you’ve no doubt already heard, the Catholic Church has elected a new pope, the former Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina. He’s taken the name Francis, which is apparently a big deal to those who pay attention to papal names.
What will be different? It seems like this guy has been focused a lot on the poor, and eschews many of the trappings and perks of his office (unlike the last guy, for sure). So that’s different. And the world would probably benefit if the Church really put a top-down priority on helping the poor for a change.
But in other areas? Well, not much good news there. He takes the same old very conservative stances on homosexuality and contraception. He has spoken out against gay adoption and same-sex marriage, calling the later “a real and dire anthropological throwback”, which oddly enough is how I would describe the Catholic Church.
Bruiser Blog 
People are acting as if he is going to announce that women can hold higher offices in the church, that priests will no longer be required to take a vow of celibacy, that contraception will no longer be a sin, that pedophiles will be prosecuted, that gays will be allowed to marry, and that the church will embrace evolution and science.
All because… what? He’s from South America? He rides the bus to work? So funny.
I haven’t seen anything to indicate this new guy is going to do much to change the doctrine, so I’m not sure where people would be getting such expectations.