My hero (yes, I have met him), Archbishop Desmond Tutu is among the many who are just not that into the new pope, according to
Reuters..

Tutu, a Nobel Peace laureate and Africa’s best-known cleric, criticized both Joseph Ratzinger’s conservative views on social issues and doctrinaire defense of the Catholic faith…

“There is a multiplicity of faiths and you’ve got to be open to the realization too that Christianity doesn’t have a corner on the God market,” he said…

“God is not a Christian and we sometimes make out that God is the preserve of one particular faith,” he said.

“We need church leaders who are open to interfaith dialogue, who are aware that the truth is not encapsulated only in the Christian faith.”

Ratzinger has in the past dismissed other churches as “deficient.”

The archbishop, and all of us fed up with extremism, was hoping for someone who would take the church in a different direction.

Tutu told Reuters last week an African or Latin American Pope would reflect the growth of Catholicism in the developing world.

He also said he hoped John Paul’s successor would lift the Church’s ban on condoms, viewed by many African governments and health experts as one of the best ways to halt the HIV/AIDS epidemic ravaging the continent.

Some 25 million sub-Saharan Africans live with HIV/AIDS.

Tutu said he hoped Pope Benedict would prioritize the needs of the poor and adapt his views.

“In his record as heading the congregation responsible for the (Catholic Church) doctrine, the new pope was clearly someone who held very strongly to a rigid line that most people would find to be a very conservative line.

“We hope that sitting on the papal throne will have the effect of easing these rigidities,” he added.