Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: New Pope, old issues

Huffington Post's job approval graph

Guardian:

Despite the joyful celebrations outside the Municipal Cathedral in Buenos Aires yesterday, the news of Latin America's first pope was clouded by lingering concerns about the role of the church ' and its new head ' during Argentina's brutal military dictatorship.

The Catholic church and Pope Francis have been accused of a complicit silence and worse during the "dirty war" of murders and abductions carried out by the junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

There was genuine joy. But it hasn't taken long for these questions to surface. More insight from Andrew Sullivan:

5.37 pm. Stanley Hauerwas:

It's remarkable that they've chosen a Jesuit. That's even more remarkable than choosing a non-European. That he's a Jesuit says so much about his commitment to the poor, and that he's taken the name of Francis ' in recollection of Saint Francis of Assisi ' clearly gestures that the Roman Catholic Church not only serves the poor, the Roman Catholic Church is the church of the poor.

Now for a real battle within American Christianity: the 'church of the poor' or the Prosperity Gospel?

HuffPost:

Rev. Franklin Graham has come out in support of universal background checks as the debate over gun control continues in Washington.

Graham told Time he and other religious leaders think background checks on gun purchases are "reasonable and responsible."

Also included with Graham is Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. Hallelujah!

AP via US News:

Fiercely debated ammunition limits cleared Colorado's Democratic Legislature on Wednesday and were on their way to the governor, who has said he'll sign the measure into law.

The 15-round magazine limit would make Colorado the first state outside the East Coast to ratchet back gun rights after last year's mass shootings.

Colorado's gun-control debates have been closely watched because of the state's gun-loving frontier heritage and painful history of mass shootings, most recently last summer's movie theater shooting that killed 12.

"I am sick and tired of the bloodshed," said Rep. Rhonda Fields, sponsor of the ammunition limit and a Democrat whose suburban Denver district includes the theater. "Whatever we can do to curb the gun violence and the bloodshed, we have a responsibility to do that."

More politics and pundits below the fold.