You're on the right track, but I think it's not quite as rosy as you paint it. My understanding is that Jorge Bergoglio took a technical diploma, not a full-fledged college degree, as we understand it in the US. From the wiki article on him:
“He attended the technical secondary school Escuela Nacional de Educación Técnica N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen[42] and graduated with a chemical technician's diploma.[43] He worked for a few years in that capacity in the foods section at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory.”
This is not equivalent to a four-year liberal arts degree in the United States. Even though I have a major field for my degree, because I went to an American university for a baccalaureate degree, I was required to take more than just the courses in my field. I took history courses, math, science, English literature, and religion and philosophy courses. I hope that taking a broad-based, well-rounded degree program, I became a better-informed human being, not just someone with a narrow set of technical skills.
Even engineers in the US take similar (although sometimes not as comprehensive) programs.
He took theology courses to be a Jesuit, but frankly, I've seen the sort of intellects who get “graduate” degrees at Catholic seminaries, and most don't impress me. I live near the Catholic University of America, which is the only pontifical institute in the US, and actually offers pontifical degrees. Yet, the local Dominicans don't send any of their seminarians there because of the low quality of Catholic’s theology program for seminarians.
So, this is someone basically trained to be a chemical lab assistant with some abridged theology courses.
A great intellect he is not.
Yet, he regularly comes into contact with great intellects. He is outmatched and outclassed by them. But he is vain. Those who are smart enough to flatter him and his predilections are praised by him, those who don't are “rigid doctors of the law,” with an inferior faith.
He'd have been better as pope of the Manichees.
sitetest
“He’d have been better as Pope of the Manichees.”
LOL! Never thought of that one!
I think you’re right on his intellectual capacity and his resentment against people who are smarter and more learned than he.
sitetest:
Fair enough, I assumed his post high school education was equivalent to University Education here in the States. So basically he was trained as a Chemistry Sort of Lab/Research Assistant, fair enough.
Regardless, he does not have the theological training of say Pope Benedict who had to Doctoral degrees, 1 based on the Theology of Saint Augustine and the other I think based on Saint Bonaventure.