Meet Pope Francis

>> translator: i announce to you news of great joy. we have a new pope.

>> habeus papam. today's papal election marks the first time the pope has come from south america or anywhere in the americas. he took a name francis. what will this new pope mean for latin americans ? especially latin america back fwround people in this country and what will it say about social outreach for progressives? we are thinking politically here as always. maria teresa kumar of voter latino. both questions. first of all, significance geography. first time the papacy has come over to this part of the world.

>> what a year it's been for the latinos. first the president. now we're making sure the people are paying attention to the news they need with the pope.

>> aren't you the bargainer? i thought i had a hand in that. i thought i voted for him.

>> we flex our muscle. in all seriousness it's recognizing the increased clout latin america is having and the importance of making sure we're paying attention to the needs of the --

>> just a guess but in caracas, rio, everywhere in latin america tomorrow the headline is going to be screaming.

>> people are screaming now. even here in the united states there's incredible pride for it. people are trying to see how much is he going to be able to modernize the church. as you may know he has been against contraception, for example. he's been against marriage equality . for a catholic church that's increasingly young, these are issues that he's going to have to figure out how do you modernize them.

>> how is he going to sell himself? he's going to have to do something the liberals want.

>> he's going to start focusing on poverty. poverty is a very big issue not just for catholics but across the world. something that for whatever reason in the last decade has become kind of a dirty word .

>> can you mark him as a theologian -- i went down to rio or ba . we had a priest come in. he was a liberation thee loejen. clearly. the only two sins are nuclear war and racisracism. these guys are --

>> this provides an open space to have an honest discussion with the catholic church of how it does need to modernize. the fact he's talking about poverty. it's a big deal .

>> did you watch him up there closely? did you notice how he was shucking off those people telling them what to do? give me that other thing. not the puppets they usually have that tells them what they're supposed to do. he was calling these mini shots.

>> he basically said, i got this.

>> i got this? who's that sound like. obama.

>> oh, dear. i think -- but it demonstrates he will have a vision for the church. i think that, again, as long as he can talk and embrace the growing demographic which is a young demographic of catholics that's where he can actually --

>> i'm hopeful. we have to hopeful. thank you. i think he's going to be good on economics. thank you maria teresa kuma. up next, republicans say they learned the lesson of the 2012 election. why are they digging in on gun safety , opposing pipt taxes, opposing them. talking about repealing obama care. opposing it. that's what they do. that's ahead. this is "hardball," the place