Currently, Pope Francis is the head of the Church. He became the 266th Pope in March 2013. He
succeeded Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 17, 1936. His father was a railway worker who immigrated to Argentina from Italy. His mother was a housewife of
Italian origin. Bergoglio had four siblings.
He graduated from a technical school as a chemical technician before beginning training at the
Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto. In March 1958, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus.
Bergoglio taught literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fé in 1964 and 1965. He also taught the same subjects at the Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires in 1966. He studied theology and received a degree from the Colegio of San José from 1967 to 1970. Bergoglio finished his doctoral thesis in theology in Freiburg, Germany in 1986.
Entering Priesthood
Bergoglio began his priesthood studies in 1967 at Facultades de Filosofía y Teología de San Miguel and was ordained as a priest on 13 December 1969 by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano. He began serving as Jesuit Provincial Superior of Argentina in 1973.
He has said that initially, his mother did not support his decision to enter the priesthood, despite the fact that she was a devout Catholic. By the time he was ordained, however, she accepted his calling and asked for his blessing at the end of his ordination ceremony. He later returned to his alma mater, the Colegio of San José, where he served as Rector (1980-86) as well as a Professor of Theology.
On May 20, 1992, Bergoglio was named Titular Bishop of Auca and a week later, Auxiliary of Buenos Aires. In February 1998, he became Archbishop of Buenos Aires. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio was known for his humble demeanour. He stayed in a modest apartment and took public transit. He also showed a special regard for the poor, whom he frequently visited.
Three years later, at the consistory of 21 February 2001, he was elevated to Cardinal by Pope John Paul II, and named the Cardinal-Priest of Saint Robert Bellarmino. This was a church served by Jesuits and named for one. He was formally installed in that church the following 14 October. When he travelled to Rome for the ceremony, he and his sister María Elena visited the village in northern Italy where their father was born.
In 2005, he was named President of the Bishops' Conference of Argentina, serving in that position until 2011. As President of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference, Bergoglio attended the Fifth Latin American Episcopal Conference held in Aparecida, Brazil in May 2007. He was in charge of the drafting of the meeting’s final document, which came to be known as the Aparecida Document, which is recognized as an important guiding document for the Church in Latin America and beyond.
As Cardinal, Bergoglio was appointed to five administrative positions in the Roman Curia. He was a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Commission for Latin America. Later that year, when Cardinal Edward Egan returned to New York following the September 11 attacks, Bergoglio replaced him as Relator (recording secretary) in the Synod of Bishops, and, according to the Catholic Herald, created “a favourable impression as a man open to communion and dialogue”.
Becoming Pope
Bergoglio was named the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, at the age of 76. He is the first citizen from the Americas, the first non-European and first Jesuit priest to be named pope, and adopting the name Pope Francis (he took the title after St. Francis of Assisi of Italy). He is also the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian, Pope Gregory III.
Prior to the 2013 papal conclave, Pope Francis had served as both Archbishop and Cardinal for more than 12 years.
Pope Francis took office following the unexpected resignation of Benedict XVI. With few modifications, Francis published a final version of Benedict’s draft encyclical as his first: the 2013 work Lumen fidei.
The early months of the Francis papacy included several surprises, amplified by social media coverage which helped build his unanticipated popularity.
His unexpected visit to the small Mediterranean Italian island of Lampedusa in July 2013 drew attention to the plight of undocumented African migrants who, at great risk, cross by sea to enter Europe. There, he echoed what has become a theme of his papacy: the criticism of the “globalization of indifference,” an attitude that forgets the sufferings of the marginalized, especially migrants and refugees.
First International Visit as Pope
In the first seven years of his pontificate, the Pope made over 30 international trips and visited more than 45 countries, including a July 2013 visit to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, where he offered Mass for an estimated three million pilgrims on Copacabana Beach.
The trip to Brazil was the first international trip for Pope Francis which was on July 22, 2013. He arrived at the Galeão-Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and was greeted by the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff in a welcome ceremony before being circulated in downtown Rio.
Pope as Spiritual and World Leader
Also in December 2013, Pope Francis was named Person of the Year by Time magazine. He joined the ranks of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII, the only other popes to be awarded the title in 1994 and 1963, respectively. He was a contender against other prominent figures of the year, including Edward Snowden , Senator Ted Cruz , Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Edith Windsor. In the article, it was revealed that the deciding factor that led to Pope Francis landing at the top of the list, was his ability to alter the minds of so many people who had given up on the Catholic church in such a short period of time.
The following March, it was announced that Pope Francis had been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. He did not receive this honor, but he continued to devote his time to reach out to Catholics around the world. During that summer, Pope Francis went on his first visit to Asia. He spent five days in South Korea in August.
On his return trip from South Korea, Pope Francis discussed his own mortality with the press. "Two or three years and then I'll be off to my Father's house" he said, according to a report in The Guardian. He also suffered a personal loss around that same time after several members of his family were killed in a car accident in Argentina.
In early 2020, Pope Francis responded to the global coronavirus outbreak by livestreaming and televising his weekly events, such as his daily Mass, Wednesday general audience and Sunday Angelus or Regina coeli, without the presence of the public. The Vatican’s Holy Week, Triduum, and Easter celebrations were likewise held without a large public presence.
In response to the health emergency, the pope also gave a special address with Eucharistic adoration and an extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing in an empty St. Peter’s Square on the evening of March 27, 2020.
Pope Francis is visiting Papua New Guinea from 6 to 9 September, 2024. He will hold Mass in Port Moresby and also travel to Vanimo in the West Sepik province. Pope Francis will also visit schools and meet with young people and the country’s leaders before leaving for Timor Leste.
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