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Pope Francis ( Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; [b] 17 December 1936) is the Pope and head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first one from the Americas, the first one ...
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Francis (born December 17, 1936, Buenos Aires, Argentina) ushered in a new era of leadership of the Roman Catholic Church when he was elected pope in 2013. As the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, the first from South America, and the first from the Jesuit order, Francis has brought many reforms to the church and a reputation for humility. Hi...
Bergoglio was the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina. After studying in high school to become a chemical technician, he worked briefly in the food-processing industry but felt called to the church. When he was about 21 years old, he suffered a severe bout of pneumonia that led to the removal of part of his right lung. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1958 and then turned to academics, studying humanities in Santiago, Chile, and earning a licentiate (equivalent to a master’s degree) in philosophy in Buenos Aires province. After graduation he taught literature and psychology in high school while pursuing a degree in theology. He was ordained a priest in 1969, took his final vows in the Jesuit order in 1973, and subsequently served as superior (head) of the Jesuit province of Argentina (1973–79).
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Bergoglio’s tenure as head of the country’s Jesuits coincided with the military coup in Argentina (1976) led by Lieut. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla. During the ensuing Dirty War (1976–83), a campaign by the country’s military dictatorship against leftists and other perceived subversives, between 10,000 and 30,000 people were “disappeared” (kidnapped, tortured, and usually killed) by the military and the police. Bergoglio later claimed to have hidden several people from the authorities, even helping some of them to flee the country. In 1976 two Jesuit priests who had worked in poor neighborhoods were disappeared; they were found alive, but drugged, in a field five months later. Years after the Dirty War, Bergoglio’s role in the priests’ kidnapping and release generated controversy. Some critics faulted Bergoglio for failing to protect the priests and even accused him of turning the men over to the regime. Others accepted Bergoglio’s claim that he covertly interceded with the regime to secure their eventual release. A lawsuit against Bergoglio charging him with complicity in the priests’ disappearance was ultimately dismissed.
In February 2013 Pope Benedict XVI resigned, citing old age and health concerns. A conclave was convened in early March, spurring hopes that Benedict’s replacement could be elected and installed before the impending Easter holiday. Bergoglio was elected on the fifth ballot and chose the name Francis, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226), who lived a life of humble service to the poor, and also recalling St. Francis Xavier (1506–52), a founding member of the Jesuits. Although he was the first Pope Francis and was widely referred to as “Francis I,” he declined to use the Roman numeral I to indicate that he was the first to use his papal name. (Traditionally, the numeral I is not added to a pope’s name until after a second pope of the same name has been elected. John Paul I [1978] was the first pope to use the numeral during his reign.)
Francis took charge of a church at a crossroads. In the early 21st century Roman Catholics constituted more than one-sixth of the world’s population, many of them in Latin America and Africa. Yet scandals, particularly the clergy sexual abuse scandals that first arose in the 1980s and ’90s, undermined the church’s stature, particularly in the United States and Europe. In his earliest public addresses and in his first public mass, Francis called for spiritual renewal within the church and greater attention to the plight of the poor, and he sternly condemned the forces that diverted the church from its ministry and set it at risk of becoming a “pitiful NGO.” He also reached out to his political opponents, including Fernández, whom he invited to his first official papal address. Yet he incensed some traditionalists by appearing on that occasion in a simple tunic rather than in the more traditional papal garments. He also took the unprecedented step later in 2013 of appointing a council of eight cardinals to advise him on church policy. His remark in that year that Christ had “redeemed all of us,” even non-Catholics, were broadly interpreted by the media as a message of outreach and goodwill toward atheists and agnostics, though a Vatican spokesman later claimed that Francis had been misinterpreted.
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In June 2013 Francis issued the first encyclical of his papacy, Lumen fidei (“The Light of Faith”). It completed a trilogy of papal encyclicals begun by Benedict XVI on the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, following Deus caritas est (“God Is Love”; 2005) and Spe salvi (“Saved by Hope”; 2007). However, Francis soon became noted for making statements that conveyed an openness to different perspectives on Catholic doctrine, particularly regarding social issues and sexual ethics. Such statements were subsequently either toned down by the Vatican or seemingly contradicted by Francis himself. For example, Francis surprised both liberals and traditionalists when in a September 2013 interview with an Italian Jesuit magazine he criticized the church for having been “obsessed” with issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and birth control. That remark encouraged speculation both within and outside the church that a major shift in Catholic teaching and practice on such matters as same-sex marriage and contraception would follow. Yet, in the following year, Francis spoke out against same-sex marriage and defended the “traditional” family. Moreover, he affirmed the church’s categorical opposition to abortion. Although Francis spoke sympathetically of women’s rights and acknowledged women’s historical role in the church, he did not endorse the ordination of women as priests.
The lingering effects of the church’s sexual abuse scandal has constituted another challenge facing Francis’s papacy. During a visit by Dutch bishops in December 2013, Francis prayed for victims of sexual abuse and urged the bishops to reach out to them and their families. In January 2014 the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Rights of the Child recommended that the Vatican adopt procedures for the mandatory reporting of suspected child abusers to law-enforcement authorities but was rebuffed later that year on jurisdictional grounds. Critics observed that the Vatican was slow to punish and defrock priests who were known pedophiles.
Apr 20, 2021 · Pope Francis, who was born in Argentina, is the first pope to have come from the Americas. Pope Francis was nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to his native Spanish, Bergoglio ...
Jul 13, 2018 · Pope Francis is the 266th Bishop of Rome. Francis was elected to the papacy on March 13, 2013, to replace Benedict XVI, who resigned from office two weeks earlier. Themes that have come to define ...
Mar 13, 2023 · After a decade as pope, Francis continues to push for reform. In that same square on March 13, 2013, the new pope introduced himself as coming from the "end of the world." Born in Argentina, Jorge ...
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY FATHER. FRANCIS . The first Pope of the Americas Jorge Mario Bergoglio hails from Argentina. The 76-year-old Jesuit Archbishop of Buenos Aires is a prominent figure throughout the continent, yet remains a simple pastor who is deeply loved by his diocese, throughout which he has travelled extensively on the underground and by bus during the 15 years of his episcopal ministry.
Oct 28, 2022 · Pope Francis, as he became, is the first Latin American and the first Jesuit to lead the Roman Catholic Church. His election as the 266th pope surprised analysts who may have been expecting a ...
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