Pope Francis

Pope

  • Born: December 17, 1936
  • Place of Birth: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Significance: The former Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was a cardinal and the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, became the 266th leader of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013. The first pope from the Western Hemisphere, Pope Francis implemented social reforms within the Church while maintaining its conservative orthodoxy.

Background

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who later became Pope Francis, was born on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was the first-born child of Regina Maria Sivori and Mario Jose Francisco Bergoglio. Pope Francis grew up in Flores, a working-class neighborhood in Buenos Aires, with four younger siblings. His father, an immigrant from Piedmont, Italy, worked as a bookkeeper and later as an accountant for the railways. Pope Francis attended a local public primary school before studying chemistry at Escuela Técnica Industrial No. 12, a state-run specialized high school. As a youth he enjoyed playing soccer and pool as well as dancing the tango. He worked a variety of jobs, including as a janitor, lab apprentice, and doorman for local bars.

At nineteen, after graduating with a título, or advanced secondary school diploma, in chemistry, Pope Francis briefly worked as a chemist. He then went to the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto, where he studied theology. On March 11, 1958, he became a Jesuit novice and spent the next five years in Chile, where he completed his studies in humanities. After returning to Buenos Aires in 1963, he attended the Colegio de San José in San Miguel and earned a degree in philosophy. He taught high school literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fe and the Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires during the mid-1960s while continuing his studies. In 1970, he graduated from the Colegio de San José with a degree in theology. He then moved to Spain and studied at the University of Alcalá de Henares in the early 1970s.

Religious Life

Pope Francis took his first Jesuit vows in 1960 and was ordained as a priest on December 13, 1969. He took his final vows on April 22, 1973. After his return to Argentina that year, he was appointed the superior of the Jesuit province of Argentina, a position he held from 1973 to 1979. From 1980 to 1986, he was the rector and a professor of theology at the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of the Colegio de San José in San Miguel and the pastor of the Patriarca San Jose parish in the San Miguel Diocese. In March 1986, he went to Germany, where he completed his doctoral thesis. He then spent time at the University of El Salvador and as a spiritual director in Cordoba, Spain.

On May 20, 1992, Pope John Paul II named Pope Francis the bishop of Auca and an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. He was elevated to coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires on June 3, 1997, and following the death of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino became the archbishop of Buenos Aires on February 28, 1998. As the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis was respected for his humility, preference for simple living, and concern for poor and oppressed persons. He made his home in an apartment instead of the archbishop’s residence, made his own meals, and traveled by public transportation.

On February 21, 2001, Pope John Paul II promoted Pope Francis to cardinal and gave him the title of San Roberto Bellarmino. From 2005 to 2011, he was the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina. In September 2009, he launched a solidarity campaign to create two hundred charitable organizations by 2016 to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of Argentina’s independence.

Following Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation from the papacy in February 2013, a conclave of 115 cardinals elected Pope Francis to be the 266th head of the Church on March 13, 2013. He chose the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, a thirteenth-century monk who dedicated his life to helping people experiencing poverty. In June 2013, he published Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), his first encyclical, or papal letter, to Roman Catholic bishops around the world. Pope Francis collaborated with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the encyclical. Later that year, Pope Francis published an apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). Following his first year as pope, he published several writings on faith, including the 2015 encyclical Laudato si‘ (Praise Be to You—On Care for Our Common Home).

In his role as pope, Pope Francis continued his austere lifestyle as well as his calls for social justice for all people of the world. He also called for the Catholic Church to be more tolerant and inclusive. During his first public interview, he declared that the Church was too obsessed with issues such as contraception, abortion, and marriage between couples of the same sex, and that it needed to become less judgmental and more merciful and compassionate. At the same time, his opposition to abortion, women priests, and same-sex marriage remained during the early years of his papacy.

Pope Francis demonstrated his commitment to service and humility through numerous acts such as washing the feet of incarcerated juveniles, celebrating Mass at prisons, and calling for greater compassion and assistance for the world’s migrants and refugees. Using his position for diplomatic purposes, he promoted dialogue and better relations between countries and brought attention to social justice issues such as free-market economies, money laundering, terrorism, armed conflicts, slavery, nuclear weapons, and religious persecution. He made apostolic journeys to numerous countries, including Albania, Bolivia, Bosnia, Ecuador, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Korea, and Turkey. He also implemented administrative reforms within the Vatican to improve its financial affairs and to revise the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia.

In 2018, he apologized for the Church’s own failures to adequately address sexual abuse by priests and met with survivors of such abuse. The following year, he convened a clergy sex abuse prevention summit at the Vatican. In 2020, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that addressed the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and asked for global solidarity. Later that year, he was the subject of the documentary Francesco (2020), produced by Evgeny Afineevsky.

As advocates had continued ongoing calls for the Canadian government and other authorities to make efforts toward reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians, particularly following the increased discovery of unmarked graves at sites of former residential schools, Pope Francis also issued an apology during his 2022 visit to Canada. With his public statement, he acknowledged and apologized for the involvement of members of the Church in the residential school system, which had been found guilty of sexually and physically abusing children as part of a harmful policy of forced cultural assimilation.

In 2023, Pope Francis shared a more accepting view of same-sex marriage. In a published letter to a group of conservative cardinals who requested the pope affirm the Church's views on same-sex relationships, he wrote that blessings of same-sex unions could be possible and that priests should not "deny, reject and exclude." LGBTQ Catholics and their supporters praised Pope Francis's letter, which came days before the Synod on Synodality, an initiative created by Pope Francis for the Catholic Church to collectively gather and analyze its path in the modern era. The largest gathering in six decades, the first assembly of 365 delegates to the Synod on Synodality took place at the Vatican in October 2023. While the meeting resulted in calls to further research several issues affecting the Church, including the role of women in the ministry and the Church's handling of sexual abuse cases, critics noted that the path forward for the Church still remained unclear following the first meeting.

However, many expressed confusion over the views of Pope Francis and, subsequently, the Church, of LGBTQ Catholics when, in 2024, the media reported on an instance in which he had allegedly used a homophobic slur during a meeting with bishops. After he had issued an official apology and some had argued that he had likely not understood the slur or used it with malicious intent, the media reported only weeks later that he had again allegedly used the slur in conversation with priests during another private meeting.

Impact

Pope Francis was the first Catholic pope born in the Americas rather than Europe. He was also the first Jesuit priest to be elected to the papacy. He was very popular among both Catholics and non-Catholics. Some critics, though, complained that he failed to make significant changes regarding issues such as abortion and birth control, while some conservatives charged that he strayed too far from Catholicism’s core tenets.

Personal Life

Pope Francis is an avid reader and soccer fan and enjoys music.

Bibliography

“Biography of the Holy Father Francis.” The Vatican, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/biography/documents/papa-francesco-biografia-bergoglio.html. Accessed 25 June 2024.

Harmon, Amy. "For Gay Catholics and Supporters, a 'Sense of Whiplash' Over Pope’s Reported Use of Slur." The New York Times, 14 June 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/06/14/us/pope-francis-slur-catholics.html. Accessed 25 June 2024.

Ivereigh, Austen. The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope. Henry Holt and Company, 2014.

Mares, Courtney. "The First Synod on Synodality Assembly Is Over. What Comes Next?" Catholic News Agency, 30 Oct. 2023, www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255858/the-first-synod-on-synodality-assembly-is-over-what-comes-next. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.

Miroff, Nick. “You Can’t Understand Pope Francis without Juan Peron—and Evita.” The Washington Post, 1 Aug. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/world/you-cant-understand-pope-francis-without-juan-peron--and-evita/2015/08/01/d71e6fa4-2fd0-11e5-a879-213078d03dd3‗story.html. Accessed 3 Sept. 2020.

“Pope Francis: We Cannot Remain Silent as Planet Is Plundered.” Catholic News Agency, 5 June 2020, www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-on-world-environment-day-we-cannot-remain-silent-as-planet-is-plundered-16156. Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

"Pope Suggests Blessings for Same-Sex Unions May Be Possible." NPR, 3 Oct. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/10/03/1203170334/pope-suggests-blessings-for-same-sex-unions-may-be-possible. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.

Shafafy, Maral, and Ande Wanderer. “Pope Francis: Argentina’s Homegrown Holy Leader.” Wander-Argentina, 2020, wander-argentina.com/pope-francis-argentinas-pope/. Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

White, Christopher. “Pope Francis Called for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons. Here’s Why That Was Once a Controversial Idea.” The Washington Post, 24 Nov. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/11/24/pope-francis-called-world-free-nuclear-weapons-heres-why-that-was-once-controversial-idea/. Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

Winfield, Nicole, and Peter Smith. "Pope Apologized for 'Catastrophic' School Policy in Canada." Associated Press, 26 July 2022, apnews.com/article/pope-francis-canada-apology-visit-137ad23719603e9d370257f257ec0163. Accessed 25 June 2024.