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Pope
Francis
Bishop of Rome
Canonization 2014-The Canonization of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II (14036966125).jpg
Francis during the canonization of John XXIII and John Paul II on 27 April 2014
Diocese Rome
See Holy See
Papacy began 13 March 2013
Predecessor Benedict XVI
Orders
Ordination 13 December 1969
by Ramón José Castellano
Consecration 27 June 1992
by Antonio Quarracino
Created cardinal 21 February 2001
by John Paul II
Personal details
Birth name Jorge Mario Bergoglio
Born 17 December 1936 (age 84)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nationality Argentine (with Vatican citizenship)
Denomination Catholic
Residence Domus Sanctae Marthae
Parents Mario José Bergoglio and Regina María Sívori
Previous post
Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina (1973–1979)
Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires (1992–1997)
Titular Bishop of Auca (1992–1997)
Archbishop of Buenos Aires (1998–2013)
Cardinal Priest of San Roberto Bellarmino (2001–2013)
Ordinary for the Faithful of the Eastern Rites in Argentina (1998–2013)
President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference (2005–2011)
Motto Miserando atque eligendo[a]
Signature Francis's signature
Coat of arms Francis's coat of arms
Ordination history
History
Episcopal succession
Emblem of the Papacy SE.svg
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St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
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Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor as a young man before training to be a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. After recovering from a severe illness, he was inspired to join the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He is credited with having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.

Francis maintains the traditional views of the Church regarding abortion, clerical celibacy, and the ordination of women, but has initiated dialogue on the possibility of deaconesses and has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He maintains that the Church should be more open and welcoming for members of the LGBT community, and favors legal recognition of same-sex couples.[2][3][4] Francis is an outspoken critic of unbridled capitalism and free market economics, consumerism, and overdevelopment,[5] and advocates taking action on climate change, a focus of his papacy with the promulgation of Laudato si'. In international diplomacy, he helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba and supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises. Since 2018, he has been a heavily vocal opponent of neo-nationalism. He has faced criticism from theological conservatives on many questions, including admitting civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to communion with the publication of Amoris laetitia.


Contents
1 Early years
2 Jesuit (1958–2013)
2.1 Presbyterate (1969–1992)
2.2 Pre-papal episcopate (1992–2013)
2.3 Cardinalate (2001–2013)
3 Relations with Argentine governments
3.1 Dirty War
3.2 Fernando de la Rúa
3.3 Néstor and Cristina Kirchner
4 Papacy (2013–present)
4.1 Election
4.2 Name
4.3 Curia
4.4 Early issues
4.5 Synodal church
4.6 Consultation with Catholic laity
4.7 Institute for the Works of Religion
4.8 Papal documents
4.9 Outreach to other religions
4.10 Clerical titles
4.11 Canonizations and beatifications
4.12 Consistories
4.13 Year of Mercy
4.14 Coronavirus pandemic
4.15 Role of women
5 Theological emphases
5.1 Evangelization
5.2 Church governance
5.3 Environment
5.4 Option for the poor
5.5 Morality
5.6 LGBT
5.7 Religious persecution
6 Controversies
6.1 Sexual abuse response
6.2 Theological disagreements
6.2.1 Amoris laetitia and the communion to the divorced and civilly remarried
6.2.2 Document on Human Fraternity
6.3 International policy
6.3.1 People's Republic of China
6.3.2 President Donald Trump
6.3.3 Venezuelan crisis
6.3.4 Pontifical knighthood for abortion rights activist
7 International diplomatic role
8 Public image
9 Distinctions
9.1 Titles and styles
9.2 Foreign orders
9.3 Awards
9.4 Academic honors
9.5 Honorific eponyms and dedications
9.6 Appreciation
10 Coat of arms
11 Writings
11.1 Books
12 Music album
13 Films
13.1 Documentary film
13.2 Portrayal in film
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
17 Bibliography
18 External links
Early years

Jorge Mario Bergoglio (fourth boy from the left on the third row from the top) at age 12, while studying at the Salesian College (c. 1948–49)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on 17 December 1936[6] in Flores,[7] a neighborhood of Buenos Aires.[6] He was the eldest[8] of five children of Mario José Bergoglio (1908–1959) and Regina María Sívori (1911–1981). Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant[9] born in Portacomaro (Province of Asti) in Italy's Piedmont region. Regina Sívori[10] was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian (Piedmontese-Genoese) origin.[11][12][13] Mario José's family left Italy in 1929 to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini.[14] According to María Elena Bergoglio (b. 7 February 194 cool , the pope's only living sibling, they did not emigrate for economic reasons.[15] His other siblings were Alberto Horacio (17 July 1942 – 15 June 2010), Oscar Adrián (30 January 1938-deceased) and Marta Regina (24 August 1940 – 11 July 2007).[16][17] Two great-nephews, Antonio and Joseph, died in a traffic collision.[18][19] His niece, Cristina Bergoglio, is a painter based in Madrid, Spain.[20][21]

In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, a school of the Salesians of Don Bosco, in Ramos Mejía, Buenos Aires Province. He attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen,[22] named after a past Argentine president, and graduated with a chemical technician's diploma[6][23][24] (not a master's degree in chemistry, as some media outlets incorrectly reported).[25][26] In that capacity, he spent several years working in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory,[27] where he worked under Esther Ballestrino. Prior to working as a chemical technician, Bergoglio had also worked as a bar bouncer and as a janitor sweeping floors.[28][29]


Football memorabilia owned by Francis (Vatican Museums)
When he was 21 years old, he suffered from life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts. He had part of a lung excised shortly afterwards.[22][30] Bergoglio has been a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo de Almagro football club.[31] Bergoglio is also a fan of the films of Tita Merello,[32] neorealism, and tango dancing, with a fondness for the traditional music of Argentina and Uruguay known as the milonga.[32]

Jesuit (1958–2013)
Bergoglio found his vocation to the priesthood while he was on his way to celebrate the Spring Day. He passed by a church to go to confession, and was inspired by the priest.[33] Bergoglio studied at the archdiocesan seminary, Inmaculada Concepción Seminary, in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, and, after three years, entered the Society of Jesus as a novice on 11 March 1958.[32] Bergoglio has said that, as a young seminarian, he had a crush on a girl he met and briefly doubted about continuing the religious career.[34] As a Jesuit novice he studied humanities in Santiago, Chile.[35] After his novitiate in the Society of Jesus, Bergoglio officially became a Jesuit on 12 March 1960, when he made the religious profession of the initial, perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience of a member of the order.[36][37]

In 1960, Bergoglio obtained a licentiate in philosophy from the Colegio Máximo de San José in San Miguel, Buenos Aires Province. He taught literature and psychology at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción, a high school in Santa Fe, from 1964 to 1965. In 1966, he taught the same courses at the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires.[6][38]

Presbyterate (1969–1992)
In 1967 Bergoglio began his theological studies at Facultades de Filosofía y Teología de San Miguel and on 13 December 1969 was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano. He served as the master of novices for the province there and became a professor of theology.[39]

Bergoglio completed his final stage of spiritual training as a Jesuit, tertianship, at Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and took final, solemn vows as a Jesuit, including the fourth vow of obedience to missioning by the pope, on 22 April 1973.[37] He was named provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina that July, for a six-year term which ended in 1979.[6][40] In 1973, shortly after being named provincial superior, He had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but his stay was shortened by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War.[41] After the completion of his term of office, in 1980 he was named the rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel where he had studied.[42] Before taking up this new appointment, he spent the first three months of 1980 in Ireland to learn English, staying at the Jesuit Centre at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin.[43] He served at San Miguel for six years until 1986[6] when, at the discretion of Jesuit superior-general Peter Hans Kolvenbach, he was replaced by someone more in tune with the worldwide trend in the Society of Jesus toward emphasizing social justice, rather than his emphasis on popular religiosity and direct pastoral work.[44]

He spent several months at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Germany, considering possible dissertation topics.[45] He settled on exploring the work of the German / Italian theologian Romano Guardini, particularly his study of 'Contrast' published in his 1925 work Der Gegensatz. However, he was to return to Argentina prematurely to serve as a confessor and spiritual director to the Jesuit community in Córdoba.[46] In Germany, he saw the painting Mary, Untier of Knots in Augsburg and brought a copy of the painting to Argentina where it has become an important Marian devotion.[47][c] As a student at the Salesian school, Bergoglio was mentored by Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest Stefan Czmil. Bergoglio often rose hours before his classmates to serve Mass for Czmil.[50][51]

Bergoglio was asked in 1992 by Jesuit authorities not to reside in Jesuit houses, because of continued tensions with Jesuit leaders and scholars, a sense of Bergoglio's "dissent," views of his Catholic orthodoxy and his opposition to theology of liberation, and his work as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires.[52][53][54] As a bishop he was no longer subject to his Jesuit superior.[55] From then on, he did not visit Jesuit houses and was in "virtual estrangement from the Jesuits" until after his election as pope.[44][52]

Pre-papal episcopate (1992–2013)
Bergoglio was named Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992 and consecrated on 27 June 1992 as titular bishop of Auca,[6][56] with Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving as principal consecrator.[57] He chose as his episcopal motto Miserando atque eligendo.[58] It is drawn from Saint Bede's homily on Matthew 9:9–13: "because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him".[59]

On 3 June 1997, Bergoglio was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires with right of succession. Upon Quarracino's death on 28 February 1998, Bergoglio became metropolitan archbishop of Buenos Aires. In that role, Bergoglio created new parishes and restructured the archdiocese administrative offices, led pro-life initiatives, and created a commission on divorces.[6][60] One of Bergoglio's major initiatives as archbishop was to increase the Church's presence in the slums of Buenos Aires. Under his leadership, the number of priests assigned to work in the slums doubled.[61] This work led to him being called the "Slum Bishop".[62]

Early in his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio sold off the archdiocese's shares in multiple banks and turned its accounts into those of a normal customer in international banks. The shares in banks had led the local church to a propensity towards high spending, and the archdiocese was nearing bankruptcy as a result. As a normal customer of the bank, the church was forced into a higher fiscal discipline.[63]

On 6 November 1998, while remaining archbishop of Buenos Aires, he was named ordinary for those Eastern Catholics in Argentina who lacked a prelate of their own church.[57] Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that Bergoglio understands the liturgy, rites, and spirituality of Shevchuk's Greek Catholic Church and always "took care of our Church in Argentina" as ordinary for Eastern Catholics during his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires.[51]

In 2000, Bergoglio was the only church official to reconcile with Jerónimo Podestá, a former bishop who had been suspended as a priest after opposing the Argentine Revolution military dictatorship in 1972. He defended Podestá's wife from Vatican attacks on their marriage.[64][65][66] That same year, Bergoglio said the Argentine Catholic Church needed "to put on garments of public penance for the sins committed during the years of the dictatorship" in the 1970s, during the Dirty War.[67]

Bergoglio made it his custom to celebrate the Holy Thursday ritual washing of feet in places such as jails, hospitals, retirement homes or slums.[68] In 2007, just two days after Benedict XVI issued new rules for using the liturgical forms that preceded the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Bergoglio established a fixed place for a weekly Mass in this extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.[69] It was celebrated weekly.[70]

On 8 November 2005, Bergoglio was elected president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference for a three-year term (2005–0 cool .[71] He was reelected to another three-year term on 11 November 2008.[72] He remained a member of that commission's permanent governing body, president of its committee for the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, and a member of its liturgy committee for the care of shrines.[57] While head of the Argentine Catholic bishops' conference, Bergoglio issued a collective apology for his church's failure to protect people from the Junta during the Dirty War.[73] When he turned 75 in December 2011, Bergoglio submitted his resignation as archbishop of Buenos Aires to Pope Benedict XVI as required by canon law.[41] Still, as he had no coadjutor archbishop, he stayed in office, waiting for an eventual replacement appointed by the Vatican.[74]

Cardinalate (2001–2013)

Bergoglio on 18 June 2008 giving a catechesis
At the consistory of 21 February 2001, Archbishop Bergoglio was created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II with the title of cardinal priest of San Roberto Bellarmino, a church served by Jesuits and named for one; he was formally installed in that church the following 14 October. When he traveled to Rome for the ceremony, he and his sister María Elena visited the village in northern Italy where their father was born.[15] 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,[75] and, according to the Catholic Herald, created "a favourable impression as a man open to communion and dialogue".[76][77]


Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in 2008
Cardinal Bergoglio became known for personal humility, doctrinal conservatism, and a commitment to social justice.[78] A simple lifestyle contributed to his reputation for humility. He lived in a small apartment, rather than in the elegant bishop's residence in the suburb of Olivos. He took public transportation and cooked his own meals.[79] He limited his time in Rome to "lightning visits".[80] He was known to be devoted to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and he enclosed a small picture of her in the letters he wrote, calling her "a great missionary saint".[81]

After Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005, Bergoglio attended his funeral and was considered one of the papabile for succession to the papacy.[82] He participated as a cardinal elector in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. In the National Catholic Reporter, John L. Allen Jr. reported that Bergoglio was a frontrunner in the 2005 conclave.[78][83] In September 2005, the Italian magazine Limes published claims that Bergoglio had been the runner-up and main challenger to Cardinal Ratzinger at that conclave and that he had received 40 votes in the third ballot, but fell back to 26 at the fourth and decisive ballot.[84][85] The claims were based on a diary purportedly belonging to an anonymous cardinal who had been present at the conclave.[84][86] According to the Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, this number of votes had no precedent for a Latin American papabile.[86] La Stampa reported that Bergoglio was in close contention with Ratzinger during the election, until he made an emotional plea that the cardinals should not vote for him.[87] According to Tornielli, Bergoglio made this request to prevent the conclave from delaying too much in the election of a pope.[88]

As a cardinal, Bergoglio was associated with Communion and Liberation, a Catholic evangelical lay movement of the type known as associations of the faithful.[78][89] He sometimes made appearances at the annual gathering known as the Rimini Meeting held during the late summer months in Italy.[78] In 2005, Cardinal Bergoglio authorized the request for beatification – the third step towards sainthood – for six members of the Pallottine community murdered in the San Patricio Church massacre.[90][91] At the same time, Bergoglio ordered an investigation into the murders themselves, which had been widely blamed on the National Reorganization Process, the military junta that ruled Argentina at the time.[91]

Relations with Argentine governments
Dirty War
See also: Dirty War
Bergoglio was the subject of allegations regarding the Navy's kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics, in May 1976, during Argentina's Dirty War.[92] He feared for the priests' safety and had tried to change their work prior to their arrest; however, contrary to reports, he never tried to throw them out of the Jesuit order.[93] In 2005, Myriam Bregman, a human rights lawyer, filed a criminal complaint against Bergoglio, as superior in the Society of Jesus of Argentina, accusing him of involvement in the kidnapping.[94] Her complaint did not specify how Bergoglio was involved; Bergoglio's spokesman flatly denied the allegations. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.[92] The priests were tortured,[95] but were found alive five months later, drugged and semi-naked. Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads by declining to tell the authorities that he endorsed their work. Yorio, who died in 2000, said in a 1999 interview that he believed that Bergoglio did nothing "to free us, in fact just the opposite".[96] Jalics initially refused to discuss the complaint after moving into seclusion in a German monastery.[97] However, two days after the election of Francis, Jalics issued a statement confirming the kidnapping and attributing the cause to a former lay colleague who became a guerrilla, was captured, then named Yorio and Jalics when interrogated.[98] The following week, Jalics issued a second, clarifying statement: "It is wrong to assert that our capture took place at the initiative of Father Bergoglio (…) the fact is, Orlando Yorio and I were not denounced by Father Bergoglio."[99][100]

Bergoglio told his authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, that after the priests' imprisonment, he worked behind the scenes for their release; Bergoglio's intercession with dictator Jorge Rafael Videla on their behalf may have saved their lives.[101] Bergoglio also told Rubin that he had often sheltered people from the dictatorship on church property, and once gave his own identity papers to a man who looked like him, so he could flee Argentina.[95] The interview with Rubin, reflected in the biography El jesuita, is the only time Bergoglio has spoken to the press about those events.[102] Alicia Oliveira, a former Argentine judge, has also reported that Bergoglio helped people flee Argentina during the rule of the junta.[103] Since Francis became pope, Gonzalo Mosca[104] and José Caravias[105] have related to journalists accounts of how Bergoglio helped them flee the Argentine dictatorship.

Oliveira described the future pope as "anguished" and "very critical of the dictatorship" during the Dirty War.[106] Oliveira met with him at the time and urged Bergoglio to speak out—he told her that "he couldn't. That it wasn't an easy thing to do."[96] Artist and human rights activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said: "Perhaps he didn't have the courage of other priests, but he never collaborated with the dictatorship. …Bergoglio was no accomplice of the dictatorship."[107][108] Graciela Fernández Meijide, member of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, also said that there was no proof linking Bergoglio with the dictatorship. She told the Clarín newspaper: "There is no information and Justice couldn't prove it. I was in the APDH during all the dictatorship years and I received hundreds of testimonies. Bergoglio was never mentioned. It was the same in the CONADEP. Nobody mentioned him as instigator or as anything."[109] Ricardo Lorenzetti, President of the Argentine Supreme Court, also has said that Bergoglio is "completely innocent" of the accusations.[110] Historian Uki Goñi pointed that, during early 1976, the military junta still had a good image among society, and that the scale of the political repression was not known until much later; Bergoglio would have had little reason to suspect that the detention of Yorio and Jalics could end up in their deaths.[111]

When Bergoglio became pope, an alleged photo of him giving the sacramental bread to dictator Jorge Rafael Videla became popular in social networks. It has also been used by the newspaper Página/12.[112] The photo was soon proved to be false. It was revealed that the priest, whose face is not visible in the photo, was Carlos Berón de Astrada. The photo was taken at the church "Pequeña Obra de la Divina Providencia Don Orione" in 1990, not during the Dirty War, and after Videla's presidential pardon. The photo was produced by the agency AFP and it was initially published by the Crónica newspaper.[113]

Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa replaced Carlos Menem as president of Argentina in 1999. As an archbishop, Bergoglio celebrated the annual Mass at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral on the First National Government holiday, 25 May. In 2000, Bergoglio criticized the perceived apathy of society.[114] Argentina faced an economic depression at the time, and the Church criticized the fiscal austerity of the government, which increased poverty. De la Rúa asked the Church to promote a dialogue between the leaders of economic and political sectors to find a solution for the crisis. He claims that he talked with Bergoglio and proposed to take part in the meeting, but Bergoglio would have told him that the meeting was canceled because of a misunderstanding by De la Rúa's assistant, who may have declined the president's assistance. Bishop Jorge Casaretto considers it unlikely, as De la Rúa only made the request in newspaper interviews, but never made a formal request to the Church.[115]

The Justicialist Party won the 2001 elections and got the majority in the Congress, and appointed Ramón Puerta as president of the Senate. As vice president Carlos Álvarez resigned shortly before, this left an opposing party second in the order of precedence. Bergoglio asked for an interview with Puerta, and had a positive impression of him. Puerta told him that the Justicialist party was not plotting to oust De la Rúa, and promised to help the president promote the laws that may be required.[116]

During police repression of the riots of December 2001, he contacted the Ministry of the Interior and asked that the police distinguish rioters and vandals from peaceful protesters.[117]

Néstor and Cristina Kirchner

Francis with Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner while holding traditional Argentine mate drinkware
When Bergoglio celebrated Mass at the cathedral for the 2004 First National Government holiday, President Néstor Kirchner attended and heard Bergoglio request more political dialogue, reject intolerance, and criticize exhibitionism and strident announcements.[118] Kirchner celebrated the national day elsewhere the following year and the Mass in the cathedral was suspended.[119] In 2006, Bergoglio helped the fellow Jesuit Joaquín Piña to win the elections in the Misiones Province and prevent an amendment of the local constitution that would allow indefinite re-elections. Kirchner intended to use that project to start similar amendments at other provinces, and eventually to the national constitution.[120] Kirchner considered Bergoglio as a political rival to the day he died in October 2010.[121] Bergoglio's relations with Kirchner's widow and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, have been similarly tense. In 2008, Bergoglio called for national reconciliation during disturbances in the country's agricultural regions, which the government interpreted as a support for anti-government demonstrators.[121] The campaign to enact same-sex marriage legislation was a particularly tense period in their relations.[121]

When Bergoglio was elected pope, the initial reactions were mixed. Most of the Argentine society cheered it, but the pro-government newspaper Página/12 published renewed allegations about the Dirty War, and the president of the National Library described a global conspiracy theory. The president took more than an hour before congratulating the new pope, and only did so in a passing reference within a routine speech. However, due to the pope's popularity in Argentina, Cristina Kirchner made what the political analyst Claudio Fantini called a "Copernican shift" in her relations with him and fully embraced the Francis phenomenon.[122] On the day before his inauguration as pope, Bergoglio, now Francis, had a private meeting with Kirchner. They exchanged gifts and lunched together. This was the new pope's first meeting with a head of state, and there was speculation that the two were mending their relations.[123][124] Página/12 removed their controversial articles about Bergoglio, written by Horacio Verbitsky, from their web page, as a result of this change.[125]

Papacy (2013–present)
See also: Theology of Pope Francis § Vatican II revisited, and Theology of Pope Francis § Church leadership
Coat of arms of Pope Francis

As cardinal

As pope
The gold star represents the Virgin Mary, the grape-like plant—the spikenard—is associated with Saint Joseph and the IHS is the symbol of the Jesuits[126][127][128]
Elected at 76 years old, Francis was reported to be healthy and his doctors have said his missing lung tissue, removed in his youth, does not significantly affect his health.[129] The only concern would be decreased respiratory reserve if he had a respiratory infection.[130] In the past, one attack of sciatica in 2007 prevented him from attending a consistory and delayed his return to Argentina for several days.[80] Francis is the first Jesuit pope. This was a significant appointment, because of the sometimes tense relations between the Society of Jesus and the Holy See.[131] But Bergoglio had come in second to Cardinal Ratzinger on all the ballots in the 2005 conclave, appearing as the only other viable candidate.[132] He is also the first from the Americas,[133] and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. Many media reported him as being the first non-European pope, but he is actually the 11th; the previous was Gregory III from Syria, who died in 741. Moreover, although Francis was not born in Europe, he is ethnically European.[134]

As pope, his manner is less formal than that of his immediate predecessors: a style that news coverage has referred to as "no frills", noting that it is "his common touch and accessibility that is proving the greatest inspiration."[135] On the night of his election, he took a bus back to his hotel with the cardinals, rather than be driven in the papal car.[136] The next day, he visited Cardinal Jorge María Mejía in the hospital and chatted with patients and staff.[137] At his first media audience, the Saturday after his election, the pope spoke of Saint Francis of Assisi as "the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man", and he added "[h]ow I would like a poor Church, and for the poor".[138]

In addition to his native Spanish, Francis is also conversant in Latin (the official language of the Holy See), he speaks fluent Italian (the official language of Vatican City and the "everyday language" of the Holy See), German,[139] French,[140] Portuguese,[141] English,[142][143] and he understands the Piedmontese language and some Genoese.[144]

Francis chose not to live in the official papal residence in the Apostolic Palace, but to remain in the Vatican guest house, in a suite in which he can receive visitors and hold meetings. He is the first pope since Pope Pius X to live outside the papal apartments.[145] Francis still appears at the window of the Apostolic Palace for the Sunday Angelus.[146]

Election
Main articles: 2013 papal conclave and Papal inauguration of Pope Francis

Francis appears in public for the first time as pope, at St. Peter's Basilica balcony, 13 March 2013
Bergoglio was elected pope on 13 March 2013,[6][147][148] the second day of the 2013 papal conclave, taking the papal name Francis.[6][149] Francis was elected on the fifth ballot of the conclave.[150] The Habemus papam announcement was delivered by the cardinal protodeacon, Jean-Louis Tauran.[151] Cardinal Christoph Schönborn later said that Bergoglio was elected following two supernatural signs, one in the conclave and hence confidential, and a Latin-American couple of friends of Schönborn who whispered Bergoglio's name in Schönborn's ear; Schönborn commented "if these people say Bergoglio, that's an indication of the Holy Spirit".[152]

Instead of accepting his cardinals' congratulations while seated on the papal throne, Francis received them standing, reportedly an immediate sign of a changing approach to formalities at the Vatican.[153] During his first appearance as pontiff on the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica, he wore a white cassock, not the red, ermine-trimmed mozzetta[153][154] used by previous popes.[155] He also wore the same iron pectoral cross that he had worn as archbishop of Buenos Aires, rather than the gold one worn by his predecessors.[154]

After being elected and choosing his name, his first act was bestowing the Urbi et Orbi blessing on thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square. Before blessing the crowd, he asked those in St. Peter's Square to pray for his predecessor, "the bishop emeritus of Rome" Pope Benedict XVI, and for himself as the new "bishop of Rome".[156]

Francis held his papal inauguration on 19 March 2013 in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.[6] He celebrated Mass in the presence of various political and religious leaders from around the world.[157] In his homily Francis focused on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the liturgical day on which the Mass was celebrated.[158]

Name

In St. Peter's Square, two months after his election
At his first audience on 16 March 2013, Francis told journalists that he had chosen the name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, and had done so because he was especially concerned for the well-being of the poor.[159][160][161] He explained that, as it was becoming clear during the conclave voting that he would be elected the new bishop of Rome, the Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes had embraced him and whispered, "Don't forget the poor", which had made Bergoglio think of the saint.[162][163] Bergoglio had previously expressed his admiration for St. Francis, explaining that "He brought to Christianity an idea of poverty against the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the time. He changed history."[164]

This is the first time that a pope has been named Francis. On the day of his election, the Vatican clarified that his official papal name was "Francis", not "Francis I", i.e. no regnal number is used for him. A Vatican spokesman said that the name would become Francis I if and when there is a Francis II.[160][165] It is the first time since Pope Lando's 913–914 reign that a serving pope holds a name not used by a predecessor.[d]

Francis also said that some cardinal electors had jokingly suggested to him that he should choose either "Adrian", since Pope Adrian VI had been a reformer of the church, or "Clement" to settle the score with Pope Clement XIV, who had suppressed the Jesuit order.[138][167] In February 2014, it was reported that Bergoglio, had he been elected in 2005, would have chosen the pontifical name of "John XXIV" in honor of Pope John XXIII. It was said that he told Cardinal Francesco Marchisano: "John, I would have called myself John, like the Good Pope; I would have been completely inspired by him".[168]

Curia

Inauguration of Francis, 19 March 2013
On 16 March 2013, Francis asked all those in senior positions of the Roman Curia to provisionally continue in office.[169] He named Alfred Xuereb as his personal secretary.[170] On 6 April he named José Rodríguez Carballo as secretary for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, a position that had been vacant for several months.[171] Francis abolished the bonuses paid to Vatican employees upon the election of a new pope, amounting to several million Euros, opting instead to donate the money to charity.[172] He also abolished the €25,000 annual bonus paid to the cardinals serving on the Board of Supervisors for the Vatican bank.[173]

On 13 April 2013, he named eight cardinals to a new Council of Cardinal Advisers to advise him on revising the organizational structure of the Roman Curia. The group included several known as critics of Vatican operations and only one member of the Curia.[174] They are Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Vatican City State governorate; Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa from Chile; Oswald Gracias from India; Reinhard Marx from Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; George Pell from Australia; Seán O'Malley from the United States; and Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga from Honduras. He appointed Bishop Marcello Semeraro secretary for the group and scheduled its first meeting for 1–3 October.[175]

Early issues

Map indicating countries visited by Francis as pope
In March 2013, 21 British Catholic peers and Members of Parliament from all parties asked Francis to allow married men in Great Britain to be ordained as priests, keeping celibacy as the rule for bishops. They asked it on the grounds that it would be anomalous that married Anglican priests can be received into the Catholic Church and ordained as priests, by means of either the Pastoral Provision of 20 June 1980 or the 2009 Anglican ordinariate, but married Catholic men cannot do the same.[176]

Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, included a call in his 2013 Easter homily for the pope to visit Jerusalem.[177] Louis Raphael I, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, asked the pope to visit the "embattled Christian community" in Iraq.[178] In March 2021, Pope Francis went to Iraq on a first-ever papal visit to the diminishing Christian communities of Mesopotamia fallen apart after years of conflict.[179]

On the first Holy Thursday following his election, Francis washed and kissed the feet of ten male and two female juvenile offenders, not all Catholic, aged from 14 to 21, imprisoned at Rome's Casal del Marmo detention facility, telling them the ritual of foot washing is a sign that he is at their service.[180] This was the first time that a pope had included women in this ritual; although he had already done so when he was archbishop.[180] One of the male and one of the female prisoners were Muslim.[180]

On 31 March 2013, Francis used his first Easter homily to make a plea for peace throughout the world, specifically mentioning the Middle East, Africa, and North and South Korea.[181] He also spoke out against those who give in to "easy gain" in a world filled with greed, and made a plea for humanity to become a better guardian of creation by protecting the environment.[181] He said that "[w]e ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace."[182] Although the Vatican had prepared greetings in 65 languages, Francis chose not to read them.[143] According to the Vatican, the pope "at least for now, feels at ease using Italian, the everyday language of the Holy See".[183]

In 2013, Francis initially reaffirmed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's program to reform the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious,[184] initiated under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The New York Times reported that the Vatican had formed the opinion in 2012 that the sisters' group was tinged with feminist influences, focused too much on ending social and economic injustice and not enough on stopping abortion, and permitted speakers at its meetings who questioned church doctrine.[185][186] However, in April 2015 the investigation was brought to a close. While the timing of the closure may have anticipated a visit by Francis to the U.S. in September 2015, it was noted that the sisters' emphasis is close to that of Francis.[187]

On 12 May, Francis carried out his first canonizations of candidates approved for sainthood during the reign of Benedict XVI: the first Colombian saint, Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena, the second female Mexican saint, María Guadalupe García Zavala, both of the 20th century, and the 813 15th-century Martyrs of Otranto. He said: "While we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, ask God to support the many Christians who still suffer from violence and give them the courage and fate and respond to evil with goodness."[188]

Synodal church
See also: Theology of Pope Francis § Decentralization
Francis has overseen synods on the family (2014), on youth (201 cool , and on the Church in the Amazon region (2019). In 2019 Francis' apostolic constitution Episcopalis communio allowed that the final document of a synod may become magisterial teaching simply with papal approval. The constitution also allowed for laity to contribute input directly to the synod's secretary general.[189] Some analysts see the creation of a truly synodal church as likely to become the greatest contribution of Francis' papacy.[190]

Consultation with Catholic laity

Quito, Ecuador in 2015
A February 2014 survey by the World Values Survey cited in The Washington Post and Time shows how the unity Francis had created could be challenged. Although views about Francis personally were favorable, many Catholics disagreed with at least some of his teachings. The survey found that members of the Catholic Church are deeply divided over abortion, artificial contraception, divorce, the ordination of women, and married priests.[191][192] In the same month Francis asked parishes to provide answers to an official questionnaire[193] described as a "much broader consultation than just a survey"[194] regarding opinions among the laity. He continued to assert Catholic doctrine, in less dramatic tone than his recent predecessors, who maintained that the Catholic Church is not a democracy of popular opinion.[195]

Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University wrote of the survey Francis initiated, "it's not a survey in any sense that a social scientist would recognize." Woodhead said that many ordinary Catholics would have difficulty understanding theological jargon there. Nonetheless, she suspected the survey might be influential.[196]

The Catholic Church in England and Wales as of April 2014 had refused to publish results of this survey; a Church spokesman said a senior Vatican official had expressly asked for summaries to remain confidential, and that orders had come from the pope that the information should not be made public until after October. This disappointed many reformers who hoped the laity would be more involved in decision-making. Some other Catholic churches, for example in Germany and Austria, published summaries of the responses to the survey, which showed a wide gap between Church teaching and the behavior of ordinary Catholics.[194]

In a column he wrote for the Vatican's semi-official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the then-Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, American cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who has a long-standing reputation as one of the church's most vocal conservative hard-liners, said that Francis opposed both abortion and gay marriage.[197] The Vatican's chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, also noted in the Vatican press office during the 2014 consistory meetings that Francis and Cardinal Walter Kasper would not change or redefine any dogmas pertaining to Church theology on doctrinal matters.[198]

Institute for the Works of Religion
In the first months of Francis's papacy, the Institute for the Works of Religion, informally known as the Vatican Bank, said that it would become more transparent in its financial dealings[199] There had long been allegations of corruption and money laundering connected with the bank.[200][201] Francis appointed a commission to advise him about reform of the Bank,[200][201] and the finance consulting firm Promontory Financial Group was assigned to carry out a comprehensive investigation of all customer contacts of the bank on these facts.[202] Because of this affair the Promoter of Justice at the Vatican Tribunal applied a letter rogatory for the first time in the history of the Republic of Italy at the beginning of August 2013.[203] In January 2014, Francis replaced four of the five cardinal overseers of the Vatican Bank, who had been confirmed in their positions in the final days of Benedict XVI's papacy.[204] Lay experts and clerics were looking into how the bank was run. Ernst von Freyberg was put in charge. Moneyval feels more reform is needed, and Francis may be willing to close the bank if the reforms prove too difficult.[205] There is uncertainty how far reforms can succeed.[206]