Who Is Pope Francis?
The new pope, 76-year-old Jorge Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos
Aires, is the first pontiff from Latin America and the first Jesuit, but
he appears to hold views very much in line with his predecessor, Pope
Benedict XVI.
Bergoglio has chosen the papal name Francis, becoming the 266th to hold the title of spiritual leader of the Catholic Church.
Catholic News Service
calls him an accomplished theologian and says Bergoglio has "written
books on spirituality and meditation and has been outspoken against
abortion and same-sex marriages."
He was born Dec. 17, 1936, in
Buenos Aires to Italian parents Mario, a railway worker, and Regina, a
housewife, reports Argentina's
La Nacion.
The newspaper says that when Bergoglio traveled to Rome, he kept a low profile and didn't like to reveal that he was a cardinal.
"That's
why he is frequently seen wearing a black overcoat. Also, when he was
declared a cardinal, he decided not to buy new clothing. Instead, he
ordered the clothing of the previous cardinal be mended to fit him," the
newspaper says.
Francesca Ambrogetti, who co-authored a biography on Bergoglio,
was quoted by Reuters
describing the cardinal as a moderate who is media shy and deeply
concerned about social inequities in Latin America and elsewhere.
"He
would be a balancing force," Ambrogetti told the news agency. "He
shares the view that the Church should have a missionary role, that gets
out to meet people, that is active.... a church that does not so much
regulate the faith as promote and facilitate it."
Whispers In The Loggia, a well-respected blog that follows Vatican affairs, says:
"By
choosing the name [Francis] of the founder of his community's
traditional rivals, the 266th Roman pontiff ... [he] has signaled three
things: his desire to be a force of unity in a polarized fold, a heart
for the poor, and his intent to 'repair God's house, which has fallen
into ruin' ... that is, to rebuild the church."
Thomas
X. Noble, a professor of history at Notre Dame University, says the
choice of the papal name evokes St. Francis of Assisi, who preached in
the streets as a pauper, could signal that the new pontiff seeks to be a
populist pope as well as St. Francis Xavier, one of the 16th century
founders of the Jesuit order.
"This is not a power name, this is not a dogma name," Noble says.
The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who is editor of
America
magazine, a Catholic weekly, says Bergoglio is "a holy and prayerful
man, devoted to the poor and a strong defender of church teaching."
"Remember
that as a Jesuit he takes vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and
he will surely be a strong defender of the poor," Martin says.
"He's
very much a boots on the ground kind of man," says Donna Bethell,
chairwoman of Christendom College in Front Royal, Va. "I think he's
going to be a very strong voice for the Church."
Harvey Cox, a
professor at Harvard Divinity School, says the choice of a South
American cardinal is an acknowledgement that "the growing edge of the
Catholic Church is no longer in Europe, it's in the Southern Hemisphere
and the non-Western world."
In recent years, he says,
Protestants, especially evangelicals, have been making significant
inroads in South America, though less so in Argentina than in some other
countries.
Cox calls the move a "quantum leap" for the
Catholic Church, but speculates that while the conclave "wanted to move
outside Western Europe at long last, they didn't want to pin themselves
down to a third world pope for the long haul."
Chad Pecknold,
assistant professor of theology at The Catholic University of America,
says "the time may come when Catholics of the global south will be
evangelizing Catholics of the global north."
Catholic News
Service says Bergoglio, who was archbishop of Buenos Aires until 2012,
has a low-key style and is close to the people. He "has had a growing
reputation as a very spiritual man with a talent for pastoral leadership
serving in a region with the largest number of the world's Catholics."
CNS says:
"He
rides the bus, visits the poor, lives in a simple apartment and cooks
his own meals. To many in Buenos Aires, he is known simply as "Father
Jorge."
He also has created new parishes, restructured the
administrative offices, led pro-life initiatives and started new
pastoral programs, such as a commission for divorcees. He co-presided
over the 2001 Synod of Bishops and was elected to the synod council, so
he is well-known to the world's bishops.
...
In 2010, when
Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex
marriage, Cardinal Bergoglio encouraged clergy across the country to
tell Catholics to protest against the legislation because, if enacted,
it could "seriously injure the family," he said.
He also said
adoption by same-sex couples would result in "depriving [children] of
the human growth that God wanted them given by a father and a mother."
Update at 6:54 p.m. ET. On Liberation Theology:
One
of the big questions about Bergoglio is his stance on Liberation
Theology, which advocates liberation from unjust economic, political or
social conditions. Latin America was very much the epicenter of the
movement.
The National Catholic Reporter has this on his views:
"He
spent much of his early career teaching literature, psychology and
philosophy, and early on he was seen as a rising star. From 1973 to 1979
he served as the Jesuit provincial in Argentina, then in 1980 became
the rector of the seminary from which he had graduated.
"These
were the years of the military junta in Argentina, when many priests,
including leading Jesuits, were gravitating towards the progressive
liberation theology movement. As the Jesuit provincial, Bergoglio
insisted on a more traditional reading of Ignatian spirituality,
mandating that Jesuits continue to staff parishes and act as chaplains
rather than moving into "base communities" and political activism."
