Pope Francis: First Jesuit Pope

Pope Francis, with his real name, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was appointed as the new Pope and the very first appointed pope from North or Latin America. He is also the very first appointed Jesuit Pope.

He was known as a simple pastor who is loved by his diocese, he travels with them underground and through buses during his 15 years of episcopal ministry. Because he more once said that, ''My people are poor and I am one of them'', he made a decision to live in an apartment and to cook his own food. 

He always advised his priests to show some mercy and to keep their door open to those who are in need. 


He was born in Buenos Ares on Decenber 17 year 1936, a son of Italian immigrants, Mario and Regina Sivori. His father was an accountant employed by the railways and his mother, a committed wife whose dedicated to raise their five children. 

Moreover, Pope Francis graduated as a chemical technician but then chose the path of priesthood, entering the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto. He also entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 11 of March 1958. 

On 13 December 1969 he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano. He continued his training between 1970 and 1971 at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and on 22 April 1973 made his final profession with the Jesuits. Back in Argentina, he was novice master at Villa Barilari, San Miguel; professor at the Faculty of Theology of San Miguel; consultor to the Province of the Society of Jesus and also Rector of the Colegio Máximo of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology.

All the while Cardinal Bergoglio was becoming ever more popular in Latin America. Despite this, he never relaxed his sober approach or his strict lifestyle, which some have defined as almost “ascetic”. In this spirit of poverty, he declined to be appointed as President of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference in 2002, but three years later he was elected and then, in 2008, reconfirmed for a further three-year mandate. Meanwhile in April 2005 he took part in the Conclave in which Pope Benedict XVI was elected.

Until the beginning of the recent sede vacante, 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 Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He was elected Supreme Pontiff on 13 March 2013.

With his strict lifestyle, can he lead the Christianity to properity? Can he approve the new generation's lifestyle today and just go with the flow? 

Lastly, can Filipinos learn to love him like the way he is loved by his diocese? 




http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/biography/documents/papa-francesco-biografia-bergoglio_en.html