NB: The original banner posted by news.va read 'FRANCISCUS I' but although the new Pope is the first one to take the papal name Francis, it is nit right to call him Francis I until there is a Francis II.
Presenting Pope Francis
March 13, 2013
Vatican Radio has only the basic biographical information about the new Pope:
The man elected today to be the 265th Successor of Saint Peter is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Ordinary for Eastern-rite faithful in Argentina who lack an Ordinary of their own rite.
He was born on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires. He was ordained for the Jesuits on 13 December 1969 during his theological studies at the Theological Faculty of San Miguel.
He was novice master in San Miguel, where he also taught theology. He was the Jesuit Provincial for Argentina (1973-1979) and rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel (1980-1986).
After completing his doctoral dissertation in Germany, he served as a confessor and spiritual director in Córdoba.
On 20 May 1992 he was appointed titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires, receiving episcopal consecration on 27 June. On 3 June 1997 was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires and succeeded Cardinal Antonio Quarracino on 28 February 1998. He is also Ordinary for Eastern-rite faithful in Argentina who lack an Ordinary of their own rite.
He was the Adjunct Relator General of the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 2001. He served as President of the Bishops' Conference of Argentina from 8 November 2005 until 8 November 2011.
He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by the Bl. John Paul II in the consistory of 21 February 2001, and was assigned the church of San Roberto Bellarmino as his titular church in Rome.
He was a member of the Congregations: for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments; for the Clergy; for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; and of the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
I am stunned, but I could not be happier at the choice of the cardinals. Not one of the know-all pundits saw this coming at all!
So we have the first Pope from Latin America,
but also a Pope of Italian descent,
and the first Jesuit Pope.
FRANCIS & BENEDICT, BENEDICT & FRANCIS
I think the photo on the left was taken on Benedict XVI's visit to Aparecida in 2006; I do not have a date for the other photo.
Perhaps just as significant to me is that this Conclave appeared to be like an extension of the Conclave of 2005, in which Cardinal Bergoglio ranked next to Benedict XVI.
So we all rush now to learn about Pope Francis, whom we can all thank because his second thought at his first appearance to the world was to ask the faithful to pray for Benedict XVI.
No one thought the cardinals would choose anyone as old as he is. So it's a tribute to them that they did not find that a disadvantage at all, and that they came to him, after all the wild speculation about this candidate as the 'reformers' candidate' and that candidate as the 'Curia's candidate'. He was 'God's choice' this time, to use George Weigel's phrase for the 2005 Conclave, as Joseph Ratzinger was in 2005. I believe Benedict XVI must be very happy.
P.S. The initial flood of gushing praise I have been hearing and seeing in the media over the past two hours for the new Pope is in such stark contrast to the open hostility shown by most of the commentators to the election of Benedict XVI in 2005... But the appalling ignorance of most of the commentators on American TV, who are simply regurgitating misinformation, and who speak as if Benedict XVI had never existed except that the Church is in a very bad way because of the last Pope. And the president of the Catholic League in the USA suddenly dismissing Benedict XVI as "a transitional Pope as this new Pope will not be".... Or other commentators implying that just because Benedict XVI wore the red mozzetta as every new Pope has before him (while Pope Francis did not), and did not ride a bus or wash an AIDS patient's feet, that he is suddenly no longer 'humble'??? (He walked to work for more than 20 years, and as a professor in Germany, he went around riding a second-hand bicycle!)
PPS - I wonder what the ultra-liberal Argentine media and elite will make of the new Pope, who holds the most orthodox Catholic positions on all the liberal causes, thank God!
Speaking of 'transformations', I took particular notice of Cardinal Bergoglio when he took the oath in the Sistine Chapel, simply because it was my first opportunity to look at him 'live', and my first impression was that he had aged a lot in eight years (compared to the only photograph I have of him with Benedict XVI) - but the Pope Francis who made his first appearance to the world tonight looked distinctly fresh...
Announcements from the Vatican
At a news briefing at the Vatican Wednesday night, Fr. Lombardi made the following announcements:
- The Mass to inaugurate the Petrine ministry of Pope Francis I will take place on Tuesday, March 19, feast of St. Joseph, patron of the Universal Church.
- Pope Francis has spoken by telephone to Benedict XVI.
- Tomorrow, at 5 p.m., he will celebrate Mass in the Sistine Chapel with the College of Cardinals.
- On Friday morning, he will have a prayer meeting to thank Our Lady, as he announced to the faithful in St. Peter's Square tonight, with all the cardinals, including the non-electors, at the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace.
- Fr. Lombardi said that he will also meet with the media just as both John Paul II and Benedict XVI did. He did not set a date.
He also said that the election of Pope Francis was "
an absolute choice representing the refusal of power in favor of service in a pure state - which seems to me a beautiful response to the way in which many have thought about or presented the situation of the Church in recent months".
[Unfortunately, this is the kind of perverse sanctimony we have to live with now, even from people who should know better, like Fr. Lombardi. As though Benedict XVI's Pontificate - and person - had been about power and not about service at all! As if Benedict's personal example was not an answer in itself to all the uncharitable attacks against the Church.
One US bishop said today that "we will see this new Pope drawing people to Christ" - as if Benedict XVI had not done that, or worse, had driven people away from Christ!... And one monsignor said, "You can be sure that when this Pope accepted his office, he meant to stay for life!"
'In with the new, out with the old' is not a Christian way at all to treat Popes, even if it is unprecedented that there is an emeritus Pope. Why must praise for the new Pope mean indirectly denigrating the former Pope? Those who have been guilty of this - and there will be more in the coming days and months, who knows - should have taken the cue from Pope Francis himself, whose second thought, before even asking the faithful to pray for him, was to ask them to pray with him for Benedict XVI. But most of the commentators have even chosen to ignore that... ]
OR's Commemorative Issue
The Vatican's new homepage:
I had hoped the photo editors at the Vatican's print and graphics media would be kinder to Francis I than they were with Benedict XVI in their choice of pictures, but it seems they are incorrigible. And I certainly hope that they won't 'freeze' his official portrait (sent to Nunciatures, dioceses and parishes around the world) the way they did for Benedict XVI with a photo taken before he gets his Fisherman's Ring which no one bothered to change in eight years.
And I certainly hope Vatican Radio will
redesign the first logo with Pope Francis
on it, because the image is too big and
crowds out Benedict XVI so that only half
his face is visible. The images of the
previous Popes need to be sharper, too -
they can hardly be seen.
Old logo:
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/03/2013 15:33]