“Habemus Papam Franciscum,” was the first tweet by papal account @pontifex when the French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran announced the new pope, Pope Francis for the Catholic Church.
According to our source, the 76-year-old Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina was elected in a surprise choice as the new pope since Benedict’s stood down last month. He is the first non-European leader for the church since nearly 1300 years and he would take the name Francis I.
The new pope dressed in the white robes appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and asked the crowd “Pray for me”. Pope Francis is now the 266th pontiff in the Church’s 2,000-year history. Replacing Pope Benedict,he will be installed officially in an inauguration Mass on March 19th. Pope Francis will take over Benedict XVI’s works for the Catholic Church and he will soon be facing an array of challenges which include the role of women, interfaith tensions and dwindling congregations in some parts of the world.
But now that he’s one of the many role models to the world, let’s get to know him a little better:
• He likes to travel by bus
• He’s lived for more than 50 years with one functioning lung. The other was removed when he was younger due to an infection
• He is the son of an Italian railway worker
• He trained as a chemist
• He is the first non-European pope in the modern era
• He claims that adoption by homosexuals is a form of discrimination against children but believes that condoms “can be permissible” to prevent infection
• In 2001, he washed and kissed the feet of an AIDS patient in a hospice.
• He speaks fluent Italian, as well as Spanish and German
• Until now, he has been living in a small flat, eschewing a formal bishop’s residence.
• He told Argentinians not to travel to Rome to celebrate if he was appointed but to give money to the poor instead.
• He believed to have been the runner-up in the last papal conclave in 2005.
• He has co-written a book, in Spanish, called Sobre el Cielo y la Tierra (On Heaven and Earth).
• Though conservative on church doctrine, he has criticized priests who refuse to baptize babies born to single mothers.
Source: BBC, The Guardian
