Pope Francis


Francis
Bishop of Rome
Pope Francis in 2021
ChurchCatholic Church
Papacy began13 March 2013
PredecessorBenedict XVI
Orders
Ordination13 December 1969
by Ramón José Castellano
Consecration27 June 1992
by Antonio Quarracino
Created cardinal21 February 2001
by John Paul II
Personal details
Born
Jorge Mario Bergoglio

(1936-12-17) 17 December 1936 (age 87)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
NationalityArgentine (with Vatican citizenship)
DenominationCatholic
ResidenceDomus Sanctae Marthae
Previous post(s)
Education
MottoMiserando atque eligendo[a]
SignatureFrancis's signature
Coat of armsFrancis's coat of arms
Ordination history
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained byRamón José Castellano
Date13 December 1969
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorAntonio Cardinal Quarracino
Co-consecratorsUbaldo Calabresi and Emilio Ogñénovich
Date27 June 1992
PlaceBuenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral Edit this on Wikidata, Buenos Aires Edit this on Wikidata
Cardinalate
Elevated byPope John Paul II
Date21 February 2001
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Pope Francis as principal consecrator
Horacio Ernesto Benites Astoul1 May 1999
Jorge Rubén Lugones30 July 1999
Jorge Eduardo Lozano25 March 2000
Joaquín Mariano Sucunza21 October 2000
José Antonio Gentico28 April 2001
Fernando Carlos Maletti18 September 2001
Andrés Stanovnik16 December 2001
Mario Aurelio Poli20 April 2002
Eduardo Horacio García16 August 2003
Adolfo Armando Uriona8 May 2004
Eduardo Maria Taussig25 September 2004
Raúl Martín20 May 2006
Hugo Manuel Salaberry Goyeneche21 August 2006
Óscar Vicente Ojea Quintana2 September 2006
Hugo Nicolás Barbaro4 July 2008
Enrique Eguía Seguí11 October 2008
Ariel Edgardo Torrado Mosconi13 December 2008
Luis Alberto Fernández Alara27 March 2009
Vicente Bokalic Iglic29 May 2010
Alfredo Horacio Zecca18 August 2011
Jean-Marie Antoine Joseph Speich24 October 2013
Giampiero Gloder24 October 2013
Fernando Vérgez Alzaga15 November 2013
Fabio Fabene30 May 2014
Angelo De Donatis9 November 2015
Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot19 March 2016
Peter Bryan Wells19 March 2016
Waldemar Stanisław Sommertag19 March 2018
Alfred Xuereb19 March 2018
José Avelino Bettencourt19 March 2018
Alberto Ricardo Lorenzelli Rossi22 June 2019
Michael F. Czerny4 October 2019
Paolo Borgia4 October 2019
Antoine Camilleri4 October 2019
Paolo Rudelli4 October 2019
Guido Marini17 October 2021
Andrés Gabriel Ferrada Moreira17 October 2021

Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[b] 17 December 1936) is the Pope and head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first one from the Americas, the first one from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first one born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian Pope Gregory III.

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 of pneumonia and cysts, he was inspired to join 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 honour 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 has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.[2][3] He maintains that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBT community and has permitted the blessings of same-sex couples.[4] Francis is a critic of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment;[5] he has made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.[6] Widely interpreted as denouncing the death penalty as intrinsically evil,[7] he has termed it "an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person", "inadmissible", and committed the Church to its abolition,[8] saying that there can be "no going back from this position".[9]

In international diplomacy, Francis has criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality,[10] helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party has in appointing Chinese bishops, and has supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises, calling on the Western World to significantly increase immigration levels.[11][12] In 2022, he apologized for the Church's role in the "cultural genocide" of the Canadian indigenous peoples.[13] On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality, described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.[3][14][15]

  1. ^ Scarisbrick, Veronica (18 March 2013). "Pope Francis: "Miserando atque eligendo"..." Vatican Radio. Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  2. ^ Dallas, Kelsey (3 October 2023). "The pope's latest comments on same-sex marriage, explained". Deseret News. Archived from the original on 7 October 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b Faiola, Andy; Boorstein, Michelle; Brady, Kate (2 October 2023). "Amid liberal revolt, pope signals openness to blessings for gay couples". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  4. ^ Graham, Ruth; Harmon, Amy (18 December 2023). "American Catholics Split on Pope's Blessing for Gay Couples". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  5. ^ Davies, Lizzy (15 December 2013). "Pope says he is not a Marxist, but defends criticism of capitalism". The Guardian. Rome, Italy. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013.
  6. ^ Sherwood, Harriet (7 September 2021). "Christian leaders unite to issue stark warning over climate crisis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  7. ^ Trabbic, Joseph G. (16 August 2018). "Capital punishment: Intrinsically evil or morally permissible?". Catholic World Report. Archived from the original on 23 December 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  8. ^ "New revision of number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty – Rescriptum "ex Audentia SS.mi"". press.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pullella-2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "The AP Interview: Pope Francis: Homosexuality not a crime". AP News. 25 January 2023. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  11. ^ Rocca, Francis X. (22 September 2023). "Pope Francis Calls Protection of Migrants a Duty of Civilization". WSJ. Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  12. ^ Lauter, David; Bierman, Noah (18 February 2016). "Trump and Pope Francis clash over immigration, another extraordinary campaign twist". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  13. ^ Horowitz, Jason (30 July 2022). "Francis Calls Abuse of Indigenous People in Canada a 'Genocide'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  14. ^ Horowitz, Jason; Povoledo, Elisabetta (2 October 2023). "What Is a Synod in the Catholic Church? And Why Does This One Matter?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  15. ^ Horowitz, Jason (2 October 2023). "Vatican Assembly Puts the Church's Most Sensitive Issues on the Table". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 7 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).