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K E V I N C O T T E R

LOWLY,BUT CHOSEN

An Introduction

to Pope Francis

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LOWLY,BUT CHOSEN

An Introduction

to Pope Francis

K E V I N C O T T E R

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Lowly, but Chosen

On February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI shocked the

world by announcing his resignation from the papacy.Beginning February 28, 2013, he would no longer bethe leader of the Catholic Church. While the worldcame to grips with the rst papal resignation in sixcenturies, it also began to look forward to the electionof the next pope. Many questions swirled: What kind ofleader did the Catholic Church need? What challenges

would the next pope face? Would he signicantlychange Church teaching? Who was capable of leading1.2 billion people?

As these questions were discussed, plausible candidateswere considered, analyzed, and scrutinized; newspapersreleased their lists ofpapabili; journalists publishedrumors; bookies made odds. Te world watched and

waited.

Ten, on March 13, 2013, at 7:06 p.m. Rome time,white smoke streamed out of the chimney atop theSistine Chapel. On the fth vote of the conclave, thecardinal electors had chosen a new pope. Just overan hour later, the cardinal protodeacon, Jean-Louis

Cardinal auran, announced to the world the nextleader of the Catholic Church: Jorge Mario CardinalBergoglio, who had taken the name Pope Francis.

Te course of events was surprising on many levels.

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Few had even discussed Cardinal Bergoglio as a seriouscandidate for the papacy: He was 76 years old andconsidered too old for a job that had just been vacated

by an 85-year-old. Not only this, but he was a pope ofmany rsts: the rst pope from Latin America, the rst

Jesuit pope, and the rst to choose the name Francis. otop it o, Pope Francis made an immediate impression

with his humble style, as he asked the crowd to blesshim before he gave the traditional blessing to the city ofRome and to the world.

Pope Francis stunning introduction caused many towonder: Who is this man? Tis e-Booklet oers a briefhistory of the life of Pope Francis with the hope that, by

understanding his past, we may better contemplate thefuture of our Church with our new Holy Father.

Early Life

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires,Argentina, on December 17, 1936, to Mario Jose andRegina Maria (Sivori) Bergoglio. Te families of Mario

Jose and Regina Maria both immigrated to Argentinafrom northern Italy. Mario Joses family left Italy inorder to ee from the reign of Mussolini in the 1920s;

they joined other relatives in Argentina and togetherran a small business. When the economy went south,the family was forced to abandon the business and selleverything to survive. Eventually, Mario Jose wouldbecome a railway worker in Argentina. Tis working-

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class upbringing had a profound eect on the youngPope Francis and his later work with the poor.

Te oldest of ve, Jorge quickly learned the power ofwork and service at a young age. During the birth ofhis youngest sibling, his mother was partially paralyzed.

As a result, at the age of twelve, he quickly becameresponsible for household chores, including makingmeals for his family. At thirteen, his father encouragedhim to get a job at the local factory where he took oncleaning, maintenance, and eventually administrativeduties.

As a teenager, Jorge had a fairly typical upbringing.

He was a practicing Catholic and enjoyed many of thethings that his peers enjoyed at the time: basketball,opera, classical Argentinian cinema, and tango. But,at the age of 17, he received a call that was far fromordinaryone that would change his life forever.

One day during his summer break, while Jorge wasplanning to spend time with his friends around town,he suddenly felt the need to go to Church instead.Upon arriving at his local parish, he noticed a new priestthere and felt an indescribable urge to have the priest

hear his confession. Following the confession, Jorgewas overwhelmed by the nature of Gods mercy andtenderness. Tis feeling of love and mercy, combined

with the powerful sense of Gods providence during thecourse of events, moved him deeply. He decided not to

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meet up with his friends and instead spent the rest ofthe day contemplating what had happened. It was thenthat he decided that he was called to the priesthood.

Te day was September 21, the feast of St. Matthew.During his recollection of the event, Pope Franciscompared his encounter with the priest to Jesusexperience with St. Matthew when our Lord lookedat him with love and said Follow me (Mark 10:21).

Although thoroughly convicted of his call to thepriesthood, he kept this experience to himself. Hecontinued to excel as a student while growing in hisspiritual life. At the age of 21, he came down with a

severe case of pneumonia, and complications requiredthat his right lung be removed. It was during this timethat he learned to grow in his faith through suering,

while a nun working at the hospital counseled himthrough the experience.

Father Jorge

Jorge would eventually receive a degree in chemistry, andsoon after, he entered the seminary. Jorge had chosento join the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits,

because of their simplicity, obedience, and discipline.While his father was excited about the news, his motherwas not as encouraging: She was worried that Jorge waswasting his education and had made the decision toohastily.

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Nevertheless, Jorges time in seminary was lledwith learning and teaching. He taught literature andpsychology at the high school and college level while

he pursued a degree in philosophy. During this time,he recalls meeting a young girl his age at his uncles

wedding. He was so enthralled with her that he wasunable to pray for a week and even questioned his callto the priesthood. Eventually, however, he would go onto nish his seminary work and was ordained a priest onDecember 13, 1969.

After his ordination, he was given assignments withincreasing amounts of responsibility. First, he becamemaster of novices for his Jesuit province and a professor

of theology. Ten, in 1973, Father Jorge took hisperpetual vows in the Society of Jesus and was namedthe provincial superior in Argentina.

During his early priesthood, Argentina was rocked by

economic and political tumult. A military dictatorshipruled the nation and had as many as 30,000 peoplekidnapped or killed. Te Catholic clergy at thetime responded in various ways: Some opposed thedictatorship outright; others kept quiet publicly whilesecretly helping those at risk; still others aided and

abetted the juntas violations of human rights. FatherJorge himself hid refugees in his parish church; once,he disguised a man in his clothing and gave him hispersonal ID card, so that the man could escape thecountry.

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As the Jesuit provincial superior at the time, FatherJorge had many clergy under his care. wo of thesepriests were at one point kidnapped and imprisoned.

Initially, Father Jorge was accused of working with thegovernment to do violence to these priests, but evidenceeventually surfaced of his eorts to help them andgain their release. While the accusations against himresurfaced upon his election to the papacy, the matter

was decisively settled some time ago.

Father Jorges time as a priest was not only spent inseminaries and graduate school but also with the poorestof the poor. He often spent time in Buenos Airesvillasthe slum neighborhoods. Filled with crime,

poverty, drug abuse, and unemployment, the villas areplaces where even ambulances will not go. But Father

Jorge would often spend Sundays and holidays here,inviting his fellow priests to work in the slums along

with him. He eventually gathered more than twenty

priests to work in the villas.

While working with the poor, he continued his teachingand academic pursuits. After seven years of service as theprovincial superior, he became a rector of a seminary andcontinued working on advanced theological degrees.

Bishop Bergoglio

In 1992, Father Jorge was named the auxiliary bishopof Buenos Aires. Just as in his career as a priest, Bishop

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Bergoglio quickly gained assignments with increasedresponsibility.

In 1997, he was named coadjutor archbishop ofBuenos Aires and took over the position on hisown in 1998.

In 2001, he was named cardinal by Blessed JohnPaul II.

In 2005, he was elected by his fellow Argentinianbishops as the president of the Argentinian BishopsConference.

In 2005, he was rumored to be the only otherpotential candidate during the conclave thatelected Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as pope.

In 2008, he was re-elected by his peers as the

president of the Argentinian Bishops Conference.

But even with the increased honors and responsibilities,his time as bishop was marked by its simplicity. Ratherthan living in the spacious quarters of the previousbishop, Archbishop Bergoglio chose to live in a simple

apartment. During his time as cardinal, when he servedas a member of several congregations in the RomanCuria (including those on Divine Worship, Clergy, andLatin America), he tried to spend as little time in Romeas possible. He was known for always taking the bus or

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subway rather than having a car and driver. Drawingfrom his experience cooking for his family as a child, heoften made his own meals; when he accepted invitations

from his friends to go out for meals, he usually ordered asimple bowl of soup. Tis dedication to simplicity gavehim a reputation as a bishop for the people: He oftenknew their cares and anxieties, because he conversedand interacted with them on a daily basis.

Bergoglios care for the poor continued, and was evenaugmented, with his appointment as bishop. Whensome of his brother priests refused to baptize childrenborn out of wedlock, he chastised them, saying they

were [separating] the people of God from salvation,

and that everyone deserved to be treated with the samerespect and love. Every Holy Tursday, he would goto the poor of Argentina to celebrate Mass, washingthe feet of drug addicts, those infected with HIV, andprisoners. He often encouraged his brother priests to do

the same, telling them: Jesus teaches us another way:Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out andinteract with your brothers, go out and share, go outand ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit.

Bishop Bergoglio also worked alongside evangelical

Protestants in the evangelization of Argentina. LuisPalau, a Billy Grahamstyle evangelist in Latin America,once remarked on the cardinals devotion to prayer,the poor, youth, and evangelization: While we wereat a youth convention on the beach in Argentina we

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stopped and prayed and talked, and I asked him beforethe convention, Any word of counsel? And he said,Listen, 80 percent of those young people dont know

Jesus personally. So give them the Gospel.

His time as bishop was also marked by clashes with theArgentinian government, where he was an outspokenvoice for the sanctity of marriage and the protection oflife from conception to death. While some of these calls

were ignored, he continued to be a clear voice for life ina hostile political environment.

Pope Francis

On March 13, 2013, the announcement that CardinalBergoglio was now Pope Francis stunned the world.His choice to honor St. Francis of Assisi by takinghis namethe rst pope in history to do sowasparticularly well-received: St. Francis was known for

working with the poor, preaching the Gospel, livingsimply, and reforming the Church in a time of crisisand abuse. When asked why he chose the name, PopeFrancis recalled a moment after his election when one ofhis brother bishops told him not to forget the poor. Tereminder struck him, and he later said that he would

like a poor Church, and for the poor.

From his rst moments on the balcony of St. Peters,Pope Francis impressed the world with his simplicity.One of his rst orders of business was to personally

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return to his hotel in Rome to pay for his room andcollect his belongings. When the cardinals went outfor a celebratory dinner after his election, Pope Francis

joined them on their bus rather than taking his ownpapal transportation. He personally called the superiorof the Jesuits in Rome to thank him for his letter ofsupport; later, he phoned Argentina to cancel his dentistappointments and his newspaper subscription.

Sticking with the theme of humility and simplicity, PopeFrancis kept his episcopal motto when he became pope:lowly, but chosen. His papal crest bears importantsymbols representing his Jesuit heritage and devotion tothe Holy Family:

In the middle of the crest is the Jesuit seala sunwith the letters IHS, which stands for the LatinIesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus, savior of man).

On the bottom left, the star represents Mary, theMother of Christ and the Church.

On the bottom right, the nard ower represents St.Joseph, Patron of the universal Church.

At the bottom of the crest is his Papal motto:miserando atque eligendo (lowly, but chosen).

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The Future

Pope Francis is sure to face many challenges during hispapacy: the Churchs loss of credibility over the abusescandal , the rise of secularism in the Western world,converts to Protestantism in South America, and strongopposition from Islam, to name only a few. Te world

looks to the pope for guidance on all these issues, whileexpecting him to travel the world and make himself evermore available through social media.

Pope Francis has responded to the challenge witha refreshing message of simplicity and humilitya

message that has resounded across the globe. With theeyes of the world upon him, may God bless His humbleservant Pope Francis as he seeks to spread the Gospelto the physically and spiritually poor throughout the

world!

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Bibliography

BooksPope to the Poor: e Life and Times of Pope Francis (JorgeMario Bergoglio) by Paul Brody

News Articles

http://world.time.com/2013/03/13/pope-of-the-americas/2/

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/current/global/what-new-pope-means-evangelicals

h t tp : / /www.chr i s t i anpos t . com/news /pope s -c o m m i t m e n t - t o - t h e - p o o r - a - m o d e l - f o r -evangelicals-92183/

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/pope-francis-biography-key-facts-life-in-latin-america-and-background-88818.html#ixzz2OZspek6p

http://news.sky.com/story/1065708/pope-francis-fond-memories-in-the-slums

h t t p : / / w w w . p a t h e o s . c o m / b l o g s /publiccatholic/2013/03/pope-keeps-motto-inspired-by-his-call-to-the-priesthood/

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http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/francis-jesuits-and-dirty-war

http://theweek.com/article/index/241442/everything-you-need-to-know-about-pope-francis-and-argentinas-dirty-war#

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