Posted on 03/13/2013 1:18:21 PM PDT by marshmallow
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has had a growing reputation as a very spiritual man with a talent for pastoral leadership serving in a region with the largest number of the world’s Catholics.
Since 1998, he has been archbishop of Buenos Aires, where his style is low-key and close to the people.
He rides the bus, visits the poor, lives in a simple apartment and cooks his own meals. To many in Buenos Aires, he is known simply as “Father Jorge.”
He also has created new parishes, restructured the administrative offices, led pro-life initiatives and started new pastoral programs, such as a commission for divorcees. He co-presided over the 2001 Synod of Bishops and was elected to the synod council, so he is well-known to the world’s bishops.
The cardinal has also written books on spirituality and meditation and has been outspoken against abortion and same-sex marriages.
In 2010, when Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage, Cardinal Bergoglio encouraged clergy across the country to tell Catholics to protest against the legislation because, if enacted, it could “seriously injure the family,” he said.
He also said adoption by same-sex couples would result in “depriving (children) of the human growth that God wanted them given by a father and a mother.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Sounds like a good guy. I hope he turns out to be a great pope.
The MSM is disappointed he isn’t Pope Obamus.
Too sad, too bad!
I am thinking that he took the name of Francis to honor not just St. Francis of Assissi, but also Francis Suarez the great Jesuit who is the father of the philosophy of law.
Any St. Francis will do :)
Well, well ...this is sure to cause some snarling, writhing, and gnashing of teeth in our fallen, evil world ...
He’s a Jesuit so I’d guess he’d want to honor St. Francis Xavier.
I just finished a great biography on Francis Suarez. He was a holy man and part of the group that gave us St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Francis Xavier, St. Ignatius Loyola, etc. It will be interesting to see if his cause for sainthood will be opened.
Francis Xavier also!
Anyone fortunate enough to watch the full proceedings live from white smoke ‘til Francis spoke, will not likely forget it for some time. We were crying, dancing, cheering, and singing, and we weren’t even in Rome. :) It’s great to be Catholic. Pope Francis, we love you!
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And St. Francis Xavier was a Jesuit, to boot!
Wish he was younger.
Terrific pictures. Thank you.
Prayers up for Pope Francis I.
We will pray then that he lives to be 120 and serves cogently to the day he dies.
tr,
Conceivably, if he stayed in good health, he could serve for a decade. Not being a catholic, it’s not my call, but he seems a good choice and I hope he can straighten the ship while he is there.
I am sure that the media will lament the fact that the Roman Catholic Church chose a Roman Catholic Bishop with Roman Catholic views and tenants to be the Roman Catholic Pope.
They would have prefered someone from outside the Church, who did not believe in the RC Church’s views had been the one selected to be the Bishop of Rome and senior to all others.
Thank you. The pictures meant a lot to me and I knew they would to others too. Prayers up for this good man.
The MSM is disappointed he isn’t Pope Obamus. Too sad, too bad! Ha! Good one! lol!
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