'HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM'
This brief Latin sentence roughly translated as We have Pope Francis from the Pope's official @pontifex account, shortly after his appearance on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, proclaimed in one tweet the elevation of 76 year-old Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church. In less than half an hour, the happy message was retweeted thousands of times. Minutes earlier, white smoke had signalled to over a hundred thousand people thronging St Peter's Square that a two-thirds majority of the 115 Cardinal electors had voted in a new Pope. Though reportedly the runner-up to Ratzinger in the 2005 poll, Bergoglio was nowhere among the bookies' favourites this time.
Besides the palpable joy for the world's 1200 million Catholics and many millions of well-wishers from other faiths, what promise does this new Pope hold out for us?
Ultimately time will tell, but going by his credentials and track record, we are certainly justified in having high expectations from this simple, humble but witty man with a post-graduate degree in chemistry. Jorge, who had even contemplated marriage in his youth, had a late vocation, being ordained at age 32 after entering the seminary a decade earlier.
Pope Francis has several Firsts to his credit:
First Non-European Pope in about 1300 years
First Pope from Latin America or for that matter from either of the Americas
First Jesuit Pope ever
First to choose the name Francis clarifying that it was after St. Francis of Assisi (the Patron Saint of Animals & Ecology) and not St. Francis Xavier his fellow Jesuit, as most people first thought.
He is also a fan of football and of the Argentinian dance the Tango.
Francis's commitment to the poor, the sick and the marginalised is profoundly Jesuitic. He is a familiar figure in a giant slum in Buenos Aires, where 45,000 people live in extreme poverty. For 15 years, Bergoglio rode the bus several times a year, and then walked in normal priest's robes through the dangerous neighbourhood to celebrate mass at a tiny makeshift church."He is adored by everyone here, I would say you'd find a photo of him in 60% of the homes here," said Father Juan Isasmendi, who holds Bergoglio in an almost saintly regard and considered Fr. Bergoglio a rarity in the Argentinian Catholic hierarchy. "He is a true man of God, he baptised so many children, he gave communion himself to thousands here. He is authentically religious, a true pastor." As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he famously gave up the palace in favour of a modest flat where he cooked for himself, and chose to move around the capital on public transport rather than in a chauffeur-driven car. And, just as he did when he became a cardinal in 2001, he has asked people not to travel to Rome for his installation mass, but to give the money they would have spent to the poor.
Though considered a hard-liner with strong views against Jesuit Liberation Theology, abortion and gay marriage, he condemned hypocrites among his fellow priests saying, "…there are priests who don't baptise the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today's hypocrites who separate the people of God from salvation."
In 2001, Bergoglio sent out a powerful message of compassion when he washed and kissed the feet of AIDS patients in Buenos Aires.
From wrongdoing in the Curia – the Civil Service of the Vatican, to priest paedophilia, to dwindling Church attendance (especially in the West) due in part to materialism and also poaching by Pentecostals or Believers as we know them, the Catholic Church is facing many problems today.
Jesuits are known for being intellectuals, ruling from their heads with advanced Ignatian spirituality. On the other hand, Franciscans are called to a humble and compassionate Christ-like approach, ruling by the heart. By embracing both saints through his Jesuit background and his desire to go forward and be remembered as Francis, our new Pope has the best charisms for putting right what has gone wrong in the Church – It was Francis of Assisi who was called by God to rebuild His Church in 1207, which not unlike the Catholic Church of today, was in need of "Purification" and "Transformation". Let us thank the Almighty for the gift of Pope Francis and pray that he may lead us to walk in the footsteps of Christ.
Xavier Cota
