Matthew E. Bunson - Pope Francis

Pope Francis

Pope Francis

Matthew E. Bunson, D.Min.

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750

The Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Second Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), copyright 1965, 1966, and 2006 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

English translations of Vatican documents from the Vatican website, www.vatican.va. 2013 Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

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Copyright 2013 by Matthew Bunson. Published 2013

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ISBN: 978-1-61278-713-8 (Inventory No. T1417)

eISBN: 978-1-61278-313-0

LCCN: 2013935722

Cover design: Tyler Ottinger

Cover photo: Stefano Spaziani

Back photo: CNS/Paul Haring

Interior design: Sherri L. Hoffman

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POPE FRANCIS

Pope Francis

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio

December 17, 1936

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Entered Society of Jesus

March 11, 1958

Ordained Priest

December 13, 1969

Ordained Titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires

June 27, 1992

Appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires

June 3, 1997

Archbishop of Buenos Aires

February 28, 1998

Created Cardinal

February 21, 2001

Elected Pope

March 13, 2013

Prayer for Pope Francis

Lord God,

with great joy

we give thanks for your faithful servant, Pope Francis.

Bless our Holy Father

with wisdom, zeal, and the gift of governance

as he guides your Church in peace and unity.

May his humility, simplicity, and love

inspire your people to share the Good News of Jesus Christ

as a light for the poor, the marginalized, and all the world.

Amen.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

One of the thrills of being a journalist is to be on the spot when history is being made. If journalism is the first draft of history, journalists are historys eyewitnesses. What I witnessed during two weeks in Rome covering the interregnum, conclave, and election of Pope Francis was astounding, both because much of it was unpredicted and because it began a surprising and inspiring new chapter for the Church.

Few people predicted that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be the next pope. It was likely true that he was the second-largest vote-getter at the 2005 conclave, though, of course, there is no official confirmation of that fact. But that was eight years ago, and the man who had been a relatively young sixty-eight was now a much older seventy-six. For this reason alone, he was not on most peoples lists.

There had been much discussion about who was papabile and who was not in the weeks leading up to the conclave, with Americans on many lists for the first time, and most observers conceding that the front-runner was the Italian archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola.

So when Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran announced that the new pope was Bergoglio, the collective reaction of the crowd would be best described as optimistic puzzlement. He was to be named Francis, they heard, which was a good sign, but who was he?

Then came those first seconds on the balcony, when he stood motionless, looking almost in shock: Ecce homo, behold the man. Perhaps we in the crowd were in shock as well, waiting for some sign of who our new pope would be. His first words were softly enunciated: Buona sera (Good evening). It was almost casual, certainly informal, yet a small sign that we were about to meet a man quite different from some of our expectations.

Think of those first moments and the other spontaneous signs he gave that revealed to us evidence of his character: He prayed for his predecessor, Benedict, the emeritus bishop of Rome, using the basic prayers of our Catholic faith. He asked us to bless him before he blessed us. He refused to wear the more ornate papal vestments. And he insistently presented himself as the bishop and pastor of Rome.

There was humility to his very first words and actions that not only captured the imagination of the crowd in the Saint Peters Square, but also the tens of millions watching on television.

In the days that followed, he did not so much outline a program as reveal aspects of his character. Some of these gestures blessing a pregnant woman outside of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, paying his own bill at the hotel where he had been staying, embracing the crippled man in Saint Peters Square, choosing to celebrate Holy Thursday with young people in a juvenile detention center dramatically attracted the attention of the world. It is not as if no pope had ever done these things. Yet the fact that he was at once both forceful and humble insisting that he be able to do these things from the very beginning entranced the media and fed the popular imagination.

At the same time, if we focus only on the empathetic gesture and the sympathetic act, we only understand part of Pope Francis. While he has not laid out his program yet and may not for some time as he adjusts to both the Vatican and the global complexities of a world Church there are clues to who the man is and what he considers priorities.

And the priorities of Francis begin first of all with Christ: Christ is the Churchs pastor, he told the worlds media in his first audience with them. Christ remains the center, not the Successor of Peter: Christ, Christ is the center. Christ is the fundamental point of reference, the heart of the Church. Everything flows from that realization. For if this is not true, then nothing is true. Once this is understood, then one also understands that the Church is ultimately not a political institution but a spiritual one, and that the Church is certainly not just the pope, or just the cardinals and bishops. The Church is the People of God, the Holy People of God making its way to encounter Jesus Christ.