The Center - Buenos Aires - page 116

POPE FRANCIS
After Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, was named successor to Pope
Benedict XVI in March 2013, he took the name Francis I. Not only was he the first pontiff to bear that
moniker (adopted to honor St Francis of Assisi), he was also the first to hail from the Americas and
the first to belong to the Jesuit order, which incidentally was expelled from most of South America for
47 years (1767-1814). It's a fair bet that he's also the first pope to have grown up drinking mate , tan-
going at milongas and ardently supporting the San Lorenzo fútbol club.
Francis has taken charge at a particularly low point in the church's modern history. It has been
rocked by a seemingly endless series of sexual-abuse scandals, and subjected to investigations into
charges of high-level corruption and financial malfeasance. These events and widening parishioner
dissatisfaction with the Vatican's stance on homosexuality, divorce, abortion and the role of women in
the church have caused congregations to shrink, a problem compounded in the Americas by the in-
creasing popularity of various Pentecostal, evangelical and other denominations.
While it remains to be seen what direction Francis will take on various aspects of Catholic doctrine,
he has roundly criticized the structure and workings of the church at its highest levels, and vowed to
make them more transparent and outward-looking, and less closed and hierarchical.
Francis appointed a special commission to delve into the workings of the Vatican bank, which has
been under pressure from the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering committee to submit to inde-
pendent supervision. In October 2013, the bank published an annual report for the first time in its his-
tory.
In a more headline-worthy move, Francis summoned Limburg's 'Bishop of Bling', free-spending
prelate Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, to Rome to explain how he managed to spend tens of millions of
euros renovating his official residence. After eight days of cooling his heels, the bishop was granted a
20-minute audience with Francis, who ended up suspending him from his duties for an 'indefinite
period'.
This pope doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk. After arriving in Rome for his 2001 anoint-
ment as cardinal by John Paul II, Archbishop Bergoglio left the modest priests' quarters on foot the
morning of his ceremony, arriving at the Vatican accompanied only by his assistant and a couple of re-
latives. No surprise, as he had already eschewed the archbishop's palace in Olivos, remaining in his
modest apartment and getting around Buenos Aires by bus and the Subte rather than with a car and
driver.
He has continued these habits as Francis I, emulating his namesake and personal hero, the saint
from Assisi who once renounced all worldly possessions including his clothing. These humble as-
pects, coupled with the very personable humanity Francis displays, have made him an extremely pop-
ular pontiff. Many Catholics speak of feeling 'understood' by him, and his popularity extends beyond
the faithful. The church has a new face, just when it needed it the most.
Montserrat