13 Mar 2013

THE NEW POPE, POPE FRANCIS I, SJ.

MEET THE NEW POPE, FRANCIS I (CARDINAL JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO, S.J.), THE 265th POPE AFTER ST. PETER



POPE FRANCIS I, was until his election this evening as the 265th Successor of Saint Peter, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. He was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ordinary for Eastern-rite faithful in Argentina.
Born:  December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires.
He studied philosophy at the Colegio Máximo San José and taught literature and psychology at the Colegio de la Inmaculada in Santa Fe, and the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires.
He was ordained a Jesuit priest on December 13, 1969, while studying theology at the Theological Faculty of San Miguel. 
He was novice master and theology lecturer in San Miguel.
He was Provincial for Argentina from 1973 to 1979.
He served as the Rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel from 1980 to 1986.
He did his doctorate in Germany, and served as a confessor and spiritual director in Córdoba.
He was appointed the titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires on 20 May 1992.

He was consecrated Bishop on June 27, 1992.
He was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires on 3 June 1997.
He succeeded Cardinal Antonio Quarracino on February 28, 1998.
He was also Ordinary for Eastern-rite faithful in Argentina who lack an Ordinary of their own rite.
He became Adjunct Relator General of the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2001.
He became President of the Bishops' Conference of Argentina from November 8, 2005 to November 8, 2011.


He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by the Blessed John Paul II on February 21, 2001, of the Title of St. Robert Bellarmine.
He is a member of the following Congregations:
Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments; Congregation for the Clergy; 
Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; 
Congregation for the Pontifical Council for the Family; 
Pontifical Commission for Latin America. 
He participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, gaining the second-highest total vote in several rounds of voting.


With his election this evening, he has become the first non-European and first Jesuit Pope.
May God who has begun this good work in him bring it to a glorious end, Amen.