This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 13, 2013 - Argentinian Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the new pope. He is the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, the first non-European pope since the early centuries when there were African popes.
Not even the Jesuit weekly America had him on its list of profiled candidates.
He is 76, and is a humble priest who moved out of the Argentine archbishop traditional residence and lived in an apartment in a poor neighborhood. He got rid of the chauffeur and drove his own car.
He just might be like the humble pope in the late-Jesuit Father William Barnaby Faherty’s novel, "Pope Octavio," who drove a Volkswagen and lived with the poor.
In his first public appearance Wednesday, Pope Francis asked the tens of thousand to pray for him as he took on the papal duties. He is known for being a man of deep spirituality devoted to the service of the poor.
Shortly after leaving his first conclave, St. Louis native Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and archbishop of New York said that Pope Francis was a "figure for unity" and that his election "marks a great milestone in our church."
"With joy in our hearts, we declare 'Ad Multos Annos!' (For many years!)," Dolan said. His statement was released at the conference office in Washington.
At a news conference at the North American College where he once was rector, Dolan asked reporters to imagine what it will be like in July when Pope Francis attend the World Youth day in Brazil. He beamed brightly at the idea.
"That he’s a Jesuit says so much about his commitment to the poor, and that he’s taken the name of Francis — in recollection of Saint Francis of Assisi — clearly gestures that the Roman Catholic Church not only serves the poor, the Roman Catholic Church is the church of the poor," said Duke University religion ethics professor Stanley Hauerwas.
"My sense is that many of the agendas associated with American Catholicism will not exactly be his agendas."
Some suggest he may have also chosen the name also to honor the Great Jesuit missionary and evangelist Francis Xavier.
Twelve St. Louis Jesuit priests were in a meeting Wedmesday in Jesuit Hall, at Grand and Lindell boulevards when in Vatican City the white smoke appeared. Several got texts on their cell phones about the smoke, but the priests continued the meeting. Then, new texts came announcing that a fellow Jesuit was the pope. Still they didn't go to the television to watch Pope Francis' first greeting but finished their meeting.
"I am amazed. We all were amazed," said the Jesuit Rev. Christopher Collins, a Vatican watcher and author of a new book "The Word Made Love,The Dialogical Theology of Joseph Ratzinger." Borgolio was not mentioned this time, though he was (runner-up) at the last conclave, they say."
Collins and other Jesuits expect a change in tone at the Vatican. "No doctrinal things will change, he's an intellectual who once taught philosophy. He has had a lot of pastoral experience which will manifest in a different ways from Pope Benedict. Like Benedict he will have a consistent focus on the person of Christ. Our Jesuits (founder) Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises (basics of the retreat movement) are all about the personal encounter with Christ.
"We are still amazed. Pleased."
Bergoglio's background
"Only someone who has encountered mercy, who has been caressed by the tenderness of mercy, is happy and comfortable with the Lord," Bergoglio said in 2001 to a group of priests and bishops. "I beg the theologians who are present not to turn me in to the Sant'Uffizio or the Inquisition; however, forcing things a bit, I dare to say that the privileged locus of the encounter is the caress of the mercy of Jesus Christ on my sin."
He is an Italian-Argentinean who was born in Buenos Aires in 1936. He and his four siblings are the sons of a Italian immigrant who first worked on the railroads near Turin, Italy. In high school, he had planned to become a chemist, and got a master's degree in that field. Then, influenced by Jesuits who taught him, he entered the Society of Jesus to study for the priesthood.
In his early years as a Jesuit, as many Jesuits do, he was a teacher. He taught literature, psychology and philosophy. As a still young man in 1973 and 1979, he was elected to lead the Jesuits in Argentina as their provincial. Later he was the rector of the seminary he had attended.
In 1992 he was named auxiliary bishop to assist the archbishop of Buenos Aires Cardinal Antonio Quarracino. Six years later he succeeded him. When he became a cardinal in 2001, Pope John Paul II also made him pastor of a Rome church named for the British Jesuit St. Robert Bellarmine.
He is know in Italy and often spoke to meetings of the Comunione e Liberazione movement founded by Italian Fr. Luigi Giussani. On the other hand, that's also part of Bergoglio's appeal, someone who personally straddles the divide between the Jesuits and the ciellini, and more broadly, between liberals and conservatives in the church.
Bergoglio has supported the social justice ethos of Latin American Catholicism, including a robust defense of the poor.
"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," Bergoglio said during a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007. "The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."
Positive reaction
Many were pleased with the choice.
"The most important thing is that he is from Latin America," said the Rev. Charles E. Bouchard, the Dominican provincial leader over this region's Province of St. Albert the Great. "This is both a recognition of the traditional strength and growth the church. It also shifts the focus of the church from western Europe, where it has been for centuries, to the southern hemisphere. The fact that his reputation seems based on pastoral care rather than doctrinal solidity may say something important about what the cardinals see as the most important needs of the church today.
St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson welled up with emotion, at a press conference, minutes after Pope Francis was introduced on St. Peter's loggia above St. Peter's Square.
"You can see the excitement in the square, anyone would well up with emotion."
"What an amazing choice: a Latin American, a Jesuit priest, a simple and humble man, a theologian, a fine administrator, and a Roman outsider," said a delighted Sister Kathleen Hughes, a liturgist who has helped the Vatican on liturgy and a former national leader provincila of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. "This choice is a wonderful surprise and a cause for great rejoicing. Interestingly, he is (roughly) the same age, as Pope John XXIII when John was elected. Perhaps he will continue the reforms of the church begun by John XXIII at Vatican II. Certainly he gives every hope of restoring the integrity of the church in face of its numerous scandals and of rebuilding the faith and hope of its people."
“I love that he chose the name ‘Francis’ because its speaks of humility, care for the poor and all of creation," said Loretto Sister Irma Avila, who formerly worked with Intercommunity Housing Association in the city and Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville.
"The fact that he is from Latin America will bring a new perspective to the Catholic Church. I really appropriate that the new pope is someone who will speak up for indigenous people, for immigrants and for the poor as a preferential option from his own lived experience.”
St. Louis Catholics around the world were amazed. "I am surprised and pleased so far," said the Rev. Benedict Thomas Viviano, a St. Louis native and well-known Dominican New Testament scholar. From his friary in Vienna, Austria, Viviano said, Pope Francis “did a doctorate in Germany and wrote it in German."
Pope celebrates first Mass with cardinals who chose him
Pope's first day includes prayer, housekeeping
Inside the conclave -- details emerge
A profile from the Associated Press
Coverage from the National Catholic Reporter
Pope's election stirs talk of Argentina's 'dirty war'
Patricia Rice is a freelance writer.