Spotlight on Pope Francis – What You Need to Know

As a priest, archbishop of Buenos Aires, and later cardinal during a plummeting Argentine economy in the 1990s and early 2000s, the current Pope Francis chose to live in a modest apartment in the Argentine capital’s downtown, not in the official palace allotted to him as archbishop. He walked everywhere, or used public transportation, in place of the available chauffeured limousine.

Known as “Padre Bergoglio” in those days, he focused on serving the city’s most marginalized people living in its “villas miserias,” the slum areas deemed so drug- and violence-ridden that even police and firefighters sometimes refuse to go there.

Francis established small, vibrant communities of priests who he recruited to live and work in the villas. He provided them with extensive personal and institutional support as they ministered to the everyday needs of people experiencing hunger, poverty, and addiction to devastating drugs like “paco,” which is derived from cocaine.

Francis himself would often walk through the streets of the villas to have conversations with locals, attend mass as an observer in the back row, and sit down for snacks with parishioners. To this day, many of the villero priests he mentored consider his elevation to the papacy a vindication of decades of work and devotion. 

As one of his former villero comrades remarked, at his installation ceremony as pope in 2013, “Our old friend Padre Bergoglio, a pope. Wow.” This is what you need to know about Pope Francis:

He embodies compassion.

Upon his election to the papacy in 2013, Pope Francis quickly made a reputation as one of the most principled—and individualistic—popes in history. Especially noteworthy is his dedication to a social justice-oriented agenda; his promotion of a human-centered interpretation of scripture; and his many demonstrations of love and humility in his service to people often overlooked and seen as “lesser” human beings by the societies in which they live. He has become a respected and beloved role model to many people around the world both inside and outside Catholic tradition.

Francis’ papacy also resulted in a number of “firsts:” He is the first-ever pope from South America, and in fact the first with origins in the Western Hemisphere. In addition, he is the first member of the almost-500-year-old Jesuit order to become Pope. The first papal “Francis” as well, he selected his official name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, who devoted his life to the needs of poor people, and St. Francis Xavier, a founder of the Jesuit order. 

He is from Argentina.

Francis, born in 1936 in Buenos Aires with the name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina. As a young man, he studied chemical technology and worked in the food industry before finding his vocation in the Church. 

The year he turned 22, Francis entered the Jesuit order. He studied and taught literature and psychology as he pursued his degree in theological studies. In 1969, he received priestly ordination, taking final vows as a member of the Jesuits four years later. 

Francis served as head of Argentina’s Jesuit order in the 1970s and ‘80s, a time of political and social crisis. The military-led dictatorship set in motion the “Dirty War” of 1976 to 1983, during which it persecuted politically left-of-center citizens. Tens of thousands of people were kidnapped, tortured, murdered, or “disappeared” by the regime. 

At the time, the Church supported the regime, leading many to accuse Argentina’s Catholic hierarchy—including Francis—of complicity through silence, or even of aiding in the abuses. Francis has categorically denied any such complicity, noting his own role in interceding with the government to secure release of two kidnapped priests, and his actions to hide others under threat of persecution. In 2000, Argentina’s Church leaders issued a formal apology as an act of contrition for not having done more collectively to stop the government-led violence. 

Rising through the ranks, Francis became archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998. He was consecrated as a cardinal in 2001.

He took on a leading role as a public advocate fighting for the rights of people in need. Some of Francis’ theologically more conservative stances on a number of issues did cause friction against the more liberal political views of President Nestor Kirchner (2003 - 2007) and his wife, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (2007 - 2015).

As pope, he advocates for social justice.

Pope Francis leads the Church at a time in which events on a global scale affect the everyday lives of everyone on earth. Francis is widely respected as an interfaith leader and a voice against racism, prejudice, and authoritarianism. He has denounced religious persecution everywhere, and has consistently elevated the value of interfaith dialogue, love, and respect.

Soon after his elevation to the papacy, Francis began speaking out on numerous social and civil liberties issues, including issues of sexual identity. He took a far more obviously tolerant stance than his predecessors. In 2020, he announced his belief that members of the LGBTQ community possess the right to establish civil unions, and to form families.

Pope Francis is also committed to the fight against the rampant consumerism and overdevelopment that drives climate change. In October 2020, he presented a TED talk on climate change. Noting his respect for the verdict of science, His Holiness invited his audience to accompany him on a “journey” toward transformative actions to reduce consumption, invest in sustainable technologies, and preserve the integrity of the natural world for future generations. 

In October 2020, Francis and leaders of other faiths met together—in a socially distanced fashion with respect to Italian laws designed to fight the coronavirus pandemic—to celebrate common values. Religious dignitaries representing other Christian traditions, as well as the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Sikh faiths, gathered with the Pope to publicly reaffirm their communities’ commitments to peace, brotherhood, and the task of assisting people in need.

Also in October 2020, Pope Francis named Archbishop Wilton Gregory as the first Black cardinal in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. Gregory, at the time the country’s only Black archbishop, represented the church as Washington, DC’s first-ever Black archbishop as well. He was one of 13 men elevated to the rank of cardinal in an unexpected ceremony.

In a 2019 meeting of Pan-American judges held at the Vatican, Francis emphasized his view that social justice is at the center of the development of societies across the world. He noted that there can be no true democracy as long as hunger, poverty, and injustice continue to exist. True human commitment, he said, can only be born from love.