Pope Francis
Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[b] 17 December 1936) is the Pope and head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first one from the Americas, the first one from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first one born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian Pope Gregory III.
Francis
13 March 2013
13 December 1969
by Ramón José Castellano
27 June 1992
by Antonio Quarracino
21 February 2001
by John Paul II
Argentine (with Vatican citizenship)
Catholic
- Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina (1973–1979)
- Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires (1992–1997)
- Titular Bishop of Auca (1992–1997)
- Archbishop of Buenos Aires (1998–2013)
- Cardinal Priest of San Roberto Bellarmino (2001–2013)
- Ordinary for the Faithful of the Eastern Rites in Argentina (1998–2013)
- President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference (2005–2011)
Miserando atque eligendo[a]
13 December 1969
27 June 1992
21 February 2001
1 May 1999
1 May 1999
30 July 1999
25 March 2000
21 October 2000
28 April 2001
18 September 2001
16 December 2001
20 April 2002
16 August 2003
8 May 2004
25 September 2004
20 May 2006
21 August 2006
2 September 2006
4 July 2008
11 October 2008
13 December 2008
27 March 2009
29 May 2010
18 August 2011
24 October 2013
24 October 2013
15 November 2013
30 May 2014
9 November 2015
19 March 2016
19 March 2016
19 March 2018
19 March 2018
19 March 2018
22 June 2019
4 October 2019
4 October 2019
4 October 2019
4 October 2019
17 October 2021
17 October 2021
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor as a young man before training to be a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. After recovering from a severe illness of pneumonia and cysts, he was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival.
Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor, and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He is credited with having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.
Francis has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.[2][3] He maintains that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBT community and has permitted the blessings of same-sex couples, so long as the blessing does not resemble a marriage.[4] Francis is a critic of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment;[5] he has made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.[6] Widely interpreted as denouncing the death penalty as intrinsically evil,[7] he has termed it "an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person", "inadmissible", and committed the Church to its abolition,[8] saying that there can be "no going back from this position".[9]
In international diplomacy, Francis has criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality,[10] helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party has in appointing Chinese bishops, and has supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises, calling on the Western World to significantly increase immigration levels.[11][12] In 2022, he apologized for the Church's role in the "cultural genocide" of the Canadian indigenous peoples.[13] On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality, described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.[3][14][15]
Distinctions
Titles and styles
The official form of address of the pope in English is His Holiness Pope Francis; in Latin, Franciscus, Episcopus Romae. Holy Father is among the other honorifics used for popes.[518]
Films
Documentary film
By 2015, there were two biographical films about Francis: Call Me Francesco (Italy, 2015), starring Rodrigo de la Serna, and Francis: Pray for me (Argentina, 2015), starring Darío Grandinetti.[543]
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word is a documentary film with Swiss-Italian-French-German co-production, co-written and directed by Wim Wenders.[544] It premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was released in the United States on 18 May 2018.[545] It includes extensive sections of interviews as well as stock footage from archives.[546]
On 21 October 2020, the documentary Francesco directed by film producer Evgeny Afineevsky premiered.[547][548]
On 4 October 2022, the documentary The Letter: A Message for our Earth premiered on YouTube Originals, directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Off The Fence in partnership with Laudato Si' Movement.[549]
Portrayal in film
Francis is played by Jonathan Pryce in the biographical drama film The Two Popes (2019), costarring with Anthony Hopkins who plays Pope Benedict XVI.[550]