Home
 Pope Francis: 80th Birthday Scott 1636 (2016) It is a routine feature of the daily emails to include a brief entry for the birthdays of popes from the mid-19th century to the present. Today is the birthday for Pope Francis. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 17 December 1936 to Italian immigrant parents. He began a Jesuit novitiate in 1958 and took final vows in 1960. Bergoglio began theological studies in 1967 and was ordained a priest in 1969. From 1973 to 1979 he was provincial supervisor of the Jesuits in Argentina. He served in various academic capacities thereafter. In Argentina during the 1980s, he ran afoul of trends within the Jesuit Order concerning an emphasis on social justice and liberation theology concepts versus more traditional orthodox catechetical approaches, favored by Bergoglio. It is argued that he tried to mitigate punishments handed out to priests who worked in the slums and protect them from the military government during the later 1970s and early 1980s when many civilians and others who opposed the military junta “disappeared.” Bergoglio’s actions during these years is a matter of controversy within Argentina. In 1997 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires and became archbishop in 1998. He lived a simple life-style, sharing an apartment with a retired bishop, cooked his own meals, and used public transportation to travel in Buenos Aires. With reference to his evangelization program in Argentina, Bergoglio’s official biography on the Vatican City website states in part: “As Archbishop of Buenos Aires — a diocese with more than three million inhabitants — he conceived of a missionary project based on communion and evangelization. He had four main goals: open and brotherly communities, an informed laity playing a lead role, evangelization efforts addressed to every inhabitant of the city, and assistance to the poor and the sick. He aimed to re-evangelize Buenos Aires, “taking into account those who live there, its structure and its history”. He asked priests and lay people to work together. In September 2009 he launched the solidarity campaign for the bicentenary of the Independence of the country. Two hundred charitable agencies are to be set up by 2016. And on a continental scale, he expected much from the impact of the message of the Aparecida Conference in 2007, to the point of describing it as the “Evangelii Nuntiandi [announcing the evangelization] of Latin America...Until the beginning of the recent sede vacante [2013], he was a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America."Bergoglio was elected pope on 13 March 2013 after the abdication of Benedict XVI. It is suggested that he also obtained votes during the 2005 conclave that chose Benedict XVI. He is the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas.  Pope Francis: 80th Birthday (Minisheet) Scott 1636M (2016) REFERENCES: |
