by Camilla Simoni 2A
On 13th March the 266th successor to Saint Peter was elected. The new Pope’s name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio but now he is known as “Francis”, in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi.
He was born on 17th December 1936 in Buenos Aires. He belongs to the order of the Jesuits and he is the first pope that comes from the Americas. He got his degree in philosophy at Buenos Aires University in 1958 and after that he entered the seminary of “Villa Devoto”. He was nominated bishop of Buenos Aires by Pope John Paul II, he was Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at Saint Miguel. He spoke out against homosexuality even though he preached the importance of respect for homosexuals. He speaks against the poverty in the world which he describes as being a violation against human rights; he considers it “immoral and unjust”. In 2001 he visited a hospital in Buenos Aires and kissed the feet of 12 patients suffering from AIDS. This pope has been welcomed all over the Roman Catholic world and not only. On the 19th of March he became officially Pope before hundreds of people in Saint Peter’s Square.
I hope that he will be able to bring peace to our troubled world.