[BRIEF NOTE] On Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis I

[rfmcdonald]

Jesuit cardinal of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio has made a few firsts today in becoming Pope, being the first Pope Francis, and the first Latin American and Argentine Pope. Michael Warren's Associated Press article from the 4th of this month profiled the two candidates. Bergoglio seems to have been a dark horse candidate.

(And yes, among other things he's homophobic, having criticized same-sex marriage as evil and having identified adoption by same-sex parents as child abuse. Surprised?)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who would be the first Jesuit pope if chosen, has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests.

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Bergoglio, 76, reportedly got the second-most votes after Joseph Ratzinger in the 2005 papal election, and he has long specialized in the kind of pastoral work that some say is an essential skill for the next pope. In a lifetime of teaching and leading priests in Latin America, which has the largest share of the world's Catholics, Bergoglio has shown a keen political sensibility as well as the kind of self-effacing humility that fellow cardinals value highly, says his official biographer, Sergio Rubin.

Bergoglio would likely encourage the church's 400,000 priests to hit the streets to capture more souls, Rubin said in an Associated Press interview. He is also most comfortable taking a low profile, and his personal style is the antithesis of Vatican splendor. "It's a very curious thing: When bishops meet, he always wants to sit in the back rows. This sense of humility is very well seen in Rome," Rubin said.

Bergoglio is known for modernizing an Argentine church that had been among the most conservative in Latin America.

[. . .] Bergoglio stands out for his austerity. As Argentina's top church official, he's never lived in the ornate church mansion in Buenos Aires, preferring a simple bed in a downtown room heated by a small stove on frigid weekends. For years, he took public transportation around the city, and cooked his own meals.

Bergoglio has slowed a bit with age and is feeling the effects of having a lung removed due to infection when he was a teenager — two strikes against him at a time when many Vatican-watchers say the next pope should be relatively young and strong. "But he's going to be very influential in the congress of cardinals, one of those who is most listened to," Rubin said.