Time is calling him the people’s pope. An interesting choice of words to say the least. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, became Pope Francis on March 13th this year, calling himself Francis after the humble saint from Assisi.
Pope Francis was the first pope from the Jesuit order. The pope has embraced social justice and other current core principles of the Jesuits, such thinking is shared by many world leaders including President Obama and this has made him a favorite of the American press.
But, it is his actions that make him what Time magazine calls the people’s pope. Here is an excerpt from the Time article.
This papacy begins with a name. Jorge Bergoglio is the first Pope to choose as his namesake Francis of Assisi, the 13th century patron saint of the poor. The choice, coming after 14 Clements, 16 Benedicts and 21 Johns, is clearly and pointedly personal. The 13th century Francis turned to the ministry when, as legend has it, he heard a voice calling to him from a crucifix to repair God’s house. He left his prosperous silk-merchant family to live with the poor. He was a peacemaker, the first Catholic leader to travel to Egypt to try to end the Crusades. He placed mercy at the core of his life.
From that name follows much of Francis’ agenda. While the Catholic Church envisioned by Benedict XVI was one of tightly calibrated spiritual prescriptions, Francis told Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit magazine Civiltà Cattolica, in an interview published at the end of September, that he sees “the church as a field hospital after battle.” His vision is of a pastoral—not a doctrinaire—church, and that will shift the Holy See’s energies away from demanding long-distance homage and toward ministry to and embrace of the poor, the spiritually broken and the lonely. He expanded on this idea in a 288-section apostolic exhortation called “Evangelii Gaudium,” or “The Joy of the Gospel.” “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security,” he wrote. He made it clear that he does not just want talk—he wants actual transformation.
He has halted the habit of granting priests the honorific title of monsignor as a way to stem careerism in the ranks and put the focus instead on pastoring. He told a gathering of his diplomats that he wanted them to identify candidates for bishop in their home countries who are, he said, “gentle, patient and merciful, animated by inner poverty, the freedom of the Lord and also by outward simplicity and austerity of life.” To Francis, poverty isn’t simply about charity; it’s also about justice. The church, by extension, should not reflect Rome; it should mirror the poor.
To give perspective, it should be noted that Time’s second choice for person of the year was Edward Snowden.
Read more: TIME’s Person of the Year 2013 Pope Francis, The People’s Pope | TIME.com https://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/person-of-the-year-pope-francis-the-peoples-pope/#ixzz2nAwI2mxR
