Pope Francis is a man of charity,
humbleness and caring. Francis is a
seventy six year old man whose name was originally Jorge Bergoglio and he was
the Cardinal of Buenos Aires. He has tendency
to always put other people first and himself always last. Only a month ago Francis’s predecessor Pope
Benedict resigned from the title of being Pope.
Benedict was the first pope in over two hundred years to ever resign
from being the Pope other than death. With
his resignation comes a new time for the Catholic church as it tries to go back
to the more simple ways of the church.
The main question that comes into play from the appointing of a new pope
is who is this man and what will he contribute to help reform the church back
to its days of prosperity.
Francis
was a member of the Society of Jesus, which we will get into later. His lifestyle was different than most as he is one of the most humble top officials of the church. Other officials regularly exploit how much
money they can spend or they seem to even think more of themselves than of the
people they serve. Francis regularly
rode the bus to work and even cooked his own meals which other positions like
his would not even think of. He also
regularly visited the slums in the capital other than making the people come to
him. When Francis was elected the top
church official of Buenos Aires in 2001 he never lived in the Church’s gigantic
mansion. He was the first Archbishop to
live this was. He preferred to cut the
church’s costs by living in a one room apartment in the middle of the city near
the slums. He also never gave public
interviews because he believed that this would just spread false rumors so he only
spoke directly to the people. Another
major part of Pope Francis is that he is the first Pope elected from the
Americas as well as the first Jesuit Pope.
Most
people in our world have no idea what a Jesuit is or what the Society of Jesus
is. The Society of Jesus was founded by
St. Ignatius of Loyola. The reason that
St. Ignatius made this society was to make “a spiritual exercise to convert
heart and mind closer to the following of Jesus Christ. Some of the specifications of being a Jesuit
require regulatory fasting, years of probation before you take your final vows,
graduation of members and no female branch.
The main point of being a Jesuit is having the virtue of obedience. All members need to respect authority and do
as they are told otherwise there is a good chance of losing their membership of
the Society of Jesus.
Paragraph about Vatican
Paragraph about Francis’
accomplishments
Pope
Francis is going to bring a new era of change to the Catholic church and the
Vatican. This reform of the church
should result, if it is successful, in bringing back the old culture of charity
and forgiveness that seemed to have lost its way with the recent scandals of
sexual abuse and embezzlement. Every
person in our world could be better off by trying to change at least one aspect
of their life to become more like Pope Francis.
If we can do this change will come and we will see a very different
Catholic Church.
