Simplicitas, probitas, dignitas II: Francis I

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires is elected Pope Francis I, the first Francis, the first Argentinean, the first Latin American, the first non-European to be elected Pope since Gregory III, the 266th leader of the Roman Catholic Church after two days of deliberation in the Sistine Chapel.

Brothers and sisters, good evening...the first words of Pope Francis I.

One billion, two hundred million Roman Catholics have a new leader, his name chosen after Saint Francis of Assisi of Italy, member of the Jesuits, the largest Catholic order, and seen by many as being the perfect bridge between Europe and the New World, where the future of the Catholic Church lies through the evangelization of the faithful in Latin America, Africa, Oceania and Asia.

But Francis I was chosen by at least 77 of the 115 Cardinal electors not only for any strategic reasons, he was also chosen as an example to follow, being a man of great humility and simplicity, values treasured by the Emeritus Pope, Benedict XVI. The name of Francis I was proclaimed in Latin by the senior cardinal deacon of the Roman Catholic Church, the French Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, ("Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam" ("I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope") after which Pope Francis I gave his first blessing to the crowd gathered in Saint Peter's Square and asked for the blessing of the people for his Papacy, his first gesture as the 265th successor to the apostle of Christ, Peter after praying in private in the Pauline Chapel, opposite the Sistine where he was elected.

Simplicitas, probitas, dignitas II: Francis I*, seventy-six years old, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936, is the first non-European Pope elected since Gregory III (Syrian) in the eighth century.

A reformer and a conservative, Francis I, Archbishop of Buenos Aires since 1998, will stand for traditional Catholic values against gay marriage, considering it "an attempt to destroy God's plan". He will also continue the work of Benedict XVI, at whose election he is widely believed to have been the runner-up in 2005.

 *http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/01-03-2013/123935-benedict_dignitas-0/

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru