How Pope Changed The Catholic Church, Why Did He Choose The Name Francis? Explained

News18

21-04-2025

Last Updated:
Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina was in his seventies when he became Pope in 2013. He chose the name Francis for his pontificate, to honour the saint of Assisi, a town in Central Italy
After surviving a bout of double pneumonia in hospital early this year, Pope Francis passed away at his home in the Vatican on Monday morning. He served as the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church for 12 years.
Francis was the first Pope from the Americas – a non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years – and also the first Jesuit to be elected to the throne of St Peter.
The pontiff, who had a chronic lung condition and had part of one lung removed in his youth, was suffering from two respiratory crises.
Who Was Bergoglio Of Argentina?
Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina was in his seventies when he became Pope in 2013. He appealed to conservatives with orthodox views on sexual matters and attracted reformers with his liberal stance on social justice.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 17, 1936 — the eldest of five children. His parents had fled their native Italy to escape the evils of fascism.
He enjoyed tango dancing and was an ardent supporter of his local football club, San Lorenzo.
He was lucky to escape with his life after an initial and serious bout of pneumonia, undergoing an operation to remove part of a lung. It would leave him susceptible to infection throughout his life.
As an elderly man he also suffered from pain in his right knee, which he described as a 'physical humiliation", as per BBC.
He became a Jesuit, studied philosophy and taught literature and psychology. Ordained a decade later, he won swift promotion, becoming provincial superior for Argentina in 1973.
He was named Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992 and then became Archbishop. Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal in 2001 and he took up posts in the Church's civil service, the Curia.
He cultivated a reputation as a man of simple tastes. He usually flew economy and preferred to wear the black gown of a priest – rather than the red and purple of his new position.
How Pope Derived His Name Francis
Cardinal Bergoglio chose the name Francis for his pontificate, to honour the saint of Assisi, a town in Central Italy.
'He explained it in a very simple way, that he chose Francis' name because he's the man of peace, of the poor, of brotherhood. The man who loves and respects creation," said the Rev. Enzo Fortunato, who spent 30 years in Assisi and now leads the Vatican's committee on World Children's Day. 'It's a name that contains a life programme."
The Pope has also been to Assisi several times. In 2016, he was in the basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. There, he prayed at the place where the Franciscan movement began.
St. Francis of Assisi was born in 1182. The son of a merchant, he renounced his inheritance to follow the austerity of Christ. He lived in strict poverty, with a simple life.
Accepted into the church by the bishop, he became a champion of the poor and later founded the Franciscan order, which remains active worldwide.
For Assisi's current bishop, Rev. Domenico Sorrentino, Francis' rejection of material wealth also reflected his deep appreciation for creation and peace.
'Francis, stripping himself, came back to nature in some sense. So, we must receive nature as a gift of God, and respect this gift," Sorrentino told the Associated Press.
What He Did As Pope
Pope worked greatly towards bridging the thousand-year rift with the Eastern Orthodox Church. For the first time since the Great Schism of 1054, the Patriarch of Constantinople attended the installation of a new Bishop of Rome.
Francis worked with Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists and persuaded the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to join him to pray for peace.
After attacks by Muslim terrorists, he said it was not right to identify Islam with violence.
Politically, he allied himself with the Argentine government's claim on the Falklands, telling a service: 'We come to pray for those who have fallen, sons of the homeland who set out to defend their mother, the homeland, to claim the country that is theirs," as quoted by BBC.
He also provided a crucial service as mediator when the US government edged towards historic rapprochement with Cuba.
He said the Church should welcome people regardless of their sexual orientation, but insisted gay adoption was a form of discrimination against children.
After becoming Pope in 2013, he took part in an anti-abortion march in Rome — calling for rights of the unborn 'from the moment of conception".
He resisted the ordination of women, declaring that Pope John Paul II had once and for all ruled out the possibility.
In 2015, he told people in the Philippines that contraception involved 'the destruction of the family through the privation of children".
In 2023, he made a pilgrimage to South Sudan, pleading with the country's leaders to end conflict. He also appealed for an end to the 'absurd and cruel war" in Ukraine.
Major Challenges During His Papacy
His critics accused him of failing to tackle child abuse and diluting the faith. In August 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former Apostolic Nuncio to the US, published an 11-page declaration of war. He released a letter describing a series of warnings made to the Vatican about the behaviour of a former cardinal, Thomas McCarrick.
It was alleged that McCarrick had been a serial abuser who attacked both adults and minors.
The controversy was a blot on the Church, and McCarrick was eventually defrocked in February 2019, after an investigation by the Vatican.
Meanwhile, he was accused of involvement in the military kidnapping of two priests during Argentina's Dirty War, a period when thousands of people were tortured or killed, or disappeared, from 1976 to 1983.
tags :
News18 Explains pope francis The Vatican City
Location :
New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
April 21, 2025, 15:25 IST
News explainers How Pope Changed The Catholic Church, Why Did He Choose The Name Francis? Explained