Tracing Bergoglio's journey from a humble pastor to the papacy

When created a cardinal In 2001, he asked Catholics not to come to Rome to celebrate but rather to donate to the poor

Apr 21, 2025

VATICAN: Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants in Argentina on Dec. 17, 1936. His father Mario was an accountant with the railways and his mother Regina Sivori was a housewife who raised their five children.

Jorge was their eldest child and entered a diocesan seminary after graduating as a chemical technician.

On March 11, 1958, he entered a Jesuit Novitiate. He studied humanities in Chile and returned to Argentina in 1963 where he obtained a graduate degree in philosophy from the Colegio de San José in San Miguel.

From 1964 to 1965 he taught literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fé and in 1966 he taught the same subject at the Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires. From 1967-70 he studied theology and obtained a degree from the Colegio of San José.

Archbishop Ramón José Castellano ordained him a priest on Dec. 13, 1969. Between 1970 and 1971 he continued his training at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and on April 22, 1973, made his final profession with the Jesuits.

Back in Argentina, he served as the novice master at Villa Barilari, San Miguel; professor at the Faculty of Theology of San Miguel; consultor to the Province of the Society of Jesus and also rector of the Colegio Máximo of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology.

For six years, from July 31, 1973, he served as the provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina. He then resumed his work in the academic sector and from 1980 to 1986 served once again as rector of the Colegio de San José, as well as parish priest, again in San Miguel.

In March 1986 he went to Germany to finish his doctoral thesis; his superiors then sent him to the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires and next to the Jesuit Church in the city of Córdoba as spiritual director and confessor.

Humble pastor gains attention
Bergoglio became a close collaborator of Cardinal Archbishop Antonio Quarracino of Buenos Aires. Thanks to his backing, Pope John Paul II appointed him titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires on May 20, 1992.

His episcopal ordination was held on May 27 that year in Buenos Aires cathedral. He chose as his episcopal motto, miserando atque eligendo (By having mercy, by choosing him), and on his coat of arms inserted the IHS (Iesus Hominum Salvatore — Jesus, Savior of men), the symbol of the Society of Jesus.

He was then appointed Episcopal Vicar of Flores district and on Dec. 21, 1993, was appointed Vicar General of the Archdiocese. On June 3, 1997, Bergoglio was elevated to Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

In less than nine months, following the death of Cardinal Quarracino, he succeeded him on Feb. 28, 1998, as Archbishop, Primate of Argentina and Ordinary for Eastern-rite faithful in Argentina who have no Ordinary of their own rite.

Pope John Paul II created him Cardinal on Feb. 21, 2001. Prior to the ceremony, he asked Catholics not to come to Rome to celebrate his creation as Cardinal but rather to donate to the poor what they would have spent on the journey.

He served as Grand Chancellor of the Catholic University of Argentina and authored three books: Meditaciones para religiosos (1982), Reflexiones sobre la vida apostólica (1992) and Reflexiones de esperanza (1992).

In October 2001 he was appointed General Relator to the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. This task was entrusted to him at the last minute to replace Cardinal Edward Michael Egan, Archbishop of New York, who was obliged to stay in his homeland because of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 that year.

At the synod, he placed particular emphasis on “the prophetic mission of the bishop,” his being a “prophet of justice,” his duty to “preach ceaselessly” the social doctrine of the Church and “to express an authentic judgment in matters of faith and morals.”

All the while Cardinal Bergoglio was becoming ever more popular in Latin America. Despite this, he never relaxed his sober approach or his strict lifestyle, which some have defined as almost “ascetic.”

In this spirit of poverty, he declined to be appointed as President of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference in 2002, but three years later was elected and then, in 2008, reconfirmed for a further three-year mandate. Meanwhile, in April 2005 he took part in the conclave which elected Pope Benedict XVI.

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires — a diocese with more than three million inhabitants — he conceived a missionary project based on communion and evangelization. He had four main goals: open and brotherly communities, an informed laity playing a lead role, evangelization efforts addressed to every inhabitant of the city, and assistance to the poor and the sick.

He aimed to re-evangelize Buenos Aires, “taking into account those who live there, its structure and its history.” He asked priests and lay people to work together.

In September 2009 he launched the solidarity campaign for the bicentenary of the independence of the country. Two hundred charitable agencies were to be set up by 2016. And on a continental scale, he expected much from the impact of the message of the Aparecida Conference in 2007, to the point of describing it as the “Evangelii Nuntiandi of Latin America.”

It followed Pope Paul VI’s celebrated apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi” (Evangelization in the Modern World, 1975).

He was a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He was elected pope on March 13, 2013.--ucanews.com