by Msgr. Francis A. Carbine
When Pope Francis speaks on the Parkway in Philadelphia during his September visit, listen carefully! You may hear traces of an Irish lilt. In fact, the future Pope studied English for three months in Milltown, County Dublin, in 1980. He has remarked, however, that “English caused me a big problem — especially in pronunciation, because I am very tone-deaf.”
When Pope Francis celebrates Mass near the Philadelphia Museum of Art on September 27th, he will be near St. Francis Xavier Church. This parish was founded for Irish immigrants in 1839. During the Anti-Catholic riots of 1844, this was the only church in Philadelphia where Mass was celebrated. Armed Irishmen guarded their church.
Jorge Bergoglio is the son of immigrants from the North of Italy. In 1927, his grandparents, with six children, purchased tickets to sail to Argentina as steerage passengers on the liner, Principessa Malfada.
Financial complications, however, caused his family to postpone departure. Off the coast of Brazil, this liner had an accident and hundreds of passengers drowned. The Bergoglio family – including Mario, the Pope’s father – sailed a month later.
Jorge, one of five children, was born in 1936, and baptized on Christmas Day. He was educated as a chemist, and worked in a laboratory testing nutrients. While studying, he also worked as a janitor and bouncer in a bar in Buenos Aires.
In 1955, he told his parents that he wished to become a priest. His father was supportive. His mother, however, reacted negatively. She was intent on her son becoming a physician.
After Jorge entered the Jesuit Novitiate in 1958, several years passed before his mother visited him. As a seminarian, he studied in Argentina, Chile and Spain. He was ordained priest in 1969.
As the world knows, he is the Pope of many “firsts.”
He is the first Pope to take the name “Francis”;
first to come from the Developing World;
first to have a graduate degree in chemistry.
He is the first non-European Pope since the Syrian, Gregory III, who died 1,272 years ago;
first to replace a living Pope (Benedict XVI) in more than 600 years;
and the first to fly through Chinese air space. (Pope John Paul II had been denied permission!) Pope Francis has done so twice!
He is also the first Pope to use a blue Ford Focus;
first to have been voted “Best Dressed Man of the Year” (Esquire Magazine 2013);
and first to be praised by NBC’s “Today Show” as “the coolest Pope ever.” And for this planetary Pope, the “firsts” go on.
As a boy, he was much influenced by his grandmother, Rosa Bergoglio, and later influenced by his female supervisor in the laboratory. She was a communist. She taught Jorge “the seriousness of work and much about politics.”
His papal motto translates: “Choosing Through the Eyes of Mercy.” For this he is indebted to St. Venerable Bede who died in 735 in an English monastery influenced by the Celtic Church.
As Pope, he appointed Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston as a key advisor. (The Cardinal’s father was born in Westport, County Mayo.) Pope Francis likewise appointed Marie Collins, a Dubliner and survivor of sexual abuse, to his Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Fulfilling his papal motto, he has reached out to impoverished refugees arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa from Africa. In South Korea, he spoke with women who had been forced into sexual slavery during World War II.
On Holy Thursday, 2013, he met with young adults in a Roman prison, and washed the feet of twelve prisoners. Two were Muslim; one, a woman. To date, he has travelled to thirteen countries outside Italy proclaiming the Gospel message of God’s mercy.
The road of this Pope’s life has often been rocky. Without any administrative experience, he became Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina at age thirty-six. He later described this assignment as “crazy!”
In Buenos Aires, he embraced families whose children had “disappeared” during the military government of his country. He also endured years of rejection by his superiors within the Jesuit community.
These experiences have resulted in a “brilliant Jesuit politician whose remarks are often unscripted, but never naïve…and who is not shy about using his authority.” (John Allen, journalist and expert on the Vatican.)
About the ordination of women, Pope Francis has stated, “The Church has spoken and said ‘no.’ That door is closed!”
In a special 2015 edition, Time Magazine quoted the Holy Father: “I cannot imagine a Christian who does not know how to smile.”
However, in Argentina – as Jesuit Provincial, Bishop and Cardinal — he was described as “shy” and “boring.” He rarely gave interviews. Perhaps Argentina’s “Dirty War” during the 1970s contributed to his avoidance of the spotlight.
In 2013, with his election as “Bishop of Rome,” matters instantly changed. His smiling face is now recognized throughout the world. His remarks — scripted or otherwise — are publicized in every possible media. His sister Maria Elena Bergoglio has actually stated, “I don’t recognize the guy!”
Philadelphia will soon welcome and witness “the Francis Miracle.”