All eyes are now focused on Pope Francis after he arrived in Washington D.C. on Tuesday to begin his first visit to the United States.
Since the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina accepted the role as the leader of the Catholic Church in March 2013 following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, millions of Catholics and even people of different religions worldwide have praised him for his simplicity, humility and compassionate views of people from all walks of life.
Just who is this man who is changing the landscape of religion? Charisma News has gathered all the information it can on Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff.
Bergoglio was born on Dec. 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires. His parents are actually Italian immigrants who fled the Mussolini regime back in 1929, and this is probably why he is very sympathetic towards the plight now facing hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees.
He is the oldest of five children, three of whom have passed away.
It would surprise people to learn that Pope Francis got into a lot of trouble during his childhood, and his mother would often get called to school because of his antics.
Bergoglio is also not immune to the allure of love and romance, since he even considered abandoning his vocation one time after developing a huge crush on a girl. "It would be abnormal for this kind of thing not to happen," he later mulled.
For a while, he worked as a bouncer at a bar, then studied chemistry before entering the seminary. Many believe that he got a master's degree in chemistry, but this information is doubtful since it would have been financially difficult for his parents – his father was an accountant while his mother was a plain housewife—to pay for such schooling.
When he turned 20 years old, he developed a severe case of pneumonia. Bergoglio developed cysts in his lungs and surgeons had to remove a part of his lung to stop the infection. That is why he gets winded sometimes after a long speech.
His mother actually did not want him to become a priest and encouraged him to pursue a career in chemistry instead. When she found out that he was studying theology and Latin in preparation for the seminary, she exclaimed, "Jorge, you've lied to me."
But he only responded: "No, mother. I'm studying medicine for souls."
Bergoglio's mother might not have stopped his desire to pursue a career in the church had she known that her son would one day become one of the most recognizable figures in the Catholic Church. However, when he was elected as the new Pope back in March 2013, Pope Francis admitted that he was initially reluctant to take on the job, but accepted it nonetheless since it came from God.
"On the night of my election, I had an experience of the closeness of God that gave me a great sense of interior freedom and peace, and that sense has never left me," he told his friend, who is a fellow Latin American bishop.
That same year, he was asked the same question many others asked after he became the Pope: "Who Is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?" And Pope Francis had the perfect reply: "I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner."
But the great news is that despite being a sinner, God's love and mercy saved Bergoglio, and this is the same news that he is trying to spread to people all over the world.
