Francis - Pontifical Years
ShareJorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected the 265th successor of St. Peter, and the 266th Pope on March 13, 2013. He was elected at the Conclave of the Cardinal Electors which was called to choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), who had resigned for reasons of health on February 28th.
His election occurred on the second day of voting, on the fifth ballot of the Conclave. Upon election he chose to be called “Francis,” after the little poor man of Assisi, as he would explain, “brought to Christianity an idea of poverty against the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the time.”
Although of Italian ancestry (his father and maternal grandparents were immigrants to Argentina), he is the first pope from the Americas, the first member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first to take the name Francis, and the first pope since 913 (Pope Lando) to take a name not previously used by a Successor of St. Peter.
He should be styled Pope Francis, and not Pope Francis I.
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2013
| March 13 | Elected the 265th successor of St. Peter and 266th Pope, on the second day, by the fifth ballot of the Conclave, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI for reasons of health. He took the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, the first Pope to take the name. However, he is called Pope Francis, not Francis I. |
| March 16 | Held the First General Audience of his pontificate. At it he explained the choice of his name, saying of St. Francis, "He brought to Christianity an idea of poverty against the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the time. He changed history." Following Francis' example, Pope Francis continued to reside at the Domus Sanctae Marthae (House of St. Martha) where the Cardinals reside during the Conclave, and continues to do so to this day, rather than move into the Apostolic Palace where his predecessors have lived. |
| March 19 | Pope Francis is formally installed as Pontiff. Although a bishop upon accepting election as pope immediately possesses all the authority and prerogatives of his predecessors, he is nonetheless installed by a liturgical ceremony. This installation is typically attended by representatives of governments, as well as of religion, both non-Catholic Christian and non-Christian. |
| March 28 | On Holy Thursday visited Rome's Casal del Marmo detention facility and presided at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. In a foot washing ceremony, he washed and kissed the feet of ten male and two female juvenile offenders, one of whom was Moslem. He told them "let each one of us think: Am I really willing, willing to serve, to help others?”. |
| April 13 | Established a new Council of Cardinal Advisers to assist him in revising the organization structure of the Roman Curia. |
| May 12 | Presided over the first canonizations of his pontificate, and, by number, more than the whole of Pope St. John Paul II's pontificate. These included the Martyrs of Otranto-(Antonio Primaldo and his 812 companions executed by the Ottomans in 1480), as well as two religious women (Bl. Laura of St. Catherine of Siena and Bl. María Guadalupe García Zavala). |
| June 29 | Signed his first Encyclical Lumen fidei (Light of faith). Written by Pope Benedict and awaiting the final draft when he retired, it was completed by Pope Francis, and published on July 5th. |
| July 8 | On his first papal trip outside Rome, Pope Francis visits the Italian island of Lampedusa. Located between Sicily and North Africa, it is an arrival point for refugees and migrants from poor and war-torn countries. There he decried the "globalization of indifference" over their fate. Later that year, on October 3, a fishing boat carrying more than 360 Eritrean refugees, sank off the island, with only 150 survivors. |
| July 11 | Launched a reform of the Vatican's penal code to fight sexual abuse against minors and corruption within the Church. |
| July 23-28 | Made his first foreign trip to World Youth Day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While there he visited the favela of Varginha in Rio De Janeiro, inaugurated a center to treat chemical dependency at the Hospital São Francisco de Assis, met with group of youth from his native Argentina, and celebrated the World Youth Day Mass on the waterfront in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. |
| July 29 | In the first of the in-flight interviews he will give, he answers a question on homosexuality by saying, "if someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?" His response will characterize his pontificate, in which he has emphasized mercy in pastoral interactions with people, while in his magisterial teaching maintaining the Church's doctrine on faith and morals. |
| November 24 | In his first major document which is solely his own, the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, he sets out the program of his pontificate, calling for "a missionary and pastoral conversion" whereby the laity would fully share in the missionary task of the church. |
| December | Time Magazine names the Pope “Man of the Year” |
