Pope Francis

Some Lesser Known Facts About Pope Francis

• Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European pope since the Syrian Gregory III in 741.

• Pope was a polyglot. He spoke Spanish, Latin, and Italian fluently and understood German, French, Portuguese, English, and Ukrainian.

• His Father, Mario José Bergoglio, was an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro (Province of Asti) in Italy’s Piedmont region.

• Mario José’s family left Italy in 1929 to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini.

• The Pontiff had only one functioning lung. He had his right lung removed in his youth due to an infection.

• Before he became a Jesuit, Pope Francis used to work as a bouncer in a Buenos Aires bar to help pay for his studies.

• During the 1960s, he taught literature, philosophy, psychology, and theology at several high schools in Argentina.

• When he was 12 years old, he fell in love with a girl from his neighbourhood. He reportedly told her, “If I don’t marry you, I’m going to be a priest.” Even in this case, the Pontiff kept his word.

• Pope held the citizenship of three countries: Argentina, Italy, and Vatican City.

• In 2013, news magazine TIME named Pope Francis the Person of the Year, a prestigious title given to the one who “has done the most to influence the events of the year”.

• In 2001, as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he washed and kissed the feet of 12 AIDS patients at an Argentine hospice.

• Pope Francis came out strong against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Francis had branded the sexual abuse of children by priests an ugly crime, saying he would show zero tolerance for anyone in the church who perpetrated such crimes against children.

• On 15 March 2024, the autobiography of Pope’s Life, My Story Through History, was released. In the book, Pope said he did not plan to resign and preferred being called ‘Bishop Emeritus of Rome’ rather than ‘Pope Emeritus.’