Some Interesting Facts About His Holiness Pope Francis

Curious about Pope Francis? Check out these 15 interesting facts about Pope Francis you probably didn’t know.

1. Francis is the Pope of many firsts. He 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.

2. He is unusually multilingual, speaking Spanish, Latin and Italian fluently and understanding German, French, Portuguese, English, and Ukrainian.

3. He chose his papal name due to the humility and austerity associated with St. Francis of Assisi and he really lives up to his reputation. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he lived in an apartment, cooked his own meals and took public transit. Each year during Holy Week as archbishop, he washed the feet of different social outsiders, including AIDS patients and the incarcerated, according to Bloomberg News.

4. When elected Pope, he chose not to wear the red shoes made specifically for him, but rather, chose to continue wearing his old, worn-out black shoes from Buenos Aires.

5. The Pontiff had only one functioning lung. He had a part of his right lung removed in his youth due to an infection, but he appears to be in good health even at the ripe age of 78.

6. As a true-blooded Argentine, he is a big fan of tango. He also loves soccer. He is a proud supporter of San Lorenzo de Almagro Football club, a traditional soccer team from his home neighborhood. He is also known to have a good sense of humor.

7. Before he became a Jesuit, Pope Francis worked as a bouncer in a Buenos Aries bar to help pay for his studies.

8. At the age of 12, he fell in love with a girl from his neighborhood. 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.

9. During his pontificate, Pope Francis lived in the St. Martha house (Casa Santa Marta) with the Vatican employees instead of staying in the usual Papal Palace.

10. In 2013, American news magazine the 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”.

11. He celebrated his first Holy Thursday Mass in a youth prison in Rome, and forbid any media to attend, asking that the Mass be private.

12. The Pontiff was given a Harley-Davidson motorcycle after he gave blessings to hundreds of Harley owners and their rides in St. Peter’s Square. He sold the bike at an auction that benefited the homeless.

13. As a young teen, the Pope used to play basketball (influenced by his father who played basketball for San Lorenzo) so he has also received many basketball jerseys including the personalized jersey of NBA´s Boston Celtics.

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

15. Pope Francis warns Christians against falling into the trap of “spiritual worldliness,” which is “self-centeredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God.” “Spiritual worldliness which hides behind the appearance of piety and even love for the Church,” the Holy Father explains in Evangelii Gaudium, “consists in seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being.” Having a worldly church can take the form of ostentatious preoccupation with doctrine and prestige, social or political gain, or a social life “full of appearances, meetings, dinners and receptions.” It can be a “business mentality” in which one is “caught up with management, statistics, plans and evaluations whose principal beneficiary is not God’s people but the Church as an institution.” To avoid this, the Church must “constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor.”

Source: catholicnewsagency.com, list25.com, papalvisit.ph