Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum Habemus Papam! A Church that will not stay still, a non-static Church, we can be sure that this will be the church of Pope Francis. This has always set Bergoglio apart. A great Jesuit, a man of excellent formation, above all, he is a man of action. If we read Pope Francis' writings we're going to always see this concern with going to the frontiers of poverty, of exclusion and of those who are furthest from God. He was always a person who had a lot of courage and plenty of bravery to stand before the powerful and say what he thought; the voice of those who had no voice; that was Cardinal Bergoglio. A man who is kind of a desert saint and a great and brilliant administrator. The combination of these two characteristics is not very common. Pope Francis, whose life has been exemplary in precisely the type of personal witness that the new evangelization calls for. He becomes the model for millions of Catholics around the world today. Argentina is a country of sweeping beauty and diversity. Here you will find some of the world's tallest mountains, largest praries, and breath taking waterfalls. And when standing on the Tierra Del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the country, one can look out towards Antartica and truly say, "I have traveled to the ends of the Earth." But the cultural heart of Argentina is Buenos Aires. Known as the "Paris of South America" it is a sprawling cosmopolitan city, highlighted by its European style architecture and rich cultural life. But it is also a city of stark contrasts: where a dark underside of poverty and crime consume entire neighborhoods. In the 20th Century, millions of immigrants arrived on these shores seeking a better life. The future Pope Francis was born into a family of Italian origin. His father Mario Bergoglio hailed from the Piedmont region of Italy. He and his wife Regina settled in Barrio Flores, a teeming neighborhood of immigrants. They raised their family of five children in this home. He was a regular boy. He didn't stand out in any remarkable way. He was very polite, very neat. He went to a public school. His parents were from a modest family. And Bergoglio was a great lover of the tango. He was a passionate fan of the tango stars Carlos Gardel and Ada Falcon. Young Bergoglio's passion for the tango only pailed in comparison to his love for San Lorenzo de Almagro, the Buenos Aires soccer team he continues to follow as Pope. Quite fittingly, the team was founded by Father Lorenzo Massa, a priest who reached out to the youth of Buenos Aires. It was his neighborhood team. It was where his father would take him as a boy. It also has to do with the identity of being Porteño, the identity of Buenos Aires. Young Jorge loved soccer, tango and spending time with friends. He also had a girlfriend he enjoyed spending time with. But it was one unexpected evening that he discovered the seeds of a religious vocation here in the Basilica San Jose de Flores. He felt that God was searching for him. He describes a moment when he was going out on an excursion with friends, and beforehand he decides to go to confession. And right at that moment - in the presence of a deeply spiritual Priest - Bergoglio experiences such a strong vocational calling that he decides to not go out with his friends, and this becomes a turning point in his life. As he privately discerned a call to the priesthood, Bergoglio graduated with a chemical technician's diploma. Shortly after, he entered the Society of Jesus. His conviction as a young Jesuit seminarian would be strengthened by a life-threatening bout of pnuemonia, which led to the removal of part of one of his lungs. He was experiencing this tremendous suffering, really reached the depths of suffering. Everyone was saying, "Don't worry, it will pass." And he said, "those words were useless to me." What really helped him was when a nun came to visit him and said, "You are imitating Jesus, the suffering of Jesus." That truly helped alleviate his pain. And when talking about his vocation he says that this was "something that really impacted him, it was very important." More than four decades after he first entered the seminary, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square. It was 2001. Argentina's economy was mired in crisis between a collapsed government, widespread unemployment, riots and a devalued currency. For Cardinal Bergoglio his duty was simple. Protect the innocent and comfort the suffering. Bergoglio always used to say that the poor, and the people that are left on the street, he would say that the side of the road becomes invisible. And Bergoglio would always say that we end up not seeing them, they form part of an unknown landscape. He wanted us to open our eyes so that we could take them into account. And I'd be sitting here, "Hello father," I'd say. And I would get down and greet him. Before leaving the last thing he always said was, "Pray for me, hallelujah." He always said, "Pray for me." He has always been the same, worried about the problems of humankind, the injustices and the poverty. He walked through the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and San Miguel. He walked everywhere, and he knew and loved the people and they loved him very much. The fact is he was always a person that liked to learn about reality by living it. You would always run into him in the neighborhoods. He was never a desk priest. For me he was a very down to earth and normal because I would travel with him in the subway, I would speak with him and he would come to our parish, we would go walking in the streets together, he was our priest, he was one of the priests of our neighborhood, the priest of the villa. In truth, it pains me to have lost him... If we needed something we would call him, Bergoglio would always lend a hand. Bergoglio is always listening. Bergoglio had a phrase that he used more than once, "The Church has to be on the borders." Then he would tell the priests, "You don't call the people to the Churches, you have to go where the people are." As a child, Bergoglio was raised by his maternal Grandmother. His love for her profoundly impacted his views on care for the elderly and the dying. His Grandmother impacted him very much and he had such a great admiration, a great care for the elderly. He always said that society should not abandon them, but look after them, care for them. He had this great concern. Cardinal Bergoglio's consistent stand for Catholic values in every area; for the poor, the unborn, and the sanctity of marriage - drew the ire of Argentina's political elites. Pope Francis, really has a big problem with the structure of governments, especially in Argentina where you have this kind of political entrepreneurship. The leadership lives in a very ostentatious manner, and the poor are suffering, a lot of poverty and exclusion and Cardinal Bergoglio opposed this. When Nestor and Cristina Kirchner pushed to legalize same sex marriage in Argentina in 2010, Bergoglio opposed the plan, noting that every child deserved both a mother and a father. President Cristina Kirchner was outraged at his opposition to the law and attacked him personally, accusing Bergoglio of leading a modern day inquisition. But whether it was social or moral issues, Bergoglio consistently defended the Catholic position as it related to the lives of Argentinians. What becomes very clear in looking at the life of Pope Francis is a Christian witness that is focused on great respect and charity for the human person. He does not choose between social justice or social issues because he sees a unity of all of these issues. He cared about the social situation of the needy, the elderly, and the children; that concern was misinterpreted by the media. He never intervened in politics; that is true. Reporters interpreted his words as allusions to politics and that's another thing. Cardinal Bergoglio wrote that his strongly worded homilies were not expressions of partison politics, but a message for everyone about the need for morality in daily life. But the media and some politicians took or applied it personally. President Nestor Kichner came out of the church and announced that Bergoglio was the "leader of the opposition." There was a lot of resentment there and that was an opportunity for them to sort of collude and put the narrative out there that Bergoglio was a collaborator with the military government. Left wing journalist and former leftist guerilla Horacio Verbitsky accused Bergoglio of being complicit in the kidnapping of two Jesuit priests during the violent turmoil of Argentina's infamous "dirty war" in the 1970's. There has long been a political vendetta in Argentina between the people on the left who lost the dirty war and didn't manage to turn Argentina into a communist country and the people on the right who fought against them. And Father Bergoglio was caught in the middle of that. And because he did not ally himself with the guerillas during the war they have had a long-standing resentment against him. What is true is that these hypotheses always became a policy against Bergoglio supported by the government of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner who have always seen Bergoglio as a political enemy. Horacio Verbitsky actually worked for the guerillas. He is an editor at a newspaper called Pagina Doce. Argentines laugh and they call it the official gazette because it so much speaks the government's line. I think he truly saw this as an opportunity to inflict damage on the church. To understand the accusations we must trace the rise of Pope Francis. On April 22, 1973, Father Bergoglio took his final vows as a Jesuit. He had spent more than 15 years in formation. During these years, he witnessed the historic rise and fall of Juan and Eva Peron, and learned well the fleeting nature of political power. By this time, despite the fact that he was just 36 years old, he had so impressed his fellow Jesuits, that he was named Provincial Superior for all of Argentina. But the young priest faced steep challenges. It was a difficult time, because in 1973, we had four Presidents. In 1976, the military took over the government. So Bergoglio was the provincial during one of the most difficult periods in the history of Argentina. Bergoglio was also challenged by changes within the church. A growing number of priests and theologians in Latin America began to see liberation through political, economic and social revolution. In its most extreme interpretation, liberation theology served to justify guerilla movements with Marxist revolutionary ideas. Bergoglio guided his priests away from politics and confrontation. Nevertheless, political violence sometimes struck too close to home. The new military dictatorship under General Videla was opposed by Marxist guerilla groups and labor unions. The Junta set out to ruthlessly eliminate its enemies. The ensuing violence became known as the "Dirty War," and tore the nation apart. Horacio Verbitsky claimed that during the 1976 kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Bergoglio turned a blind eye since he disagreed with their political involvement. They couldn't accept the rules that Bergoglio set as a superior. They had to leave the area where they were staying because he could not guarantee their safety in the face of the many dangers involving the kidnappings of people during the military dictatorship. But they did not agree, and they decided to leave the Society of Jesus, to stop being Jesuits and continue their pastoral and political activities. Shortly after, they were kidnapped by the military forces and were imprisoned and tortured. Bergoglio got the chaplain who served the dictator to call in sick so that he could go to see the dictator himself and personally appeal for the release of those Jesuits. One of the kidnapped priests, Father Francisco Jalics, has himself denied the allegations saying, quote: "The fact is, Orlando Yorio and I were not denounced by Father Bergoglio." He did a lot of things behind the scenes, undercover, to try to help people. One story where he gave his clothing and his ID to someone who is being chased by the military so that guy could get across the border and out of the country. He was basically trying to help people from a humanitarian stand point. His years as Jesuit Provincial, followed by a period as Rector of Theology and Philosophy at the Colegio Maximo de San Jose, would reveal the character and leadership of the future Pope. I think that if there is a theme that becomes underlined, it is his mercy. Bergoglio is capable of forgiving the things that perhaps we would not forgive. He was a spiritual man. A man who prayed a lot. When we would get up at 6:30 or 7:00 to go to mass, at this time Bergoglio had already prayed and had laundered the bedding and towels for 150 Jesuits. He would have taken them out, hung them up to dry, and we would just be trying to get out of bed. He taught us how to be real friends, not just co-workers, friends. We have to love each other. We have to stand together especially in the most difficult moments. He was very intelligent. He was academic and studious, but above all he had an intuitive intelligence. He could read people immediately, and he would see through you and you couldn't hide things from him. And with that, he would help you. He taught us the human dimension of the apostolate, of the mission, I can't get the faith across to a boy, if that boy is hungry. I was doing the spiritual exercises and on the fourth day, he called me and said that I was very comfortable praying, sleeping and eating. At the door there is a woman with four children without shelter so stop your retreat and find them shelter. Once they have a house, you can go back to praying." We came back after we completed the mission, the mission in which he intervened directly. He knew how to help people and he knew which doors to knock on to find them help. In 1986, Father Bergoglio traveled to Germany to further his theological studies. Upon his return to Argentina, he was sent to Cordoba where he humbly served the Jesuit community as confessor and spiritual director. No one predicted High Church Office in his future. However, his humility caught the attention of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino of Buenos Aires. In 1992, he appointed Father Bergoglio Auxiliary Bishop. Five years later, Bergoglio would succeed as Archbishop and become the spiritual leader of the city he loved. As a Bishop, he had received a big house, very beautiful. And he went all through the house, and found it full of items such as blankets, non-perishable food. So, what did he do? He went out with these items and gave them away. He was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the highest authority of the church in Argentina, and the first surprising impression was that he answered his own phone, without secretaries. This was so shocking that the foreign colleagues asked me, "But are you sure he's the Cardinal?" Could it be his assistant?" We have all bumped into him in the streets of Buenos Aires, I saw him on the subway more than one time and we would talk. He is a man that has never owned a car when he was Archbishop and never accepted a taxi or a car ride anywhere because he would say, "The public ways of transportation allow me to meet people and understand what they are going through." Cardinal Bergoglio's influence extended even beyond Buenos Aires. When Pope Benedict XVI came to Aparecida, Brazil, it was Bergoglio who was put in charge of writing one of the most important documents on the church in the new world. I had the great pleasure of meeting him in Aparecida, Brazil, during the meetings of the Latin American Bishops Conference. When I listened to his homily he said some things that were very profound and very impactful. I've seen so few people like him who are able to impart such deep thoughts in a simple and relevant way, breaking with protocols. He would share with you an anecdote and touch your heart with its message. Yet, his activities in Buenos Aires were even more powerful than his words. For him, the center of Buenos Aires was not the Plaza de Mayo, where the powerful live, but rather, the city's periphery. As Bishop of Buenos Aires, he always sought after those neglected by the powerful. He made them the focus. This not only helped the people in these neighborhoods live better lives, but it also made the rest of the city of Buenos Aires, look at these neighborhoods in a different way. I asked him, "why mass in the villa?" Those are the questions I would ask him, or "why would do you come to the villa?" And he would say that "he liked being close to the poor because the poor would offer him their hearts." Working for Cardinal Bergoglio, Father Di Paola's efforts to rejuvenate the infamous Buenos Aires slum Villa 21, a neighborhood where taxi's won't travel and even police won't enter, gained the attention of drug lords who threatened his life. I went one day and said to him, "Look, they have threatened to kill me and I think it could be serious." Then he took his head in his hands. I remember he sat down and the first thing he said was, "I am going to ask God that if something has to happen, let it happen to me and not you." Cardinal Bergoglio immediately rasied Father Di Paola's profile and made sure the media knew of the death threats. The outcry of public support helped save Father Di Paola's life. So they really were difficult moments but you never felt alone, because your friends, the people in the villas, people from other places too, people from society in general and most of all, the bishop, were standing side by side. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires is a very complex archdiocese. He supported many programs that other priests and pastoral workers carried out in the prisons, with street kids, so many initiatives and they acquired quite a strong dynamic in the archdiocese. This has always set Bergoglio apart. I would never define him as an intellectual, he was a man of action. He is not a man that is interested in culture as an academic subject, interestingly he respected that work a lot, but it was not his priority. His priority was social action. Someone asked me what would be his most outstanding quality? It's difficult to say but one is his sensitivity, being attentive to others, being sensitive, listening to the needs of others. He worked a lot in the prisons, not many people knew this. He would often visit the hospitals, visit the nursing homes; being so close to those in need. The defining image of Bergoglio's compassion and love for the underpriveleged - was his custom of taking the holy Thursday washing of feet - and bringing it to the suffering of Buenos Aires. It's an act of charity, love, and humility that Pope Francis has wanted to do all these years as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Going to the poorest people, going to the people suffering the most. I believe he does it as an act of following Jesus' example. He washed my feet and kissed my feet. It was very emotional, very beautiful. It was such a moving thing for me. In this moment I felt joy and sadness, but real joy seeing the Cardinal do this to me and I started to cry a little. Bergoglio always kept a very low-profile, but he was a very determined man and he knew how to knit an infinite number of relationships with all kinds of people. That is a trait that he always had, his personal relationships, a great memory and extreme confidence in his rolodex. One day he asked me something that is very common here in Argentina, and especially in Buenos Aires, what team are you? Meaning, which one do you support? So, he is a fan of San Lorenzo, and I said, River. Well, when River was not playing well and San Lorenzo was, he started joking about it and I realized that this was a different man, a man who tries to get closely acquainted with his neighbor, someone with whom we can begin walking down a path of deep understanding. Cardinal Bergoglio and Rabbi Skorka's private meetings resulted in the co-authoring of a best-selling book titled, "On Heaven and Earth." We are first committed to demonstrating that we can walk together, that we should walk together, each one true to their own identity, yet striving to present a message of spirituality and peace for Argentina, for the City of Buenos Aires and for the world. My first reaction was one of complete surprise and disbelief. The notion of a Holy Father resigning was not something that we are at all accustomed to thinking of. But I must say I came to the conclave without any clear ideas as to what would happen. The conclave produced not just a change, but also continuity. What's very profound about the election of Pope Francis is it was as if the Cardinals in the conclave actually were reading Pope Benedict's encyclical on charity when they elected this man, whose life has personified the Church's mission of charity. To me it was very moving that as he led us in the "Our Father" and the "Hail Mary;" the prayers that every Catholic knows; whether you're a rocket scientist or an illiterate peasant. It was a very beautiful moment as he led everyone in prayer. Everyone wanted someone who would be able to communicate the Gospel as effectively as John Paul II and Pope Benedict. You want a man of God. You want a man of good pastoral governance. You want a man with a sense of the church universal. You want a good communicator and he fills those bills. Where he comes from is gravy. You talk about a booster shot to the church in the Americas. This is gonna be a real blessing. The election of the first Pope from the American continent caused widespread joy throughout Latin America, but especially in the Pope's homeland. It was very emotional. I saw that face and suddenly, the image dressed in white. He telephoned me from Rome. He said, 'listen, they didn't let me leave Rome. I came here, they seized me and they didn't let me go back. The first thing I felt along with joy was the sadness of realizing that we have lost him, now he belongs to the whole world. But no doubt it's a great joy. Providence wanted someone from here to be elected, someone from this land, that we love so much. It has awakened feelings of religious fervor. Senator Liliana Negre De Alonso, a longtime supporter of Cardinal Bergoglio during contentious public debates over abortion and same sex marriage, was addressing the Argentine Senate when news of the new Pope arrived. He was reviled, he was insulted, he was defiled and as a reward the Lord put him in that place as the successor of Peter on Earth. I went to my Office weeping with joy and gave thanks to God because he compensated him. This person who had suffered in the flesh the hours of Calvary. Despite her previous well-publicized attacks on him, Pope Francis welcomed Argentine President Cristina Kirchner for his first meeting with the foreign head of state. He was also very humble and practiced what he preached, "forgiveness, forgiveness, forgive and forget." He gave witness to this with the President because he had asked 14 times to be granted a visit with her yet he was always refused; 11 times the President was outside of Argentina during the annual Te Deum Mass in an effort to avoid him. And yet, instead of granting her a mere protocol visit, he received her for a 2-hour lunch and they spoke together without press, without protocols, without rancor. The excitement over the new Pope was felt most strongly by those closest to his heart. I jumped up and started crying like Mary Magdalene. I had so many goose bumps. Such a good feeling. It was such a joy. A joy because the first thing I thought was, oh! He washed my feet! Bergoglio! And now he's Pope. There is such a great joy. There is a feeling that this is the Pope of the Villas, of the slums. That's what they call him. They gave us a poster with that inscription for our chapel. They brought it to us from Villa 21. The way he identified with the Villas, those are the people that are very happy about the election of Francis. In the days after his election, everyone looked to share in the historic moment. Including the sport club the Pope followed since childhood. He was elected Pope on a Wednesday and San Lorenzo played the next Saturday or Sunday in Colon de Santa Fe. We wanted to somehow pay tribute to him on our jerseys. We asked for authorizations from the Argentine soccer association and they authorized us for that one time to add the picture of Pope Francis. For us it is something tremendously important, not just for San Lorenzo de Almagro. Even though it's a big club in Argentina, it wasn't so well known up until now with the new Pope. It has had a tremendous significance for us; it has fulfilled and completely exceeded our expectations. A Pope not only from Argentina, not only from Latin America, but a Pope from the New World. A Pope from The Americas, from the Ecclesia in America that John Paul II dreamed of. Latin America has gone through some very difficult times, but the fact that we have these great qualities and great values such as religious fervor, that strong sense of family, those cultural roots, and ancestral peoples. With this accumulation of cultural and religious wealth which can now be shared at a universal level, this is an important moment. For me, the election of the new Pope, Pope Francis, who is the first Pope from the American continent, it's a special sign from God that we need to participate actively in the life of the Church and it is a time for all of us to feel the responsibility of being an important part of the life of the Church. I was impressed by his efforts not to be captured by the office but to be actually himself in the service of the office of St. Peter. He didn't want to only be the Pope, he wanted to be a human being. He paid his own bills, he asked for a blessing of the people on the balcony of St Peter's, and I hope he continues to exercise his individual personality in the context of his service as Pope. And in this Pope we have someone who teaches by his personal witness and by the language that he uses to relate to the average person. He said, "Hello, this is Jorge." When he told me that he was Jorge, I asked, "The Pope"? And he said, "Yes, how did you recognize my voice?" And I told him, "How wouldn't I recognize you?" He is very humble. And she says to me very surprised "The Pope is calling." And I told her, "Well put him through." And he said, "Happy birthday!" And I told him, "How are you Jorge? Well, Francis now." But he likes to be called Jorge like always. He is very close to many people and he remembers their birthdays and so, even though he was announced as Pope he also remembered my birthday. He showed something he has always lived, that joy of being with the people; I believe that now he understands that his Petrine ministry is for the people. In the days after his election, the world asked, "what can we expect from this simple and humble Pope? This is the big question that I don't have sufficient authority to answer, so I have to refer to his words. A church that will not stay still, a non-static church, we can be sure that this will be the church of Pope Francis. There is a phrase 'the person who stays locked in a room will suffocate,' he speaks of a Church that is not self-referential, a church that reaches out to the people. He wants a Holy Church, or at least one that strives to obtain virtue and that virtue has to be demonstrated particularly in poverty, that is why he chose the name Francis. In his first international voyage, Pope Francis traveled to Brazil for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. There he welcomed millions of young people, challenging them to discover the transformative power of their Catholic faith. If we think back to the election of Pope John Paul II in the 1970's, we saw this great awakening of Christianity behind the Iron Curtain. The great challenge today is: how do we deal with the new globalization of the Church where the vast majority of Catholics today live in poverty? And so, now with Pope Francis may be able to do for the Western Hemisphere what John Paul II was able to do for Europe and the Soviet bloc. What a Pope does in our age can reach far beyond the Catholic Church and the election of Pope Francis means that the poor now have the most important spiritual leader on Earth as a very personal advocate for them. His election challenges everyone to look at their neighbor differently, to reach out in charity, and to understand that every life deserves our help. There is the potential for a real global reawakening of love of neighbor as a result of this Pope's leadership.