Out Of The Borders Politics
Jorge Bergoglio: being the Holy Father in the 21st century The Pope’s attempt to change the Catholic Church
by Sara Angioletti
Pope Bergoglio has often rocked the clergy and the entire Catholic community with his
speeches and gestures: a persona so different from his conservative predecessors, an opportunity for the Catholic Church to renew itself. From Twitter to climate change, from terrorism to same-sex unions, can his statements, therefore, be considered as a mental shift of the Catholic Church to survive in the 21st century?
“After making my confession I felt something er he became the spiritual guide of the city he had changed. I was not the same. I had heard served and loved so deeply. something, like a voice, or a call. I was convinced After being appointed cardinal by Pope John that I should become a priest”. Paul II in 2001, he has faced some of the most Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born in Buenos Aires in challenging times for Argentina in recent de1936, was a chemist and used to work in a lab- cades. During the riots of the same year, Beroratory before receiving the “call” that led him goglio led the Argentinian Catholic community to join the Jesuits in 1958. After fifteen years through a political, economic and social crisis, of training, he took his final vows in April 1973, always standing by the side of the poorest and without knowing that his faith would lead him most forgotten. In such a way that the adminisdirectly to Vatican City, to hold the highest eccle- tration of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner saw him siastical office of the Catholic Church. as a political opponent. An ordinary Argentinian who decided to dedicate But his true revolutionary nature showed up afhis life to God and others, inspired by a spiritual calling. His closeness to the most suffering and the most marginalized and the rejection of material wealth for a fairer and more just world, have allowed him to distinguish himself. So much that he was named Argentina’s provincial superior of the Society of Jesus at a surprisingly young age, and appointed successor of Antonio Quarracino, Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Only ten years lat-
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ter his election as the successor of Pope Benedict XVI, as bishop of Rome. To great surprise, the conclave, after two days of closure, elected him the new Pope, head of the Catholic Church. A persona, so different from his conservative predecessor, an opportunity for the Catholic Church to renew itself. Starting from the luxury and privileges that have always accompanied members of the Catholic clergy and rose numer-
