Who’s The Current Pope?

Question:

Who’s the current Pope?

Answer:

Pope Francis is the current Pope of the Catholic Church since 13^th March 2013.

He is the 266^th Pope in the history of the Catholic Church but also the first in many other respects:

• The first Jesuit Pope
• The first Pope originating from the Americas
• The first Pope who took the name Francis (taken from Saint Francis of Assisi)
• And the first Pope from outside of Europe in 1272 years

To date, he has written 4 apostolic exhortations, 2 encyclicals, canonized 893 saints¹, and beatified 1,215 blesseds².

Pope Francis’s Short Bio

Pope Francis’s real name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

He was born on 17^th December 1936 in Flores, a middle-class district in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was the big brother to five other siblings.

On 21^st September 1955, when he was only 19 years old, he stopped by at a church to go to confession while was on his way to celebrate Spring Day (a holiday in Argentina.)

The priest who confessed him made a lasting impression on young Jorge and 902 days later, on 11^th March 1958, he joined the Jesuit religious order as a novice and eventually become a bona fide Jesuit on 12^th March 1960.

He was later ordained to the priesthood on 13^th December 1969 and later became the Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992.

But it was on 21^st February 2001 that Jorge Mario Bergoglio gained attention with his being created a cardinal by Pope Saint John Paul II.

He was nearly elected Pope in 2005 at the papal conclave that saw Pope Benedict XVI elected Pope, reportedly receiving the second-most votes.³

And he would later be elected Pope in the 2013 papal conclave after Pope Benedict XVI had resigned the Papacy due to a lack of strength from old age.⁴

---

Pope Francis has been the present Pope now for over 6 years.

What do you think have been the highs and lows of his pontificate? Feel free to comment below!

Have other basic questions about Catholicism? Click here.