Pope Francis

Pope Francis was born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants, Mario Jose Bergoglio and Regina Mar�a S�vori. Eldest of the five children of the couple, young Bergoglio was just like any other child.

He shared a fondness for dancing and traditional music of Argentina and Uruguay, known as milonga. Bergoglio attained his preliminary education from Wilfrid Bar�n de los Santos �ngeles, post which he graduated from Escuela Nacional de Educaci�n T�cnica N� 27 Hip�lito Yrigoyen as a chemical technician.

Upon graduation, Bergoglio worked as a chemical technician in the foods section at the Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory. However, he did not continue the same for long as he realized his true calling and ventured into priesthood.

Deciding to pursue sainthood, Bergoglio gained admission at the Inmaculada Concepci�n Seminary, in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires. He moved out of the same after three years in 1958 and entered the Society of Jesus.

As a Jesuit novice, Bergoglio studied humanities in Santiago, Chile. It was in 1960 that Bergoglio officially became a Jesuit, when he made the religious profession of the initial, temporary vows of a member of the order.

Same year, i.e. in 1960, Bergoglio attended the Colegio de San Jos� in San Miguel. He graduated with a degree in philosophy in 1963. Following year, Bergoglio took up the post of a teacher of literature and psychology at the Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fe.

He continued the vocation for a year after which in 1966, he moved to Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires, where he taught the same subjects.

From 1967 until 1970, Bergoglio studied theology and obtained a degree from the Colegio of San Jose.

In 1992, Bergoglio was ordained as Titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires by Cardinal Antonio Quarracino.

Five years later, in 1997, he was promoted and appointed to the position of Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires. It was during this time that Bergoglio chose the episcopal motto, ‘Miserando atque eligendo’ meaning, ‘because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him’.

Following the death of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, in 1998, Bergoglio became Metropolitan Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

As an Archbishop, Bergoglio was involved in creation of new parishes and restructuring of the archdiocese administrative offices. He strengthened the presence of Church in the slums and underdeveloped areas of Buenos Aires. It was during his term that the number of priests working in these areas doubled in number.

In 1998, while Bergoglio was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he was named ordinary (an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws) for those Eastern Catholics in Argentina who lacked a prelate of their own rite.