POPE FRANCIS

Juan Bergoglio – Rosa Vasallo begat Mario Jose Bergoglio

Francisco Sivori Sturla – Maria Gogna Di Sivori begat Regina Gogna

Mario Jose Bergoglio and Regina Gogna Di Sivori begat Jorge Mario (Pope Francis)

Pope Francis’ father Mario Giuseppe Francesco, was born in the Province of Asti, in Italy and immigrated in 1929 to Argentina. In 1935 he married Regina Savori of Buenos Aires, whose family emigrated from Alessandria, Italy. They produced five children, Maria Elena, Marta Regina, Jorge Mario (Pope Francis), Alberto Horacio and Oscar Adrian.

Jorge was born on 17 of December, in 1936 in Flores, one of the largest neighborhoods, (barrio) in the city of Buenos Aires.

In 1969 at the age of thirty-three he became a priest. He relates that his mother, a devout catholic, did not initially support his clerical decision. However, she assented to his choice and asked for his blessing at the end of the ceremony.

Prior to his ordination, for the years 1964 and 1965, he taught literature and psychology at Immaculate Conception College in Santa Fé and during the following year he taught at the Colegio del Salvatore in Buenos Aires. The next three years he studied theology at the Colegio of San José receiving his degree in 1970. In 1973 he made his final vows in the Jesuit order, and subsequently, became the superior of the Jesuit Province of Argentina, a post he held until 1979. His term was concurrent with the military coup led by Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla which led to the “Dirty War,” of 1976—1983, a deadly effort to remove leftist and suspected subversives. Ten to thirty thousand people disappeared. Begoglio claimed he hid several people from the military. Two Jesuit priests disappeared for five months and were later found in a field in a drugged state. Critics faulted Bergoglio for not doing enough and even accused him of complicity. In a law suit alleging this, the court dismissed it.    

 In the 1980s, he was a seminary teacher and rector in Freiburg. He also pursued theological studies at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt am Main.  

In 1992 he received the appointment as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. In 1998 he became archbishop of Buenos Aires, the post he kept until he became pope. In February of 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him to the College of Cardinals naming him the cardinal-priest of Saint Robert Bellarmino.  In 2005, he became president of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina, at which he served until 2011.

The College of Cardinals elected him the 266^th pope of the Roman Catholic Church in March 2013. He is the first pope from the Americas. He took the name of St. Francis of Assisi. Time magazine named him person of the year. He is the first Jesuit Pope, the first from the Americas, and the second Pope not from Europe. The first was Gregory III from Syria in the 8^th century. The Pope is also the bishop of Rome. The bishopric’s seat is at the archbasilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, (Saint John’s within the walls of the city).  

Pope Francis has characterized his tenure with humility and outspoken support of the world’s poor and other marginalized people.