Francis by Luis Rosales

Author:Luis Rosales [Rosales, Luis and Daniel Olivera]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO018000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Religious, REL010000 RELIGION / Christianity / Catholic, HIS033000 HISTORY / Latin America / South America
ISBN: 9781630060053
Publisher: Humanix Books
Published: 2013-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Part Two

Doctrine and Challenges

Chapter 8

Saint Francis of Assisi

“Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum;

Habemus Papam:

Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum,

Dominum Giorgium Marium,

Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem Bergoglio,

Qui sibi nomen imposuit Franciscum.”

“I hereby announce to you a great joy. We have a pope: The most eminent and most reverend Lord Don Jorge Mario, the Holy Roman Church’s Cardinal Bergoglio, who has taken on the name of Francis.”

On March 13, 2013, the Cardinal Protodeacon Jean Louis Tauran, from the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica, announced the joyful news to a frenzied crowd — that same eager crowd that earlier had witnessed a white cloud of smoke billowing from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney, indicating the grand occurrence.

As we now know, Cardinal Bergoglio chose to take on the name of Francis, paying homage to Saint Francis of Assisi, due to their shared dedication to the poor. Initially, however, many thought that His Holiness chose this name to honor Saint Francis Xavier, collaborator to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order to which the Argentine cardinal belonged. Due to Francis Xavier’s Jesuit missionary activity in the Far East in the sixteenth century, aligning himself with the saint could have been an indication of Bergoglio’s intention to expand the Church in Asia. Clearly, if there is one place where Catholicism can increase its influence, it is in Asia, and most especially in China. (That is, of course, if the country ends up turning toward democracy, where individual freedom prevails and its massive population is allowed to exercise its religious beliefs free of the oppressive control of the state.)

Others pointed out that perhaps he named himself after Saint Francis Solano, the Spanish monk who, in the sixteenth century and for more than twenty years tried to spread the Gospel among the indigenous population in South America. The saint was known for performing miracles in Cardinal Bergoglio’s very homeland, and many thought that his new appointment to Saint Peter’s Throne was just one more of Saint Francis Solano’s miracles.

Some of his colleagues jokingly suggested he should choose the name Clement XV as a form of revenge against Clement XIV, the pope who, in 1773, published the brief Dominus ac Redemptor whereby the Company of Jesus was dissolved at the request of the Bourbon monarchies that ruled France and Spain. Kings in that family feared the enormous political and economic influence that Jesuits had acquired in their domains, especially in their South American colonies. Thus, they convinced the Holy Father to eliminate a dangerous counterweight to their absolute power. This completed a series of expulsions decreed initially by Portugal, later France, and finally Spain. In return for the action against the Jesuits, these countries would restitute valuable territories in southern France and Naples to the papacy. With Clement XIV’s decision, the Jesuit Order was suppressed for forty years.

Francis himself put the debate to rest soon after his election, when he hosted six thousand accredited journalists from around the globe in the Vatican’s impressive Paul VI Audience Hall. His Holiness’ decision to honor the

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