Vatican pope francis biography on tv

Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on Dec. 17, in Buenos Aires. His father was a railway worker who immigrated to Argentina from Italy, and his mother was a housewife of Italian origin. Bergoglio had four siblings. 

After earning a secondary school degree as a chemical technician, Bergoglio felt a call to the priesthood as a Jesuit, joining the novitiate in , at the age of

He was ordained a priest on Dec.

13, In he made his perpetual vows in the Society of Jesus and the same year was elected Jesuit provincial for Argentina.

The Vatican – the state of the Church | Panenka

He would go on to serve as a seminary rector, a pastor, a professor, and a spiritual director.

In Fr. Bergoglio was consecrated an auxiliary bishop of the Buenos Aires archdiocese. He became the archdiocese’s coadjutor archbishop in , and succeeded as archbishop the following year. St. John Paul II named Archbishop Bergoglio a cardinal in

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio was known for his humble demeanor