Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected to the Petrine ministry on the evening of March 13, 2013. He was the first Jesuit to become pope and the first pontiff from the American continent, as well as the first non-European pope since the time of Gregory III.
During his pontificate, Pope Francis has been an epitome of humanity yearning for joy, peace, fraternity and hope in God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Shortly after his election, he explained about for the choice of his pontifical name.
“In the conclave, I had at my side the Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paulo and also Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes.
“When it got a little dangerous, he comforted me. And when the votes rose to two-thirds, the usual applause followed, because the pope was elected. And he hugged me, kissed me and said: ‘Don’t forget the poor!’. And that word entered here: the poor, the poor. Then, immediately, in relation to the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi.
“St Francis is the man of peace and dialogue. And so, the name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi. For me he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and guards creation.”
The ninth anniversary of Pope Francis’ pontificate fell in a tough moment marked by the unjust war in Ukraine. Throughout his papacy, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has persistently promoted peace, charity, reconciliation and fraternity between nations and care of the ecosystem.
On the solemnity of the Divine Mercy in 2018, Pope Francis said that when our relationship with God is personal, we feel his love and mercy deeply. When our humanity experiences his divinity, we proclaim “My Lord and my God!” as the apostle Thomas did.
The Holy Father reiterated in his homily of April 8, 2018, during the second Sunday of Easter: “As today we enter, through Christ’s wounds, into the mystery of God, we come to realise that mercy is not simply one of his qualities among others, but the very beating of his heart! Then, like Thomas, we no longer live as disciples, uncertain, devout but wavering. We too fall in love with the Lord! We must not be afraid of these words: to fall in love with the Lord.”
Pope Francis has been an epitome of humanity yearning for joy, peace, and fraternity- Frank Zammit
In that message, the Holy Father traced three obstructions to the process of conversion in confession: shame, discouragement and believing that our sins are unforgivable.
With the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Francis presents the objectives of his pontificate: a missionary Church, which is committed to announce the joy of the Gospel, the good news that God is love and mercy.
This is the thrust of this apostolic exhortation. It is an appeal to all the baptised to bring the love of Jesus to others with new fervour, overcoming the risk of today’s world, that of falling into ‘an individualistic sadness’. It shows the necessity to pass from a pastoral care of simple conservation to a decidedly missionary one.
On the Fifth World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis invited Christians to “nourish the hope of tomorrow by healing the pain of today. The hope that comes from the Gospel does not consist in passively waiting for things to get better tomorrow, but in making God’s promise of salvation concrete today.”
In bringing these evangelical concepts to others during that Sunday homily, Francis recalled the words of Don Tonino Bello: “We cannot limit ourselves to hope, we must organise hope”.
Pope Francis remarked that “if our hope is not translated into concrete choices and gestures of attention, justice, solidarity, care for the common home, the sufferings of the poor cannot be relieved. The waste economy that forces them to live on the margins cannot be converted, their expectations will not be able to flourish.”
A few days ago, the Holy Father wrote on Twitter: “Never war! Think above all of the children, who are deprived of the hope of a worthy life: dead, wounded, orphaned children; children who have remnants of war as toys… In the name of God, stop!”
The pontificate of Francis is a testimony of peace and mercy towards the needy. “An incessant hymn to dialogue. To dialogue means listening to oneself. Confront. Make arrangements. Walk together. Favouring all this between generations means tilling the hard and sterile ground of conflict and waste. To cultivate the seeds of lasting and shared peace.”
The Church must lead by example. “Let us not tire of asking for the strength to build and safeguard communion,” the pontiff recommends; a heartfelt call to “be a leaven of brotherhood for the world”; not to be “soloists in search of listening. But brothers arranged in chorus.”
During the nine years of his pontificate, this great pope has adjusted himself quite well in his new role as a sole prophet. The Holy Scriptures tell us that the prophets have always had to deal with persecution for telling the truth.
A prophet knows when to reproach but he also knows how to open the doors to hope. A true prophet gets involved.
Frank Zammit, Ambassador of Malta to the Holy See