I’d like to share my condolences to those mourning the passing of the Pope. The Associated Press shares that Pope Francis, the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pontiff, has died.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born Dec. 17, 1936, to Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest of five children. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1969 and led the religious order in Argentina during the country’s murderous dictatorship from 1976-83. He became archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and elevated to cardinal in 2001 by St. John Paul II. He was elected the 266th pope on March 13, 2013, on the fifth ballot.
Francis’s first included:
- The first pope from the Americas.
- The first from the Jesuit order to be elected pope.
- The first to take the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.
- The first to visit Iraq, meeting its top Shiite Muslim cleric in 2021.
Rudy took this photo of the Basilica of St Adalbert in Grand Rapids back in 2010. Head over to Flickr to see his latest.
Michigan in Pictures 