Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SI, Archbishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina), ordinary for the faithful of the Eastern Rite residing in Argentina and devoid of Ordinary of the rite itself.
Biography of Pope Francis – Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
He was born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936. He studied and graduated as a chemical technician, to later choose the path of the priesthood and enter the Villa Devoto seminary.
On March 11, 1958, he entered the novitiate, studied humanities in Chile, and in 1963, back in Buenos Aires, graduated in Philosophy from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Colegio “San José” in San Miguel.
From 1964 to 1965 he was a professor of Literature and Psychology at the Colegio de la Inmaculada in Santa Fe, and in 1966 he taught the same subject at the Colegio de El Salvador in Buenos Aires.
From 1967 to 1970 he studied Theology at the Faculty of Theology of the “San José” College in San Miguel, where he graduated.
ordained priest
On December 13, 1969, he was ordained a priest. In the 1970-71 academic year, he completed his third probation in Alcalá de Henares (Spain) and on April 22, 1973 he made his perpetual profession.
He was master of novices in Villa Barilari, in San Miguel (1972-1973), professor of the Faculty of Theology, Consultor of the Province and Rector of the Massimo College. On July 31, 1973, he was elected Provincial of Argentina, a position he held for six years.
Between 1980 and 1986, he was rector of the Colegio Massimo and of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology of the same house and parish priest of the parish of Patriarca San José, in the diocese of San Miguel.
In March 1986, he moved to Germany to finish his doctoral thesis, and his superiors assigned him to the El Salvador school, and later to the church of the Company of Jesus, in the city of Córdoba, as spiritual director and confessor.
Titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires
On May 20, 1992, he named him Titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires.
On June 27 of the same year, he received episcopal ordination in the Buenos Aires Cathedral from the hands of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, the Apostolic Nuncio Monsignor Ubaldo Calabresi and the Bishop of Mercedes-Luján, Monsignor Emilio Ogñénovich.
On June 13, 1997, he was named Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and on February 28, 1998, Archbishop of Buenos Aires by succession, on the death of Cardinal Quarracino.
He is the author of the following books: Meditations for Religious from 1982, Reflections on the Apostolic Life from 1986 and Reflections of Hope from 1992. It is ordinary for the faithful of the Eastern rite residing in Argentina who do not have an ordinary for their rite.
Grand Chancellor of the Argentine Catholic University
Deputy General Rapporteur at the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2001. From November 2005 to November 2011 he was President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference.
John Paul II has created and published him cardinal in the Consistory of February 21, 2001, titular of San Roberto Bellarmino. He was a member of the following congregations:
- Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;
- Clergy; for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Society of Apostolic Life
- The Pontifical Council for the Family
- The Pontifical Commission for Latin America