It was a few minutes past seven o'clock yesterday evening, March thirteenth, when the fumata bianca announced to the whole world that the Catholic Church had a new Pope: the most eminent and reverend Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has chosen the name Francis, the first in history, for his new Petrine ministry. For the first time also a Spanish-American, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. For the first time, a Jesuit. Many novelties for a relatively quick conclave, this one of 2013. A conclave, undoubtedly, historic.

The first Pope belonging to the Society of Jesus. No one is unaware of the great influence that the Jesuits have exerted on the Church, but until now no son of St. Ignatius had ever occupied the See of Peter. Many are the pontiffs who were formed in their schools and, especially, at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, but Bergoglio became yesterday the first Jesuit to wear the white cassock.

The first non-European Pope since the first centuries of the Church, when there were several North Africans, arrives from the Republic of Argentina, a country where the Church enjoys great vitality. language A pope whose mother tongue is Spanish -with a porteño accent-, which has not happened since the times of Alexander VI (1492-1503).

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in the Argentine capital on December 17, 1936, into a family of Italian immigrants. The son of a railroad worker employee and a housewife, he studied at degree program Chemistry and, at the age of 21, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. He was ordained a priest on December 13, 1969 by Archbishop Ramón José Spanish. He held various positions in the Society, including that of provincial.

Undoubtedly he had the confidence of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Antonio Quarracino, who promoted him as auxiliary bishop, being consecrated on May 20, 1992 with the degree scroll of Auca. When the latter fell ill, he was appointed his coadjutor archbishop on June 3, 1997. Finally, he took possession of the Primate Archdiocese of Argentina on February 28, 1998. He presided over the Episcopal lecture of that nation between 2005 and 2011, the maximum period allowed by its statutes.

He was created cardinal by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of February 21, 2001, assigning him the titular church of St. Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit saint. During the conference prior to the conclave that elected Benedict XVI Pope in 2005, his name sounded insistently as candidate with real possibilities to accede to the See of Peter.

In 2010 he led the movement of civil service examination of the Catholic Church in Argentina to project legislative of the government of Fernandez de Kirchner allowing gay marriage and the possibility of adopting children. He described the fight as "God's war" against "the Devil's move".

graduate in Theology, has several publications to his credit, some of whose titles can be enlightening when it comes to understanding his conception of life and pastoral ministry. Thus, for example, "Reflections of Hope" (1992), "Educating: Demand and Passion" (2003), "True Power is Service" (2007) or, the last of them, "Open Mind, Believing Heart" (2012).

A new life began yesterday for Cardinal Bergoglio, now Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the Universal Church, Servant of the Servants of God and Successor of St. Peter. It might seem to be the culmination of a brilliant ecclesiastical degree program , but the truth is that the pathway to the See of Peter is more like the ascent to Calvary than to Mount Tabor.

There are many challenges ahead of him, but also many financial aid, not only from Heaven, but also from all Catholics who pray for him publicly and privately. Unanimous prayer goes up to God to grant him a long and holy life, the necessary strength to guide the Church with vigor at the beginning of the third millennium and the unshakable, rock-like faith with which to confirm his brothers and sisters.

Among the challenges awaiting the Pope is, without a doubt, the new evangelization to which his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI have insistently called for. The pastoral trajectory of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and his first words from the main loggia of St. Peter's Basilica invite us to think that Francis I will undertake with the ardor and enthusiasm of a simple and dedicated pastor the mission statement task of presenting the Gospel message to the world.

Perhaps the choice of the name is very indicative. Francis, in all probability to recall the mission statement developed by two great saints: Francis of Assisi and Francis Xavier, and to entrust himself to their protection. plenary session of the Executive Council Francis of Assisi is the great saint of Italy, the poverello who in the 12th century revolutionized the Church with his humility, poverty and simplicity. Francis of Assisi and his sons breathed into the medieval Church a new air of freedom and fidelity to the Gospel. Four hundred years later, Francis Xavier, the ardent Navarrese companion of the Basque Ignatius of Loyola in the founding of the Society of Jesus, unhesitatingly took on the evangelization of the Far East. New fields of mission statement opened up for the Church in the lands of the Rising Sun.

Now the new Pope arrives precisely from the opposite extreme, from the wide pampas of Argentina. Francis I has already entered history, for many reasons, for his origin, for his religious family and for the name he has chosen. How his pontificate will develop is something that we will see in the coming years.