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Author : V. Bogomazov
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Candidate of Science (Political Sciences)
A YEAR AGO, on March 13, 2013, Archbishop of Buenos
Aires Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected head of
the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and, therefore, head of
the Vatican city-state (officially the Holy See) as Pope Fran-
cis. These twelve months were brimming with comments
on what had been done and what was expected from the
new Pope. The wide range of views and opinions coming
from Russia, the U.S., Western Europe, and Latin America
stretch from pragmatic and realistic to extremist and radi-
cal.
Here I will place at least some of the commentaries into the context of what the Pope has done so
far.
From the first day of his papacy, Pope Francis has been and remains incredibly popular. "Only in-
stalled in March, Pope Francis has already become a phenomenon. His is the most talked-about name
on the internet in 2013, ranking ahead of 'Obamacare' and 'NSA'. The number of his subscribers in
Twitter has topped 12 million.
His opponents refuse to be impressed; they insist that this is of a limited importance for the authority
of the RCC and the Vatican.
Telephoning individuals who write to him about their suffering, illnesses and tragedies is his habit
which echoes throughout the world: the pope telephoned a single woman, pregnant by a married
man who had since abandoned her, to assure her that if, as she feared, priests refused to baptize her
baby, he would perform the ceremony himself.
From the very first days of papacy, he has been talking louder and louder that the RCC is very im-
portant for the forgotten or rejected - the jobless, beggars, ailing, and old.
As soon as Pope Francis condemned capitalism as "unbridled consumerism" and "a new tyranny,"
conservatives in the United States accused the Pope of having "gone beyond Catholicism" into "pure
Marxism."
The Pope has not failed to call on the Christians to "embrace with affection and respect Muslim im-
migrants to our countries in the same way that we hope and ask to be received and respected in coun-
tries of Islamic tradition."
According to the Italian law and order structures, his anti-corruption crusade has made him a target
of the criminal world, mafia in the first place.
He consistently insists on the priority of international legal and moral principles in international life
and invariably speaks about this with heads of state and government and prominent public figures.
The pontiff has repeatedly demonstrated his devotion to the eternal Christian values yet there are
forces outside and inside the Vatican which are trying to influence the Pope so that to readjust his
views and ideas.
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Pope Francis: The First Year in the Vatican