A ‘time of great interior crisis’ early in his career turned Pope Francis into a family man and one who is determined that the Church puts the care of individuals above doctrine, writes Paul Valley

His autocratic style as leader of the Jesuits in Argentina was a chastening experience that shaped Pope Francis’ life and led to his transformation as champion of the poor, Paul Valley reports.

Pope Francis urged the world today to shed its apathy in the face of what he sees as a third world war, intoning “war is madness” at the foot of a Fascist-era monument to soldiers killed in the First World War.

Robert Blair Kaiser

Now the hard work starts.

THE brisk sales of copies of Time magazine, with Pope Francis on the cover as Person of the Year, is yet another indicator of the growing popularity of the pontiff from Argentina. Yet none of this can disguise the fact the Church over which he presides is, in the words of Hans Kung, “gravely ill”.

“Time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”

Ultra-traditionalist Roman Catholics have openly challenged Pope Francis in by disrupting one of his favourite events in Buenos Aires, an interfaith ceremony meant to promote religious harmony on the anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust.

US secret services allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama has claimed.

Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be declared saints at a ceremony on Apr 27 that might see two living popes honouring two dead ones.

A recent speech by Pope Francis held clear echoes of a centuries-old tradition stressing the need for radical, progressive action, and insights on matters of social justice, writes TP O’Mahony

The Pope’s Jews

IN TERMS of symbolism, Jorge Mario Bergoglio hasn’t put a foot wrong since becoming the first Jesuit and the first South American to be elected Pope and taking the name Francis.

Clues have emerged about the possible source of an inspired tip which led several Kerry punters to place winning bets on the new pope.

A bookmaker was left looking to the heavens after customers in a bar in the Kingdom relieved him of €6,000 in a flutter on the new pope.

There were no little old ladies dashing about with fresh cuts of altar flowers.

Catherine Shanahan reports on how the ‘man of the people’ is viewed in Rome by Irish members of religious orders

Fair is fair, but I disagree with the view of the writer that RTÉ are pro-Catholic and that they were biased (Letters, Mar 15) in their coverage of the election of the new Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, in the Vatican on Wednesday, Mar 13.

Pope Francis will visit his predecessor at the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo next Saturday.

The election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy is great news.

The Vatican has lashed out at what it called a “defamatory” and “anti-clerical left-wing” campaign to discredit Pope Francis over his actions during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military junta.

An Argentine woman who grew up as the neighbour of the future Pope Francis says she was very briefly the object of his affections when they were both 12.

Pope Francis spent his first day as the leader of 1.2bn Catholics praying, paying his hotel bill, and catching the bus.

The sharp knives of politics have prepared the new pope well, say Joshua Goodman and Juan Pablo Spinetto.

The Vatican should continue to champion capitalism anchored in morality, writes Jeffrey Donovan.

Latin Americans reacted with joy, bursting into tears and cheers yesterday at news that an Argentinian cardinal has become the first pope from the hemisphere.

Latin Americans reacted with joy, bursting into tears and cheers tonight at news that an Argentine cardinal has become the first pope from the hemisphere.

Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio was tonight elected pope – the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.

The head of one of the world's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese and thought to be a leading Latin American contender to succeed Pope Benedict XVI said neither nationality nor age should matter in picking the next pontiff.

SOME Vatican insiders say that when cardinals come to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II they may prefer to return to a safe Italian candidate, like the vast majority of past pontiffs.