Pope Francis Biography: Age, Facts, Wife, Family, Young, Childhood, Profile, Son, Daughter, Children, Nationality, Net Worth

Welcome to SleekNaija, where we keep you up to speed on Popular celebrities, Tiktok celebrities, politicians, actors, actresses, pastors, businessmen and women, comedians, musicians, entrepreneurs, and more.

So, today we bring to you Pope Francis biography, age, state of origin, profile, wife, house, family, daughter, son, father, parents, net worth and many more.

Pope Francis Biography

Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013. 

Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor as a young man before training to be a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. 

After recovering from a severe illness, he was inspired to join the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1958. 

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. 

He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. 

He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival. 

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. 

Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God’s mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor, and commitment to interreligious dialogue. 

He is credited with having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.

Francis maintains the traditional views of the Church regarding abortion, clerical celibacy, and the ordination of women, but has initiated dialogue on the possibility of deaconesses and has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He maintains that the Church should be more open and welcoming for members of the LGBT community. 

Francis is an outspoken critic of unbridled capitalism and free market economics, consumerism, and overdevelopment; he advocates taking action on climate change, a focus of his papacy with the promulgation of Laudato si’. 

In international diplomacy, he helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crisis, and made a deal with the People’s Republic of China to define how much influence the nation has in appointing their Catholic bishops. Since 2018, Francis has been an opponent of neo-nationalism and populism.

He has faced criticism from theological conservatives on many questions, especially his suggestion in a footnote of Amoris Laetitia that divorced and remarried Catholics may be admitted to receive the Eucharist.

Pope Francis Early Life(Childhood)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on 17 December 1936 in Flores, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

He was the eldest of five children of Mario José Bergoglio (1908–1959) and Regina María Sívori (1911–1981). 

Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro (Province of Asti) in Italy’s Piedmont region. 

Regina Sívori was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian (Piedmontese-Genoese) origin. Mario José’s family left Italy in 1929 to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini.

According to María Elena Bergoglio (born 1948), the pope’s only living sibling, they did not emigrate for economic reasons.

His other siblings were Alberto Horacio (1942–2010), Oscar Adrián (1938–deceased) and Marta Regina (1940–2007).

Two great-nephews, Antonio and Joseph, died in a traffic collision. His niece, Cristina Bergoglio, is a painter based in Madrid, Spain.

In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, a school of the Salesians of Don Bosco, in Ramos Mejía, Buenos Aires Province. 

He attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen, named after a past Argentine president, and graduated with a chemical technician’s diploma (not a master’s degree in chemistry, as some media outlets incorrectly reported).

In that capacity, he spent several years working in the food section of Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory, where he worked under Esther Ballestrino. 

Prior to working as a chemical technician, Bergoglio had also worked as a bar bouncer and as a janitor sweeping floors.

When he was 21 years old, he suffered from life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts. He had part of a lung excised shortly afterwards. Bergoglio has been a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo de Almagro football club.

Bergoglio is also a fan of the films of Tita Merello, neorealism, and tango dancing, with a fondness for the traditional music of Argentina and Uruguay known as the milonga.

Pope Francis Awards

• Germany: International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen 2016.
• “Person of the Year” by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (2015) for his request that all Catholics be kind to animals.
• Was made an honorary Harlem Globetrotter on 7 May 2015.
• Zayed Award for Human Fraternity in October 2020 for significant contributions to the service of humanity from around the world.

Music album

Wake Up! was released on 27 November 2015 by the label Believe Digital and contains speeches by Francis and accompanying music, including rock music.

Pope Francis Films

By 2015, there were two biographical films about Francis: Call Me Francesco (Italy, 2015), starring Rodrigo de la Serna, and Francis: Pray for me (Argentina, 2015), starring Darío Grandinetti.

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word is a documentary film with Swiss-Italian-French-German co-production, co-written and directed by Wim Wenders. 

It premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was released in the United States on 18 May 2018.

It includes extensive sections of interviews as well as stock footage from archives.

On 21 October 2020, the documentary Francesco directed by film producer Evgeny Afineevsky premiered.

Pope Francis Net Worth

Pope Francis has been the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013. He has an estimated net worth of $50 millions.