Pope Francis: The People’s Pope
Father Collins: Well, yes, it’s very interesting because I recall two years ago, just about 28, 29 months ago, I was actually in St. Peter’s Square the evening of the end of the conclave, and the bells were ringing, and the smoke was going up from the Sistine Chapel. And people from all over the world, I believe 10 million Americans alone, were glued to the television watching this.
And I recall, when the cardinal came out onto the balcony and said, we’ve elected, we’ve succeeded and elected a new Pope, and his name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, I was thinking, I’ve never heard of him. And even though I’d heard his name mentioned, he wasn’t, for me, one of the top frontrunners.
In fact, it was very funny because an Italian bishop of Milan, Cardinal Scola, and the Italians were so convinced he was going to become Pope that the guy who’s in charge of the press office hit the fax button by accident and sent, on behalf of all the bishops of Italy, their congratulations on the election of Cardinal Scola as Pope. Of course, they were wrong. They got it wrong.
But, they were half right because the new Pope was half Italian, so I guess you could forgive them for that one.
Christopher Buck: That’s quite a story. Did Pope Francis, take his name from St. Francis of Assisi or St. Francis Xavier, who was the cofounder of the Jesuits?
Father Collins: Okay. So, a few days after he was elected, he explained when he met some journalists, he said, you’ve been wondering where I got the name, and he said, well, really, I took the name after St. Francis of Assisi, the poor man, because I really believe at this moment, the church is called to be a great witness for people in the periphery and on the margins of society. So, he made it very simple, I felt.
But, subsequently, somebody made a point to me chatting a few days ago, and I felt that it’s so true. No Pope since St. Francis of Assisi had ever changed him name to Francis, and this man is the first one whose had the, I suppose, the foresight to say, look, by taking a totally new name instead of Gregory the 17 or Clement the 19, or whatever, you know, he goes for Francis, and hopefully, he’ll be Francis the 1st and there’ll be other Francis’, because I think all Christians, and indeed all people of good will who know anything about the life of this extraordinary man from Umbria in Italy in the 13th Century. He’s a young man, a soldier who was–came from a wealthy family. He rejected his father’s wealth, and he literally went off to become a wondering evangelist for the Christian faith and spent his time literally wondering around with a group of other brothers who became known as friars, talking about Christianity in the marketplace.
