Amateur George Bluth impersonator who will happily give up his chair for you, Pope Francis, was named Wednesday as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2013 with the makers of lists that matter saying that the first Roman Catholic pontiff from the Americas has been a revelatory presence and drastically changed public perceptions of the Catholic Church by not looking like Gollum reincarnated and “pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets, for committing the world’s largest church to confronting its deepest needs and for balancing judgment with mercy.”
After an unwavering precession of Clements, Benedicts and Johns, Sir Papal Highness, real name Jorge Bergoglio, is the first Pope in history to choose Francis of Assisi as his namesake, the 13th century patron saint of the poor. And he has been the people’s Pope ever since.
In a revelatory nine month tenure as nominal head of one of the oldest, creakiest, most change resistant institutions in existence, the coolest Pope to ever Pope (verification needed) has expressed a litany of progressive opinions comparatively liberal, understanding and compassionate to those of his predecessors. The first came in an 80 minute press conference in July when on his way back from World Youth Day celebrations in Brazil he boldly stated that, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Two months later he continued to drop casual truth bombs when he granted his first extensive interview to Father Antonio Spadaro of Italian Jesuit publication, La Civiltà Cattolica. Among the variety of issues addressed in that piece were the church’s attitudes towards abortion and homosexuality, the role of women in the Catholic Church, and the need for the church to exercise a higher level of flexibility in order fit current times.
“There are ecclesiastical rules and precepts that were once effective,” he said. “But now they have lost value or meaning. The view of the church’s teaching as a monolith to defend without nuance or different understandings is wrong.”
The Vatican responded in a statement today that the decision came as no surprise, probably because a bush told them.
“The decision didn’t come as a surprise given the great resonance and attention surrounding the election of Pope Francis right from the start of the new pontificate,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, head of the Pope’s Press Office, said in a statement. “The fact that one of the most prestigious awards to be attributed by the international press should go to someone who promotes spiritual, religious and moral values as well as call for peace and greater justice in an incisive manner is a positive sign.”
“As for the Pope himself, he’s not someone who seeks fame and success, because he has put his life at the service of announcing the Gospel of the love of God for mankind. It is pleasing to the Pope that this service should appeal and give hope to women and men. And if this choice of ‘Person of the Year’ should mean that many people have understood this message – at least implicitly – the Pope is really happy about this.”
Francis is the third Pope to win the honour, following Pope John XXIII in 1962 (when the official designation was still Man of the Year) and Pope John Paul II in 1994.
American NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden placed second.
Via TIME
