The Life of Pope Francis Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Childhood in a happy Catholic family

Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, the capital and largest city of Argentina,on December 17, 1936. He was baptized by Fr. Enrique Pozzoli, an Italian Salesian priest who was close to the family. Today, Pope Francis often speaks of the importance of Baptism and urges the faithful to remember the date on which they became a Christian.

His father,Mario Jose Francisco Bergoglio, was an Italian immigrant. One of his grandfather’s brothers had started a flooring enterprise in Parana, Argentina that was doing well and the four Bergoglio brothers were putting up a family business.

“They disembarqued from the ‘Julius Caesar’, though they should have sailed on an earlier voyage: with the ‘Princess Malfada’, which sank.” Fr. Jorge wrote. “You cannot imagine how many times I have thanked divine Providence!”

Having worked as an accountant in the Bank of Italy in Turin, Papa Mario, though an only child, had enjoyed being part of Don Bosco’s  “Salesian Family ” in Italy. When he arrived in Buenos Aires in 1929, he went to live with the Salesians in Solis Lane where he was warmly welcomed in typical Salesian fashion. It was there that Mario encountered Fr. Pozzoli who promptly became his confessor.

Photography and other creative activities attracted the youth. Mario settled in to his new life in Buenos Aires and joined the lively group of young men that gathered around Fr. Pozzoli in much the same way the young men in Turin had often surrounded Don Bosco.

Fr. Pozzoli the missionary, confessor, and watchmaker, was also a photographer and much loved by the Sivori family, and most of all by their eldest son, Vincent Sivori, who had a passionate love for photography.

Mario met the Sivori brothers who were part of the Círulos Católicos de Obreros and eventually met Regina Maria Sivori whom he married on December 12, 1935 in San Carlos. Jorge’s Mama devoted herself to raising the family and to giving their five children a healthy religious upbringing.

His grandmother, Dona Rosa Margarita Vasallo de Bergoglio, a great promoter of Catholic Action,greatly inspired young Jorge who often carried with him one of her leaflets entitled “St. Joseph in the life of the maiden, the widow and the bride.”

He recounts one occasion when his grandmother said things that did not please the government and they closed the hall where she was to speak. Undaunted, she spoke out on the street, standing on a table.

“It’s not strange that I speak with affection of the Salesians, “ he wrote, “because my family was nourished spiritually by the Salesians of San Carlos.

“As a child I learned to go to the procession of Mary Help of Christians,” he wrote, “and also to that of Saint Anthony of Mexico Street. When I was at my grandmother’s home, I went to the Oratory of Saint Francis of Sales.

“As a child I had in my hands the Religious Instruction of Father Moret.” Fr Jorge added. “They had taught us to ask for ‘the blessing of Mary Help of Christians’ every time we took leave of a Salesian.”

An economic recession,however, began to take a toll on the flourishing Bergoglio family business. The President of the firm, Jorge’s granduncle, became ill with leukemia and lymphosarcoma and died.

The two events—the recession and the death of Juan Lorenzo—caused the family business to fail. They had to sell everything, from the family chapel in the cemetery to the four storey “Bergoglio Building” where the four brothers lived.

Jorge’s grandparents and his Papa were left with nothing.

The Life of Pope Francis/ Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Childhood in a happy Catholic family

Young Mario

Growing up with the Salesians

As a family, the Bergoglios always turned to Fr. Enrique Pozzoli whenever there was a problem, or when they needed help or advice. He had baptized all the children but one, Jorge’s second brother who was born in 1938 when Fr Pozzoli was in Usuahia.

Then in February of 1948, it happened that after Jorge’s Mama had his sister, the fifth and last child, she became very weak and exhausted making it necessary for the three eldest children to board. His sister, the third child, who is today the mother of a Jesuit and of a woman religious, was placed as a boarder at María Auxiliadora with the help of Fr. Pozzoli.

Fr. Pozzoli’s prayers to Mary Help of Christians for “his” boys when they were going through difficult situations did not go unheeded, however, and he was able to introduce the family to a person who lent them 2,000 pesos so that Jorge’s grandparents could set up a store in Barrio Flores. His Papa who had been an accountant at the Bank of Italy, now had to be the delivery man for the family store.

Near the end of 1948, Fr. Pozzoli intervened again so that Jorge and his brother could enter as boarders at the Colegio Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Angeles in Ramón Mejía.

“There I completed sixth grade, in 1949, and my brother fifth and sixth in 1949­ and 1950, ” Pope Francis wrote Fr. Bruno.

The future pope was in Class 6B and won first prize that year in conduct, religion and the Gospel.

Life in any Salesian college is the same anywhere in the world. One only has to visit any Don Bosco school in the Philippines to get a sense of the Salesian Spirit that permeates Don Bosco schools and opens the hearts of the young to God.

Pope Francis writes that the Wilfrid Baron School of the Holy Angels in Ramos Mejia, Buenos Aires, prepared him “for life.” Reflecting on what it was like to attend the school, Pope Francis describes its “Catholic culture”:

School life was a “whole.”  I was immersed in a way of life prepared so that there wouldn’t be time to be lazy.  The day passed as an arrow without time for one to be bored.  I felt myself submerged in a world that, although prepared “artificially” (with pedagogic resources), had nothing artificial about it.  The most natural thing was to go to Mass in the morning, as well as having breakfast, studying, going to lessons, playing during recreation, hearing the “Good night” of the Father Director.

On devotion to Mary

Recourse to Our Lady is essential for life.  It goes from the awareness of having a Mother in heaven that takes care of me to the recitation of the three Hail Marys, or of the Rosary.

On the Good Night talk

One of the key moments of this learning to seek the meaning of things was the “Good night” that the Father Director generally gave. When one or two years later I came to know how Father Isidoro Holowaty died, of how he endured for the sake of mortification so many days of pain in his stomach (he was a nurse) until one Wednesday Father Pozzoli, who had gone there to confess the Salesians, ordered him to see a doctor, well, when I came to know this it seemed to me the most natural thing that a Salesian should die this way, exercising virtue.

On sports

Sports is an essential aspect of life. One played well and a lot. The values that sport teaches (in addition to health) we already knew. In study as in sport the dimension of competition had a certain importance: we were taught to compete well and to compete as Christians.” (Like most South American kids, young Jorge became a fervent fan of San Lorenzo de Almagro, one of the classic teams of Argentine fútbol.)

Education in creativity

There was room for hobbies and crafts… Father Lambruschini taught  us to sing, with Father Aviles I learned to build machinery—and so many other things (theater, organization of championships, academic ceremonies, taxidermy, etc.) that channeled hobbies and anxieties.

Reason, religion and loving kindness

How did our educators address crises? They made us feel that we could trust, that they loved us, they were able to listen, they gave us good opportune advice, and they defended us both from rebellion as well as melancholy.”