The Time magazine has named Pope Francis as its Person of the Year. What makes this Pope so important is the speed with which he has captured the imaginations of millions who had given up on hoping for the church at all, the magazine said on Wednesday.
"And behind his self-effacing facade, he is a very canny operator. He makes masterly use of 21st century tools to perform his 1st century office. He is photographed washing the feet of female convicts, posing for selfies with young visitors to the Vatican, embracing a man with a deformed face," the cover story written by Howard Chua-Eoan and Elizabeth Dias said.
Pope Francis, formerly Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is a former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher. He took the name of a humble saint and then called for a church of healing.
What makes the Pope popular is his stance on contentious issues.
He is quoted saying of women who consider abortion because of poverty or rape, "Who can remain unmoved before such painful situations?" Of gay people: "If a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge." To divorced and remarried Catholics who are, by rule, forbidden from taking Communion, he says that this crucial rite "is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak."
The magazine said Jorge Bergoglio is the first Pope to choose as his namesake Francis of Assisi, the 13th century patron saint of the poor. "Bergoglio is quite mystical about his career choice, which hit him when he stopped off at church on his way to join friends to celebrate a holiday," it said.
The Pope was briefly a nightclub bouncer and would as a 21-year-old seminarian lose most of his right lung to an infection, a condition that may contribute to his back problems today, the magazine said.
BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was among Time magazine's shortlisted candidates. Time had shortlisted 42 global leaders, entrepreneurs and celebrities for its 'Person of the Year 2013'.
Other candidates who were in fray were Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US President Barack Obama, Pakistani teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai, American artist Miley Cyrus, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and even the new heir to the British throne Prince George.
Obama, who has twice been named 'Person of the Year', is in the shortlist with the US magazine saying the President's "second term started with a slew of self-inflicted wounds and unfulfilled promise(s), from an IRS scandal and stalled immigration reform to the bungled Obamacare launch".
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