First Argentine Pope First Pope Francis

Wow! Was this a short conclave or what? Well, it wasn’t the shortest ever, but just yesterday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan was predicting that it would be a short conclave. By his estimation, it would have concluded tomorrow. So his Eminence must be as surprised as we are that white smoke announced the selection of 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio Of Buenos Aires as the new pope.

Apparently, it is not as surprising that the 266th pope is from Argentina or that he is the first Jesuit to serve as pope, as it is that he picked the name Francis, which will make him Francis I. It’s been called “unprecedented” and even a break from a tradition we never heard of — that the name was never taken out of respect for St. Francis of Assisi. According to CNN’s Vatican expert, John Allen: “There are cornerstone figures in Catholicism” such as St. Francis. Figures of such stature as St. Francis seem “irrepeatable — that there can be only one Francis.”

Well, we’re not Vatican experts, but it does seem a little nuts to say that. There are other saints named Francis. Here are just three who are well-known:

Francis de Sales, 16th century French bishop, who was beatified in 1661 by Pope Alexander VII, and canonized by him in 1665. Francis de Sales was also declared a Doctor of the Church by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1877.

Francis Borgia, 16th century Spanish Jesuit, Grandee of Spain and third Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He was beatified in Madrid in 1624 by Pope Gregory XV and canonized 4 decades later, on June 20, 1670, by Pope Clement X.

Francis Xavier – 16th century Spanish missionary beatified by Paul V on October 25, 1619, and canonized by Gregory XV in 1622, at the same time as Ignatius Loyola. Pope Pius XI proclaimed him the “Patron of Catholic Missions”. St. Francis Xavier is one of the “incorruptibles.”

In any event it did kind of make our poll moot. We did allow that a name never before chosen was a possibility. Of the 10 names on our poll, the 11th choice “Other” was the most picked, although nobody left a comment as to what their preference was so if anyone had Francis in mind, we don’t know. After that, Gregory was the most popular.

While English speaking countries will know him as Pope Francis I ,here is a list of how the new Pope will be known in various parts of the world:

Italian ………………. Papa Francesco I
French ……………… Pape François I
Spanish ……………. Papa Francisco I
German …………….. Papst Franziskus I
Hungarian ………….. Pápa Ferenc I
Czech ………………. Papež František I
Danish ……………… Pave Frans I
Dutch ………………. Paus Franciscus I
Polish ………………. Papież Franciszek I

We didn’t just stick the new Pope’s name in a translator – but actually looked up articles in these languages.

Update: Although everyone, including us, is already calling the Pope Francis I, the Vatican has made a statement noting that it is just Pope Francis and the new pope will not really become Francis I unless and until there is a Francis II.