On the news Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. has been elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor gave this interview message.
The Catholic Church has been very blessed with the election of Pope Francis. He is a humble, kind and gentle man, and will bring a new style to leadership in the Church.
When he spoke to us last night he spoke as if he were talking to us across the street, as if he were meeting us for the first time saying “Good Evening, I’m your bishop. Please pray for me and I will pray for you.” It was just lovely.
So I think choosing the name Francis is very significant and naturally all of us think of the great St Francis of Assisi, the man who gave away everything to the poor, who went to see the Muslims to try and make peace and who was asked by the Lord to rebuild the Church.
So naturally we have great expectations of Pope Francis, but he needs our support and our prayers, and he will have them. I think, as I have said, that we are very blessed with this man and the Church can be happy, not only, that we have a Pope again (because we feel incomplete without a Pope), but also we have found this man from the other side of the world in South America to come and be our Peter, our shepherd, our pastor and our friend.
