VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis offered intimate insights today into the moments after his election, telling journalists that he was immediately inspired to take the name of St Francis of Assisi because of his work for peace and the poor — and that he himself would like to see “a poor church and a church for the poor.”
“Let me tell you a story,” Francis said in a break from his prepared text during a special gathering for thousands of journalists, media workers and guests in the Vatican’s auditorium.
Francis then described how he was comforted by his friend, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, as it appeared the voting was going his way and it seemed “a bit dangerous” that he would reach the two-thirds necessary to be elected.
When the threshold was reached, applause erupted in the frescoed Sistine Chapel.
“He (Hummes) hugged me. He kissed me. He said don’t forget about the poor,” Francis recalled. “And that’s how in my heart came the name Francis of Assisi,” who devoted his life to the poor, missionary outreach and caring for God’s creation.
He said some have wondered whether his name was a reference to other Francis figures, including St Frances de Sales or even the co-founder of the pope’s Jesuit order, Francis Xavier.
But he said he was inspired immediately after the election when he thought about wars.
St. Francis of Assisi, the pope said, was “the man of the poor. The man of peace. The man who loved and cared for creation — and in this moment we don’t have such a great relationship with creation. The man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man.”
“Oh how I would like a poor church and a church for the poor,” Francis said, sighing.
He then joked that some other cardinals suggested other names: Hadrian VI, after a great church reformer — a reference to the need for the pope to clean up the Vatican’s messy bureaucracy. Someone else suggested Clement XV, to get even with Clement XIV, who suppressed the Jesuit order in 1773.
The gathering in the Vatican begins a busy week for the pontiff that includes his installation Mass on Tuesday.
