9 years ago
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Day One and new Pope faces first controversy
Pope Francis I today faced his first controversy as leader of the Roman Catholic Church after it emerged he described Britain as 'usurpers' for ruling the Falkland Islands.
Buenos Aires-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio has previously urged the Argentinian people 'not to forget those who had fallen during the war' as they had 'shed their blood on Argentine soil'.
In April last year, at a memorial mass in Buenos Aires 30 years on from the Falklands conflict, he said: 'We come to pray for all who have fallen, sons of the homeland who went out to defend their mother, the homeland, and to reclaim what is theirs, that is of the homeland, and it was usurped.'
This morning, the new Pontiff opened his first morning as pontiff by praying at Rome's main basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary barely 12 hours after being elected.
The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, entered the St. Mary Major basilica through a side entrance just after 8am and left about 30 minutes later.
'He spoke to us cordially like a father,' said Father Ludovico Melo, a priest who prayed with the pope. 'We were given 10 minutes' advance notice that the pope was coming'.
He told cardinals he will also call on retired Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow and celebrate an inaugural Mass in the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals elected him leader of the 1.2 million-strong church in an unusually quick conclave.
The Roman Catholic faithful in with Latin American were last night jubilant over his election and some even voiced the opinion that he would help the country claim back the Islands.
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