Person of the Year: Pope Francis.
By Ekaterine Tchelidze
Thursday, January 16
Time magazine nominated Pope Francis as the Person of the Year 2013. This is the third time a pope has been given such an honor after Pope John Paul II in 1994 and Pope John XXIII in 1963.
The first non-European pope for the past 1,200 years, Pope Francis, showed sympathy and absolute support towards his people. He is credited by Time with “shifting the message of the Catholic Church” and “capturing the imaginations of millions who had given up on hoping for the church at all.” Additionally, he showed tolerance toward women who perform abortions, divorced Catholics, who remarry as well as homosexuals, promoting mercy among all the people, regardless of their sexual orientation, religious beliefs or political views.
“He is hugging people who you would not even want to touch; he is washing the feet of convicts… He says he wants a battlefield hospital church, helping everyone who is in trouble, who is lonely, who needs an embrace,” Time said.
According to the magazine, no one else has spread so much hope, inspiration and support among people as Pope Francis did in less than nine months. He cares about the poor and is changing the way citizens think about religion and perceive the church. For that alone he deserves to be the Person of the Year.
Person of the Year is an annual issue of the newsmagazine Time that features a figure or an idea that has become the most influential during the year. The tradition was initiated in 1927 and was initially referred as a “Man of the Year.”
Barack Obama was named the Person of the Year 2012.
Source: Time magazine