Pope Francis: Time's person of the year
Published:Thursday | December 12, 2013 | 12:00 AM
NEW YORK (AP): Time magazine selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year yesterday, saying the Catholic Church's new leader has changed the perception of the 2,000-year-old institution in an extraordinary way in a short time.
The pope beat out NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the distinction, which the news magazine has been giving each year since 1927.
The former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected in March as the first pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit. Since taking over at the Vatican, he has urged the Catholic Church not to be obsessed with "small-minded rules" and to emphasise compassion over condemnation in dealing with touchy topics like abortion, gays and contraception.
He has denounced the world's "idolatry of money" and the "global scandal" that nearly one billion people today go hungry, and has charmed the masses with his simple style and wry sense of humour. His appearances draw tens of thousands of people at a clip, and his @Pontifex Twitter account recently topped 10 million followers.