I too thought right away about the "Roman" when I found out that indeed he was Italian. From the Americas, but Italian. Bridging Europe and America. Cool. Then there is the Peter part. The pebble, the little pebble upon which God builds his church - the Rock. Pebble or rock, it is solid and steadfast. The littlest pebble can be the strongest - like a diamond. I also agree that I thought a long time about how the media would react to any Pope taking the name of Peter or Pius after all the publicity St. Malachy's prophecies (as well as Pope Pius's prophecies) had. Pope Benedict took some flack for his choice by the media, even though it wasn't so blatant as Peter would have been. For this reason, I was prepared for the new pope to NOT take that name. "Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep..." and that Jorge means Earth Man or Farmer, and that he instead took the name of Francis, lover of all creatures, who molded himself so closely to Jesus, the Good Shephard. What better model for a shephard to pasture his sheep than Francis? And it throws off the media too, in a big way. Taking on the Peter name would have created a scandal that he was purposefully trying to fulfill a prophecy. It would have been all over the television. Good thing he didn't do that. Deborah said there is no way around the prophecy. THAT is correct if a prophecy is true. No matter what he would do to try and avoid it, he would be Peter. Some way it would work out. I really want the prophecy to be true. For some reason it rings true to me. It has been so spot on, I think the end is correct. I know of the controversy, but I am keeping my hopes up that it is real. We will see. I also agree that God called Pope Benedict to take the steps that he did. Especially after I have now heard that Pope Francis was a close contender in the 2005 conclave, which I didn't know before. First of all though, Pope Benedict was needed to fulfill the 111th spot. However, since our new Pope is also quite old, perhaps he will not live long enough to have taken the papacy in the "normal" way. Perhaps Pope Benedict will live another 10 years and Pope Francis will die before he does, or shortly after he does, or at any rate, would be too old by then to be considered. THAT does make sense. If God wanted Pope Francis in the seat for the tribulation, then Pope Benedict had to step down. If Pope Benedict lives even another 4-5 years, Pope Francis would have been too old to elect.
Hmmmm, I wonder what saint's name Pope Francis took for his confirmation name when he was confirmed? I tried to find this but couldn't find it.
But everywhere I have read, it says he is born in Buenos Aires. Can someone please clarify? Bergoglio was born Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, the son of Italian immigrants and was trained as a chemist. Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/03/13/Pope-Francis-Jorge-Mario-Bergoglio/UPI-35021363209052/#ixzz2NUhGBgBA
I just read somewhere else that his PARENTS were Italian immigrants, but HE was born in Argentina...I think they will get all this straightened out by the end of the month! His first Mass is tomorrow!!!
This isn't the article a read about St. Malachy's pope prophecies that made me question their authenticity, but it covers some of the same arguments: Here's one of them: I am still open to the prophecies, but I'm not 100% sold on them. Read more here: http://jimmyakin.com/2013/02/how-reliable-is-the-st-malachy-prophecy.html
Thanks for that Rain. Some of our saints must be so sad when they see what we do with their prophecies. Or when we say they say things in which they don't say.
