The Argentine and Latin American Background of Pope Francis

On the night of his election Pope Francis said that the cardinals had chosen someone from the “end of the world,” the southern end of the Americas, as if to draw attention to a different experience he might bring to the papacy. To understand Pope Francis then, it is helpful to consider the circumstances of the land and the church in which he spent his first seventy-six years. These observations are intended to supply some of that background, organized around four topic areas: Argentina itself, the Jesuits in Argentina, Francis’s twenty years as bishop and archbishop in Buenos Aires, and his pastoral vision. They draw on several of the available biographies, and more generally the experience of the Latin American Catholic Church since Vatican II.