Prior to joining the Society of Jesus, he attended the diocesan seminary. In 1973, at the age of 36, he was named leader of the Jesuit province in Argentina, a position he held until 1979.
The conservative, aspirational bishop Bergoglio became a more sympathetic priest as a result of his experiences during Argentina’s Dirty War in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1998, he was appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in 2001, Pope John Paul II named him to the College of Cardinals.
Later that year, when Cardinal Edward Egan was sent back to New York following the 9/11 attacks, he filled in as the general rapporteur of the Synod of Bishops, hinting at his ultimate election as pope.
Elisabetta Piqué, an Argentine journalist and biographer of Francis, told the National Catholic Reporter in 2021 that Bergoglio’s participation in that 2001 synod was significant and essential to his subsequent election.
In reality, he replaced Egan as relator and performed so brilliantly that he became aware of his papabile status in Rome.
