The Catholic Community in Grenada will be coming together this Sunday 17 March 17 at 3:00pm at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception for a special Mass of Thanksgiving to celebrate the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the new Pope.
Bishop Vincent Darius, together with the clergy, religious and laity of the Diocese of St. George’s in Grenada, join with Catholics throughout the world in celebrating the election of Bergoglio who will be called Pope Francis I.
In a statement, Archbishop Patrick Pinder on behalf of the Antilles Episcopal Conference said that the Antilles greets the new Pope with great joy. “This certainly represents a new moment in the life of the Church since for the first time we have a Latin American elected pope. Choosing the name Francis may well be an expression of the new Pope’s simplicity of life and also his sensitivity and respect for the poorest among us,” said the statement.
“His reputation as a strong voice on all the significant social issues is well known. His profound personal spirituality and deep sense of prayer are exemplary. Together these make him an appropriate leader for the Church beginning his pontificate as he does in this Year of Faith and continuing it into the era of the New Evangelisation,” Archbishop Pinder said in the statement.
“We rejoice in the election of Pope Francis I and we pray that God will bless his pontificate and through him work many benefits for the Church and for the world in which the Gospel must always be proclaimed in word and action,” the statement concludes.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected 265th successor of St Peter on the fifth ballot of the Conclave on the evening of 13 March 2013.
Born in 1936, the new Pope joined the Society of Jesus in 1958 and was named Archbishop in 1998. He was named Cardinal in 2001. His background includes academic as well as wide pastoral experience.