For some reason, this really made me laugh! It IS a valid question, though. Maybe priests make lists of their "Pope Names" like women make lists of the names of their future children? :)

I love Francis I (even though I was originally pulling for John Paul III) because Francis of Assisi is my favorite saint (Make me a Channel of Your Peace is my alltime favorite hymn).

Technically, he's just Pope Francis. You don't have a "I" until you have a "II".

Wonder if Francis will come back into fashion . . . I told a friend who has sons named Dominic and Benedict that "Francis Friend'slastname" had a nice ring to it!

For some reason I think of this movie scene when I hear the name "Francis":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuQDYOrh5wM

And "All Creatures of our God and King," which is a paraphrase of Francis's Canticle of the Sun, is mine.

One thing that came to mind as I thought about the name is another aspect of St. Francis -- the part where he had the vision in San Damiano church in which the icon of Jesus on the cross spoke to him and said "Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." Though at first Francis took this literally and started working to repair the church, he and Franciscans since understood it was a command to work to renew the Church. As Pope Benedict XVI described it, "At that moment St. Francis was called to repair the small church, but the ruinous state of the building was a symbol of the dramatic and disquieting situation of the Church herself. At that time the Church had a superficial faith which did not shape or transform life, a scarcely zealous clergy, and a chilling of love."

This was the aspect that analysts, including a spokesman from the Vatican Press Office, were talking about on CNN last night. They thought this was the real message behind the name, and they thought the choice of the name "Francis" was much bigger news than the first pope from the Americas -- they saw it as the big news of the day (aside from the election itself, of course). As John Allen, the CNN analyst who called the choice "stunning" put it, the Catholic Church has always had two faces -- the institutional, somewhat majestic face exemplified by the papacy, and the humble, charitable, down-in-the-trenches face, which St. Francis perhaps more than anyone else exemplifies. Sometimes, he said, the two faces are closer together, sometimes they are far apart. But the choice by a pope to use the name "Francis," he said, signaled a desire that the "institutional face" mirror the humble, charitable face. Per Allen, "The new pope is sending a signal that this will not be business as usual."

Just to show my "Southern side", when someone yesterday mentioned the new Pope was to be Francis I, I replied that "You know, it's a very popular silver pattern."

Love this idea.

I have to say, this is one of my favorite prayers.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Ah, beautiful piece! Sung at Diana's Funeral in 1997, and I still have the audiotape recording of the music from her service.

Of course you did, darlin. It's an assumption many of us Southern girls make.

;)

I'm headed to Rome this weekend and will actually be attending Pope Francis's investiture mass thanks to my friend's cousin--this Jewish girl is very excited!

A joke - courtesy of Catholic Memes
 

Very cool. Enjoy!

From a service and educational standpoint, I'm very excited to have a Jesuit pope. Francis is still a little too conservative for me (a comment he's made in the past about adopted children of gay couples was a form of child abuse rubbed me wrong), but I doubt we ever see the Catholic church be accepting of gay lifestyles. Just one of the few things I disagree with my church on, I guess. But I think I like him.

And the firsts just keep on a-comin'!
 

Fantastic news and a great step forward to unity! Oremus omnes!