Regarding the election of Pope Francis 1: With deep joy I offer Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio my warm congratulations and most fervent good wishes on his election to the papacy.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a man rich in spiritual passion, humility, self-denial and love for the cause of God and of man.
As Pope Francis, he brings to the papacy a brilliant philosophical and, in particular, theological mind that has embraced a vision of broad spiritual and ecclesiastical horizons: personal holiness, missionary outreach combined with constant concern for unity, and the necessary integration of spirituality and institutional ministry.
His episcopal motto “Miserando atque eligendo” has strengthened and guided him in his tireless and uncompromising efforts aimed at defending and promoting the Catholic faith and its morals against modern errors in an age in which the Catholic Church has suffered unprecedented persecution and martyrdom.
The new pope has also worked to encourage studies aimed at increasing knowledge of the faith so that the new problems arising from the progress of science and civilization can be answered in the light of the word of God.
The aim for which he has always strived has been to serve the truth, seek to know it ever more thoroughly and make it ever more widely known.
May the Lord lavish his choicest heavenly reward upon our new Vicar of Christ Francis 1.
Paul Kokoski