Pope Francis - Person of the Year 2013

Pope Francis was named as the Person of the Year 2013 by Time Magazine. He was named the Person of the Year for changing the perception of the Catholic Church within nine months. As per Time magazine, Pope’s dedication to humility and his fight against poverty placed him at the top position of the year.

Edward Snowden the person who leaked the secret documents about NSA surveillance activities was selected at the second position in the list. Edith Windsor–the gay marriage pioneer, Bashar Al-Assad–President of Syria and Ted Cruz–the US Senator from Texas has placed on the top five slots.

Earlier, Vanity Fair Italia also named Pope Francis, the Man of the Year in July 2013.

Time Magazine has chosen a Pope as its Person of the Year for the third time and the others to be honoured with the title were Pope John XXIII in 1962 and Pope John Paul II in 1994.

Pope Francis is the first non-European pope in almost 1300 years and first pontiff from the America. He took Francis as his Papal name after Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the reformer of 13th Century.  His original is Jorge Bergoglio, who was chosen as the new Pope by the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church on 13 March 2013 after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. He is a first Pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit.