Google – AFP, Jennie Matthew (AFP), 11 December 2013
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Pope
Francis kisses a child as he arrives for his general audience at St Peter's
square on December 11, 2013 at the Vatican (AFP, Vincenzo Pinto)
|
New York —
Time magazine named Pope Francis its person of the year on Wednesday, hailing
the head of the Catholic Church as a new voice of global conscience since
taking office in March.
The
76-year-old, who rose from modest beginnings and has been praised for his
down-to-earth approach, is the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years,
the first Latin American head of the Church and a leading voice for the
dispossessed.
He has
taken on leadership of a 1.2-billion-strong Church beset by scandal and signs
of deep internal dysfunction, but there are signs his popularity is
revitalizing it.
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Pope
Francis greets the crowd as he arrives
for his general audience at St Peter's
square
on December 11, 2013 at the Vatican (AFP,
Vincenzo Pinto)
|
"For
pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets, for committing the
world's largest church to confronting its deepest needs and for balancing
judgment with mercy, Pope Francis is TIME's 2013 Person of the Year," said
managing editor Nancy Gibbs.
She said it
was rare for a new figure on the world stage to capture so much attention so
quickly -- from the "young and old, faithful and cynical."
"He
has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time:
about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity,
globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of
power," said Gibbs.
Vatican
spokesman Federico Lombardi welcomed the accolade, not because the pope sought
fame but because it would give people hope.
"It is
a positive sign that one of the most prestigious acknowledgements in
international media should be given to someone who preaches spiritual,
religious and moral values in the world and speaks effectively in favour of
peace and more justice," he said.
"If
this draws women and men and gives them hope, the pope is happy."
The pope
last week set up a committee to fight child sex abuse in the Catholic Church
and give pastoral care to victims following a recommendation from a council of
cardinals he asked to advise him.
The
scandals -- many of them dating back decades -- have scarred the Church
worldwide and led to sharp drops in public confidence in countries such as
Ireland and the United States.
Snowden,
the fugitive US intelligence leaker whose disclosures of classified documents
has rattled Washington, said he had acted to force reforms and to direct the
NSA to focus "its tremendous power toward developing new global technical
standards that enforce robust end-to-end security."
"What
we recoil against is not that such surveillance can theoretically occur, but
that it was done without a majority of society even being aware it was
possible," he told Time.
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Edward
Snowden speaks during an interview
with The Guardian newspaper at an
undisclosed location in Hong Kong on
June 6, 2013 (The Guardian/AFP/File)
|
In third
place was US gay rights activist Edith Windsor in honor of her victory in June
when the US Supreme Court granted same-sex married couples the same federal
benefits as heterosexual couples.
In fourth
place was Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for managing not only to survive but
turn the tide of the civil war his way.
"The
mild-mannered ophthalmologist-turned-Old-Testament-tyrant has taught his
neighbors an ancient lesson: that absolute, unrelenting brutality combined with
geostrategic cleverness is the most likely way to retain power in the Middle
East," the magazine wrote.
In fifth
place was Republican Tea Party US Senator Ted Cruz, who pushed the October
shutdown of the federal government in an ideological war over President Barack
Obama's medical care bill.
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Person of the Year 2013
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