When the final votes were counted in the Sistine Chapel on March 13, 2013, and the Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina had been elected, the Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes said to his friend the new pope, "Do not forget the poor." Pope Francis later told reporters, “The poor, the poor. When he spoke about the poor, I thought of St. Francis of Assisi.”
An hour later, Pope Francis walked onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and raised his hand. For the last year, Pope Francis has not forgotten the poor. Indeed, care for the poor and marginalized has been the most constant focus of the papacy thus far; even as he has begun the enormous task of reforming the Catholic Church from the inside out.
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