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Behind the Meaning of the Pope’s NamesThe new pope’s choice of ‘Francis’ hints at the direction of his reign.
Enter Pope Francis. The first Jesuit pope. The first from Latin
America. It is, indeed, a historic moment for the papacy. Those who waited
for a leader from the new Catholic world will no doubt be __( I )__
by
the choice, but his new status as the leader of a global church requires
a different persona and a new mode of action. The new pope speaks not
only for Argentina, Latin America, and the Jesuits, but also for the entire
Roman Catholic world.
The first Jesuit pope. The first from Latin America.
(Enrique Marcarian/Reuters) It is precisely for this reason that cardinals shed their names along
with their brightly __( II )__ vestments. Historically, the tradition of
selecting a new papal name dates back to the sixth century, when Pope
John II swapped his awkwardly __( III )__ name Mercurius for the solidly
Christian John. At the same time the selection of religious names is more
than an opportunity to symbolically cast aside individual identity. Papal
names chart a course for the future by summoning up the past. The new
pope assumes either the mantle of religious heroes and leaders from days
gone by or the virtues of the Innocents and the Piuses. The selection of
the name both forges a new identity and signals how the pope wishes to
be seen and remembered. It is, in essence, not only the answer to the
__( IV )__ question “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” but
also a way of preemptively writing one’s own reviews.
Traditionally popes have been __( V )__ of reaching too high, of
appearing too self-congratulatory. The office of the pope is built, literally
and metaphorically, on the legacy of St. Peter, the apostle of Christ, whose
remains lie beneath the papal seat in the Vatican. But there has been no Pope Peter II. Thus far, no pope has had the audacity to present himself
as standing in continuity with the favored disciple of Jesus. Nor would
Pope Francis have been able to select the name of the founder of his own
order. A Pope Ignatius—after Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loyola—would
have appeared self-serving.
At first blush, Pope Francis’s selection of a previously __( VI )__
papal name—he is no 23rd anything—marks a break with the past and
augurs well for those looking for a move away from deeply entrenched
institutionalism. The new pope symbolically clears the deck for a new period
of Catholic history. For a church desperately in need of an administrative
makeover, it creates a nominally blank slate for the pale-garbed pontiff.
Newsweek
The adjectives that properly fill in blanks I, II, III, IV, V and VI, in the text, are