His fate was almost very different from the one we know today. On Monday 21 April 2025, Pope Francis died at the age of 88 following a stroke. After a series of health problems in recent years, the pontiff was hospitalised in February 2025 for pneumonia, which weakened him considerably. Despite a difficult convalescence, Pope Francis made a point of greeting the faithful who had come to celebrate Easter Mass in St Peter's Square on Sunday 20 April 2025, making his last public appearance before his death.
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While the Concave is rushing to prepare for his funeral, which will take place on Saturday 26 April 2025, tributes are pouring in to honour the memory of the man who, on 13 March 2013, was chosen to be the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.
Before becoming Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio was born into a modest family in Buenos Aires. And like many teenagers, he is said to have had a first love: a young girl called Amalia, whom he met at the public school they both attended in the Flores district.
Pope Francis was her first love
When they were barely thirteen, Jorge Bergoglio took the first step and sent Amalia a letter in which ‘he had drawn a pretty little house, with a red roof and white walls’. ‘He had written that he would buy it when we both got married’, Amalia confided in an interview with Le Point in 2013, shortly after the election of Pope Francis. At the time, she recalled a ‘wonderful’, ‘correct’ and ‘always very friendly’ boy.
Unfortunately for young Jorge, Amalia's parents discovered the letter and tore it up. After punishing their daughter, they asked her suitor not to insist any further. ‘He said to me: ‘Well, if I don't marry you, I'll become a priest’. And he did!’ she explained.
Did he really become a priest after heartbreak?
Whether or not this was the real reason for his vocation is unclear, as other reports allude to the reason being an illness at the age of 21. However, some ten years after this confession, Jorge Bergoglio did enter the seminary. From theology professor to parish priest at Saint Joseph's parish in San Miguel, he rose through the ranks, from bishop to archbishop of Buenos Aires, then bishop of the Catholic Church, cardinal and finally pope. ‘It doesn't surprise me that he became Pope, because he was goodness incarnate’, Amalia admitted in 2013.
This article has been translated from Femme Actuelle.
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Source used:
Le Point: Amalia, l'amour de jeunesse du pape François
