Fact File: Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Argentina’s Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been elected as the new pope of the Catholic church. He has chosen the name Pope Francis.

Bergoglio is an intellectual who modernised what had been one of the most conservative Roman Catholic churches in Latin America.

He becomes the first Jesuit pope, and has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing many churches and priests.

Bergoglio, 76, reportedly received the second highest number of votes after Joseph Ratzinger in the 2005 papal election, and he has long specialised in the kind of pastoral work that some say is an essential skill for the next pope.

Pope Francis facts:

• Born: Dec. 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

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• Education: Studied at the Theological Faculty of San Miguel

• Ordained for the Jesuits on Dec. 13, 1969

• Languages: Speaks Spanish, Italian and German

• Ordained titular bishop of Auca and auxiliary of Buenes Aires on June 27, 1992

• Proclaimed cardinal by Pope John Paul II on Feb. 21, 2001. Participated in conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

• Despite being Argentina’s top church official, Bergoglio never lived in the ornate church mansion in Buenos Aires, preferring a simple bed in a downtown room heated by a small stove. For years, he took public transportation around the city and cooked his own meals.

• Bergoglio has slowed a bit with age and is feeling the effects of having a lung removed due to infection when he was a teenager; two obstacles against him receiving the post at a time when many Vatican-watchers say the next pope should be relatively young and strong.

• His outspoken criticism couldn’t prevent Argentina from becoming the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage or stop its president, Cristina Fernandez, from promoting free contraception and artificial insemination. When Bergoglio argued that gay adoptions discriminate against children, Fernandez compared his tone to “medieval times and the Inquisition.”

• His church did not have a say when the Argentine Supreme Court expanded access to legal abortions in rape cases.

• Critics accuse him of failing to stand up publicly against the country’s military dictatorship from 1976-1983, when victims and their relatives often brought first-hand accounts of torture, death and kidnappings.

With files from the Associated Press