Person of the Year 2013

How cool is this?

Pope Francis is the third pontiff in history to be named Person of the Year by the secular TIME magazine.  

The other two were Pope John XXIII in 1962 - famous for calling the Second Vatican Council with its historic consequences, and expected to be canonised by Pope Francis in April next year - and Pope John Paul II in 1994, also expected to be canonised at the same time.  

Papa Frankie is reportedly "really happy" about the honour, even though "he's not someone who seeks fame and success because he has put his life at the service of announcing the Gospel of the love of God for mankind", said Fr. Lombardi, the Holy See's chief press officer.  [Vatican News] 

Cynics might say TIME magazine is simply cashing in on a trend and the common knowledge of the Pope's global and ever increasing popularity.  After all, if you want to sell papers or magazines, appealing to 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide is not a bad marketing move.  

On the other hand, the magazine has never been shy about electing far less popular and more controversial figures in the past, e.g. Mark Zuckerberg, Vladmir Putin, George W. Bush (twice?) and his dad, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Adolf Hitler?!  It's not like TIME is worried about pleasing (or displeasing) the masses.  It's the world's most largely circulated news magazine with a readership of 25 million people, 20 million of whom are in the US.  

It's not the best ever photo-portrait they could have found of His Holiness (slightly cross-eyed above) and it is unfortunate that the M is obscured so that it reads: TIE, which a pontiff does not wear, although Freemasons do.  There seem to be quite a lot of Masons in past POYs of TIME.  Hmm ...

Nor was there much competition from the other 9 contenders this year:  Bashar Assad, the Syrian president?  Miley Cyrus?  Who voted for them?  Hardly in the same league as the ground-breaking, historic influence and work of Pope Francis.  No tie.  

Thumbs up for TIME this time.  Read why they chose "the people's Pope" here.  

And the nominations for the Person of the Year of Cyprus are ... ?

Let us pray, O God, the Pastor and Ruler of all the faithful, look down in Your mercy upon Your Servant, Francis, whom you have appointed to preside over Your Church, and grant, we beseech you that both by word and example, he may edify all those under his charge, so that with the flock entrusted to him, he may arrive at length into life everlasting.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.