14th March, 2013
Argentinean Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected the new Pope Francis 1 yesterday, is an avid fan and “member” of the San Lorenzo de Almagro soccer team, one of the five most popular teams in his native Argentina.
In 2008, on the 100th anniversary of the club, team managers gave the then future pope, Cardinal Bergoglio, a membership card as San Lorenzo’s “centennial member” and invited him to say mass to celebrate the club’s anniversary.
The soccer club’s web site yesterday posted a note headlined “Raven pope,” in reference to the nickname of the team’s fans (called ravens), along with a photograph of Bergoglio wearing San Lorenzo’s jersey.
“He says he lives in a permanent state of suffering for San Lorenzo,” said Oscar Lucchini, an architect and fellow fan who handed Bergoglio’s membership card to him after that mass about four years ago.
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio was known for his unassuming lifestyle. He lives near San Lorenzo’s headquarters and has long traveled the capital city by public bus.
He also shares the pain of his fellow San Lorenzo fans after their defeats, as well as their joy when the team wins.
Bergoglio, 76, was born in Buenos Aires and yesterday became the first Latin American Pope in the history of the Catholic Church and the first from the Jesuit order.
The former cardinal was elected pope number 266 at the conclave held in the Sistine Chapel, beside St. Peter’s Basilica, in Vatican City. He succeeds Benedict XVI, who resigned his papacy on 28 February.
The Pope’s soccer team, San Lorenzo, was founded on 1 April, 1908, in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Almagro, where a group of youngsters gathered to play soccer at the corner of Mexico and Treintay Tres Orientales streets.
The neighborhood priest would let the youngsters play on part of the church land in exchange for participating in Sunday mass.
Later, the club moved to the Boedo neighborhood, where they built the “Viejo Gasometro” stadium in 1916, which was demolished in 1983.
In 1993, after 14 years without a stadium, San Lorenzo inaugurated its “Pedro Bidegain” stadium, now in the Bajo Flores neighborhood in southern Buenos Aires.
San Lorenzo de Almagro has won 10 national tournaments and two regional ones, the Mercosur Cup in 2001 and the South American Cup in 2002.