When the cardinal electors made him Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio later said, they gave Rome a bishop from the very ends of the Earth. They chose him because he spoke of a place even further away than that. In March 2013, in the final meetings before the doors shut on the conclave to select the 226th successor to Saint Peter, Jorge Bergoglio talked about the moon. Born in Buenos Aires in 1936, the man who would become Pope Francis told his fellow cardinals about the Mysterium lunae. The first Christians looked into the night sky 20 centuries ago, and saw, in a world shrouded by darkness, a great light. Look at the moon, they said, and you see the church. It’s only by her illumination – her teachings, her sacraments, her holiness – that we can see at all. But like the moon, none of her beauty belongs to her. It’s borrowed grace, reflected light. It’s an illusion. Without God, it would be nothing at all. Loading... New Statesman