Pope Francis is TIME magazine's person of the year.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the current Pope of the Catholic Church was elected on March 13, 2013. In his nine months of office, he shunned many of the perks of his position (papal Mercedes included), and opted for a much more modest appearance than his predecessor, Pope Benedict, capturing the sympathies of many.
Edward Snowden came in second; other finalists included U.S. President Barack Obama, singer Miley Cyrus and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
"Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly—young and old, faithful and cynical—as has Pope Francis. In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power," wrote Time's Nancy Gibbs, explaining the choice.
Last year's person of the year was U.S. president Barack Obama; in 2011 it was the anonymous protester, and in 2010 it was Facebook CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg.
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