His Holiness Pope Francis celebrates his 84th birthday today, December 17.
Born in 1936 at Buenos Aires, he served as its Arch Bishop from 1998 to 2013, and as the cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina from 2001 to 2013.
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Pope Francis, whose real name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the 266th pope elected by the Roman Catholic Church in March 2013.
His Holiness made headlines in the UAE and around the world as the first pope to visit an Arab nation in February 2019. The visit took place exactly 800 years following the encounter between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan Malek Al Kamel in 1219.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos and expats manifested their abundance of faith as they braved the sea of the 180,000 Catholic faithful who came to witness the historic Papal Mass on February 5, 2019 at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
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His Holiness has also kept the safety and wellbeing of Filipinos in his heart, as seen in his tweet when typhoons Rolly and Ulysses ravaged parts of the Philippines in November.
“I am near in prayer to the dear people of the Philippines who are suffering because of the destruction, and especially because of the flooding caused by a strong typhoon. I express my solidarity to the poorest families and those who are doing all they can to help them,” tweeted Pope Francis.
