Truth, goodness and beauty

Associated Press photo

Pope Francis met today for the first time with the media, by most accounts revealing a warm, friendly, humble personality with a sense of humor. “You have been working hard, eh?” he said to the reporters who were present. (Shortly after his election, when he had dinner with all the cardinals who had chosen him as pope, he reportedly joked with them, saying, “May God forgive you for what you have done!”)

According to various news accounts from which I have gleaned, the Pope broke from his script today and told reporters why he had selected the name Francis and what it might signal for the Church during his papacy. He said that when it became clear in the conclave that his fellow cardinals were going to elect him as pope, one of the cardinals leaned over and said to him, “Don't forget the poor.”

“That's when I thought of Francis of Assisi,” Pope Francis said. “And that is how the name came to me: Francis of Assisi, the man of poverty, of peace.”

“Oh how I would like a poor church and a church for the poor,” he continued.

Later he had this to say of the Church: "The church exists to communicate this: truth, goodness and beauty personified. We are called not to communicate ourselves, but this essential trio."