The first Latin American Pope may have been a Latin Lover first it emerged last night after a childhood sweetheart claimed she may have driven him into the church.
Amalia Damonte, 76, who grew up in the same Flores neighbourhood of Buenos Aires as Bergoglio said she was shocked when he became Pope.
‘I froze in front of the television. I couldn’t believe that Jorge was the Pope!’ said his old girlfriend, now a white-hair pensioner with spectacles.
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Amalia Damonte, who Pope Francis proposed to as a 12-year-old. They were childhood sweethearts in Buenos Aires
It was either 1948 or 1949 when the future Pope wrote her a letter declaring he would like to marry her.
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‘We were 12, 13 years old. No more than that,’ she said. ‘He was wonderful. He was a proper guy.’
‘There was only one letter and it cost me a smack in the face from my father,’ she said.
Pope Francis celebrates his inaugural Mass with cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican yesterday
The Pope used to play on the streets with Amalia and proposed marriage in letter at 12
Bergoglio decided to take religious orders in 1958 when he was 21 but he wasn’t ordained until 1969
POPE’S WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Today at 11:00am in the Clementine Hall he will meet with the full College of Cardinals, electors and non-electors, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
On Saturday at 11:00am in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope will hold an audience with accredited journalists (permanent and temporary) and those who work in the media.
On Sunday, 17 March at 12:00pm, he will recite the first Angelus of his papacy from the papal apartments overlooking St. Peter’s Square, as is customary.
‘It said we were going to get married and I am going to buy you a white house. So the two of us could live together.’
‘He said that if I didn’t say yes, he would have to become a priest. Luckily for him, I said no!’ said Ms Damonte, who stills lives four doors up from Bergoglio’s childhood home.
‘He had a crush on me, you know. We used to play on the streets here. It was a quiet neighbourhood then, and, well, he was very nice.’
She said she the he ‘is a good man, the son of a working-class family,’ she said.
‘I hope he can achieve all the good that he holds in his heart.’
It is quite possible that Ms Damonte wasn’t the only love in his life, despite what the future Pope told her.
VIDEO ‘It’s good for him I turned him down!’: Francis I’s sweetheart
In a 2010 interview, he admitted he had a girlfriend with whom he loved to dance the tango – probably not a pastime for a 12-year-old.
He said: ‘She was one of a group of friends with whom I used to go dancing with.
‘Then I discovered my religious vocation’.
Bergoglio decided to take religious orders in 1958 when he was 21 but he wasn’t ordained until 1969.
Youth: Jorge Mario Bergoglio (right) posing with two school teammates at the Technical School in Buenos Aires, Argentina
In this undated picture Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, second from left in back row, poses for a picture with his famil
This early 1950s picture released by journalist Sergio Rubin shows Jorge Mario Bergoglio posing with unidentified schoolmates of a preparatory school in Buenos Aires
He was born into a middle-class family of seven in 1936, his father a railway worker and his mother a housewife.
He became a priest at 32, nearly a decade after losing a lung due to respiratory illness and quitting his chemistry studies.
Despite his late start, he was leading the local Jesuit community within four years, holding the post from 1973 to 1979.
The new Pope is an ardent fan of an Argentinian football team nicknamed the ‘Saints.’
Just in case their rivals were in any doubt, the club, San Lorenzo de Almagro, tweeted a photo of Pope Francis with the team’s colours yesterday.
The Buenos Aires club – one of the country’s top sides – owes its name to a Catholic priest who played a key role in helping the 104-year-old team find a place to play in its early days.
Father Lorenzo Massa became so worried about the boys kicking a ball around in the streets he offered them the use of the churchyard after seeing one player almost knocked down by a tram.
There was just one condition – that they must attend mass on Sundays.
In honour of his contribution, the founding members of the club decided to name the team after the churchman.
Almagro is the district in Buenos Aires where the team originated from.
The club now plays in the Primera Division, the top league in Argentina.
The former home of the father of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Portacomaro Stazione, Asti
The villa is tucked away among the vineyards in the gentle rolling hills of northern Italy