For a Times Reporter Who Covered Him, Francis Was Always a Surprise

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was my pick to be elected pope. I was wrong. It was 2005, and the Argentine cardinal, a South American Jesuit known for riding the bus, ticked many of the boxes that church experts told me needed to be filled to move the church forward.

Instead, the College of Cardinals chose the archconservative Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. When, eight years later, I reported on another conclave and again stood in St. Peter's Square scrutinizing the color of smoke leaking out the Sistine Chapel, I thought the Argentine cardinal had become too old to be a top candidate.



I was wrong again. Cardinal Bergoglio, who took the name Pope Francis, the first to do so in..

. Jason Horowitz.