“When we were having coffee, and I was about to thank him for the treat and say goodbye, I saw that they brought a cake and a bottle of champagne. I thought it was his birthday and I almost greeted him,” she says.
“But the surprise came when I asked him. ‘No, it’s not my birthday,’ he replied with a wide smile, ‘what happens is that you are the new Coadjutor Bishop of Buenos Aires”. That happened on June 3, 1997.
Bishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, today Pope Francis, fully assumed the seat of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires on February 28, 1998, after the death of Cardinal Quarracino.
He was created cardinal on February 21, 2001 and was elected Pontiff, successor of Saint Peter, on March 13, 2013, after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.