Pope Francis Pope Francis Pope Francis (; ; ; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936) is the Pope of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentina's provincial superior of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998
Republicanism in the Netherlands founded the New Republican Society ("Nieuw Republikeins Genootschap", NRG) in 1998. Members of the NRG do organise actions against the monarchy. However, both groups are currently relatively marginal in Dutch society: the RG does have many prominent members, but not a large following; the NRG had about 2000 members in April 2013. When it became public in 1999 that Crown Prince Willem-Alexander was in relationship with Máxima Zorreguieta, the royal house came under fire, mainly because Máxima's father Jorge Zorreguieta had been Secretary of State in the repressive Argentinian military regime of Jorge Videla during the Dirty War (1976–1981). Even