Pope Francis Named Time’s Person of the Year

Pope Francis has won the crown as Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2013. ABC reports that Time magazine has been doing this tradition since 1927 and they have a host of reasons why they chose Pope Francis for the honor. The Associated Press reports:

Since taking over at the Vatican, Francis has urged the Catholic church not to be obsessed with “small-minded rules” and to emphasize compassion over condemnation in dealing with touchy topics like abortion, gays and contraception.

Nancy Gibbs, the managing editor of the publication had a few words to say about the magazine’s choice as well.

He really stood out to us as someone who has changed the tone and the perception and the focus of one of the world’s largest institutions in an extraordinary way.

On an interesting note, apparently the Vatican was not surprised by the magazine’s decision.

The Vatican said the honor wasn’t surprising given the resonance in the general public that Francis has had since his election, but it nevertheless said the choice was a “positive” recognition of spiritual values in the international media.