Pope Francis Is Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year

NEW YORK -Time magazineon Wednesdaynamed PopeFrancis its personof theyear, sayingthat in ninemonths inoffice the head of the Catholic Churchhad become a new voice of conscience.”For pulling the papacy out of the palaceand into the streets, for committing theworld’s largest church to confronting itsdeepest needs and for balancing judgmentwith mercy, Pope Francis is TIME’s2013 Person of the Year,” wrote managingeditor Nancy Gibbs.”Rarely has a new player on the worldstage captured so much attention soquickly — young and old, faithful andcynical — as Pope Francis.”In his nine months in office, he hasplaced himself at the very center of thecentral conversations of our time: aboutwealth and poverty, fairness and justice,transparency, modernity, globalization,the role of women, the nature of marriage,the temptations of power.”The runner-up for the accolade was NSAwhistleblower Edward Snowden, whohas been granted asylum in Russia andwith whom Time published an exclusiveinterview conducted over email.