Amalia Damonte, now 76, was his girl friend when Francis was 10 years old. He proposed to her saying, "If you don't marry me I will become a priest." Francis (then named Jorge) was rejected. He became a priest.

Pope Francis became a Cardinal in the year 2001

Since the conclave is secret, we will never know the number of votes. However, he had to win at least 77 to be elected as pope. He was elected on the 5th ballot.

I wish to contact the Pope. How can I do that?

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

00120 Vatican City, Italy, Europe

E-mail: benedettoxvi@vatican.va

I tried using this e-mail address and it didn't work. I got a Failure Notice after hitting send.

This depends. There are many orders in the catholic church which may ordain priests, these include the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Premonstratensians, Trinitarians, the Marists, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, the Priestly Fraternity of the Holy Cross, The Redemptorists and quite a few others. These orders are all concentrating on different aspects of priestly and communal life. Generally if one wants to discover what order a priest is, his name will be followed by a postnomial like S.J. For example Rev. John Smith, OP: In this case Father John Smith is a member of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans). If a priest does not possess a post-nomial like OP, SJ, SVD, CSsP, OF, OF(cap) or something like that he is what is called a secular priest (as opposed to a religious priest, referring to membership of a religious fraternity). These priests generally pass through the local seminary and are answerable to the dioscesan bishop, as opposed to a religious superior. They do not have an order unless at some later date they choose to take a religious calling and join one.

Arguably all priests are members of the "Order of Melchisideck" as in the prayer of ordination the bishop who is ordaining the candidate prays that the priest be made "a priest forever in the Order of Melchizideck." However there is no specific order called this, and so this is something which is ignored.

Pope Francis is a member of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits. He is the first Jesuit to be elected as pope.

There's no formal requirement, but hard to do the things a pope needs to do without Latin and Italian. Most modern popes know English, and also the language where they were born. So technically none, but most know 3-4 or more.

Pope Francis has never own either a computer or a cell phone.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born and grew up in Sotto il Monte, a small country village in the Province of Bergamo, Italy.

Pope Francis has forgone many of his papal vestements, instead wearing simple clothes.

Pope Benedict XV1, born 16th April 1927, Bavaria, Germany .

Most Popes have been Italian. There was one English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear. One day there might be a black Pope.

He chose to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis was the name he chose following the election. It was to honor St. Francis of Assisi.

Pope Francis was a very young Jesuit provincial during the last years of Argentina's "dirty war", and for the first three years of the military junta. There are no credible accusations of his personal involvement in the torture or death of Argentinians.

Rumors of complicity, as provincial, in the arrest and torture of two fellow Jesuits were denied even by the victims themselves. While many of the nation's bishops were complicit, the Jesuit provincial Begoglio did not publicly support the junta. Several survivors, in fact, recount his critical involvement in a kind of 'underground railroad', using the seminary and other resources to save lives.

Francisco
That would be "Francisco".

Before being elected as pope, he served the people of Argentina as the cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

His Father wanted to escape the Fascist movement that was taking hold in Italy in the 1920s at the time. His mother was actually born in Argentina but her parents had immigrated earlier from Italy.

Both have passed away but, yes, both were Catholics.

He had two brothers but both are deceased. His only surviving family member is a sister named Maria Elena. (as of January 2015)

What goes on in a conclave is a secret so we will never know how many votes he received. All we know is that he won at least 77 votes.