Pope Francis named Time Magazine's ''Person of the year''.

 
Time magazine will frame Pope Francis as its 2013 Person of the Year, the magazine announced Wednesday morning. By the judgement of Time’s editorial staff, the pope was the most influential global newsmaker. The recipient is picked by Time’s editors who choose the person they think most influenced the news during the previous 12 months, for good or bad. of the past 12 months. Earlier this week, Time narrowed the finalists down to 10, then five. Pope Francis ultimately won out over NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Syrian president Bashar Assad, Texas senator Ted Cruz and gay rights activist Edith Windsor.

This makes him the third pope to appear as Time’s Person of the Year, as Pope John Paul II made the cover in 1994 and Pope John XXIII made the cover in 1962.

According to Catholic News Service, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said that Pope Francis wasn’t looking for Time’s recognition, but if it gave people hope, then the Pontiff was happy.

In an article explaining the decision, Time described Pope Francis as “septuagenarian superstar” and said “he makes masterly use of 21st century tools to perform his 1st century office”

“What makes this Pope so important is the speed with which he has captured the imaginations of millions who had given up on hoping for the Church at all,” the article said.

In a separate piece, Time’s managing editor Nancy Gibbs wrote that Pope Francis has “placed himself at the very centre of the central conversations of our time” about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, globalisation and the role of women.

“At a time when the limits of leadership are being tested in so many places, along comes a man with no army or weapons, no kingdom beyond a tight fist of land in the middle of Rome but with the immense wealth and weight of history behind him, to throw down a challenge,” she wrote.

“The world is getting smaller; individual voices are getting louder; technology is turning virtue viral, so his pulpit is visible to the ends of the earth. When he kisses the face of a disfigured man or washes the feet of a Muslim woman, the image resonates far beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church.”

While he didn’t advance to the top five, President Obama made the shortlist of 10 finalists. He has already been featured on Time’s Person of the Year cover in 2008 and 2012. The shortlist also featured Kathleen Sebelius, the head of Health and Human Services who has been taking blame for the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov site, as well as performer Miley Cyrus.