That is the verdict of Umberto Eco, the world famous Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher and author of the best-selling novel, "The Name of the Rose".

"I am convinced that Pope Francis is representing something absolutely new in the history of the Church, and perhaps in the history of the world", the Italian writer told La Nacion, one of the main Argentinean dailies in an interview published today in Buenos Aires.

He reacted with some discomfort, however, when asked by La Nacion for his opinion of Pope Francis: "I am extremely annoyed when the whole world asks me what I think of Pope Francis. It would be interesting to know what Pope Francis thinks of me, but I do not know..."

"When some rather ingeniously ask me whether he (Francis) represents a revolution, I reply that revolutions are only evaluated after a hundred years", Eco added.

Asked what he thought of the fact that the Pope had written a letter to the founder of the Italian daily, La Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, 'a non-believer, in response to two editorials written by him in that paper, Eco, clearly not enthusiastic, remarked, "Well, it was an incentive for stamps", in other words it helped sales.

Pushed for what he really thought about this, Eco responded, "I would not permit myself to judge Pope Francis, who probably wrote this letter because it seemed useful and interesting for him to do so, and that is very good."

Eco recalled how ten-years ago he had corresponded with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, and this resulted in four long letters that were subsequently published as a book.

Responding to a question as to whether he was surprised that the papacy has gone out of Europe for the first time in more than a millennium, Eco recalled that "it went out of Italy" with the election of Karol Wojtyla in 1978, and prior to that the last non-Italian pope was Hadrian V from Utrecht in 1552.

"When it happened with Wojtyla it was something new that showed that the Church was no longer an Italian power against the Germanic empire as it had been in the previous centuries, it was something universal. And so it seems to me that it was quite normal that there would be another foreign pope after Joseph Ratzinger".

Surprisingly, the 82-year old Eco did not rate the fact that the papacy had crossed the Atlantic for the first time in history as "something exceptional" because of the airlines we have today. Continue reading