NEW YORK — Today, TIME names Pope Francis the 2013 TIME Person of the Year. TIME Editor Nancy Gibbs, who met Pope Francis in Rome last week, writes: “Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly—young and old, faithful and cynical—as has Pope Francis. In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power…. He is embracing complexity and acknowledging the risk that a church obsessed with its own rights and righteousness could inflict more wounds than it heals…. For pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets, for committing the world’s largest church to confronting its deepest needs, and for balancing judgment with mercy, Pope Francis is TIME’s 2013 Person of the Year.”
For the seventh year in a row, TIME names a Person of the Year shortlist with Edith Windsor being named No. 3.
TIME’s Eliza Gray writes: “It is difficult to overstate the practical benefits to every gay American following Windsor’s victory in June. After the Supreme Court decision, gay couples could file joint tax returns, get access to veterans’ and Social Security benefits, hold on to their homes when their spouses died and get green cards for their foreign husbands and wives. For many couples—especially those with children and those without means—these benefits and protections are not merely symbolic.”
Windsor talks to TIME about gay people in her generation: “Most of us have spent most of our lives coming out selectively. It’s safe here. It’s good here. You can say you have a wife here, but not there.” Though she had always been quietly supportive in the gay community, generous with her time and money, she had not been—in the most literal meaning of the word—an activist. Her case, of course, has changed that. “I can’t be more out,” she says joyfully.
Other shortlist persons named were: No. 2- Edward Snowden, No. 4- Bashar Assad and No. 5- Ted Cruz.
