The first Latin American Pope may
have been a Latin Lover first it emerged last night after a childhood
sweetheart claimed she may have driven him into the church.
Amalia
Damonte, 76, who grew up in the same Flores neighbourhood of Buenos
Aires as Bergoglio said she was shocked when he became Pope.
'I
froze in front of the television. I couldn’t believe that Jorge was the
Pope!' said his old girlfriend, now a white-hair pensioner with
spectacles.
Amalia Damonte, who Pope Francis proposed to as a 12-year-old. They were childhood sweethearts in Buenos Aires
It was either 1948 or 1949 when the future Pope, then aged 12, wrote her a letter declaring he would like to marry her.
'He
said that if I didn’t say yes, he would have to become a priest.
Luckily for him, I said no!' said Ms Damonte, who stills lives four
doors up from Bergoglio's childhood home.
'He had a crush on me, you know. We
used to play on the streets here. It was a quiet neighbourhood then,
and, well, he was very nice.'
It is quite possible that Ms Damonte wasn’t the only love in his life, despite what the future Pope told her.
Pope Francis celebrates his inaugural Mass with cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican yesterday
The Pope used to play on the streets with Amalia and proposed marriage in letter at 12
Bergoglio decided to take religious orders in 1958 when he was 21 but he wasn¿t ordained until 1969
In a 2010 interview, he
admitted he had a girlfriend with whom he loved to dance the tango -
probably not a pastime for a 12-year-old.
He said: ‘She was one of a group of friends with whom I used to go dancing with.
‘Then I discovered my religious vocation’.
Bergoglio decided to take religious orders in 1958 when he was 21 but he wasn’t ordained until 1969.
Youth: Jorge Mario Bergoglio (right) posing with two school teammates at the Technical School in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pope Francis is an avid soccer fan and a card-holding member of football club San Lorenzo de Almagro
DAILYMAIL
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