Nigeria, April 28 -- On Easter Sunday, I watched the expectant crowd at St Peter's Square break into a spontaneous applause as Pope Francis' head appeared on the most recognisable balcony in the world, the papal balcony. It was from that same loggia that the former Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was introduced to the world on 13 March, 2013, as the Catholic Church's 266th pope, with the name Francis I, an appellation he took after Saint Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century mystic who renounced his wealth and devoted his life to the poor.

At the Easter celebration, he looked gaunt and pensive, like somebody who had an important mission to accomplish and was determined to pull it through.

Easter Demise

For a man...