When first thrust into the spotlight he came across as shy and reserved; however, since then he has never been too far away from the front pages of newspapers.
Wherever he travels, hundreds of thousands gather.
The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, thinks Pope Francis has defied expectations.
According to The Telegraph, he said: "I thought of him as a very retiring, behind-the-scenes man. In no way did I think he would be the sort of man who would electrify the crowd as he has done.
"I live on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, which is synonymous with public relations and marketing, and so many people come up to me and say, 'Who's coaching this guy, who's doing his PR, who's doing the choreography?'
"And I love to see the look in their eyes when I say, 'nobody - he's just like that, he's the essence of simplicity and sincerity.
"He's his own man. Nobody told him to go and pay his hotel bill in Rome the day after he was elected Pope. Nobody tells him to carry his own, beat-up old briefcase. He just does it as a decent, courteous human being. Nobody was coaching him. He has a magnetic simplicity that intrigues and fascinates people."
He was commenting as hundreds of bishops from around the world meet for a Vatican synod discussing issues such as divorce, contraception and the direction of the Catholic Church.