Benedict XVI’s announcement that he was resigning, exactly a year ago on Tuesday, shocked the Church. But what did the man who would succeed him make of that momentous decision? “They speak of a conservative Pope, but what Benedict XVI did when he announced his resignation really represents a revolutionary gesture, a change to 600 years of history,” the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, said in an interview with the Italian news agency, Ansa, on the day Benedict’s announcement was made. At the time, few rated Bergoglio’s chances of being elected Pope. Pointing out that he had been a contender for the position in 2005, Sergio Rubin, Bergoglio’s biographer, said: “It doesn’t look like a possibility this time round. Bergog