The Latin American pope's devotion to the Virgin Mary plays a significant role in his vision for the Church's pastoral work and his own role as universal pastor. Dutch theologian Hendro Munsterman offers a critical assessment the pope's Marian spirituality and wonders if it leaves enough room for the working of the Holy Spirit.

In 1986, Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then just a 49-year-old Argentine Jesuit, was sent to the Jesuit faculty of Frankfurt, Germany, to write a doctoral dissertation. After difficult years as the order's provincial superior during Argentina's dictatorship and as rector of a university, he was allowed to plunge into the thought of the great German theologian Romano Guardini, whose archives are in Munich.

Bergoglio never finished the dissertation. He suffered from homesickness, as each plane he saw in the air near the huge airport of Frankfurt reminded him how far he was from Argentina.