Pope

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1. Asking for prayers

Just hours after he was elected pontiff, when he was introduced to the world, the Pope made a gesture that would come to define his pontificate: He asked people to pray for him.

"I would like to bless you...but before I'd like to ask all of you for a favor. Before the bishop blesses his flock, I ask that you pray to the Lord, so that He blesses me. The prayer of the people, asking for the Bishop's blessing.”

2. Closeness

3. Austerity

4. Surprise telephone calls

5. Sharing table with the poor

6. Spontaneity

7. Building bridges

Pope John Paul II famously said that it's important to "build bridges rather than erect walls.” Pope Francis takes this seriously. One of his most significant gestures was to pray in front of the wall that separates Israel and Palestine.

But as the Pope believes in the culture of encounter, he took it one step further: He led a prayer at the Vatican with the presidents of Israel and Palestine.

Pope Francis was also the first Pope to have visited a Waldensian church. He apologized to members of the Protestant denomination for the damage the Catholic Church had done to them: "I ask for forgiveness for the non-Christian attitudes and behaviors, some even inhumane, that we carried out against you. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, forgive us.”

And as he thinks it is possible dialogue with everyone, one of his most recent gestures was this visit to a mosque in the Central African Republic. The mosque's head imam joined him on the Popemobile afterward.