Pope Francis Covers Rolling Stone (We're Not Making This Up)

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by Jordana Ossad | Wed., Jan. 29, 2014 9:11 AM

Rolling Stone

We can now add Pope Francis to the long list of influential figures in the world of politics and pop culture who have graced the cover of Rolling Stone.

The 266th pope, who cracks a smile and waves to the camera in the photograph, is the first pontiff to appear on the cover of the iconic magazine.

The article is titled "Pope Francis: The Times They Are A-Changin'" and offers readers a peek "inside the Pope's gentle revolution."

"Since his election last March, Francis has consistently confounded expectations with the simplest of gestures," writer Mark Binelli explains of the 77-year-old Argentinian native.

NEWS: Pope Francis is TIME's Person of the Year

"Surprising desk clerks at the hotel where he'd been staying during the papal conclave by showing up to pay his own bill; panicking bodyguards by swigging from a cup of maté (the highly caffeinated tealike beverage popular throughout South America) handed to him by a stranger during a visit to Brazil; cracking up cardinals with jokes at his own expense hours after being elected (to those assembled at his first official dinner as pope, he deadpanned, 'May God forgive you for what you've done')."

This is not the only esteemed cover Pope Francis has landed in recent months; he was named Time's Person of the Year in December.

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