Pope Francis named as world's fourth most powerful man by Forbes
31 Oct. 2013: Pope Francis is the 4th ‘most powerful’ person in the world according
to Forbes, the prestigious American business magazine, which has just released the
names of those it ranks as ‘the 72 most powerful people’ on planet earth in 2013.
Forbes ranks Pope Francis immediately after the Presidents of Russia, the USA and
China. It is a most extraordinary result for this humble leader of the Catholic Church
who has never in his life sought position, power or status, has always lived as a
poor man and, until his election as Pope used public transport, shuns mundane events
and gives priority attention to the world’s poor. Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin was given the number 1 position in the Forbes list, followed by US President
Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in the number 2 and 3 slots respectively.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel came in at Number 5, and is rated as the most powerful
woman in the world. Each year Forbes provides a ranking of the heads of state,
financiers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs “who truly run the world”. It lists
one for every 100 million of the world’s inhabitants, and since there are 7.2 billion
people on earth today, it has come up with what it considers the 72 ‘most powerful’
among them. Source: Ucan