Before becoming a priest, Pope Francis once worked as a nightclub bouncer

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, lived a life full of surprises long before he became the beloved leader of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City.

Millions knew Pope Francis as the humble pontiff who preached compassion and reform, but few know about the unexpected job he once held in his youth. Born on Dec. 17, 1936, Pope Francis grew up in Argentina’s capital in a family of Italian immigrants. But before the white robes, the papal balcony, and before he was “Francis,” the future Pope was once a bar bouncer.

As a child, Bergoglio attended school under the guidance of a religious congregation, but later made a surprising detour. Instead of immediately pursuing the priesthood, he transferred to a technical senior secondary school to earn a chemical technician’s diploma. After graduation, he found work under Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, a Paraguayan biochemist and political activist who would later become one of the women who famously protested Argentina’s military dictatorship.

Under her mentorship, Bergoglio developed not only scientific precision but also a deep empathy for the oppressed. Yet even that wasn’t the full story. During his early twenties, while juggling studies and jobs to make ends meet, Bergoglio reportedly worked as a bouncer at a local nightclub.

The revelation came to light years later, when the Italian newspaper Gazzetta del Sud published the story in March 2013, shortly after he was elected pope. “As a student,” they wrote, “he worked as a bouncer at a nightclub to support himself.” (via Newsweek) It wasn’t a career that lasted long, but it left its mark. Life, however, soon took a difficult turn for the young Begoglio.

At 21 years old, he suffered a severe bout of pneumonia and developed three cysts, forcing doctors to remove part of one of his lungs. The illness changed him deeply, steering him inward toward reflection and faith. Just three years later, in 1960, he entered the Society of Jesus, becoming a Jesuit, a member of one of the Catholic Church’s most intellectually rigorous orders.

From there, his rise was steady and remarkable. He earned a licentiate in philosophy from the Colegio Máximo de San José and went on to teach literature and psychology at several Argentine institutions. Known for his intellect and humility, he was ordained as a priest on Dec. 13, 1969, later serving as a bishop, cardinal, and finally elected as the Pope on March 13, 2013.

Pope Francis was revered as the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American pope, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years. When he passed away on April 21, 2025, the world mourned a man who had redefined the papacy through kindness, reform, and humility. Yet his story reminds us that holiness often begins in the most ordinary, and sometimes unlikely, places.