Every disappointment is a blessing...

The new Pope’s childhood sweetheart revealed yesterday how she helped him become a priest – by rejecting his marriage proposal.

Amalia Damonte, 77, says she spurned Jorge Bergoglio, 76 when he popped the question at the tender age of 12 because her parents did not think that much of him.

She said it was 1948 or 1949 when the young son of Italian immigrants slipped a love letter in her hand.

She was speaking outside the house she grew up in, four doors down from the former childhood home of Pope Francis where he lived with his mother and railway worker father in Buenos Aires.

Amalia said: “He wrote me a letter telling me that one day he would like to marry me.

“He said that if I didn’t say yes, he would have to become a priest. Luckily for him, I said no!”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/pope-francis-proposed-childhood-sweetheart-1764744