Pope Francis I: A leader with mud on his boots THE choice of the name, Francis, by the new Pope, is a stroke of genius. St Francis of Assisi is perennially the Catholic Church's most popular saint. To use the dreadful terminology of our time, St Francis is one of the most positive brands within the vast treasury of the Catholic Church. This choice, which no doubt also reflects the Pope's spirituality, is a sign that the new man on St Peter's throne may have something of that genius for communications - or more crudely, public relations instinct - which so characterised Pope John Paul II, was so absent in the retired Benedict XVI, and is so essential in a modern pope. As Australia's Cardinal George Pell points out, the new Pope is a formidable man.