The first Jesuit Pontiff won hearts and headlines with his common touch and rejection of luxury.
Correction: An earlier version of this post suggested that Pope Francis rejected some church dogma. He does not.
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As always, TIME's editors will choose the Person of the Year, but that doesn't mean readers shouldn't have their say. Cast your vote for the person you think most influenced the news this year for better or worse - in both a straight yes/no poll and a candidate face-off. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 4, and the combined winner of our reader polls will be announced on Dec. 6. TIME's Person of the Year will be announced Dec. 11.
Pope Francis
Full List
The Candidates
- Shinzo Abe
- Bashar Assad
- Jeff Bezos
- John Boehner
- Chris Christie
- Dick Costolo
- Ted Cruz
- Miley Cyrus
- Wendy Davis
- Jamie Dimon
- Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- Jimmy Fallon
- Pope Francis
- Prince George
- Vince Gilligan
- Reed Hastings
- LeBron James
- Angelina Jolie
- Charles and David Koch
- Christine Lagarde
- Marissa Mayer
- Angela Merkel
- Narendra Modi
- Alice Munro
- Elon Musk
- Benjamin Netanyahu
- Diana Nyad
- Barack Obama
- David Ortiz
- Larry Page
- Rand Paul
- Vladimir Putin
- Hassan Rouhani
- Sheryl Sandberg
- Kathleen Sebelius
- Edward Snowden
- Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev
- Janet Yellen
- Malala Yousafzai
- Edith Windsor
- Xi Jinping
The Results