It is no surprise that Time Magazine has named Pope Francis 2013 “Person of the Year.”  In a mere nine months, Pope Francis has managed to redefine and revolutionize expectations of a modern religious leader.  As Time Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs has stated, we cannot underestimate his importance as a “a new voice of conscience.”

Regardless of your religious affiliation (if you have one at all), everyone can stand to learn something from Pope Francis.  Here’s what I think are five of the most important messages Francis continues to send to the world:

1.  Tolerance and Acceptance for All

Following his announcement as Pontiff, Francis washed and kissed the feet of 12 prisoners incarcerated in Rome as part of the traditional Holy Thursday ride.  The unusual part of the ceremony was the inclusion of two women (one of whom was Muslim).   Since then, Pope Francis has reiterated the importance of interfaith understanding (he sent personal Eid al-Fitr holiday greetings to Muslims around the world) and the importance of a more equal role for women in the Church.

People were shocked when Pope Francis publicly declared, “Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?” in response to a question about the Catholic Church’s position towards gays and lesbians.  He’s continued to make similar statements calling the Church too “obsessed” with homosexuality and abortion when the Church instead should be a “home for all.”

2. Rejection of Unnecessary Extravagance

Pope Francis refused to live in the typical luxurious papal apartments located in the Apostolic Palace in order to live in a more humble guesthouse where he would be part of the community.   He is the first pope in 110 years not to live in the papal apartments.   He also has opted for a much more inexpensive papal vehicle – a Ford Focus (costing approximately $16,000).  He is very rarely seen in the typical papal vestments and instead wears simple garments comprised of a white hat and robe.  Even prior to becoming the Pope, when he still lived in Argentina, he gave up his chauffeur and took the bus to work every morning.

3. Embracing the Poor and Sick

One of Pope Francis’ first tweets (which is neat in and of itself) stated, “The pope must serve all people, especially the poor, weak, the vulnerable.”  He time and time again has embraced and kissed people of all backgrounds and welcomed them with open arms.   In response to the question, “If you could perform what miracle, what would it be?” he answered with “heal children, because it pains me to see children suffer.”

4. Fighting for What’s Right and Instituting Real Change

Pope Francis has been extremely proactive in moving forward with reforms regarding sex abuse in the Church.   In July, he oversaw a legislative overhaul of laws involving data leaking and sex abuse.  In October, the Vatican released the first ever bank report in an effort to increase financial transparency and soon after hired third party Ernst and Young to investigate the corruption allegations during the “Vatileaks” scandal.  Francis even ordered the expulsion of a German Bishop on grounds of corruption.   In December, Francis formed a commission to address the problem of priest sex abuse.

5. Ability to Communicate and Resonate with Pretty Much Everyone

In addition to Time’s Person of the Year, Francis was named Twitter’s most influential person with the highest number of retweets (beating out Obama and other world leaders and celebrities).  Pope Francis gets an average of 11,100 retweets for every Spanish tweet and 8,200 retweets for each English tweet  (whereas Obama typically gets about 2,300 for every post).

Not surprisingly, Pope Francis was the top most-talked about topic on Facebook in 2013 as well beating out “Election” (No 2), “Royal Baby” (No 3), “Miley Cyrus” (No 7) and “Nelson Mandela” (No 10).   For Time’s award, Pope Francis beat out President Obama, Edward Snowden, Syria President Assad, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Senator Ted Cruz and Miley Cyrus.