He got to know him at a meeting in Spain long before the papal election in 2013, said the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life in an interview published on Tuesday in the daily newspaper "Corriere della Sera".
At the time, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Years before him, the then parish priest of Sant'Egidio, Matteo Zuppi, now a cardinal in Bologna, had already met the future Pope in Argentina.
"Even then, we saw him as the expression of a new vision of the Church, a poor Church on the side of the poor," explained Paglia.
This vision would endure despite all resistance and opponents.
"There may be resistance and attempts to reverse course. But I don't believe that this will be possible," said the archbishop, who is part of the Sant'Egidio community.
Paglia: Dying must become more humane again
The Vatican's thought leader on bioethical issues also spoke out in favour of a "return to more humanity" in dying.
"We think far too little about how the prolongation of life and the latest technologies contribute to the prolongation of illness and suffering," said Paglia.
When asked whether active euthanasia remains "a taboo" for the Catholic Church, the Archbishop said: "I think that people's suffering should be removed from the cold mechanisms of the law. Death does a dirty job that people should not have to do. But death must become more human, or more precisely, it must become more human again."
Paglia (79) recently published a book entitled "Little Encyclopaedia of the End of Life", in which he addresses issues such as euthanasia and prolonging life.
The Vatican's Academy of Life, which he heads, used to be a conservative think tank for church statements against abortion, artificial insemination and euthanasia.
Under Paglia's leadership, it has expanded its range of topics and also accepted advocates of legal liberalisation in bioethical issues as members.