Archbishop asks not to “lock” Pope Francis in “ideologisms”

The Archbishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Bishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, delivered this Sunday the homily at Mass on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Pontiff’s Day, and focused his message on the figure of the Saint Father.

The Eucharist, which took place in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires, was presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina, Mons. Miroslaw Adamczyk, and concelebrated, among other prelates, by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mons. Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva; and the Bishop of San Isidro and president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, Mons. Oscar Vicente Ojea.

The homily was given by Bishop García Cuerva, who focused on the figure of Peter: “If Peter really represents the Church in its entirety, we can say: Church, get up quickly, do not remain detained in the past guarding ashes. Church, wake up from the drowsiness of ‘it’s always been done this way’, wake up from formalisms and from a dull and hardened Christianity that loses the joy of the resurrected one.”

“Peter was a prisoner and chained. As a Church, how many times are we prisoners of our internalisms, chained to the nostalgia of other times, chained to ideologies that do not allow us to enter into dialogue with those who think differently, tied to prejudices and fears of change? “questioned the prelate.

In that sense, he called on the Church to rise up to free itself “from the chains of comfort, from the war between us that breaks fraternity.”

“Free yourself from the consciousness of defeat that makes us pessimistic, complaining and disenchanted. Church, free yourself to free so many brothers oppressed by injustice, enslaved by addictions, locked in the prison of loneliness and the deepest anguish,” he added.

Along the same lines, he called on the faithful to follow Jesus, as “a Church of disciples who walk behind the only Master,” in contact with the people and announcing to the world “the joy of the Gospel and the mercy of God that is for all”.

The Archbishop of Buenos Aires then reflected on the figure of Pope Francis, and called to pray a lot for him, “so that he may continue forward with freedom and boldness in the Mission that the Lord entrusted to him.”

“We also ask God not to transform us into those jailers who chained Peter,” he emphasized. “Sometimes it seems that we want to lock Francisco in our crevices, chain him to our prejudices and ideologies, imprison him to the Creole vividness or mischief of stealing some photo or word from him to justify what we think or do,” he warned.

“We end up getting to know the Pope through journalistic articles that fragment his reflection and action, or we get to know him from comments about whether or not he smiles at the current president or how much time he dedicates to him. Or through the rogues who call themselves his friends, who use it as an argument of authority to justify themselves,” he lamented.

In this framework, he asked that “freed from all this, we can concretize the Pope’s teaching, which he has given us throughout all these years,” with the commitment to “be a Church on the way out, a field hospital Church that receives to those wounded by life, a poor Church for the poor, a joyful Church that spreads hope to the world and makes the revolution of tenderness, a Church that is not a customs office, but the father’s house where there is a place for each one with his life in tow.”