A long friendship and an unforgettable hug: the day Pope Francis forgot that he was Pope

While the faithful of Buenos Aires said goodbye to Pope Francis with a symbolic hug to the Plaza de Mayo, after the massive mass that the local archbishop celebrated on Saturday, a family face appeared among the people. A religious with bluish gray habit crossed the Plaza de Mayo with a smile that walked social networks in the last week.

This is Brother Juan, the community of the Lamb, whose face went viral in the last week, in a video that remembers one of the emotional moments starring Pope Francis in Rome.

In the video published by Upsocl, which lasts only a few seconds and already accumulates more than 2.3 million views, the Holy Father can be seen in his traditional tour after the general audience, when he is greeting the people gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro.

At one time, the face of Pope Francis mutates towards an expression of surprise, and even makes the gesture of touching his heart, seeing a known face between the crowd. The video describes that moment as “the day Pope Francis forgot that he was Pope” by recognizing his friend among the people.

That friend, with whom I could later be seen in a big hug, is the little brother Juan who, according to ACI Press, was being 50 years old when he attended the general audience in the Vatican.

Seeing him, “the Pope was surprised, and when I told him he was 50 years old, there was the hug.”

Before his death, the religious, who knew Jorge Bergoglio since 1996, said: “There was always a great friendship with him, and now it is time to put into practice what he taught us. We must follow.”

Regarding the celebrations and tributes, he acknowledged that “it is all very emotional”, while assuring that “he wanted Teresita very much, so he will continue doing well from heaven”, in reference to Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús, one of the saints that inspires the charism of the community of the lamb that has a presence in France, Argentina, Austria, Spain, the United States and Poland.

A long friendship

In 1994, Mons. Jorge Bergoglio received the community in Buenos Aires to found there new small fraternities of little brothers and little sisters.

In 2002, and at the initiative of Bergoglio himself, the community was installed in a land adjacent to the Carmelo de San José, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Constitution, where the small “Luz de Nazaret” monastery was built.

Such was familiarity with this community, which two days after his pontifical choice, Francisco convened, together with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, to all the brothers and little sisters of the Lamb that were in Rome.

On those occasions, on March 15, 2013, he told you: “Thank you for what they do in the Church. John Paul II and Pope Benedict insisted that more than teachers needed. He wants … and in fact I want to thank you. ”