One month after his death, Francisco’s orphan Argentina embraces Leo XIV

Sadness, emptiness, nostalgia, orphanhood, but also a memory grateful for these twelve years of pontificate, guide and teaching, are the feelings that are crowded in the Catholic community of Argentina after one month of the death of Pope Francis, feelings that join with the hope in the leadership of Leo XIV about a church that seeks paths of peace and unity.

A month after his death, despite the fact that in Buenos Aires there were no special celebrations, the Argentine Church in Rome celebrated a mass, convened by the Argentine embassy before the Holy See.

However, in the feeling of the Argentines, everything lived in this last month emerges again.

From orphanhood to hope

The Bishop of San Francisco, in the province of Córdoba, Mons. Sergio Osvaldo Buenanueva, referred to the lived these months as “a Easter within Easter”, comparison taken from a reflection of Pope Leo XIV, since in the general context of Easter, Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord, the Church has also lived “with intensity”, the disease of Pope Francis Marta, and then her surprise death.

Mons. Buenanueva highlighted Francisco’s gestures on the last Passover Sunday “When with a voice of voice he gave us the blessinghe blessed the people and then wanted to go down to the square “, in a gesture” which sealed his ministry. “

“I think the people have accompanied this with pain and with a very great sense of faith here in Argentina, even for those who have had a strong divergence with Pope Francis,” he admitted. “At that time the faith prevailed, the Catholic faith he is dismissed and cries to his pastor, and the sense of orphanhood that we all feel to know that Francisco was no longer among us,” he acknowledged.

“The choice of Pope Leo XIV was very particular because we were all the bishops gathered in our plenary assembly in Pilar, it was a surprise but what was immediately perceived was a very great joy,” he said.

“It is due to an action of the Holy Spirit, without a doubt, which is the one that gives the comfort of God and the joy of God to the hearts, but also through this concrete man, whose kind face, whose emotions in the flower of leather-all we commented on how he looked excited in that first exit to the central balcony of St. Peter after the ‘Habemus Papam’-and that joy and that hope has remained until now,” he observed.

“I think the joy of the people, of all of us upon receiving this new shepherd, this new Pope, comes from the spirit and gives us this sense of hope.”

Convert grateful memory

From Rome, Fr. Diego Olivera, from the Argentine diocese of La Rioja, recalled having experienced “much anguish” upon learning of Francisco’s death, who “has been a very dear Pope for all, has taught us a lot with his words but much more with his gestures.”

At that time, “that sadness made her a grateful memory prayer to God, giving thanks for all the time of her pontificate, for her teachings,” he said.

Fr. Olivera was in Rome when the conclave was celebrated, and recalled: “We felt orphans, we were all waiting for the Pope’s choice,” and when they saw the white smoking, “without knowing who it was, everyone applauded, shouted, sang, danced, we were hugging unknown people, all full of great joy”, feeling that “we are no longer orphaned.

The lack of someone “very close despite the distance”

Joaquín is a young man from Buenos Aires who usually frequents the basilica of San José de Flores, where a young Jorge Bergoglio found his priestly vocation. That April 21, he acknowledges, “Francisco’s death generated a lot of sadness and feeling of orphanage.” It was for him “the lack of someone who was very close all these years, despite the geographical distance.”

“It also moved me that, despite his advanced age and his fragile state of health, I had that strength – I believe, given by the Holy Spirit – to continue providing testimony of Jesus to his last breath,” he said.

As for the choice of his successor, he says that he “rejoice a lot … for his proximity and link with another South American people such as Peru, in addition to the simplicity and depth that he conveyed with his first words.”

De Leo XIV, Joaquín considers “very valuable for this moment of the Church and the world that emphasizes the value of the social doctrine of the Church and continues a course similar to the path that Francisa knew how to carry.”

Dialogue as a path to true peace

Camila is 31 years old and is a catechist. Remember that during Francisco’s disease he began to “be aware of his entire legacy”, and to feel “a strong communion” that increased with his death: “I cried as if I had met him for a lifetime,” he admitted.

At that time, a question arose in it: “Why don’t we value everything that Francisco gave us?” And one of the teachings that rescues is the importance of dialogue “that sometimes bothers, but it is what builds true peace.”

“Surely with the passage of time the fruits of all these years will be noticed,” he yearned.

“With the choice of Pope Leo XIV I felt a lot of joy, I also felt it as a great gift from God, since we didn’t even know him but it was as if we already wanted it,” he acknowledged. “I am still impressed to see the conductive thread that the Holy Spirit raises, the presence of God directing his Church,” he said.

A town that changed the accent to cry to their “dad”

Lucrecia is a journalist and writer. He lives in the Patagonian city of Neuquén, and said he will always remember exactly the time and place where he was when he learned “that our beloved Francisco had gone.”

“A month after his departure, we find it hard to believe that he is not. The change of accent of a people that strangers him so much – in the place of potato, we begin to say dad – rumbles us inside the heart,” he reflected.

“We are inevitably cried to Dad Francisco,” he admitted. “The human heart gives more to God when he feels fragile and He comforts us with his peace and with the joy of seeing how much we have loved who left,” he said.

“As sons and daughters of this immense dad, we will continue crying, without losing the horizon of the joy of the gospel he made flesh,” he said.

When referring to Leo XIV, the journalist seeks in Francisco’s teachings a light, and thinks: “I think Francisco would ask us for a little silence. That we do not interpret so fast what we think we see.”

Francisco and his “wake of unity in the world”

Nelly lives in the west of Greater Buenos Aires and his life has been marked by a strong ecclesial presence. When looking back, remember that the expectations he had in March 2013 for Pope Francis “were widely satisfied in his 12 years of papacy” in which “he was a close pope to all, all.”

On Easter Sunday, Nelly had “sensations found” when he saw him go to the balcony. “He looked so old and fragile!

“The next day I woke up with the news that I had left with the father. My heart and my face were filled with sadness. I cried a lot. All week. A feeling of orphanhood accompanied me many, many days.”

“We no longer had Francisco. But there was a wake of unity in the world, someone who had been coherent and brave had lay bridges around the world,” he said.

When the conclave arrived, with expectation but with uncertainty, Nelly knew that “we had to wait, pray and trust.”

“And Leo XIV was chosen! His excited eyes, his simple gestures, name Francisco in his first words, knowing his mission in Peru … hope seems not to have been fraud! It is also close to people, and seeks peace,” he summarized. “I promise to pray for him, as I did with Francisco, for whom I still pray to thank his life and legacy,” he concluded.

Become aware of the immensity of your figure

Santiago is a young Buenos Aires who has dedicated his talents and his time to read, interpret, and share Francisco’s thought with fidelity and passion, almost like a “fan” does it with the colors of his football club, which in this case is San Lorenzo, the same with which the Holy Father sympathized.

“We began to feel the impact when we did the first days of prayer for Francisco’s health, when he was still admitted and the feeling was that he was going,” he recalled.

“During all that time, what we perceived was like a general awareness in Argentina, after 12 years of many controversies, often malicious by petty and small looks, of the immensity of his figure, of his person, but above all of his legacy,” he said.

“That legacy is the one that summons us now, it is the one we now have ahead as a generation, those of us who form with it, reading it, listening to it, but above all also for a country that is going through a very delicate moment in the economical, social and socially and political,” he emphasized.

“In Francisco we feel summoned to initiate a process of reunion, regeneration and construction for a society, a more fair, more human and more fraternal country,” he added.

“In that sense, we understand that Leo XIV, from the choice of his name to the messages of summoning peace, to the defense of human dignity, is what also shows us that, from the Church, the process initiated by Francisco continues,” he reflected.