Pope Francis died: Buenos Aires is a father’s orphan

Mons. Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, archbishop of Buenos Aires, was the voice of the entire local church that, with pain and hope, with tears and gratitude, received the departure of Pope Francis to the Father’s house.

This was expressed in a press conference with its auxiliary bishops, from the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, where for years the then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.

Passing the mate of hand in hand with the other bishops, Mons. García Cuerva reviewed different facets of “the Pope of all, the father of all, the father especially of the poor and marginalized, the father of mercy and the father of joy.”

“The old man died”

Taking into account the moment that the Church is going through, he asked journalists to “avoid any type of speculation, any type of partisan analysis,” and forecasts about possible successors. He explained: “The old man died. I don’t want to think who will be in his place.”

“We are a bit orphans of a father, from a father who deeply loved his country, who had to learn to be the father of the world and that should not be easy, and that Argentines cost us a little,” he acknowledged, considering that the Argentines “to Bergoglio have not let him be Francisco.”

The Archbishop recalled that Francisco was “the Pope of the poor and the marginalized.” “Because like any father, he loves all his children, but pays attention especially to the fragile, the patient, the weakest.” He also recognized the “prophetic voice” of the Pontiff by rejecting wars, and the important place he gave to migrants, sick and elderly.

Called to “be a bit Franciscos”

“I think the huge challenge is ours,” said the Argentine prelate, calling everyone to “be a bit Franciscos.”

“Being able to live the commitment to the poorest, to be able to live special attention to the marginalized, to be able to build the culture of the encounter and avoid the culture of discarding and indifference, all concepts very much of Francisco, may be concrete and real in Argentina depending on each of its citizens,” he said.

“We are still in time to recognize it”, because “we can specify, live its teaching, his teaching, his testimony in the Argentine Church, and of course also in Argentine society,” he encouraged.

He added: “It leaves us the beautiful message that you always gave the young people to dream, to dream big, to live with a claw, with enthusiasm, with passion.”

Asked for the fact that Francisco has not visited Argentina during his pontificate, the archbishop clarified that “there was no lack of presence.” “I felt Francisco’s presence more than ever. What there was not was a physical presence, because it is true that he did not travel to the country, nor did he travel to other very strong countries for the Catholic Church, such as Spain,” he said, highlighting “Francisco’s option for the periphery.”

“He was and is in our people and is in each of us if we are able to specify, for example, that national unit and that universal fraternity to which he summoned us,” he said.

“Do not lose good humor, and God is bigger”

The emotion invaded the archbishop of Buenos Aires when trying to rescue a personal memory that links him to Pope Francis: “When my appointment was learned in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, that generated a lot of noise,” he reviewed.

“I said at that time: ‘My parents, my friends, the people of the communities with whom I had shared 20 years, knew who I was.’

“He (Pope Francis) called me every day, in those days, and he said: ‘Do not lose good humor and remember, God is bigger,’ and cut. And the next day he called me again and told me: ‘Do not lose good humor and God is bigger, stay calm,” and cut. And so it was all the days of that time, “he said

Among the people until the end

Referring to the “Pope of gestures”, and to the value of having been next to the faithful until the end, despite the fragility of his illness, Mons. García Cuerva said: “Yesterday he gave us the blessing Urbi et Orbi, which is the blessing to the world, the blessing of Easter, with a message that he did not read, but that it is a forceful message, which is worth it. voice”.

As an example of his taste for sharing with the people of God, he recalled: “He could climb the Papamóvil very serious, after some word, some speech, or public audiences, and you saw him that in the papamobic he set fire, he was filled with joy, and began to greet people, and grabbed babies, and recognized people who greeted,” he said.

“That gesture of being among the people, in short, I think it is the most wonderful thing that left us, I think that, in some way, it was a beautiful gift that, without knowing perhaps, people made him on his last day of life,” he concluded.