He became the 265th successor of Peter and on that memorable day of March 13 ten years ago, looking out from the loggia of the Blessings of the Vatican basilica, he said that the brother cardinals had come to take him "almost at the end of the world." The pontificate of Jorge Bergoglio presents visible traces of a new imprint in the Vatican, that of a Church more open to the poor, with its gaze always turned to the peripheries of the world and of the soul, engaged in an interreligious dialogue that opens the way to peace. After Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict VXI "we have arrived, in fifty years, at the challenge of the dialogue of friendship", Francis declares.
The first Latin American Pope in the history of the Church, he brought the joy of the Gospel and asked the faithful of the whole world to have a gaze centered on God the Father who never disappoints the hopes of his children. Francis' favorite image is that of the pastor who walks with his people: "The mission - he explains - is for Jesus a passion but, at the same time, it is a passion for his people" because "to be evangelizers of the soul it is also necessary to develop the spiritual taste of being close to people's lives, to the point of discovering that this is a source of greater joy".
In addition to having attracted much sympathy for his frank gestures and concrete actions, he became the protagonist for having embarked on a difficult path of reform of the Church: mercy, tenderness, ecumenism and solidarity are addressed above all to the 'least'. A true reform is not credible and consistent if the poor, who are at the center of the Gospel, - Francis will say many times - are not also, effectively, at the center of the Church. And administering the Plenary indulgence to believers and non-believers, in the midst of the pandemic emergency, he gave courage to St. Peter's Square to those who were losing hope, saying that no one can live isolated with the claim of saving himself.
The Argentine Pope, who immediately surprised by proposing a very dynamic church, after centuries of hegemonic world expansion not only economic and political, but also cultural and religious, can be considered as a further sign of a European historical decline. Analysts affirm that the figure of Pope Ratzinger was extraordinarily capable of recapitulating and expressing the great "classical" and humanistic tradition of Europe and, at the same time, the great Catholic tradition, as one of the last and best Europeans of our time.
But the breath of the Spirit this time wanted to go overseas, going to fish out the successor of Peter in the American New World, where more than 40% of Catholics live. On his journey Benedict XVI to São Paulo and Aparecida declared: "I am convinced that here (in Latin America) the future of the Catholic Church is decided, at least in part, and in a fundamental part: this has always been evident to me."
Although in recent years his health has not allowed him to leave 'home', Francis, stubborn and strong of his vocation to the service of the people, has visited 60 countries and traveled more than 400,000 kilometers, equivalent to 10 times around the Earth; he built bridges and healed wounds, illuminating the paths of the earth and witnessing to the message of the Gospel.
Pontificate against the tide, which breaks the resistance and walls of prejudice, for many has caused bewilderment and concern, but has consoled and encouraged many hearts to resume the journey of faith, to return home. We must all feel like the Prodigal Son. Francis would say that God knows how we are made; We are Vasi de Barros, from Crete, but it is important to come back... and Francis instills this courage. Evangeli Gaudium urgently invited us to personal conversion, to find ourselves, to find the way, to give oneself to others by expressing solidarity, all out of love, with a preferential look at the poor. Ambrose maintained that "nature has poured out all things for men for common use. Therefore, nature has produced a common right for all, but greed has made it a right for the few. A Pope who undoubtedly wants to upset us, destabilize us from any assimilation and conformation to a Christianity that for too long conforms to the worldly spirit of bourgeois tranquility. It is his fight against clericalism and any form of personalization within the church.
With his authority and unity of life, Bergoglio has received the support and appreciation also from political authorities, becoming the most credible and admired leader of the international community. It must also be said that the great media powers in general have tried to spread the image of a "progressive Pope" by trivializing his figure, often censoring his Magisterium and emphasizing only the limited image that was intended to transmit and spread, sowing confusion and perplexity on the one hand, and superficial empathy on the other.
The Church in Latin America has made a great contribution to all catholicity by assuming and propagating from within the preferential love for the poor with a clear evangelical ecclesial imprint. In Aparecida God makes himself small to the improbable and identifies himself above all with the destitute, the sick and the excluded who are like the second "Eucharist of the Lord". The figure of Jesus, of a God who experiences humanity to understand it better, in giving his life for his friends, makes it possible to believe and hope in disinterested and selfless Love. If we want peace, and for the world to change, we must first start from peace of heart.