What could we expect from Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, elected pontifex maximus in March 2013? It’s true that he was a Latino, which was already quite a change. But he had been elected by the same conclave that had enthroned the conservative Ratzinger, and he came from Argentina, a country whose church isn’t known for its progressivism, as many of its dignitaries actively collaborated with the bloody military dictatorship in 1976. That wasn’t the case with Bergoglio; according to several accounts, he even helped those persecuted by the military junta to hide or flee the country. But neither did he oppose the regime — a “sin of omission,” one might say. While some Christian leftists like the Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, always supported Bergoglio, others considered him part of the right-wing opposition to the left-Peronists Néstor and Cristina Kirchner.
Be that as it may, once elected the supreme pontiff, Francisco — a name he chose in reference to Saint Francis, friend to the poor and to the birds — immediately distinguished himself with his brave and committed positions. In some ways, he resembled Pope Angelo Roncalli, John XXIII, who, though elected as a transitional pope to ensure the continuity of the tradition, proceeded to introduce its biggest reform in centuries: the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). In fact, Bergoglio had earlier considered taking the name of Juan XXIV in honor of his predecessor from the ’60s.
Francis was not afraid to take on the Italian government — and public opinion — by denouncing the ‘globalization of indifference’ to the fate of ‘immigrants dying at sea.’
The new pontiff’s first trip outside Rome was in July 2013, to the Italian port of Lampedusa, where hundreds of illegal immigrants were arriving even as many others drowned in the Mediterranean during their journey. In his homily, he was not…
Auteur: Michael Löwy
