«I am heartbroken, disoriented. We are alone ». So Fabio Fazio greeted Pope Francis, who died in the past few hours leaving an immense void in the Church and in the world. Words entrusted to social media but also to an interview with the agency Adnkronosin which the conductor expressed a deep, personal, almost familiar pain: “In this more and darker world he was a light to followthe only one who spoke with wisdom and humanity of peace, the only one who spoke of good perspectives in this increasingly violent and increasingly aggressive world. Today the world is without this light ».
A special bond, the one between Fazio and the Pope, culminated in the historic interview that aired on What time does it do January 14, 2025. An intense and human dialogue, in which Francesco faced with the usual frankness the great themes of our time: the drama of the war in the Middle East, the imminent Jubilee, the drama of migrants and the irreplaceable value of hope. “Hope never disappoints,” said the Pope, giving millions of spectators a message that today appears as a moral legacy.
On that special evening, Pope Francis also spoke of the demographic crisis in Italy and the importance of a real welcome. “In Italy the average age is 46 years old: it does not make children. Migrants enter, ”he said firmly. His words went around the world, reiterating an evangelical and social vision that he has never feared to get his hands dirty.
To testify to her, episode after episode, also Don Mattia Ferrari, often a guest of Fazio. On -board chaplain of Mediterranean Saving Humansfrontier priest and personal friend of Pope Francis, Don Mattia has repeatedly told the public of What time does it do His experiences among the castaways saved in the Mediterranean, bringing the living breath of a Gospel to the studio that becomes flesh in gestures and choices. Just he had been received several times in the Vatican, recognized by the Pope as a necessary presence, among the most coherent of today’s Catholicism.
Fazio wanted him with him in many episodes, as if to build a bridge between television and the civil and spiritual commitment that Francesco has never stopped soliciting. “He was a teacher of humanity – said Fazio – capable of speaking to the hearts of people and bringing them closer to the Church with words of mercy and forgiveness».
The disappearance of the Pope marks a historical caesura. But his words, those entrusted to a January evening and those sown over the years, remain a lighthouse. Fabio Fazio, today, is one of the custodians. And with him, who has chosen – like Don Mattia – to remain on the threshold, between the Church and the world, between pain and hope.
