Tonight, shortly after 6 pm, he is finally smoked white. On the day the Madonna del Rosario is celebrated. When Cardinal Protodiacono appears from the central lodge of the Basilica of San Pietro ignites the square: “Annunio Vobis Gaudium Magnum; Habemus Papam”. The panorama of the world has changed: the American cardinal, Augustinian, Robert Francis Prevost is officially the 267th pope of the history of the Church, the Pope of a billion and four hundred million Catholics.
We talk about it hot with the journalist Gerolamo Fazzini, expert in religious and international themes and a profound connoisseur of the missionary world, former director of “World and Mission”, a monthly of Pime.
Several currents in the most numerous and heterogeneous conclave of history, with cardinal voters from seventy countries, and divisive themes. Did you expect the election already today?
Yes and no. On the one hand it is early, but on the other an agreement is positive in a short time because it means that even if there were divisions, these are quite resolved. It is a sign of unity of the Cardinal College. It seemed like a torn church between progressives and conservatives, but in fact it is not so. And a name has arrived predicted by very few: the Holy Spirit has displaced us.
“We are all brothers”: is this election symptomatic of an increasingly global church?
Yes, he is the first North American Pope, but has made the missionary for twenty years in Peru. I was struck by the fact that despite being Anglo -Saxon he greeted in Italian and Spanish, he did not want to do “the American”, forgive me the joke, but the Pope, using the language of the popes, of Rome, together with the Latin, and his missionary. In this precise historical moment he did not want to identify himself with America.
What message does the new pontiff wants to transmit to the faithful in the world and, above all, will he be in the sign of continuity with Pope Francis?
Yes, he made an explicit reference to him several times, and it was not obvious. He is a Pope who will advance for the good of the Church. He marked the word “peace”, significant in a world in war of his role in dialogue. It will be a church that builds bridges, missionary, with open arms towards everyone. A synodal church, which walks and close to those who suffer. I was struck by the final Ave Maria, in continuity with Pope Francis.
What does the choice of the name Leone XIV represent?
Leo XIII had written the “Rerum Novarum”, a great social encyclical at the end of the nineteenth century. After the second industrial revolution, the world knew a very important economic turning point. I think that he too will be attentive and close to the many “rerum novarum” of contemporary society, the so -called global challenges: from artificial intelligence to world geopolitical scenarios. His missionary past brings him closer to social issues that challenge faith and that Christianity in some way must take charge.
I turned on the journalistic debate if in this historical phase it serves a political pope or a pope who gives spiritual life in the world …
Those who have made the missionary for many years has a great sensitivity towards the poor, who has known in person, has chosen the vocation that most expresses the desire to announce the faith, a vocation that resembles that of the apostles. He is a Pope neither diplomat nor political, but very missionary. In this sense there is a continuity with Pope Francis, who as a young man wanted to be a missionary, not in Latin America, his native land, but in Asia, outside his continent, a choice that made Prevost going to announce the Gospel outside his borders, from his comfort zone.
The reference to Sant’Agostino …
“I am a Christian with you and for you bishop” it is a phrase that makes you think, it is like saying that first the fact of sharing with everyone from baptized with all to put at the service of the Church as a shepherd comes with all. It was not placed as the one who commands, but as a Christian in the midst of us.
