Father Antonio Spadaro.
«Francesco is the pope of brotherhood, mercy and discernment. The Gospel transmitted through the mystical of history », Father Antonio Spadaro, Undersecretary of the Vatican Dicastery for culture and education, former director of Catholic civilization, tells us. “The first thing that is striking is that Easter day died that his last farewell was the blessing in the world with the wishes in the world in the jubilee year. The first thought is the legacy of this extraordinary person who has been able to combine together the role of very high responsibility as is that of the pontificate and immediacy of a figure and a presence that has always appeared very available to people, to colleagues journalists in general to the whole world. The figure of a hug capable of welcoming and extending to everyone ».
Twelve years of pontificate through what words?
«The three strongest words of the pontificate are those of brotherhood, mercy and discernment. They are of course the first three that come to mind. Brotherhood is the first word that Bergoglio said by appearing for the first time from the Loggia of St. Peter’s Square. It was clear that from the beginning of the pontificate the desire to work because there was a peaceful world because Francesco already saw the shadows of wars and international tensions. He speaks of third world war in pieces returning from Korea in 2014 so we are talking about 11 years ago. So the idea of brotherhood with a “tailored” pontifical diplomacy capable of mending and dialogue with everyone, of mediation in conflicts. Probably aware that what happened after the Second World War was not, as Vatican II had also said, was not a period of peace but of respite. The second word is mercy. His desire to show the face of God love to announce a God love that was open to all “Todos, Todos, Todos” that he has repeated many times also on the last day of the youth in Lisbon in Portugal. And then touching the wounds, listening to suffering humanity, different and less likely. The prisoners and the disinherited: in order to show the welcoming and merciful face of God. The third is discernment which is the most typically Jesuit words that indicates the way to understand the language of God, where it is located. Not just looking for God where we think is present. But on the contrary, seek him where he is. Therefore also in the most unexpected places less obvious. So this flair to understand the presence of God in concrete history. And therefore also his allergy to make “five -year” planes theories to be applied to practice. Seeing his extraordinary and incredible gestures and made on the moment because Bergoglio was aware that these actions were carried out at the moment ».
The pope capable of communicating with everyone
«Francesco has never made a rigid distinction between believers and non -believers. In his vision for what I understood the most important thing is God’s action in those people and he who moves by touching anyone. In this sense rather than setting himself in a enclosure situation for which his role has never been exclusively pastoral but apostolic. He has always gone out and inside the enclosure of the rules in search of a contact without limiting himself to precise places. He never geolocated the presence of God, always finding it present in the world by dialoguing with everyone. In this sense, for example, a certain passion for an open dialogue with a secular press from a communicative point of view is noted. Francesco has never made the distinction “our” and “yours” what was the most for him was the action of God in the conscience of the people whatever they were in any place “.
Francesco’s legacy in the Church and in the world, in a change that changes
«I think the budgets will be made with the time and his inheritance will be understood in the future. What seems clear to me is that Francesco’s was certainly a pontificate of fruits but certainly of seeds. Many seeds that have been made through gestures, signs, words, official and less official speeches that will mature over time. The theme of synodality is fundamental. Bergoglio has launched a synodal path that is still to be carried out and has not ended but that has shown a church that walks in history and is open to all sensitivity because the Church is today to be considered in its entirety and universality. While most of the shepherds were formed in Rome and had a common sensitivity, a sort of Latinitas Which was shared by everyone, now it is no longer so we have seen it in the Synods, with the local churches that are lively reality in the planetary dimension. The second legacy, perhaps less known and less understood, is the mystical dimension that has crossed the whole pontificate of Francesco. Bergoglio’s reference point was Don Pietro Favre, the first Jesuit priest of Ignazio di Loyola together with Francesco Saverio who was a mystical of history and that the Pope cannonized. Mystical that walked like pilgrim in Europe in the time of the reform, dialoguing with everyone, but always having the perception of the presence of God always and everywhere. A mysticism of the newspaper in which to take charge of what the saint lived every day. While in the evening he went to the chapel and it was as if he got rid of a coat, a weight, immersing himself in God in prayer. And so Francesco did ».
