Pope Francis in Fatima
From the “end of the world” to the Vatican, Bergoglio was a turning point for Catholics who want a “output” church instead of a “arrested Jesus” – and there were a lot of those who called him communist. He died at the age of 88, the day after Easter Sunday. At 21, he had already looked at death in his eyes.
O Pope Francis died This Monday, April 21, the day after Easter Sunday. The news was advanced by the Vatican.
The day before, he had appeared in the usual celebration of Easter Sunday morning at the Vatican. He was not at Mass, but appeared at the beginning to leave a short message and wish everyone good Easter.
He died on Monday at his Vatican residence, Santa Marta’s house. No more details were revealed for now.
Between February and March this year, the Pope was hospitalized for more than a month because of breathing problems. A long convalescence of at least two months was foreseen, but the leader of the Catholic Church did not resist.
Faith against fear
Francisco, better known in his homeland by Jorge Bergoglio, was born in Argentina at a Christmas season, on December 17, 1936. He was the son of humble Italian immigrants: his father was an accountant on railways, and his domestic mother.
He even studied to be a chemical technician but at the age of 22, he embarked on the priesthood and entered the diocesan seminary of Villa Devoto, shortly after having a serious inflammation called pleurisiain 1957, which resulted in the loss of a part of a lung.
Several times repeated the sentence “My people are poor and I am one of them”: Reserved, it has always remained true to its origins, and even when it was elected High Pontifice, on March 13, 2013, I wanted to live in an apartment and cook its own dinner, according to itself.
Many called him ascetic: He renounced exaggerated worldly pleasures and the luxuries that his statute could have allowed him. Believed that “The money should serve and not rule. Most men and women of our time continue to live in a daily precariousness with disasters: fear and despair. ”
A Pope who opened the doors of the Church
Has always adopted a transparent policy. In relation to scandals related to Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Churchfor example, it was adamant: defended “zero tolerance” and, when he was interviewed by in 2022, said they were a “monstrosity.”
He was responsible for an opening of the unprecedented Catholic Church. In 2023, he admitted the Catholic blessing to the marriage between homosexuals. It is also for history its iconic homosexual priests: “Who am I to judge them?”.
It was also tolerant of church sensitive themes, such as divorces and factual unions.
In 2015, he was interviewed by, with whom he commented to defend a “church on the way out”. “How many times, in the church, Jesus knocks on the inside to let him go out, to announce the kingdom? We sometimes appropriate Jesus just for us and we forget that A church that is not on the way out, that does not leave, keeps Jesus stuck. ”
He said at the table interview that “if a church lives closed in itself, it gets sick and we have a racket and creative church. Well, between a sick church and a rugged church for leaving the street, I prefer a crash“.
A rugged mandate
Among the various episodes that marked its 12-year term, there is a attempted murder.
Its autobiography says that in 2021 it was something of a double suicide attack during a visit to Iraq. According to the British secret services and the Iraqi police were responsible for saving the life of the High Pontifice.
His mandate also did not pass with controversy, and even days before he was hospitalized, according to, will have conflict with cardinals about Vatican’s finances.
Francis had proposed cuts in the church budget and even the search for external financing, order highly contested by heads of the Vatican departments.
Passage through Portugal
In 2023, Pope Francis visited Portugal at the World Youth Day in Lisbon. It was the second time that visited the country, after having been in Fatima as a pilgrim in 2017about the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady.
Em August 2023Thousands of young people went to Lisbon to show that “this is the Pope’s youth,” as they sang. In an event with more than one million faithful, where he repeated his celebrated sentence “Everyone, all, all”the Pope also took the opportunity to grant several convicts.
He also gathered with 13 Portuguese victims of sexual abuse to children by the Catholic Church, when he asked for forgiveness on behalf of the Church. To the Portuguese young people, he left a message that inspired thousands: “Don’t be afraid.”
CAROLINA BASTOS PEREIRA, ZAP //
