Leaders of various religious denominations celebrated this Monday at the Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA) the 10-year pontificate of Pope Francis and thanked his “tireless” global work in pursuit of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, in the framework of a meeting attended by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and other officials.
The interreligious and ecumenical meeting took place this afternoon at the CEA headquarters, located in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires, with the participation -among others- of the Secretary of Worship, Guillermo Oliveri; his Buenos Aires peer, Federico Pugliese, and the Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina, Monsignor Miroslaw Adamczyk.
“We want to give thanks together for this event that we all have in our memory. Exactly 10 years ago, almost at this time, we Argentines lived a unique and unforgettable moment, for the Argentine Church, and for the people in general”, said a speaker at the beginning of the act.
Immediately The images of the Roman night of March 13, 2013 were projected, when in front of a crowded Saint Peter’s Square there was “white smoke” and then the announcement that Jorge Bergoglio had been elected Pope.
The meeting was welcomed by the President of the Episcopate, Monsignor Oscar Ojea, who expressed that “the house of bishops is celebrating” and pointed out that “we not only celebrate the person of the Pope but what he has left us in these 10 years “.
Then, different religious references highlighted, from their own experience, the work of the Argentine Pope in these 10 years of pontificate.
Claudio Epelman, of the Latin American Jewish Congress. He stated that Francisco “went far beyond the position for which he was elected” and today he is “an unavoidable reference for religions, statesmen and all good men.”
For his part, the president of the Islamic Center, Fabián Ankah, said: “We are all a bit of his children” and stressed that Argentina is “an example for the world because religions coexist in peace in the country.”
Then, Monsignor Kisag Mouradian, bishop emeritus of the Armenian Apostolic Church, thanked the Pope for having recognized the Armenian genocide in 2015 and for visiting that country: “His eagerness to seek peace,” he remarked.
Next it was the turn of Pastor Néstor Miguez, from the Evangelical Methodist Church, who highlighted the “broadness of criteria” of Jorge Bergoglio and told an anecdote of when he included his contributions in the drafting of the final document at the Aparecida conference.
Meanwhile, Pastor Norberto Saracco, of the Evangelical Pentecostal Church, also recalled several “gestures” of the then Cardinal Bergoglio such as when he attended an evangelical meeting in Luna Park, he knelt on stage and all the pastors prayed over him .
Finally, Monsignor Pedro Torres, bishop of Rafaela and president of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue, Relations with Judaism, Islam and other Religions, said that the different confessions in Argentina have “managed to overcome barriers and prejudices” and expressed : “In this meeting we discover ourselves brothers. We are a thank you to the Pope”.
Participating in the act were, among others, the leaders of the Interreligious Dialogue Institute (IDI), Father Guillermo Marcó, Rabbi Daniel Goldman and Omar Abboud.
In the CEA halls, they had been placed on lecterns various photographs of the Pope, taken by photographer Enrique Cangas on his trips to the Vatican, Chile and Brazil, which are part of an itinerant exhibition called “Francis: Servant in Buenos Aires, Servant to the World” which also contains a series of images of Bergoglio’s pastoral journey when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.
