Francisco promoted dialogue in the Dominican Republic to find an exit to the Venezuelan political crisis, negotiation that did not come to term. In 2019, a letter addressed to Nicolás Maduro was leaked where he claims that all attempts for a negotiation “were interrupted because what had been agreed in the meetings was not followed by concrete gestures to implement the agreements”
Pope Francis died at 07:35 am (Italy time) on Monday at age 88, he announced The Vatican. Who was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, before being chosen Pope number 266, left a mark on the Catholic Church, reforming the Roman curia and trying to bring the ancient institution closer to the realities of the contemporary world.
On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, became Pope Francis. The first Latin American pontiff and first Jesuit Pope went to the Basilica of the Vatican Basilica, begging for a more supportive world. “We pray all over the world, to be a great brotherhood,” were his first public words.
Francesca Ambrogetti, journalist and first biographer of Bergoglio, explains that he had as a reason “that the Catholic Church locked had to get out of itself.”
The Pope took the name of Francisco de Asís, the Holy Founder of the Franciscan Order, who lived observing a strict vote of poverty. In fact, he was nicknamed the Pope of the Curas Vilros for his proximity to that movement of priests committed in the misery villages of Argentina.
“For him it was important that the priest will attend the most needy sectors,” recalls Father Pepe Di Paola, who is part of what in Argentina call the priests of popular villas and neighborhoods, and friend of the Pope. “He himself was present in the villas, looking at the reality of Buenos Aires from there, from the most marginalized sectors and not from his cathedral.”
In more than a decade of pontificate, Pope Francis never visited his homeland. In his last times as Pope, from the Jorge Mario Bergoglio hospital he dismissed a bishop accused of abuse and communicated with Father Romanelli of the Church of the Sagrada Familia in Gaza.
For Venezuela – País that he never visited – he authorized the canonization of the first two Venezuelan saints: José Gregorio Hernández, a doctor from Trujillo, and Mother Carmen Rendiles, who founded the Congregation Servant of Jesus.
Francisco also promoted dialogue (in the Dominican Republic) to find an exit to the political crisis, but in 2019 a letter addressed to Nicolás Maduro was leaked where he claims that all attempts for a negotiation “were interrupted because what had been agreed in the meetings was not followed by concrete gestures to implement the agreements.”
On Sunday, a few hours before his death, he appeared in public in the Vatican to wish for a happy Easter, and met with the US vice president, JD Vance.
Venezuelan Chancellor Yván Gil said that the country “joins the mourning” for the death of Francisco, “who will be remembered as an unwavering defender of humanity, the dignity of peoples, peace, inclusion and justice for the most disadvantaged.”
Migration and corruption
In 2013, the Island of Lampedusa was the focus of one of the worst humanitarian and migratory crises, with people of people crossing the Mediterranean in boats to reach its banks and other blinds dying in the attempt. Francisco chosen Lampedusa as the first pontifical visit. “The culture of well -being makes us insensitive to the shouts of others,” he said upon his arrival.
A year before taking the reins of the Vatican, the largest corruption scandal and influence traffic was uncovered. This leakage of documents about its financial management, known as Vatileaks, shook the Roman curia.
«He was voted in a conclave by a series of cardinals from the periphery. They wanted a Pope with a trajectory distant from the Vatican, who was not related to the scandal, ”explains Vicenç Lozano, is the author of Intrigues and power in the Vatican.
Francisco created in 2014 a secretariat for the economy that would apply anti -corruption measures. He closed 5,000 accounts of the Vatican Bank. “It was considered a bank that made money laundering and the Vatican was considered a fiscal paradise,” says Lozano.
Sexual abuse
The fight against pedophilia in the Catholic Church marked Francisco’s papacy from beginning to end. The Pope stood an International Commission of Experts, expelled a good number of prelates and several times apologized but ever mentioning a systemic and structural problem, sometimes supporting cover -up prelates.
The case of the Church of Chile was emblematic, as well as the disappointment that the support that Francisco granted to Bishop Juan Barros, accused of having protected the priest Fernando Karadima.
Karadima, the Vatican sentenced him to a life of penance and prayer. Francisco did not expel him from the priesthood until 2018. That same year, he also appointed Juan Barros Bishop, rejecting the accusations against him and unleashing demonstrations in Chile.
«He supported for the trust he had in some people. But anyway, this church today is much more committed to the fight against pedophilia, ”says Francesca Ambrogetti.
The “Green” Pope
The world will remember Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the Pope of Ecology. His 2015 encyclical, entitled Laudato yes, is dedicated to the planet, which the Pontiff called “our common house”, and its conservation.
Francisco organized in 2019 a Synod of the Amazon, denouncing “neo -extractivism and strong pressure for great economic interests that point to their avidity on oil, gas, wood, gold and agribusiness monocultures.”
“When being interested in that subject he was absolutely novel,” highlights his biographer. “Always returning to the human: damaging the environment sharpens injustices.” Among journalists, it was commented from the beginning of his pontificate: “He will continue to say the usual things but God gave him a megaphone.”
“This echo found favorable ears and unfavorable ears,” adds Francesca Ambrogetti, pointing out the resistances that have emerged in the most conservative wing of the Church, especially in the United States. “There is an important resistance.”
Resistances in the conservative sector
Francisco wrote in his autobiography that imagined a church that “welcomed homosexual and transsexual people” to seek God. He authorized the blessing of same sex and that transgender people could be baptism sponsors, but remembering at the same time their position: that gender reallocation surgeries, abortion and euthanasia “violated human dignity.”
He also rejected the ordination of diaconists at a time when they asked to expand their responsibility in the Church.
“He took steps but did not run,” says Ambrogetti. “There are positions that historically did not occupy women” before, such as that of the General Secretary of the Governorato, director of the Vatican Museum or Prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life, a “Ministry” of the Curia. “It’s the church he wanted.”
With information from RFI in Spanish
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
