The archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, deceased this Monday, April 21 at 88, It became the first Latin American Pope on March 13, 2013, but its relationship with the continent in these twelve years has not been easy: not only in its homeland, where it never returned, but also due to the continuous political changes and an detachment to the Catholic Church that failed to stop.
Of the 66 countries he visited, 10 were from Latin America, where he lives the largest number of Catholics in the world, but also where the Vatican continues to yield land.
These are some of Francisco’s most outstanding moments.
1. March 13, 2013: Jorge becomes Francisco
First public appearance of Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio after his choice. Dressed in a simple white cassock without ornaments, the Pope leans and asks the tens of thousands of faithful gathered in the Plaza San Pedro that recounts for him, marking from the beginning a change of style.
2nd March 28, 2013: Lava feet to prisoners
Days after his choice, the Pope surprises with a Mass on Holy Thursday in a penitentiary center. Breaking tradition, washes the feet of 12 young people detained, including two girls, a Christian and a Muslim, in an unprecedented gesture.
July 8, 2013: Lampedusa and migrants on your first trip
In another unexpected decision, Francisco chooses as the destination of his first papal trip the small Italian island of Lampedusa, located in front of the coast of Tunisia and symbol of the massive arrival of migrants.
From a ship, it launches a floral offering to the Mediterranean Sea to remind dead migrants in their waters. Since then he will not stop defending refugees fleeing war and misery.
4. December 22, 2014: The 15 diseases of the curia
During his Christmas message to the Roman curia, the central government of the Holy See, the Pope lists the 15 diseases that corrode, in his opinion, the high clergy.
Before an stunned auditorium of prelates, he mentions the “spiritual Alzheimer’s”, rivalry and boasting, “terrorism of speaking” and “mundane exhibitionism.” The reform of the curia was one of Francisco’s priorities, which never appreciated the closed circles of the Vatican bureaucracy.
5. February 12, 2016: Historical Hand Tid with Patriarch Cirilo
Pope Francis and Patriarch Cyrilo offered a historic handshake in the first encounter between the main Christian leaders of the East and West from the 1054 schism.
Despite this approach, the war in Ukraine has considerably cooled relations with the Russian Orthodox patriarch, very close to President Vladimir Putin.
6. March 27, 2020: only in front of the pandemic
In full Covid-19 Pandemia that hits Italy, Francisco pronounces a “Urbi et Orbi” blessing in a San Pedro square under the rain and completely deserted due to confinement. The image of the lonely Pope will go around the world as a symbol of the health crisis that emptied the streets of the planet.
7th March 6, 2021: Meeting with Shiite Leader in Iraq
During a trip to Iraq under strong security measures, the Pope meets privately with Ayatola Ali al Sistani, one of the main authorities of Islam Chiita.
During his numerous trips to Muslim majority, Francisco multiplied the gestures towards his “brothers and sisters”, and even in 2019 he signed a document about the fraternity with the magnet of Al Azhar, the highest authority of Islam Sunita.
July 8, 2022: Request forgiveness in Canada
During a “penance pilgrimage” to Canada, the Pope asks for forgiveness for the role of the Catholic Church in the violence exercised in internships for Amerindian children, where at least 6 thousand of them died between the end of the 19th century and the 1990s.
The pontiff multiplies symbolic gestures, lavishing kisses to survivors and putting a traditional indigenous touch.
9. December 8, 2022: Tears by Ukraine
On the occasion of the holiday of the Immaculate Conception, the Pope fails to contain tears by mentioning the “martyred Ukraine”, ten months after the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Francisco reads his speech in the Plaza de España, in Rome. Suddenly it is interrupted, broken by emotion, and remains silent for a few seconds, before resuming reading between the applause of the attendees.
January 10, 2023: Bless Benedict XVI’s coffin
At the foot of a Basilica of San Pedro wrapped in the fog, Bergoglio presides over the funeral mass by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died at age 95, which ends an unpublished cohabitation between both pontiffs.
The German theologian, who lived the last years retired in a monastery inside the Vatican, managed to shade his successor, and even inspired a film in Hollywood, The two potatoes.