Pope Francis’s nephew, Mauro Bergoglio, managed to travel to Rome to say goodbye to the Pontiff thanks to the solidarity of an Argentine businesswoman of the tourism sector, who paid for the tickets.
“I am trying to travel. You can’t,” Bergoglio had expressed in the program of the journalist Luis Novaresio, of the A24 television channel.
The testimony moved Rita Mattiello, owner of a tourism agency, who decided to finance the trip to him and his wife. “My soul left me to hear that I couldn’t travel. I saw him homeless,” he said.
He explained that at the beginning he did it as a gesture of generosity towards the Pope, but then he considered it an act of faith.
“If you can do business, how not to help in certain cases?” Mattiello said, who left a message on the journalist’s Instagram account in which he explained his intention to pay for the trip of the Pontiff’s nephew.
While Mattiello acquired the passages, the production of the program managed with the authorities the urgent broadcast of the passports and coordinated the accommodation in the Argentine parish of Rome, due to the high hotel occupancy.
At 7:00 p.m. (22.00 GMT) on Monday, a vehicle picked up the couple at their home in Buenos Aires to transfer it to Ezeiza International Airport, where they boarded, at 10.30 pm, a flight to Rome.
“We were able to organize everything in seven hours,” said Mattiello.
In the interview, Mauro Bergoglio remembered his uncle as someone who “helped others” and “was always present”, despite the distance and his occupation; And he highlighted his sense of humor: “It was very fun.”
Since his arrival in the Vatican, the Pope and his nephew communicated by email and telephone. On Francisco’s decision not to visit Argentina during his twelve years of pontificate, he said that “he had his reasons and is acceptable.”