The Pope turns 86 and assures: “Sometimes they use me politically, I keep silent and continue”

Born on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, the Argentine Pope turns 86 on Saturday and appears to be in good health. He said it himself in an interview with the Madrid-based ABC newspaper, which will publish it on Sunday: “I’m already walking, which reveals that the decision not to operate was right.”

he jokes “I’ve reached the age where others have to say: ‘How good are you!’

Francisco seems to have passed the critical phase of his knee arthritis which had forced him to be unable to walk and use a wheelchair earlier this year. “Now I’m walking,” he reiterated. You have to help yourself with a cane and sit in the wheelchair to make longer journeys.

But people have gotten used to and accept his current condition, which has brought him back to the trips he had given up or reduced to control his movements.

Next month he will make the apostolic visit which he had to cancel seven months ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, a particularly important trip.

In the interview with the Spanish newspaper he talks about Buenos Aires. Memories are noted to take him back to his origin. The director of Abc, Julian Quirós and correspondent Javier Martinez Brocat commented: “On March 13 he will celebrate his tenth birthday as Pope. His choice took everyone by surprise”.

-Me too. She had booked the return ticket to Buenos Aires in time for Palm Sunday. “I was very calm,” the pontiff replied, referring to those days in March 2013.

What do you find most difficult about being Pope?

-Not being able to walk down the street, not being able to go out. In Buenos Aires I was very free. I used to use the public media, I liked seeing how people moved. Contact with people recharges me, which is why I have never canceled even a general audience on Wednesday. When he came out (in Buenos Aires) they didn’t even know he was the cardinal.

In the interview, Francisco recalls in an acute anecdote the country and the city he evokes with nostalgia.

A question then referring to the fact that in Santa Marta Bergoglio sees many people, and some seem to take advantage of it and make it clear that they are friends of the Pope for their own interests.

“Six or seven years ago, an Argentine candidate came to mass. They took a photo of him outside the sacristy and I said to him: ‘Please, don’t use it politically. ‘You can rest assured,’ he replied,” Francisco recalled. .

And he continued: “A week later, Buenos Aires was flooded with posters with that photo, retouched to make it look like it was a personal audience.”

The Pope concluded: “Yes, sometimes they use me. But we use God a lot more, so I’ll shut up and carry on…”, he agreed.

Working day for the poor

The Pope chose his birthday as a propitious moment to continue a day’s work dedicated to the poor. In the morning you received a delegation of the Mother Teresa Award at the Apostolic Palace. You recognized three people who dedicate themselves to the poor.

One is Father Hanna Jallouf, a Franciscan who dedicates his life to the poor in Syria as war has continued to ravage the country for 17 years. The pontiff recalled in the meeting that the tragedy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine dominates world anguish but that there are other wars that have been going on for twenty years.

Another acknowledgment was given to Gian Piero, known as Wué, who is a clochards homeless person who begs for alms and allocates a part of it to help others poorer than him.

Pope Bergoglio also awarded Silvano Pedrollo, an industrialist from the city of Verona, who uses a significant portion of his company’s profits to assist and help the poorest in Africa, India and Latin America, building school wells and health facilities.

When his knee problems forced him to move around in a wheelchair, the Pope raised the question of his resignation, avoiding the inevitable versions and speculations.

resignation and succession

In some interviews he explained that he had no intention of resigning immediately but that the matter was likely in the future.

He said if the time came for him to step down he would become “Bishop of Rome Emeritus,” dismissing the title of Pope Emeritus given to himself by Benedict XVI, without saying, the German pontiff Joseph Ratzinger, who resigned on February 28, 2013 , at 88 years old.

Ratzinger turned 95, but his successor’s desire to be “bishop emeritus” means this the rules of succession in the event of pontifical resignation will be established in due course.

Joseph Ratzinger’s gesture has forever changed the figure of the papacy, “normalizing” the eventual resignation of a pontiff. Talking about the problem as Bergoglio did has helped to say little or nothing on the subject today, pending the events.

German theologian Cardinal Walter Kasper, one of the cardinals who most contributed to the election of Jorge Bergoglio as pope in the conclave that elected him in March 2013, said in a religious meeting last week: “The success of the current pontificate will decided by his successors. I hope that the current pontificate is the beginning of a new era”.

“We hope to have it for a few more years”, sponsored the German theologian. The drive for innovation which could modify the doctrine on homosexuality, end of life, abortion, priestly celibacy, the role of women in the Church, will not be concluded by Francis.

“The transformation process takes time and a long breath”, added card. Kaspers. “At least two or three pontificates will be needed. The path of reform appears bumpy and takes a long time to reach an incisive cultural mutation ”, he remarked.

Kaspers claims that Francis “is an evangelical pope in the original sense of the word”. “He does not give absolute priority to doctrine, but to the Gospel as a living message from God the merciful Father”.

The cardinal theologian recalls that in the reorganization of the Curia, the dicastery of evangelization takes precedence over the “ministry” of the doctrine of the faith.

The confrontation between traditionalist conservatives and progressive reformers continues and the maneuvers around the future Conclave that will elect the new Pope are accentuated.

Cardinal Kaspers points out that the reformist Pope does not want all liberal reforms, as the German Synodal Path claims. The Church is in an identity crisis “because changes mean unrest”.

The theologian sums up the crisis in a question: “What is still valid in the process of transformation in which we find ourselves, what must continue to be valid and what must urgently be reformed?”

Vatican correspondent

B. C