It was a decade ago where with this title we raised the “good news” that the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church announced to all humanity. Reading his writings will give us the deep impression that he has not modified his visions or convictions. Whether we agree with them or not, they were already in his episcopal documents, in his annual message to the bishops, his homilies to the laity, and in every manifestation of his thoughts in his long years of experience. What changed was not Bergoglio, but the impact of him as Francisco.
As Argentines still frustrated waiting for his visit to their homeland, we remain trapped by the short and conjunctural vision of low domestic politics before a man who, as infallible and imperfect as himself, assumes himself as a “sinner.” realizing his vulnerable humanity, rose to the global dimension with a universal message that moves away from the short and biased polarizing vision of our local daily life. Francisco overcomes any crack in which they want to sink Bergoglio. Just as Bergoglio was able to say here in our country, the challenge is to “put the Homeland on his shoulder” and so did Francis in his pontificate “put the Vatican on his shoulder”, a way of the cross that, even with obstacles, advances solidly. and firm.
Bergoglio, who continues to live in Francis, teaches us with his Gospel that: “Time is superior to Space, that Unity prevails over Conflict, that Reality is more important than the Idea and that the Whole is superior to the Parts. Four principles, like the four canonical gospels that celebrate a salvific message of hermeneutical meaning for our days. On the one hand, his teaching, Francisco as teacher. True to the Jesuit tradition he was a master of communication in gestures that embodied the virtues he preached.
A second dimension is that of Francisco as a leader. A “sheep-smelling shepherd” proposing a revolution by evolution in the leadership of the Catholic Church. We are witnessing a decade of this type of leadership, close to the base of the faithful and relentless with the use of a power marked by “the power to serve.”
The third dimension of this Gospel according to Francis is his vision as a statesman. Francis is the head of state of the Vatican. And it is here where the forcefulness of how not only to envision an evangelical message with universal projection is put to the test, and how to lead it, but how to transform it into a State policy. For us, there is also a message to decipher in order to interpret the influence that this gospel according to Francisco will have for the next generations, the Argentine who will undoubtedly be the most important for all humanity, both as a teacher, leader and statesman.
* Rabbi. President of the World Union of Progressive Judaism.
by Sergio Bergman *
