LE Pope Francis is great of what he has accomplished, but also what he failed to do. Whatever happens after him, we will no longer be able to contemplate the Church of the same eye: the scalpel of his gaze has left traces, they will not fade.
Jorge Bergoglio was preparing to retire when he was elected Pope. He has always hated the Vatican, his gold, his splendor, his improbable display of wealth. He also did not like what the Church had made of his prelates, worldly caregivers cut off from life and people. Not to mention the financial and sexual scandals stored under the heavy carpets of the Holy See. He felt more abbot than Pope – and abbot, he remained, even in the Vatican, where he celebrated mass every morning in a small chapel.
The surprise he felt at the end of the conclave, confirming his intuition: put at the service of the Gospels from his youth, he was going, in his own words, “Make the Church to the Gospels”. His election was not the accomplishment of a personal ambition, but the intrusion of a project in a closed institution. By choosing the name of François, he gave a symbolic slap to centuries of papacy. The saint of the poor, birds and lepers entered the palace.
He took verticality vertically
First, he gave less importance to the clergy, which a good half reproached him. François turned to each Christian as towards an authentic light. I felt it when I met him, alone, in his library: me, a very imperfect man, a Christian even more imperfect, I had the feeling that he looked at me as an equal, legitimate to testify. He did not place himself above-although his spiritual accomplishment was immense and his post had allowed him. Far from overhanging, he listened. Besides, did he not write to me starting with: “Dear brother” ?
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Source: Lemonde