The Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona accompanied Pope Francis in the writing of one of his most complete autobiographies, Live (HarperCollins, 2024), that the two men wrote together, after a year of in -depth conversations on the memories of the Sovereign Pontiff Argentin, who died on April 21 at the age of 88. In an interview with Worldthe Vaticanist gives his gaze on the action and life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (the civil name of François), whose pontificate can only be understood by the light in the light of his past.
What do you remember from the twelve years of Pope Francis?
I find this revolutionary pontificate, centered on what I call a “tenderness revolution”. The Church of Bergoglio is not the one who judges you from above and tells you if you are wrong or right. He advocated a Church at the level of the faithful, which goes towards the geographic and existential outskirts, whose doors are always open.
I will also highlight his personal proximity to the public and his way of communicating, frank, direct, accessible to all. Many only saw it as “marketing”, but those who knew him in private can testify that he was like that. All with always with a certain irony: with me, he never finished a meeting or a phone call without a joke – he also prayed every morning Saint Thomas More [1478-1535]to have the gift of good humor.
Finally, in terms of reforms, Bergoglio obtained what the general congregations of the cardinals asked for the future pope before the 2013 conclave, that is to say a structural reform of the Roman curia, a rationalization and a reorganization of all its offices, also including an economic reform and the simplification of rules and administrative procedures.
On these fronts as on others, like that of the fight against pedocrime, the path is far from over. But, in my opinion, he was a big pope, because he managed to change things, at least a little. Even with the awareness of having many enemies, he has always continued to move forward, without fear.
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Source: Lemonde