A little known facet of Pope Francis was his passion for literature and, in particular, for the work of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, considered an icon and one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century.
Argentine rabbi Daniel Goldman, who met Francisco before the papacy and kept in touch with him after reaching the Vatican leadership, says that the pontiff was “a great reader” and a great connoisseur of Borges.
“We had a lot of conversations about Borges’s readings. He remembered many of Borges in color’s sonnets and poems,” Goldman told CNN.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope’s Baptism Name) had a degree in philosophy. Before being a cardinal between 1964 and 1965, he was a teacher of language and literature in high school at the La Inmaculada Conceción College in Santa Fe. In 1966, the religious also taught at Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires.
Rabbi says that once, Bergoglio, at the time at 29, called the writer asking if he would be willing to teach his students a class.
The writer, already famous at the time, not only accepted, but he gave the class and entered the history of the college.
Among the Pope’s preferences was the poem “Everness”, which Goldman says he has, on occasion, analyzed with him.
“Whenever I found him, he asked what he was reading. And he recommended a lot of literature, especially linked to theology and philosophy,” the rabbi reported on the pontiff.
“He recommended to read Hans Küng, a Swiss theologian who has passed away, and the seventeenth and nineteenth -century spiritual literature that he followed thoroughly,” he concluded.
This content was originally published in Papa Francisco was a fan of literature and Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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