Pope Francis died, he was 88 years old

Pope Francis He returned to his father’s house this morning, at 7.35, at the age of 88. He was the first Pope who came “from the Americas”, and the first to call himself “Francesco”. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires Since 1998, he came from Argentina, and He had become Pope at 76, March 13, 2013.

Loved at home and in the world, he had never wanted to stay in the papal apartments, those who had been from Pope Ratzinger, his predecessor, who died on December 30, 2022. Jesuit had always supported A choice of poverty (that it was understood from the choice of the name “Francesco”): “My people are poor and I am one of them”, he said once to explain the choice to live in an apartment and prepare dinner alone.

Born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936, he had a very strong link with Italy: Son of Piedmontese emigrantshis father Mario was an accountant, employed in the railways, sailed in 1928 from Genoa in search of luck towards Argentina. Her mother, Regina Sivori, dealt with the house and education of the five children, of whom Jorge was the eldest son. Education that the future Pope Francis had then continued with commitment, graduating as a chemical expert.

Before entering the seminary, according to what he declared by himself, He had maintained for a certain period by cleaning a factory and then also making the bouncer In a malfamatory of Cordoba, also having a girlfriend at the time. On March 11, 1958 he had gone to the novitiate of the Society of Jesus and had graduated in philosophy from the San Giuseppe college in San Miguel and then in theology. Between 1964 and 1967 he had taught literature and psychology. On 13 December 1969 he had been ordained a priest.

At the end of the 70s, during the Argentine dictatorship, its most controversial period, having never taken a position of conviction about the violation of human rightsbut seeming acclaimed that he had committed himself firsthand to offer refuge and protection to persecuted religious, also promoting the escape from the country of some opponents.

He had traveled to Spain and Germany, then he returned to Buenos Aires where On May 20, 1992 John Paul II had appointed him the owner of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires. He was then promoted Archbishop on June 3, 1997 and created Cardinal – Always by Wojtyla, on February 21, 2001. In April 2005 he voted for the conclave in which Benedict XVI was elected.

Always against abortion and euthanasia, it has had more reconciling positions on divorced and homosexual and transsexualsfor example, not opposing the baptisms of the children of the rainbow families, or recommending respect for homosexual people (famous the phrase pronounced on 29 July 2013 on the plane from Brazil in Rome, in front of journalists: “Who am I to judge?”, Said in response to those who asked him about the “gay lobby” in the church) but basically reiterating on several occasions that the only family for the Church is that composed of a man and a woman (as during the visit the visit to the Vatican of the delegation of the Forum of Family Associations) and opposing civil unions and the so -called “Gender theory”.

In addition to the transparency of the IOR, attention to the climatic crisis and peace, both for Syria and for Ukraine, Bergoglio has publicly sentenced priests-pedophilesin particular on two official occasions: on 11 April 2014, during the hearing at the International Catholic Office of Childhood, he asked for forgiveness for the abuses committed on minors by priests, and in July 2022 going to Canada to ask for forgiveness for the violence against the indigenous children of the Catholic residential schools, a real “cultural genocide”.

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