Hundreds attend special mass for Pope Francis in Buenos Aires

Hundreds attended a special open air mass in Buenos Aires Monday for Pope Francis, who remains hospitalised in a critical condition with pneumonia in Rome.

A crowd gathered at Plaza Constitución, where Francis – when he was known as archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio – used to give an annual mass to rail against global inequality and injustice. 

At the public square, just metres from one of the capital’s busiest rail stations, it is common to see sex workers, street vendors and the homeless.

Francis, 88, has been diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs. The Vatican said Monday he remained in a critical condition, but reported a "slight improvement" in his condition.

Waving Argentine flags and placards wishing the pontiff a speedy recovery, the Catholic faithful prayed, sang hymns, partook in the eucharist, and chanted: "Viva el Papa Francisco!" (“Long Live Pope Francis!”)

"May our prayer be the breath of fresh air that reaches his lungs," Jorge García Cuerva, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, said in his sermon.

His papacy “is a breath of fresh air – it is a breath of oxygen for a world suffocated by violence, selfishness, exclusion,” said the religious leader.

“From this square, Francis said that our society is full of beaten men and women,” said García Cuerva. 

“Here at Constitución you see life at its crudest, without make-up,” he added.

Marcela Jiménez, a 31-year-old psychology student, said that this was “the square where he denounced exclusion, discrimination, social injustice.”

Among the crowd, well-wisher Mariana Martinez said that Bergoglio, before leaving Argentina in 2013 to take up the papacy, "was the first priest I came across on a subway.”

“Seeing him up close, with the people, I always liked it. That is why he is my mentor, he is my father, and he is my priest,” said the 49-year-old.

“A prayer is very powerful. It reaches the ears of God, but it also reaches the soul of the one we are praying for,” she added.

The mass was also attended by social organisations, anti-trafficking campaigners, volunteer firefighters and other so-called “slum priests,” religious leaders who lead faithful in impoverished neighbourhoods.

– TIMES/AFP