More than a nation mourns

There is an old Spanish expression — “cada muerte de obispo” (“every death of a bishop”) — signifying something which almost never happens. How much more unrepeatable the death of a truly unique Pope. Not that there was anything especially cruel about the manner of his passing – at the age of 88, Francis exactly doubled the longevity of his Assisi namesake with plenty of borrowed time considering that he was already reduced to one lung before John Kennedy became President of the United States. It is rather a divided globe which is the loser from the departure of this constant reminder that this planet is more than the sum of its parts with other worlds beyond.

Virtually impossible to write anything original with tributes pouring in from all sides all week – perhaps what can be attempted is to balance the focus a bit. In his homeland far more is naturally said about this native son also being the first Pope from the Americas but it also worth highlighting that he was the first Jesuit pontiff, representing the religious order which most seeks to combine faith with reason and learning and finding his final rest in the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica (venue of the first Jesuit Mass back in 1538). In other words, so much has been rightly written about his compassion and humility (supposedly a rare quality in an Argentine) but along with a great heart he also had a fine brain – biochemistry was the surprising choice for his university studies by a man who was to become a universal spiritual beacon.

Also impossible to say a word against the man on the day of his funeral but it was not always that way. Ups and downs with all the presidents in the 27 years since becoming Argentina’s spiritual leader when he took over the archdiocese of Buenos Aires in 1998, even upbraiding the inoffensive and conventionally religious Radical Fernando de la Rúa for heading a country with “privileges for a few and incalculable sacrifices hidden in bubbles of abundance” – the brief caretaker presidency of Eduardo Duhalde (a moderate Peronist with a nun among his five children) was the only case of a smooth relationship. Perhaps the most extreme mood swing came at the very start of his papacy in 2013 when then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner could not bring herself even to share nationality with the new pontiff (with already a decade of hostility between the presidential couple and Bergoglio), hailing the election of a Latin American Pope – within a couple of days she had made a complete U-turn when she realised that she had completely misread the nationwide enthusiasm over a compatriot heading a worldwide Church.

This initial Kirchnerite antipathy is all the more surprising given the tag of “Peronist Pope” locally stalking Francis throughout his papacy and in both cases the late pontiff deserves vindication. While Fernández de Kirchner had other axes to grind with Bergoglio, such as his opposition to gay marriage and in her conflict with the farm sector, the issue raised at the time was the accusation of some (not all) human rights organisations of complicity with the 1976-1983 military dictatorship by not shielding two Jesuits from abduction and torture when Provincial (local head) of the order. But other voices given refuge have emerged and quite apart from the testimony, one chapter in the otherwise lavishly covered papal biography has largely escaped attention – while never claiming to be an exile, Bergoglio spent the last three years of the dictatorship in Frankfurt.

The “Peronist Pope” tag began with the Mauricio Macri presidency as from 2015 – not only because its free-market creed was at odds with the social doctrine of the Church but also because many in Juntos por el Cambio also interpreted change as cultural, parting company with traditional Catholicism to modernise Argentina – and escalated to a climax with Javier Milei´s unspeakable insults during his successful 2023 presidential campaign. Francis never exempted Peronism from responsibility for what he called a tenfold increase in poverty since leaving school but fundamentally, it is impossible to read the Scriptures for any length of time without realising that the Church has no choice but to be on the side of the poor.

When this entire newspaper would not suffice to cover this unique papacy (not that this edition does not try), impossible to summarise 4,422 days in 750 words so we will leave it at that. Rest in peace Franciscus.