It was exciting. I remember. After five attempts, white smoke eventually came out. How touched I was when I found out that he was an American, a Jesuit, and that he was baptized Francisco, after the saint from Assisi.

That was already a great hope. But there was more. Not long after, the new pope decides not to wear cherry red shoes, which, according to experts in Vatican shoe stores, symbolize the blood of martyrs who gave their lives for Christ; and for others it is the color of power. Francisco knew that there were priests who – convinced that they had power – oppressed them with the fear of hell, so he warned them that confessionals must stop being places of mental torture, if not places of mercy. It made a mess, didn’t it?

Pope Francis expresses his solidarity with Ecuador after the 6.6 magnitude earthquake

To make a mess for the pope is to be heartless, creative, empathetic, to break routine and sterile ritual or perverse moralism. For this reason, there is no problem when he claims that there is no reason to judge people for being homosexual.

Pope Francis’ wish for his 10 years of pontificate

He was the first pope to speak before the United States Congress and clearly told them that a political and responsible effort should be made to redirect the steps taken and thus be able to reverse the negative effects on the environment. The world is poisoned by waste, that global warming is a serious problem for life. “These problems are closely related to the throwaway culture, which affects both excluded human beings and things that quickly become trash.”

(…) making problems for the pope means being free-thinking, creative, empathetic, breaking the routine…

Francisco proposed the destruction of cruel individualism from all axes of his speeches. He looked at the Amazon with love, not as a nature reserve or warehouse, but as a living contemplation of the Creator himself. For this reason, current theologians assure that the Pope proposes that “it is no longer just another periphery, but now the center, not only at the socioeconomic level, but in the spiritual and theological person. Amazonia is a sanctuary, a cathedral, a basilica, where every Eucharist is celebrated on the altar of the world”.

The Apostolic Nunciature closes its diplomatic seat in Nicaragua

Francisco opened the door for everyone. He knows that the God of Christians is a God, one and triune, who calls everyone: “the poor, the disabled, the lame and the blind…”; from borders and every border invites everyone, until the house is full, because there is the true church of God, into which we all enter.

Francisco remembers that when he was a boy you could not visit the divorced or those who were not Catholic, and that he met a priest who burned the tents of the Evangelicals; he doesn’t want more than that.

Today, he is asking the world for peace, and in connection with the war, he admitted in an interview that, although he could not perform a peace service before Russia, he does not believe that it is impossible to knock on the door of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He declared that violence against women is a desecration of God. I admit that we owe the possibility of priesthood to women, but I acknowledge with hope the inclusion of many women in Vatican bodies. Francisco breaks the board, throws us off balance and that’s good. (OR)