My first meeting with Pope Francis took place on World Youth Day in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
I had been appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador da Bahia for a little over a year and for the first time I was participating in a major event that showed the young face of a Church eager to be present in the world. I then had other opportunities to meet him and enjoy his fatherhood, faith and simplicity.
“God always surprises us,” Pope Francis used to say. And the Church was surprised by the election of a man “who came from the end of the world” who always tried to put everything that was considered peripheral at the center of our attention.
What legacy does Pope Francis leave us?
Successor of the apostle Peter, he dedicated his life to announcing and bearing witness to the Gospel. From the beginning of his pontificate, he urged the Church to “go out”, committing herself to proclaiming the joy of the Gospel (Evangelii gaudium), inviting every baptized person to participate actively in the mission of evangelization.
Good Shepherd, he walked “in front of, among and behind the flock”, with the holy people of God, especially with the poorest brothers and sisters who live in the geographical and existential peripheries.
Prophet of our time, defender of human dignity, he denounced the “culture of indifference” towards the suffering of the most vulnerable and discarded people in society; He invoked peace in a world marked by wars and called society’s attention to the need to take care of our Common Home.
Father of the poor, he showed in small gestures the merciful face of a Church with open doors, called to be a “field hospital”, witness to a God who never gets tired of loving and forgiving.
I am grateful to the Lord for having known and met him, for his testimony that invites us to be a Church that is closer, more human and more faithful to the Gospel.
* Mons. Giovanni Crippa, IMC, Bishop of Ilhéus, Brazil.
