No one is born of saints. School sisters remember Pope Francis as a naughty
Jorge Mario Bergoglio liked Tango and football.
Buenos Aires. At a school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he started his religious journey as a five -year -old, the sisters remember the boy who later became Pope Francisas “naughty”.
« It is said that he was quite naughty, » recalls Teresa Rovirová, a teacher at Nuestra Senora de la missericordia, where Jorge Maria Bergogli wrote in the early 40s.
« No one is born holy, it becomes saint, » the sister laughed.
Misericordia is located in the Flores district in the Argentine metropolis, where Francis was born and found his love for God, the poor, Tanga and football.
He attended elementary and secondary school in other parts of Buenos Aires, but in Misericordia he received the first holy communion and later the sacrament of confirmation – the first steps on the way to religious devotion.
On Monday, the mourners gathered in the Basilica of Flores to pay tribute to the first Pope from Latin America. It is the same church where young Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then 17, felt the profession to become a priest.
The Vatican published the footage of Pope Francis in an open coffin, the funeral will be on Saturday Read
In the nearby Barrio de Flores Museum there is a collection of papal memarabels, including a handwritten letter that Francis sent in its opening in 2018.
In the Misericordia chapel, where Bergoglio served his first Mass as a priest, and also one of the last before going to Rome in 2013, his simple lifestyle is remembered.
« While he was a vicar in Flores, before he became Archbishop of Buenos Aires, every 8 October came to celebrate Mass at school, for the anniversary of the day when he received the first holy communion, » recalls Rovirová.
Bergoglio often attended the school as an archbishop to enjoy the nuns with Sunday lunches when they often had pasta. Bergoglio has always traveled by subway or bus, which was a manifestation of his « stubbornness », the sister added. « Even though he had one knee problems and sometimes he was wrong, he would never take a taxi, » she said.
On Monday, the confessional, where Francis allegedly felt God’s vocation, formed long advice. People prayed silently while outside the street dealers offered plastic flowers. Rovirova recalls that 12 years ago Bergoglio left Argentina « with a small suitcase and only with what he wore as a simple as a man he was ». And he never returned.
