Episode 24: The pope - the lowdown from inside Argentina

"Parece que mis hermanos cardenales fueron a buscarlo casi al fin del mundo"

"It looks like my Cardinal brothers nearly went to the end of the world to look [for a new pope]". A casual joke by the new Argentine pope as to the distant location of his homeland, it seems. Jose Mario Bergoglio, or as the world now knows him, el Papa Francisco I, was apparently the surprise choice to lead the Catholic world - even though he reportedly came second to the previous pope during the last conclave in 2005. 

"En mi nombre, en el del Gobierno argentino y en representación del pueblo de nuestro país, quiero saludarlo y expresarle mis felicitaciones con ocasión de haber resultado elegido como nuevo Romano Pontífice de la Iglesia Universal" Cristina Kirchner, Presidenta de Argentina.

“In my name,  in that of the Argentinian government and as representative of our country, I want to greet him and express my congratulations on the occasion of having been chosen as the new Pope” unequivocal words, then – especially from someone she has had disagreements with in the past (especially over gay marriage, of which he is firmly against but Argentina legalized a few years ago), and whose husband Nestor Kirchner (when he was president ) said that Francisco was the ‘true voice of opposition’. So, what is the local view on one of the new world leaders?

Scanning this morning’s papers (see Clarin, Lanacion, Puntobiz etc), it is hoped that he will clean up the Vatican and heal the so-called divides created by his incumbent, Joseph Ratzinger – an odd sight perhaps to see someone of 76 years of age associated with change and reform. So obviously, my colleagues at work immediately went to task outlining the religious and socioeconomic responsibilities Francisco now has both worldwide and inside Argentina, right?

Wrong. “For sure we’ll win the World Cup now – we have the Pope and G-d himself (Messi)” being my pick of the favorites. And when I said they had no defence or keeper – “we don’t need them – having the Pope is like parking the magical bus” to which I gave up trying.

Left: What the World saw. Right: What Argentinians saw

Devil to G-d "Here is says they chose your representative on earth and  he's argentinian"

Another excellent piece of information to come out in the press is that Bergoglio is a fanatical San Lorenzo fan – a small (sorry to my San Lorenzo fan friends!) team from a western part of BA, famous for, err, Fabrizio Collocini and having their stadium turned into a supermarket. To me, its like finding out the chief Rabbi is a closet Barnet fan! I bet he’d give a mean teamtalk though, maybe replace the half time lucozade with some holy water (and expect a swift return to glory for San Lorenzo in any case). In all seriousness though, it really does embody what it means to be Argentinian – everyone, from all walks of life, is obsessed with football!

Moving on, commentators are predicting an internal struggle locally - “Cristina is the official leader, President and head of State. Bergoglio is the head of the other state, the Vatican, the spiritual leader of 1.2billion people (40% of whom live in South America). They are not on the same page” says chief commentator of La Nacion, a mainstream newspaper (of which I counted 12 articles about the Pope on their website front page). Francisco himself hasn’t given his first press conference yet, so no one is quite sure what route he is going to go down. This, indeed, shows in the newspapers – he is described as anything from a conservative against gay marriage to an enthusiastic , breath of fresh air reformist. One thing, though, is for sure – all Argentinians, regardless of religion, race or football team, are proud that one of their own has made it onto the world stage.