Buenos Aires, Don Claudio Caruso: "Close to Francis, Pope of the Cartonaros"

(by Manuela Tulli)

Don Claudio Caruso has known 'Father Jorge', as he calls him, for twenty-eight years. He was not even a priest but it was the future Pope who preached the spiritual exercises to that group of seminarians who were about to become priests; among them was Don Claudio. Today from Buenos Aires, 12 thousand kilometers away from that room at the Gemelli, he follows minute by minute the news on the health of his Argentine Pope. "Francis wanted the truth to be told but that truth about his health has hurt us who love him, the vast majority of Argentines. People are praying everywhere", says not without a hint of emotion Father Claudio who, in addition to being a pastor of the Church, is a journalist, a communicator and the president of Cronica Blanca, the organization that in Argentina tries to convey the values ​​of the social doctrine of the Church. He travels between his country and Italy, which he loves and knows well, but above all when he can he tries to go and greet Bergoglio; the last time was last Christmas, with the opening of the Holy Door and the Jubilee in St. Peter's.

"Yesterday the archbishop of Buenos Aires - Father Caruso told ANSA - presided over a mass in a place very dear to Francis. Every year he went to Consitucion, one of the main train stations in the city where he celebrated mass for the 'cartoneros', those who live in the 'villas miserias' and who collect what others throw away to sell it and survive. There Bergoglio celebrated mass with them and denounced the silence of the powerful against these situations".

Francis "is also the Pope of atheists, Muslims, Jews, who love him so much. I'll tell you an anecdote: a Muslim friend told me that her mother asked him to buy a medal of the miraculous Madonna to pray for Pope Francis". The affection in his Argentina is therefore great. But not exactly from everyone. "Here too we can say that 'no one is a prophet in his own country'. Those who do not love him are few but they have too much power and make noise. Some media, some powerful people of this land - denounces Father Claudio - have mistreated him all his life and are still doing so now. But it is a very small group", the priest remarks. "Francis taught us that the power of love, the power of forgiveness and the power of hope does more", concludes Don Claudio.