The death of Pope Francis, the highest authority in the Roman Catholic Church, has sparked global interest in learning more about the life of the man who dedicated his life to serving God and people.
As Pastor Alejandro Rodríguez, president of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Argentina, once said to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, “a pastor who smells like sheep,” because he was always among the people and their needs.
Bergoglio was appointed archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998. On March 13, 2013, the conclave elected him as Benedict XVI's successor. He became the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American pope, and the first to take the name Francis, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.
Legendary evangelist Luis Palau said at the time that Bergoglio “was a friend” with whom he had cultivated a personal relationship. “I like him because, far from treating me like a heretic, every time we see each other, Bergoglio asks me to pray for him. And I pray for him, I’m not going to miss the opportunity,” Palau used to say.
As cardinal and archbishop, Bergoglio cultivated a close relationship with the evangelical ministry. Some negatively labeled it “ecumenical,” but the truth is that none of those involved set aside their doctrinal and biblical principles.
Palau also said, on the occasion of Bergoglio's election as pope, “As an evangelical Christian, I obviously have disagreements with Pope Francis. However, despite our differences, I consider him a friend and respect him as a person; I appreciate his high regard for the Scriptures, his love for Jesus Christ, and I admire his heart of service.”
Promoter of the Scriptures
Pastor Esteban Fernández, former vice president of the International Bible Society (Bíblica), shared with Diario Cristiano his personal experience with the former Pope Francis. “I had the privilege of working very closely with Francis on a project, especially on Biblical Experience in Community. He was aware of who we were and the biblical texts we used. He even made a video inviting us to bring Jesus Christ down from our minds to our hearts by reading the Bible in the format we were proposing: reading it as a book, without chapters or verses... He was very kind in that. I know he promoted that project a lot among different brotherhoods in the Roman Catholic community,” said Fernández.
For his part, Melvin Rivera, former global director of publications for the United Bible Societies, recalled on social media: “When he was in Argentina, he was called Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and we asked him for a recommendation to include in all editions of the ‘God Speaks Today’ Bible with the deuterocanonical books. The intention was to encourage all Catholics to read the Bible. He generously agreed... Thousands of those Bibles were distributed throughout Latin America with his recommendation. He had a deep love for the Bible, for the poor, and for the earth that God has entrusted to us.”
In this regard, the United Bible Societies (UBS) issued a statement of condolence to the Roman Catholic Church for the loss of its leader. In the statement, they spoke of the relationship between the UBS and the Catholic Church.
“Bible Societies around the world serve the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic communities, working closely with priests, bishops, religious educators, and lay leaders to ensure that Scripture is present, accessible, and alive in the hearts of the faithful. Pope Francis defended this mission, recognizing that the Word of God belongs to all and transforms all who encounter it.”
A servant
Reverend Omar Cabrera, senior leader of the Visión de Futuro church and member of the Council of Pastors of the City of Buenos Aires, was one of those who knew Bergoglio before and after he became pope.
“We had an event at Luna Park. One of my daughters, who was studying at the UCA [Argentine Catholic University], accompanied me. So she approached him and said, 'I study at the UCA.' Immediately [Bergoglio] asked her, 'And are you causing trouble?' because all the students were required to read a piece he had written, challenging them to go out and evangelize and not be ashamed of their faith. We were having lunch and he saw that Jennifer had finished her empanada, and he got up himself and found her another one... he served it to her. She was really impressed,” Cabrera recounted.
During another meeting at Luna Park, the reverend recalled: “I asked for the offering. And I gave Bergoglio a book of mine that talks precisely about the finances of the Kingdom, called El Poder de la Generosidad (The Power of Generosity). And the next day, I was driving with my son-in-law and my eldest daughter, and he himself called me to thank me personally for the book.”
Pastor Fernández also recalled Bergoglio's relationship with the evangelical ministry, mentioning the context of the encounters referred to by Cabrera. He said he knew “of his spiritual search and his approach to the evangelical church, to the reformed church, through the CRECES movement that he formed while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, together with other prominent leaders from Argentina and around the world. It is a movement that is still functioning, bringing together Christians renewed by the Holy Spirit from both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church.”
Humility
Rev. Cabrera was one of six Argentine evangelical pastors who are members of CRECES who visited Francis officially. He traveled with Norberto Saracco, Carlos Mraida, Ángel Negro, Jorge Himitian, and Humberto Golluscio.
“When we were with him in the Vatican, we were in Santa Marta and had been given a room with eight chairs. One chair was far away, higher up, and looked a bit like a throne, and we all assumed, 'Well, he's going to sit there.' So I sat at the other end. Francis broke with protocol and sat in the middle. And I ended up sitting next to him. I never thought it would be like that. And to one of the pastors, whose wife had been ill and whom he hadn't seen for three years, as soon as he greeted him, he asked, 'How is your wife? How is your health?'. He was really a person who looked at the other person first, and then at himself. That was what struck me most about this human being.”
Samuel Pagán, pastor, writer, and Bible translator, told Diario Cristiano about the pope: “He was a man oriented toward people in need; his desire was to serve, and to serve well.”
A difference
From a European perspective, Diario Cristiano consulted Pastor Juan Triviño, a Spanish editor and writer. Clarifying that he was speaking on his own behalf, he said that Bergoglio was “a pope who has made a difference, especially given where we were coming from.” He added: “He has made decisions that, even within the Catholic Church, and understanding where they came from, have been progressive, very progressive. He has not been afraid to sit down with all kinds of people, including young people who completely rejected the concept of the Church. He has not been afraid to talk to anyone or to acknowledge mistakes. He has not wavered on the issue of sexual abuse, unlike the revered John Paul II, who devoted himself to covering up all the sexual corruption within the Church and moving priests around.”
In this regard, Triviño said that the pope “had a policy of zero tolerance, which is admirable. I think he has been very evangelical in proclaiming and bringing people closer to Jesus. I think that today, thanks to Francis, many more people feel proud to be Catholic than before he became pope. If he did not modernize the Church more, it was because he was not allowed to. He also had his ideas, some of which clearly did not align with what we, as Protestants, as Evangelicals, understand in the light of the Word of God, right? But he was a humble man, you only have to look at how he prepared his funeral, which has nothing to do with the pomp and circumstance of others, how he lived all this time and how he marked the way he related to the world.”
“As a man, I believe he gave his life to what he believed was the service of God, and to what was taken as such in his community. He was a person of integrity, who lived what he believed, and who had no difficulty in trusting others, even for very important matters such as his press spokesperson in Argentina, in the case of Marcelo Figueroa, a brother whom he knew came from the Protestant church and had Protestant roots. So, he was a person close to the Gospel and close to evangelicals as well,” said Esteban Fernández.
From the United Bible Societies, the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches of the Argentine Republic (ACIERA), the Baptist World Alliance, the Brazilian Evangelical Alliance, FEREDE, and many other evangelical organizations, the call is to remember the man and comfort those who are grieving today over the loss of an undisputed world leader.
In the words of Esteban Fernández: “The reflection for us as Protestants is not to waste any opportunity to make any effort toward unity, based on knowing the differences and understanding that the foundations of orthodoxy are one, and that they, our Roman Catholic brothers, added other things. But fundamentally we are united. And I prefer to focus on that. I know that fundamentally we have been working for the same thing. Anything else that takes Jesus out of the picture, I side with Jesus, and I believe that is the heart of the Protestant church.”
Originally published by Diario Cristiano, Christian Daily International's Spanish edition.
