Media reminded of pontiff's humanity
International
“People might not know anything about the Catholic church but they were drawn to Pope Francis”.
A good 20 minutes after the Memorial Mass for Pope Francis ended, Archbishop O’Regan stood in front of the press on the grass in front of the sacristy.
It was a proper media call with ABC TV and channel Seven, channel Nine and Network 10 all present.
The Mass has been an opportunity to come together as a family and was being replicated in other parishes as well he began.
What the media wanted was to know his thoughts on Francis as a person, insight crucial.
“I think he was super relational and when I walked around Adelaide, people might not know anything about the Catholic church but they liked or were drawn to Pope Francis,” the Archbishop said.
“Could they say any of his teachings or anything like that? Not necessarily, but it was often the simple things that he did that made sure that he was relatable.”
But will he be remembered as a progressive Pope they wanted to know?
“It’s always hard to put those labels on it. I think he tried to preach the gospel recognising that there’s a plurality of ideas in the world at the moment, and he sought to remind people of the authentic Christian voice.”
The Archbishop said there is nothing like encountering someone to get a measure of the person.
“You saw the deep humanity and warmth. His English was never flash so he couldn’t probably explain in English what he wanted but that didn’t matter as he spoke the language of love and I think that’s what people responded to.”
Their first encounter was at a school, of sorts, he said.
“When you first become a bishop you go to baby bishop school and part if it is to meet the Pope and there were 120 of us there. He started off very slowly reading a text that someone prepared and then he pushed it aside and spoke from the heart and said, ‘be shepherds’.”
There were just 30 people at his next meeting in 2019 and nothing was off the table with dialogue and listening to the fore.
“After two and a half hours he said, ‘have we had enough?’”
“Heaven knows what else he (Francis) had on his mind but at that time we were it.”
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