Pope Francis likes tango because its is the music of the street, of the people, of his neighbourhood. He also has often recalled that Jesus Christ that he believes in spent most of his life walking, meeting people,listening, talking to them, from the heart.
Today, his fourth day in Brazil, Francis took to the streets, deep into the depth of Rio’s poor, in the favela of Manguinhos. Earlier, his restored a sense of humanity amidst the suited local authorities and frocked bishops and sports celebrities gathered round him in the City’s municipal palace, when he placed his healing hands on the kneeling veteran Brazilian basketball champion Oscar Schmidt- a giant of 2,05 metres ,now prostrate and tearful, who has brain cancer.
Meanwhile the dwellers of Manguinhos waited patiently in the rain, against a chaotic backdrop of improvised housing and in the mudfield of the wasteland that doubles up as a football pitch and, today, as an open house of God.
Francis reached the shanty town dwellers in an open car, stopping now and then to kiss and bless babies lifted to him by his security guards, then leaning towards the crowd, before stepping down among them, meeting them with his smile, his handshake, his warm blessing the light breaking through the darkness rain, in an enduring gesture of human solidarity.
And then he stepped up to the makeshift stage , as to the mountain summit, and made them feel honoured, dignified, people of his world, and that of Jesus Christ, of the beatitudes.
“In you generous welcome…you have shown a great sense of solidarity..and the word solidarity is not one that can be or should be silenced,”he told them.
He called for greater social justice, and promised that the Church would be behind every initiative that promoted development and the dignity of ordinary men and women..
“A nation is built on these essential pillars: family, tolerance,education, housing, health, security…violence can only be overcome with a change in the human heart,”he told them
And turning to government and others in position of authority, to recover a sense of the common good, while ending with a tribute to youth who, conscious, of the corruption of some of their leaders , call for a better society.
“We need an enduring peace in our communities,one that brings genuine social justice..do not lose hope.!”
They cheered him loudly in the favelas,
As a smiling Brazilian told me: “The Pope has already performed a miracle. He has achieved what seemd impossible: he has managed to get ordinary Brazilians to fall in love with an Argentinian.” A sense of spiritual transformation is palpable on the streets of Rio. And it’s bound to be catching universally.
Later, in Rio’s Cathedral, he told a packed congregation of Argentine young pilgims (there were 30,000 , including those in the surrounding streets). “What do I want? I want dynamic action. The Church cannot stay enclosed. It has to break out, get out onto the streets.”
