A Street Pope, from the neighborhood, among the people. A man of the heavens with his feet on the ground. Francisco was not a Pope in the usual sense. He is vox populi. His voice was heard far beyond St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican. To set it to tango, even to the outskirts. He was quickly labeled a “progressive Pope”, but what he did was nothing more than practicing the gospel and speaking of justice, peace, compassion and the fight for dignity. He made it clear when he chose the small island of Lampedusa for his first visit outside Rome as pontiff. With that gesture he stood on the side of migrants and refugees. He visited prisons, got off the papamobile, went into troubled neighborhoods. He championed the three Ts: land, housing and work. He strove to make the unseen seen. He also became uncomfortable.
Now, the documentary Recen por mí: la historia de Francisco, by the Argentine Facundo Bartucci, confirms Jorge Mario Bergoglio (1936-2025) as a spiritual leader. Not only the successor of Peter and a central figure of the Catholic Church. In the book Soñemos juntos. El camino a un futuro mejor (2020), he confessed: “There is a need to go to the periphery if you want to see the world as it really is. I always thought one sees the world more clearly from the periphery, but in these last seven years as Pope, I have come to confirm it.” Bergoglio never imagined that it would end up like this. We hear him say it in the film: “I came with the little suitcase, with the bare minimum and little else. Also I was not on any list of papal candidates.”
For the premiere of Recen por mí, which is already in cinemas, a date close to the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (October 4) has been chosen, marking 800 years since the death of the saint who defied power and chose the poor, in addition to expressing a deep connection with nature. He is the author of the Canticle of the Creatures, which not only speaks of God, the Virgin and the saints, as was customary at the time, but of Brother Fire, Sister Water and Sister Earth. It is no accident that the Buenos Aires-born man was baptized as Francisco when he was chosen the 266th Pope on March 13, 2013, a palindrome date. Nor that he signed the encyclical Laudato si (2015), focused on integral ecology, the environmental crisis, climate change and the care of the “common home”.
An Austere Pope
From the moment he arrived at the Holy See, he set the tone. He chose the Santa Marta Residence as his home, instead of the Apostolic Palace, which his predecessors had used since 1903. He wore austere clothing, without the red mozzetta, the embroidered stole, the red leather shoes and the pectoral cross with precious stones, typical of popes. He promoted shelters and reception centers for the homeless in the Vatican and elsewhere in the world. Of course, in his hometown neighborhood, Flores.
Francisco taking mate among the crowd.
Bartucci’s film, trained in Production at the New York Film Academy (NYFA), shows the Pope among crowds, here and there and everywhere, handing out hugs, steadfast in his gospel message. From his youth to becoming a global reference. “In the midst of a world in crisis, I thought it necessary to look again at those figures who not only talk about values, but embody them. I wanted to portray him not as a figure of power, but as a man committed to accompanying and giving voice to those who are not heard,” says the director.
A Journey Through His Life
The film opens with the phrase: “Begin by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you will be doing the impossible,” from the saint of Assisi. Then, a popular shout. He is not a rock star in the stadium of San Lorenzo de Almagro, the team he supported. It is Francis at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, in 2013, his first international papal journey. The crowds are fervent. Young and not-so-young people holding mobiles and waving flags. “There will be trouble inside I know there will be trouble, but I want there to be trouble outside, in the dioceses. Let the Church go out into the streets,” he exclaims.
We see photos from his childhood, of the young man with the collar up on a nearly improvised pulpit, of a Jorge at the stoves, in family, celebrating the Eucharist, in the neighborhoods, washing the feet of some children on Holy Thursday, in the tram, with the mate in hand, chatting. The street life was sacred to him. From Pope he carried that itch: “I miss very much wandering the streets of Buenos Aires, for example taking the bus to move about. Here I miss the street. I have contact with people in public audiences. With the people I relive. The Lord wants us to be streetwise.”
A Word of Hope
In Recen por mí he tells young people that they have to “move, make a ruckus. They will put limits on you, but you express yourself.” To the authorities, that “power only makes sense if it is at the service of the common good.” To everyone, “let us not pretend to be distracted. We are champions at looking the other way when it does not serve us. Let us approach so much pain and let each one do what he can. Please, let us not wash our hands.” And what he repeats again and again: “Do not let hope be stolen from you.” He always pointed out the sore: “How can we speak of peace while we are building new and formidable weapons of war?”
The pope Francis during his trip to Madagascar in 2019.
Ya casi al final, el argentino más universal -le ganó por goleada a Maradona- hace examen de conciencia: “Veo un camino, a un hombre que caminó, que tomó la senda con altos y bajos. Mi vida no la he caminado nunca solo, siempre hubo hombres y mujeres, empezando por mis padres y mis hermanos, que me han acompañado en eso. No me imagino una persona solitaria porque no lo soy. Sí me imagino una persona que caminó su vida, que estudió, que trabajó, que se metió a cura. No se me ocurre pensarla de otra manera”.
