ARGENTINA
National Catholic Reporter
by John L. Allen Jr. | Apr. 5, 2013
Buenos Aires, Argentina —
I spent this week in Argentina in search of insight into Pope Francis from the people who know him best as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the man who was their archbishop for fifteen years.
For sure, the first impression here is deep national pride. Locals say there’s probably never been a better-attended Holy Week in the history of Argentinian Catholicism than after Francis’ election.
A Via Crucis procession in Rosario, the country’s second city, usually draws 200,000 people, but this time it attracted 350,000; attendance at the cathedral in Buenos Aires was estimated to be two to three times greater than 2012. All across the country, church-goers reported standing-room-only crowds and long lines for confession.
The election of an Argentine pope seems to have had a soothing effect on the culture generally.
A talented young Argentinian journalist named Ines San Martin, my aide and translator this week, tells the following story.
She was on a bus in Buenos Aires when the driver and a passenger got into a shouting match, with the passenger demanding the driver’s license number and threatening to call the police. Just as things seemed on the brink of falling apart, an elderly woman stood up and said: “What are you fighting about? We’ve got an Argentinian pope!”
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