FRANCIS, THE VATICAN II, AND THE FUTURE
My reflection on Pope Francis, who recently passed away, starts from the Second Vatican Council. It was developed and concluded when I was a student in the Minor Seminary. We did not understand very well what it was about, but the enthusiasm of the teaching priests indicated to us a transcendental step in the aggiornamiento (a fashionable word at that time) of the Church in the face of the changes and challenges of the 20th century. Already in my studies of Philosophy and Theology I was digesting better its perspectives through the analysis of the conciliar documents as well as the new proposals, such as the priestly teams in the parishes, the basic ecclesial communities, the youth pastoral, the renovations in the liturgy, the incorporation of the mass and alternative means of communication, the renewed exegetics and others. Three popes stand out clearly in this period. John XXIII, the old, enthusiastic and tireless promoter; Paul VI, the most meritorious of the doctrinal renovations, who inaugurated the international trips and the participation in international conclaves of all kinds, and John Paul I, of very short papacy, but who propitiated the continuity of the initiated changes.
The validity and continuity of the renewing documents and proposals of Vatican II were in many cases unknown and not infrequently prohibited. John Paul II and Benedict XVI bear the responsibilities of such countermarches. And it is precisely the personal and institutional witness of the reopening, of the renewal, of the forgotten aggression, the greatest merit of Francis, “come from the ends of the earth”. With great courage and spirituality, he propitiated a Church in the world, in the midst of terrible wars, unjust inequalities, authoritarianism of political leaders, patriarchy; he preached and lived as a shepherd “with the smell of sheep”, far from palaces, medieval attire, luxury, accommodations close to riches.
He took the name of Francis, the poor man, that of the song of the creatures, man and woman, nature, animals. He assumes the lifestyle of Francis in the new times, an option that attracts the attention of believers and non-believers, to the point that the great Umberto Eco reflected: “This Argentine Jesuit seems more like a Paraguayan Jesuit”.
I join with everyone in common prayer to the Spirit that guides the Church. Let us pray for a successor of Francis, close to the poor, a friend of men and women, of children, of the elderly, desirous of living in the hope of peace, of the just distribution of goods, in projimity, as my Paraguayan people say.

Santiago Caballero. Tacumbu, 02.05.24
I was a member of the YCS, of the YCS in Paraguay and in Brazil where I did my studies; I also worked as a consultant and now, as a guest of Pax Romana.