Francis celebrates a decade of pontificate. At every moment symbols and announcements have been made during these ten years of teaching, including the chosen first place of the trip, the Italian island of Lampedusa, considered the gateway for migrants to Europe, or the historic meeting in the 2016 season. Havana airport with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.
Here are the top ten highlights:
1. The washing of feet in prisons
The pontiff is seen kneeling to wash the feet of infant inmates on Saturday, March 28, 2013, between two women, a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic, in the chapel of Casal del Marmo, a penitentiary center for minors in Rome. Pope Francis made the first gesture in a different style.
2. Trinus to Lampedusa
Pope Francis chose an unexpected place for his first trip: the island of Lampedusa, in Sicily, close to the coast of Africa, which he considered to be the gateway to Europe for migrants. It was from there on July 8, 2013 his message about the “globalization of indifference”, which would lead him over the years, on many occasions to denounce the indifference towards those who come from far away.
3. New Encyclical Letter Laudato Si
On May 24, 2015, the Supreme Pontiff published his second and new encyclical: “Laudato si”, on the care of the common house, where for the first time the pope spoke more broadly and as a topic to be discussed. Church defense and climate change. It became a manifesto for the environmental world.
4. The historic treaty with the Russian Patriarch Cyril.
On February 12, 2016, Pope Francis made a stopover in Cuba before his visit to Mexico to meet the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill at the Havana airport. It was the first meeting of the leaders of the two Churches after the schism of 1054 and after it, and with the war in Ukraine it remained only a memory and an attempt, some failed, to get closer.
RA5 To travel to Chile
The visit of the Supreme Pontiff to Chile in January 2018 was a real division in the pontificate of Francis and his fight against the abuse of minors by members of the Church. In Chile, the true rejection of the visit by most of the inhabitants was abused due to scandals, and the position of the Pope in defense of the Chilean Bishop Johannes Barros, accused of cover-up, hardened the opinions even more.
On his return, he undertook a historical investigation and in April 2018 the Pope acknowledged “serious errors of assessment” in the case of Barros, when he met with the priest Fernando Karadima of the victims of pedophiles and called on all the Chilean bishops to help. his station.
6. The expulsion of McCarrick
On February 18, 2019 and after an investigation, the former US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was sentenced to resign from the clerical state for corruption and abuse, accusations that Pope Francis poured out after Carlo Maria Viganò, the former apostolic envoy to the United States, told him. accused covered. Vigano became the leader of the conservative wing of the Church against Francis.
7. The feet of the leaders of South Sudan are kissed
In another diplomatic gesture by Francis, on April 12, 2019, to strengthen the peace process, the pope bent his knees and kissed the feet of the warring leaders in South Sudan whom he had met in the Vatican.
8. Oration in the empty St. Peter’s Square in the midst of a pandemic
On March 28, 2020, the pope arrived alone in the empty St. Peter’s Square under the pouring rain to pray for the world against the Covid-19 pandemic and to ensure that it would only go out if everyone rowed together.
9. Among the ruins of Mosul
In March 2021, Pope Francis traveled to Iraq and a picture of him praying among the ruins of the city of Mosul, a few meters from the Al Nuri Mosque in Mosul, a symbol of the rise and fall of the Islamic State, went around the world.
10. hand in the sarcophagus of Benedict XVI
The powerful image of Francis placing his hand in the pocket of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, ceased after the funeral of the two Popes and a new period of pontificate began.
