MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tango dance at St Peter’s Square to celebrate Pope's birthday

Buenos Aires-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, given tango party for his 78th birthday.

Buenos Aires-born Pontiff offered out-of-the-ordinary milonga in his honour. He also receives cakes and other gifts from children and seminarists, but doesn't forget the atrocities taking place in Australia, Pakistan and Yemen.

 It was Wednesday, the day of the usual weekly public audience with His Holiness in Vatican City. What was not so usual was that this particular Wednesday, December 17, was Pope Francis' 78th birthday. Tango dancers along the Via della Conciliazione and well-wishers from the world over who sang “Happy Birthday” in Spanish, Italian and other languages gave the traditional event a festive, peculiar note.

As the Pontiff drove around St Peter’s Square in the open-air popemobile to greet the crowds, children handed up birthday cards. “Did you make this? It's good!”, the Head of the Catholic Church was quoted as saying. He also stopped by a group of seminarians from the Legion of Christ, who offered him a birthday cake, with lighted candles, took a sip of mate, a traditional Argentinian drink.

The 40,000 tourists estimated to have been present at the festivities were fortunate to enjoy a bright and sunny day with temperatures of around 14 degrees Celsius, which led the dancers to wear a more suitable winter gear and distinguish themselves only by silk neck scarves.

The Pope himself is said to have given the green light for a most unusual dancing session, one in which -so goes the rumour- he would have gladly taken part more actively. A fan of the music of Astor Piazzolla, he is also said to have been a nifty mover on the tango dance floor in his younger years.

“I just thought it would be a bit of fun to dance the tango in his honour...we know that the Pope loves this music and we wanted to pay him a tribute...We started to talk about it and the thing went viral and we ended up with 3,000 people from all over Italy. We’re not dancing for ourselves but for the Pope”, Milonga organiser, Cristina Camorani told The Irish Times.

Patrizia D'Aquino, part of a group from the Abruzzo region of Italy, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that “The tango is a dance that unites all people no matter where they come from.”

Despite the joyous occasion, Francis ended his audience with a sobering prayer for the victims of recent “inhuman terrorist attacks” in Australia, Pakistan and Yemen. “May the Lord receive in his peace the dead, comfort the relatives and convert the hearts of the violent who don't even stop in the face of children,” he said.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop in his native Buenos Aires between February 28, 1998 and March 13, 2013, has never returned to his home town after being chosen to succeed Benedict XVI as Head of the Catholic Church.