By Jimmy Burns - The snapped moment of encounter projected fast and globally on the world wide web has become as much as a characteristic of the Francis papacy, as his twitter account @pontifex. This is a papacy with a charismatic personality and instinctive communicator at its helm. It is also a papacy advised by media specialists and diplomats that know something about the opportunity offered by the digital age to spread a message with an impact that would have inconceivable just a few years ago.
After meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican on Tuesday, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, told his two million Twitter followers that the pontiff had spoken enthusiastically about his coming visit to the country and had even told him a self-deprecating joke about the Argentines.
Pope Francis during one of the several interviews motivated by his two years in the Vatican, also referred to his fellow citizens in Argentina, which he described as non humble and on the contrary rather vain and arrogant.
A group of relatives of the Buenos Aires 1994 AMIA bombing victims attended a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday, requesting the pontiff’s intervention to have Iran put the citizens of that country allegedly involved in the deadly attack at the disposal of justices in Argentina.
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.
Pope Francis is concerned about the political situation and governance in his native Argentina, the Vatican's chief of ceremonies said Tuesday ahead of a visit by President Cristina Fernandez on Saturday.
On the 20th anniversary of the AMIA Jewish community center bombing, the Argentine pontiff sent a message for “justice” to Argentina’s Israeli community and relatives of the 85 victims that resulted dead in the attack.
Argentine Lower House passed last week a bill creating a commemorative coin as a tribute to Latin America's first Pope. Lawmaker Oscar Cachi Martinez first proposed the measure in April, and it garnered approval from congressional committees during November. The next step is for the bill to the considered by the Senate.
Pope Francis met with President Cristina Fernandez and other South American leaders following the closing ceremony of the XXVIII World Youth Day in Rio do Janeiro and presented the Argentine head of state with a gift of socks and shoes for her recently born first grandson Nestor Ivan Kirchner.
Pope Francis is scheduled to make his first official visit to Argentina, where he was born, next December ‘to be close to his fellow compatriots’, according to ecclesiastic sources in Buenos Aires. The visit in the first half of December could extend to neighbouring Uruguay and Chile.