Paying Homage at the Coffin of the Pope

My visit to the Pope, lying in death at the Casa Santa Marta, was the closest I had ever come to this man of contradictions

By Aurelio Porfiri

It may seem strange to some, but yesterday, April 22, was the occasion in which I was closest to him. While for my “Vatican predecessors” I had more opportunities to be close to John Paul II and Benedict XVI, with Francis I did not have this habit.

I do not deny that regarding Francis’ pastoral action I had many doubts, even though I appreciated some of his gestures of closeness to the weakest and the poorest, which I found very beautiful.

I believe that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a very complex man, and he referred to this in some of his statements. A man who had grown up in a particular era, an era of upheavals also for what concerned his congregation, the Jesuits. Although in Argentina he was considered by some to be a conservative, in his pontificate he seemed to align himself with some of the requests of the progressive side, even contradicting these positions with others of a much more conservative brand.

This confirmed to me the complexity of his psychology, which I believe was much clearer to those who found themselves collaborating with him behind closed doors (according to numerous rumors that reached me).

Pope Francis had some fascinating aspects, he knew how to summarize his thoughts in captivating definitions and he was very attentive to popular devotion.

But on the other hand, as said before, he was the son of an era of which he embodied some contradictions that he expressed with attitudes that some have judged as controversial.

I must say that I was sorry not to have seen him alive so closely, having only been able to pray before a body wounded by death. He was the Pope, and as such he should be honored and prayed for.

I always find myself astonished in the face of death, whether it is that of a Pope or of a simple person. I prayed that he would not lack that mercy of God that he had constantly evoked in his teachings.

—Maestro Aurelio Porfiri, sacred music composer, author and Inside the Vatican contributor