The one-sided criticisms, and even insults, of the past months dissolve into a warm handshake and an affectionate, almost fraternal embrace.
"It was very strong, I can't believe it", comments the president of Argentina Javier Milei to his intimate circle of the out-of-protocol embrace with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica before the mass with the canonization rite of Maria Antonia of St. Joseph de Paz y Figueroa, better known as "Mama Antula", the first saint of the Latin American country.
A further greeting between the two is then repeated at the conclusion of the ceremony, together with the rest of the official delegation.
Words and images immediately relaunched by the Argentine media which were also followed by the inevitable post on social media by the ultra-liberal leader accompanied by a "muchas gracias!"
in capital letters.
Bergoglio's greeting
to Milei, as foreseen in the agenda, was not at all obvious in its extreme cordiality, a sign that for the Argentine Pontiff the insults received from Milei during the electoral campaign
- "nefarious character" with "an affinity with murderous communists", even "imbeciles" and "representative of the Evil One on earth" - are now things of the past.
Among other things, the "anarcho-capitalist" and far-right president is pursuing a very harsh spending cut plan at home that has been strongly criticized by social organizations.
In this way, Milei receives a first gesture from the Pontiff while awaiting the private audience tomorrow morning and perhaps also the announcement of a visit to Argentina in the second half of this year.
On Monday in Rome the Argentine head of state will also meet the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
In the meantime, however, the words pronounced by the Pope in the homily of the mass for the new saint "Mama Antula" (1730-1799), founder of the retreat house, must not be sounded like music to his ears and his social positions spiritualists in Buenos Aires and champion of the poor and the dispossessed.
"Fear, prejudice and false religiosity: here are three causes of a great injustice, three 'leprosies of the soul' that make a weak person suffer, discarding him as waste", says Francis.
And "let's not think that these are just things of the past", he warns: "How many suffering people do we meet on the pavements of our cities! And how many fears, prejudices and inconsistencies, even among those who believe and profess to be Christian, contribute to hurting them further! Even in our time there is a lot of marginalization, there are barriers to break down, 'leprosy' to cure".
The Pope points his finger at "when we distance ourselves from others to think about ourselves, when we reduce the world to the walls of our 'feel good', when we believe that the problem is always and only others...".
"In these cases we are careful, because the diagnosis is clear, it is 'leprosy of the soul' - he warns -: a disease that makes us insensitive to love, to compassion, which destroys us through the 'gangrenes' of selfishness, preconception , of indifference and intolerance".
At the Angelus after Mass, as today is also the World Day of the Sick, Francis denounces "the fact that there are many people today who are denied the right to treatment, and therefore the right to life".
"I think of those who live in extreme poverty - he continues -, but I also think of the war territories: fundamental human rights are violated there every day! It's intolerable".
"We pray for the tormented Ukraine, for Palestine and Israel - concludes the Pontiff -, we pray for Myanmar and for all the peoples tormented by war".
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