Eleven years have passed since the moment in which Jorge Mario Bergoglio, with his 'good evening', announced a completely new pontificate, characterized by proximity, informality and above all attention to the most fragile of the earth.
Today was an ordinary working day for Pope Francis, with the general audience in St. Peter's Square.
His voice, after a few weeks now, is still hoarse and broken by coughing.
"I'm still a little cold", he announces to the faithful, leaving the reading of the catechesis to one of his collaborators.
But to renew the appeal to put an end to the conflicts he personally spoke: "Please, let us persevere in fervent prayer for those who suffer the terrible consequences of war. Today they brought me a rosary and a Gospel of a young soldier who died on the front , he prayed with that. Many young people, many young people, go to die. Let us pray to the Lord to give us the grace to overcome this madness of war which is always a defeat".
Those memories were brought to him by Sister Lucia Caram, an Argentine nun who lives in Barcelona, and who is known throughout Spain for her humanitarian missions.
You have traveled to Ukraine several times to bring aid to the population.
Today you met Pope Francis in the Vatican before the general audience.
"We saw a serene Pope", reports Sister Caram.
"I gave him a gift that moved him: a case with the book of the Gospels and the Psalms that a soldier who died at the front carried. I gave him the rosary that Oleksandre was wearing when he died.
Francis kissed the rosary" that he himself had blessed before it was taken to Ukraine and "he was moved.
He loves Ukraine and suffers the martyrdom of this invaded and cruelly attacked people", says the nun again. "He encouraged me to continue.
He gave me more rosaries to take to Ukraine,” she adds, referring to her humanitarian missions in the country.
The Pope therefore enters his twelfth year of pontificate with two challenges: a personal one, that of facing the limits that his health imposes on him from time to time;
and then the other, that of seeing a humanity torn by conflicts, starting from what he always defines as "the tormented Ukraine" and the Holy Land.
Best wishes from all over the world.
They also come from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
These were made known by the Russian embassy to the Holy See which defines Pope Francis as "a true defender of peace".
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