Jorge García Cuerva, current bishop of Río Gallegos who was appointed by Pope Francis as the new archbishop of Buenos Aires, said today that he felt "a lot of emotion" when the supreme pontiff conveyed to him what his next ministry would be, and revealed that "a week ago" he knew that he would be at the head of the Buenos Aires Archdiocese.
"I was very emotional when the apostolic nuncio (Miroslaw Adamczyk) informed me a week ago and asked if I accepted, because that is the formality. There were a few minutes in which he cannot practically speak," García Cuerva said during a press conference in Río Gallegos.
Current head of the Diocese of Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, the religious explained that his parents were the first with whom he shared this news of his appointment.
"They were happy, excited. On the one hand they are proud of their son. For parents, it is always a pride that a child achieves an achievement. They had some fear of the exposure I'm now going to have, but I told them to stay calm. They know who I am," he said.
The appointment of García Cuerva as archbishop of Buenos Aires was officially announced today at 7 in the morning, and the priest said that he received the call from the nuncio when "when he was recording a mass with Channel 9" of the capital of Santa Cruz.
The priest confessed that "the hardest" of his time in the southernmost Catholic diocese in Argentina had to do with "being away from the faithful" as a result of the social isolation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
He also indicated that it was "very difficult to have to sign and ask the Pope for the expulsion of three priests" accused of committing sexual abuse against minors, in line with the policy of "zero tolerance" promoted by the Supreme Pontiff in the face of these facts.
"It's very sad and very hard, but I would do it again. I acted for the good of the Church and because we never have to give up truth and justice," he emphasized.
Garcia Cuerva said he met last Thursday with primary cardinal Mario Poli, whom he will replace as archbishop in the nation's capital, and said he was his professor and examined his priestly thesis.
"We were together. We chat and confess surprised by the paths of life and that God gives us. I will probably travel to Buenos Aires next week in Buenos Aires," he said.
The assumption of García Cueva as archbishop will take place on July 15 in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, while on June 29 he must move to the Vatican "to look for the Archbishop's Palio" on the day of St. Peter and St. Paul.
"It has nothing to do with electoral times but with the times of the Church," the prelate clarified when asked about this appointment in a year in which Argentina will hold presidential elections.
García Cuerva admitted that "he knew that at some point he could return to Buenos Aires," where his "friends, parents, relatives and closest affections" live.
"I thought it could be in some diocese in the Buenos Aires suburbs, but I didn't think I was going to be in charge of the Cathedral that is in the Plaza de Mayo. It's a very important city, with a lot of its own issues, but I don't like to talk in terms of the importance of this position," he said.
The religious assured that he assumes this new function "as a service" that must be fulfilled "with a very important responsibility", because it has been the Archdiocese that Cardinal Mario Bergoglio led until 2013, when he was anointed as Pope of the Catholic Church.
Garcia Cuerva added that there are still "a lot of challenges" in the diocese that he will no longer lead, such as "some poverty suffered by many people who have come for work and live very far from their affections."
"These are wounds of the soul, wounds that sometimes are not noticeable but that hurt and that sometimes seem to me to be more serious than pocket poverty," he said.
The bishop said that this new priestly challenge finds him "at a time when he had begun to take root in Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, where he felt that the work had begun to bear fruit."
"I made a very strong choice to run the Church in this region as if it were a field hospital. I didn't leave anyone out. No person could be excluded. I wanted us to be a Church in the street, to live with passion and joy the encounter with diversity," he said.
Source: Télam
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