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Pope Francis refused to listen to the advice to slow it in the last few years, preferring “to die with boots on,” a close assistant reports.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Archbishop Paul Gallaher, the Vatican Foreign Minister since 2014, said the Pope had been forced to continue because he knew he had the opportunity to help powerless.
While he describes a polite, gentle and merciful man, Archbishop Gallaher also said that Pope Francis knew his mind and often did not succumb to the surrounding parade.
“One thing I always admired in it – although at first I did not agree – was that he did not escape from complex things,” said Archbishop Gallaher.
“He will face problems, and it showed excellent courage,” he added.
Pope Francis, the first in the history of the Latin American Pope, died on Monday at the age of 88 after a period of poor health, which led to a five -week hospital with double pneumonia.
Sitting in his receptionist in the Vatican, Archbishop Gallaher said he was even stunned by the size of the void, which he feels left by the Pope’s death.
“He was very voice of silent and was very realized that the vast majority of people were powerless and did not have their destiny in his hands. I think he felt that he could do something to do everything a little better for them,” he added.
The Vatican official, who accompanied the Pope on his foreign trips, said he had been attracted, in particular, to the difficult position of migrants, and women and children who arose in the conflict, saying that they were suffering “for real”.
Archbishop Gallaher suggested that Pope Francis’ feeling that he could help ease the suffering is something that made him continue to work at a full pace, even when he said he thought it was “66 or 67” since the Pope had accepted the holiday.
Pope Francis’ first trip outside Rome was to meet migrants on the Italian Island Lampedus. But then he traveled a lot abroad, visiting more than 60 countries, and not always his assistants wanted him to go.
Archbishop Gallaher remembered the time when the Pope wanted to visit the Central -African Republic and a meeting at which many advisers told him it was too dangerous.
“He just said, ‘Well, I go, and if no one wants to come, well, I will go on his own,” which, of course, put us shame, “said Archbishop Gallaher.
Pope Francis Visited the Central -African Republic in 2015 As he wanted.
“He was always ready to surprise us with whom he was ready to meet and talk. Sometimes this institution (the Vatican) would say that he needed to be a little more intelligent and he did not listen.”
The Vatican Foreign Minister described the Pope’s capacity to the box office through complex objects with clarity, reminding officials, for example, to remember migrants as people, not just “figures” in their discussions about them.
On foreign trips, for many years, Pope Francis can sometimes see how he nods during official events with politicians and heads of state, or has suggested that he did not like this moment.
Archbishop Gallaher acknowledged that observers have long suspected that the Pope would rather be surrounded by ordinary people, and especially young people, not to meet “big and good”.
He feels that Pope Francis’ legacy has many dimensions, but certainly includes the destruction of the barriers between the public and the institute of the Church, and especially its leader, whom he called “very accessible, very normal.”
“I used to like to tell the anecdotes, and he also liked the like.
The Vatican said that more than 250,000 people escaped Pope Francis since Wednesday and Friday during his lying in St. Peter’s Basilica, ahead of his funeral on Saturday.
- You can watch and watch the funeral live here, on the BBC News web and the app. Live lighting on the BBC One with 0830-1230 BST, presented by Reeta Chakrabarti, can be observed at the UK iPlayer. Will also be live lighting on BBC news channel Presented by Mariam Moshir. Finally, you can also follow the burial lighting on BBC World Service
