Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17454642400191745464237108.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"></span></span></span></div><p>Faithful leave lighted candles next to a portrait of the late Pope Francis at the entrance of the Buenos Aires Cathedral on April 21, 2025. Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025, aged 88, a day after making a much hoped-for appearance at Saint Peter&#x27;s Square on Easter Sunday, the Vatican said in a statement. Juan Mabromata, AFP </p><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>Down a narrow street in Villa 31, the oldest of Buenos Aires&#x27;s informal settlements, Father Ignacio &quot;Nacho&quot; Bagattini celebrates mass in a community center for homeless drug addicts.</p><p>The legacy of Pope Francis, who famously exhorted young Catholics to &quot;shake things up&quot; by taking the gospel to &quot;favelas, slums and shantytowns,&quot; lives on in the ramshackle neighborhood of 40,000 souls, a stone&#x27;s throw from the well-heeled district of Retiro.</p><p>Francis&#x27;s call, issued at the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro shortly after he became pope, struck a deep chord among a group of Argentine clerics dubbed the &quot;curas villeros&quot; or &quot;slum priests.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/21/francis-radical-leader-who-broke-the-papal-mould-1634">Francis: Radical leader who broke the papal mould</a></div><p>The group, which emerged in the late 1960s inspired by the Movement of Priests for the Third World -- a leftist organization that resisted Argentina&#x27;s 1976-1983 dictatorship -- has traditionally kept its distance from the Catholic hierarchy.</p><p>That changed under Jorge Bergoglio, born in the poor Buenos Aires neighborhood of Flores, when he was the city&#x27;s archbishop from 1998 to 2013 before becoming Pope Francis.</p><p>Bergoglio encouraged priests to get out and help the most needy.</p><p>&quot;We know of the affection that Francis has always had for us,&quot; said Bagattini, who credits the pontiff with inculcating in the clergy the importance of &quot;simple gestures like a hug, like sharing a meal.&quot;</p><p>The hall where Father Nacho celebrated mass is a far cry from the opulence of St Peter&#x27;s Basilica where tens of thousands queued to see Francis lying in state ahead of his funeral Saturday.</p><p>The center looks onto a supermarket warehouse, next to a highway.</p><p>A plastic garden table covered with a stained tablecloth serves as an altar, topped with a nearly burned-out candle and a small statue of the Virgin Mary.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2025/4/23/a-stadium-and-a-jersey-for-argentinas-captain-francis-1616">A stadium and a jersey for Argentina&#x27;s &#x27;Captain&#x27; Francis</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;WE ARE NOT ALONE&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>After prayers, around 40 congregants, many of them homeless, fall into conversation over plates of rice with meat, with sides of bread and apples.</p><p>The center also offers hot showers, counseling, sports activities and job training for people living on the margins of society in a country perennially in crisis.</p><p>&quot;If you offer people a life project... it helps to avoid them hanging around street corners where they will be inevitably confronted with drugs or weapons,&quot; Bagattini said.</p><p>As archbishop, Bergoglio often visited informal settlements, including the sprawling Villa 21-24 in the south of Buenos Aires, home to some 8,800 families.</p><p>Residents there fondly recalled him stopping by homes to share a mate -- the bitter herbal tea beloved by Argentines -- or to wash the feet of the homeless and young drug addicts.</p><p>Tamara Noga, a 29-year-old writer, said Bergoglio transformed her relationship with the Catholic Church.</p><p>&quot;My faith was in the neighborhood, in knowing the &#x27;slum priests,&#x27; in passing by the chapel, and needing to stay there because it is a place of silence, encounters, refuge.&quot;</p><p>While Francis never returned to Argentina after taking up the papacy -- a source of widespread regret in his homeland -- he has been immortalized on murals that adorn the walls of Buenos Aires&#x27;s many storied slum &quot;villas&quot; and parish halls.</p><p>&quot;The pope will continue shaking things up from up above,&quot; said Bagattini, who wore a stole inscribed with the message &quot;poor church for the poor&quot; -- a catchphrase of Bergoglio&#x27;s -- while celebrating mass.</p><p>For Sebastian Curbelo, a 31-year-old in treatment to wean himself off coca paste -- the main ingredient in cocaine, &quot;the message he (Francis) left is that it is possible to help people who have hit rock bottom, that we are not alone.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/24/huge-crowds-expected-for-second-day-of-pope-lying-in-state-1057">Huge crowds expected for second day of pope lying in state</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/4/24/cardinal-david-off-to-vatican-for-pope-francis-funeral-conclave-1006">Cardinal David off to Vatican for Pope Francis’ funeral, conclave</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/4/23/filipino-faithful-urged-to-refrain-from-campaigning-for-cardinal-tagle-as-next-pope-0013">Filipino faithful urged to refrain from &#x27;campaigning&#x27; for Cardinal Tagle as next Pope</a></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div>RELATED VIDEOS: <iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XX8o2bV89rE" title="Goosebumps for faithful seeing Pope Francis&#x27; body lying in state" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Jkf6ymHajo" title="Pope Francis&#x27; coffin arrives at St. Peter Basilica in procession | ABS-CBN News" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>

<p>Pope Francis famously exhorted young Catholics to "shake things up" by taking the gospel to "favelas, slums and shantytowns." </p>

Pope Francis famously exhorted young Catholics to "shake things up" by taking the gospel to "favelas, slums and shantytowns."

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Argentina 'slum priests' take pope's message to the poor

Argentina 'slum priests' take pope's message to the poor

Agence France-Presse

Published Apr 24, 2025 11:19 AM PHT

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