To commemorate the first four years of the Francis papacy, on March 16 Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, sat down for a conversation with Matt Malone, S.J., editor in chief of America. Archbishop Pierre shared Pope Francis’ handwritten notes, written before the deliberations at the conclave. “Thinking of the next pope,” Cardinal Bergoglio wrote, “he must be a man who from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ helps the church to come out to the existential peripheries, that helps her to be the fruitful mother who lives from the sweet and comforting joy of evangelizing.”
The nuncio praised the way Pope Francis has undertaken this responsibility, and noted Francis’ continual emphasis on dialogue, mercy and evangelization. America joins the nuncio in paying tribute to Francis on this anniversary.
