Love without measure

Perhaps due to issues of Faith, which I assume to have with ever-changing strength, I never doubted that we would have the right Pope at the right time.

I really enjoyed the emotions that these two immense Pilgrims and Pastors, John Paul II and the beloved Pope Francis, created for us.

They had the affection and empathy that the moment required. They reconciled the Catholic world and never stopped using their talents to work for an Ecumenical and Universal Church.

But I liked Benedict XVI just the same, perhaps for his greater rationalism or a more restrained way of communicating, but with a pastoral and doctrinal density that I always appreciated a lot.

Yesterday, the Holy Spirit laboriously worked with the Papal Curia in this Conclave that announced the beginning of the magisterium of Leo XIV.

A Pope who, through his two nationalities, represents the great American continent where a large part of the world's Catholics are concentrated. A Pope with a missionary experience very focused on Latin America, the great lung of the Catholic Church in the world.

The first words of Pope Leo XIV were for Peace. Not this or that. But Peace. True and complete Peace among Men, Peoples, Nations and the inner Peace of each one of us, Faithful in Christ to this meekness and charity.

Roberto Francisco, today Leo XIV, is the first Augustinian Pope, as Francis was the first Jesuit Pope.

I am a great admirer of Saint Augustine and the Order that was founded in his name long after his death, in the 13th century. His tireless search for truth and the way he never hesitated, in his beautiful “Confessions”, to confront Reason with Faith are very inspiring for those like me who have that fragility that I will call “St. Thomas syndrome”.

Saint Augustine had a phrase that, although it benefits from rhythm and “pun”, has a strength and power that only he knew how to give to Thought and that I think is appropriate for the current moment – ​​“the measure of Love is Love without measure”.

I am certain that it will be with a sense of the crucial importance that Charity has in today's world that Leo XIV will begin a teaching career of immense social and political complexity.

But it will surely be up to the task of these circumstances that require knowledge, charity and hope.

The reflections on a path that will be pursued through the bridges that he will continue to build in the inclusive proposal of his predecessors and the sensitivity that he has always shown for the social issues, so vehement that so many Peoples of the World face, are a guarantee that this successor of Peter will pave the way for a Church that is freer, more inclusive, more open to all.

And in the Jubilee Year, which coincidentally is the year in which his Mandate begins, Leo XIV will be the standard-bearer of the Hope that we all want to spread among all the Peoples of the Earth.

One last word for the last part of his speech, dedicated to his immense and confessed Marian vocation. And which does not fail to eloquently clarify “the measure of Love” that illuminates Him.