For a minute, Francisco was Bergoglio again: “No, Brazil has no salvation …”

“No … You (Brazil) have no salvation … Lots of cachaça and little prayer”said the pope laughing Francisco to the priest João Paulo Souto Victor, from Campina Grande, and the joke went viral, by showing the pontiff much closer to these ironies of football that Cardinal Bergoglio made in Buenos Aires, than to the solemn formalities Vatican.

It was at the end of the general audience on Wednesday, when the priest Souto Victor, of the state of Paraiba, was part of the small group waiting for Francisco. When he was finally before the Pope, he asked him to “Pray for the Brazilian people” and Francisco’s response could continue with the usual phrases, but as he approached Souto Victor he kept a joke on him. In Portuguese, Francisco replied “No, you have no salvation”, shaking his head, and immediately he limited part in Portuguese and part in Italian “muita cachaça and no prayer”:

Surprised at first, the short video immediately shows how the Brazilian priest celebrates the joke, with the Pope laughing, immediately appealing to the affectionate greeting by touching his head. When Francisco’s joke went viral it even served up memes, but it stuck as an anecdote and in Brazil it even added criticism, to the point that even the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, consulted on the subject, was seen forced to respond that Francisco’s words must be taken in the context of a joke, in a moment of relaxation.

“The Pope loves the Brazilian people,” Paes repeated, recalling his historic visit in 2013, without one of the most massive and transcendent postcards left by Francis’ 8 years of papacy in his relationship with South America .

It should be noted, with regard to “salvation” and issues related to Brazil, that Francisco had also raised the issue a few years ago, on the occasion of a message to former President Lula da Silva: ” Good will overcome evil, the truth will overcome lies and salvation will overcome condemnation, ”the Pope wrote at the time, a message that Lula posted on his networks.

“Good will overcome evil, truth will overcome lies, and salvation will overcome condemnation” – see full text of the exchange of letters between Lula and the Pope.

– Lula (@LulaOficial) May 29, 2019

HB