Francis gets his 'oxygen' from the slums
by John L. Allen Jr. | Apr. 7, 2013
Buenos Aires, Argentina In Argentina, they say that if you want to understand the priestly soul of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then you have to know the villas miserias, literally villas of misery, meaning the slums in Buenos Aires where the poorest of the poor are found.
According to Fr. Juan Isasmendi, who lives and works in one of the villas, this is where the future Pope Francis filled his lungs with the oxygen he needed to think about what the church ought to be.
There are roughly twenty of these slums in Buenos Aires, often just a block or so away from gleaming high-rise office towers and luxury apartment buildings. Bergoglios pastoral revolution was to hand-pick a cadre of especially strong, dedicated priests not just to visit the villas but to live and work here, sharing the lives of the people down to the last detail.
The aim was to make the faith come alive, preaching and celebrating the sacraments while also turning the parish into a comprehensive social service center fighting drugs and violence, educating the young and taking care of the old, providing job training and even community radio to give the people a voice.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/francis-gets-his-oxygen-slums
http://en.mercopress.com/2011/10/07/half-a-million-families-live-in-buenos-aires-slums-and-keep-expanding-vertically-and-horizontally