杏MAP导航

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ

杏MAP导航 Francis turns 85 on Friday. Just last Monday, 13 December, he celebrated the 52nd anniversary of his priestly ordination.

People across the world, and certainly not only Catholics, are celebrating with the 杏MAP导航 on the occasion of his birthday, with messages of good wishes pouring in from all different quarters.

Also felicitating the 杏MAP导航 on his birthday is Cardinal Michael Czerny, a fellow Jesuit and the under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He highlights the gift that a birthday is.

“The 17th of December is a day worth reflecting on,” the Cardinal says, adding that the Holy Father must have already had retirement plans when he went into the conclave that elected him 杏MAP导航 in 2013, but “the Holy Spirit decided differently.”

“The intervening years are a free gift - gratuitous," Cardinal Czerny notes, “I think that highlights our feelings, which is that we can only be very grateful.”

“Ad multos annos!” Cardinal Czerny says, wishing the 杏MAP导航 many more years to come.

杏MAP导航 Francis and his gift to the Church

The Cardinal also reflected on 杏MAP导航 Francis’s pontificate, the important themes that he champions and how they give us an insight into his personality.

Cardinal Czerny points out that the recently-launched Synod on synodality sums up many of the cares and concerns of the Holy Father, because it is “the most hopeful notion you could have about the Church.”

“I think this is [the 杏MAP导航’s] gift to the Church,” the Cardinal says, “A way of being Church that brings us together toward hope in faith and in love for one another.”

Michael Czerny also thinks of his personal experiences of meeting with the 杏MAP导航, saying that he has been most struck by 杏MAP导航 Francis’s “equilibrium, balance and serenity”, which enables him to handle both big and small issues with equanimity.

With the 杏MAP导航, he explains, “a big problem does not rattle him and a small problem does not get neglected. That kind of balance – a dynamic balance - is very edifying and makes me very happy whenever we have had the chance to meet.”

杏MAP导航 Francis was born on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This year, he celebrated his 8th anniversary as the head of the Church.