That was the joke he made as soon as he stepped out into the loggia delle benedizioni. A Jesuit from "the end of the world" has been elected as Roman Pontiff. He will be the bishop of all Romans and the pope of all Catholics. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has chosen for himself the name Francis I. And why not Ignatius or Xavier, as a good Jesuit? But our Francis Xavier can also be a good reference letter for this pontificate. In spite of the fact that the Archbishop of Buenos Aires did not appear in almost any of the pools of the Vaticanists, everyone was clamoring for a missionary pope. In this sense, they have been right and we feel him very close to our land. Providence has also wanted the new pope to be chosen between the two Javieradas. That is why we feel that this Italian-Argentine pope is also somewhat Navarrese in his origins.

But he wanted to be called Francis, like Francis of Assisi. The poverello, the poverello, the pobrecico as we would say here, was capable of reforming the Church, of rebuilding it. At the Porziuncola he built a church with his own hands, and with his message of poverty he renewed the whole Church. Perhaps in a world in crisis (not only economic) this message may be the most necessary. Francis also sought harmony with nature. He called the sun, Brother Sun; the moon, Sister Moon; the wolf, Brother Wolf. As coming from the hands of God he saw them as brothers and sisters. At the present time we have lost that brotherhood with nature and the environment. A Pope Francis can remind us of this need to make peace with nature, also in bioethical issues. One of Pope Ratzinger's main themes can become one of Pope Bergoglio's priorities.

Also peace. Francis sought to establish peace with Muslims and died in the Holy Land. At a time when Islamic fundamentalism (which, according to Ratzinger owes more to ideology than to Islam) a pope search engine of peace can be seen as a prophetic sign. But peace is also needed in the Church. Groups and sensitivities are sometimes above the call of Jesus "that we may all be one". We have not yet lived the spirituality of communion that Vatican II proposed and that John Paul II pointed out as one of the signs of identity for the third millennium. This is exaggerated by the media, which only see the Church as an NGO or a political organization. They do not understand that Jesus founded it for a spiritual purpose. They do not see that he himself said that it was necessary to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's".

The name Francis can evoke this desire for unity, for true communion within the Church. If we all walk together, in the same "company", we can better fulfill the will of Christ. "The Church is Jesus Christ's, not ours," Benedict XVI often repeated. Perhaps we often forget this. By not taking into account the spirit of Xavier and Francis, the spirit of Jesus, we turn his Bride into a guerrilla war, a confrontation between different sides. The bridge now built between Europe and America - the past and the present - can be the symbol of many other bridges that must be built within the Church. Any pilgrim understands very well the need for a bridge, especially now that the waters are rising. Francis I can be a good pontiff, a good bridge builder.