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Chapter One

The Flight from Rome to Rio de Janeiro

Pope Francis’s Meeting with Journalists

Monday, July 22, 2013

The first press conference by Pope Francis after his election in March 2013 was held, fittingly, on the first major apostolic journey of the then young pontificate. The pope was introduced to the press corps that would be accompanying him on most of his trips. Notably, Francis left the journalists with little expectation of lengthy subsequent interviews on papal flights as he felt they required “quite an effort to do so.” Given the flurry of interviews and press conferences that followed, Pope Francis clearly found both his voice and energy.

This first press conference also included several themes that the pope has subsequently developed, including building what he calls a “culture of encounter,” the dangers of a “throwaway culture,” and the problems facing young people in the modern world ranging from unemployment to hopelessness to exploitation.

Father Federico Lombardi

Pope Francis, we welcome you to this in-flight community of journalists and communications workers. We’re very excited to be accompanying you on your first intercontinental and international journey, after having followed you with deep emotion on your trip to Lampedusa! Among other things, this is your first trip to your very own continent—to the end of the world. This trip is to visit young people. For this reason, there is great interest in it. As you can see, we have filled up all the available places for journalists on this flight. There are over seventy of us, and the group is very varied in its composition. There are representatives from television—both producers and cameramen—and there are also representatives of the print media, press agencies, radio, and the Internet. Therefore, for all practical purposes, all the media have expert representation here, along with their various cultures and different languages.

On this flight, we have a large group of Italians. Then, of course, there are also Brazilians, some of whom have traveled from Brazil in order to accompany you on this flight. In fact, there are ten Brazilians who have come for this very purpose. There are ten representatives from the United States of America, nine from France, six from Spain. There are the British, the Mexicans, and the Germans. Japan is also represented, along with Argentina, naturally, as well as Poland, Portugal, and Russia. So it is a very varied community. Many of those present here have followed the trips of other popes abroad, so it is not their first experience. Indeed, some have traveled extensively on these trips and are more familiar with them than you are! Others, though, are here for the first time. Some, like the Brazilians, have come specifically to follow you on this trip.

Thus we thought we would welcome you to this group through the words of one of our members—one of our female members—who has been chosen without the least risk of competition since she is certainly the person who has been on the greatest number of papal trips abroad. Indeed, she vies with Dr. [Alberto] Gasbarri [who organizes papal trips for the Vatican] for the number of journeys she has made. Moreover, she comes from your very own continent, and can, therefore, speak to you in Spanish—your very own language. First and foremost, she is a woman, so it is fitting and proper that we let her speak first of all. Therefore, I will give the floor to Valentina Alazraki, who has been a correspondent with Televisa for many years, even though she always appears so youthful, as you can see.

More than anything, though, we are pleased to have her here with us because a few weeks ago she broke her foot, and we were afraid, at the time, she would be unable to come. Thankfully, she has recovered in time. The cast was removed from her foot two or three days ago, and she is now with us on this flight. Thus she will be the one who will express to you the sentiments of this in-flight community.

Valentina Alazraki

Good morning, Pope Francis! The only qualification I have for the privilege of welcoming you is the large number of flying hours I have accumulated! I took part in Pope John Paul II’s first trip to Mexico, my native country. At that time, I was a “newbie.” Now—thirty-four-and-a-half years later—I am the “dean”! That is why I have the privilege of welcoming you.

We know from your friends and collaborators in Argentina that journalists are not exactly “saints for whom you have a great devotion.” Perhaps you thought that Father Lombardi had thrown you into the lions’ den. But the truth is that we are not very fierce, and we are very glad to be able to accompany you on this journey. We would be pleased if you saw us in this way, as your traveling companions in this journey, and in many other journeys to come. Obviously, we are journalists, and if today, tomorrow, or over the next few days you wish to answer questions, we won’t say no, because we’re journalists!

We noticed that, by going to Santa Maria Maggiore, you have entrusted this trip to Mary. Soon you will be going to Aparecida [site of the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, principal patron saint of Brazil]. Thus I thought I would give you this small gift of a little statue of the Virgin Mary so that she may accompany you on this pilgrimage and on many more to come. It happens to be the Virgin of Guadalupe, not because she is Queen of Mexico, but rather because she is the Patron of the Americas. Therefore, let no other Virgin take offense, neither the Virgin of Argentina, nor that of Aparecida, nor that of any other locale. I present her to you with great affection on the part of all of us here, in the hope that she will protect you during this journey and many more in the future.

Father Lombardi

Now, of course, we invite the Holy Father to speak, so that he may offer at least a few words of introduction to this journey.

Pope Francis

Good morning. Good morning to all of you. I heard you say something a little strange—that you “are not saints for whom I have a great devotion,” and that I am here “among the lions,” but ones that are not particularly fierce. Is that right? Thank you!

It is true that I do not give interviews. But why, I do not know. I can’t. It’s just like that. For me it requires quite an effort to do so, but I thank all of you here for your company.

This first journey is about meeting young people, but not meeting them isolated from their lives. I would rather meet them within their social context, within society. Because when we isolate the young, we do them an injustice. We take away their “belonging.” The young do have a belonging: they belong to a family, to a country, to a culture, to a faith. They belong in all sorts of ways, and we must not isolate them. But in particular, we must not isolate them from the whole of society! They truly are the future of humanity. But not only them. They are the future because they are strong. They are young. They will go forward. But at the other end of life, the elderly, they, too, are the future of a people. A people has a future if it goes forward with both elements: with the young, who have the strength to move things forward because they do the carrying; and with the elderly, because they are the ones who give us the wisdom of life.

I have often thought that we do the elderly an injustice. We set them aside as if they had nothing to offer us. They have wisdom—life’s wisdom, history’s wisdom, the nation’s wisdom, the family’s wisdom. And we need all this! That is why I say that I am going to meet the young, but within their social context, primarily with the elderly. It is true that the global crisis is harming the young. I read last week about the percentage of young people without work. Just think of the risk we run in having a generation that has never worked. Yet it is through work that a person acquires dignity by earning his daily bread.

The young, at this moment, are in crisis. We have become somewhat accustomed to a throwaway culture: too often the elderly are discarded. But now we have all these young people with no work. They, too, are suffering the effects of a throwaway culture. We must rid ourselves of this habit of throwing away. We must say no to it and say yes to a culture of inclusion and a culture of encounter, making an effort to bring everyone into society. This is the meaning I want to give to this visit to these young people, to the young people within society.

Thank you very much, my dear friends, my “saints for whom I have no devotion” and who “are lions who are not so fierce.” Thank you. Thank you very much. And I should like to greet each one of you. Thank you.

Father Lombardi

Thank you very much, Your Holiness, for this most engaging introduction. Now, each person will step up to greet you. Please come this way, so that all of you can have a chance to meet the Holy Father and introduce yourselves. Could each of you please say which agency, which television company, which newspaper you represent? In that way the pope can greet you and know who you are.

Pope Francis

We have ten hours!

The journalists file up one by one to meet the Holy Father.

Father Lombardi

Has everyone finished now? Yes? Excellent!

We truly and sincerely thank Pope Francis because for all of us, I believe, this has been an unforgettable moment and a very good introduction to this journey. Holy Father, I think you have won the hearts of these “lions” and that they will be your collaborators on this journey since they understand your message and will find ways to spread it most effectively. Thank you, Your Holiness.

Pope Francis

I thank you, too. And I ask you to help me and to assist me in this journey, for the good, for the well-being, for the good of society, the well-being of young people, and the well-being of the elderly. Both of them together, don’t forget! And I’m like the prophet Daniel, just a little sad, because I have seen that the lions were not all that fierce! Thank you very much indeed. I embrace all of you! Thank you!