For the first time since assuming the papacy, Pope Francis travelled to his father’s home in northern Italy on Saturday to commemorate the 90th birthday of a second cousin who had known him as “Giorgio” for a long time.
The two-day trip to Francis’ ancestral home to strengthen family relations touched on important aspects of his pontificate, such as the value of respecting the elderly and the costs of migration.
Following his private visit on Saturday, Francis will lead a public Mass for the local faithful on Sunday. During this time, he may reflect on his family’s journey to Argentina.
At the end of a massive, decades-long emigration from Italy, the pope’s father, Mario Jose Francisco Bergoglio, and his paternal grandparents arrived in Buenos Aires on January 25, 1929, to reach other relatives. The pope has since recognized this migration with the creation of two new saints, St. Giovanni Batista Scalabrini and St. Artemide Zatti.
Nearly eight years after the older Bergoglio met and wed Regina Maria Sivori, whose family was likewise of Italian immigrant stock and originated from the Liguria area, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires.
Francis was raised speaking the Piedmont dialect of Rosa, his paternal grandmother, who took care of him most of the time.
The older Bergoglio was born in Portacomaro, a farming community that lost residents not only to emigration overseas but also to nearby Turin as it developed into an industrial hub. Portacomaro is located 10 kilometres east of Asti.
The town’s population is currently 2,000, but it was over 2,700 a century ago and as low as 1,680 in the 1980s.
According to Lauren Braun-Strumfels, an associate professor of history at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the pope’s family left Italy after the peak, when 14 million people left the country between 1876 and 1915. This migration made Italy the largest voluntary diaspora in the world.
Francis, now 85, has made welcoming and integrating migrants a hallmark of his pontificate and frequently faces criticism as Europe in general, and Italy in particular, are preoccupied with the debate over how to manage mass migration. Francis frequently uses his family history to support his points.
With the recent canonizations of St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, an Italian bishop who established an organization to aid Italian emigrants at the end of the 19th century, and Artemide Zatti, an Italian who immigrated to Argentina during the same period and dedicated his life to helping the sick, the pope has acknowledged the historical significance of the emigrant experience.
He used the opportunity to criticize Europe once more for its disregard for migrants who risk their lives to go across the Mediterranean Sea in search of better futures.
Francis had lunch with his cousin Carla Rabezzana on Saturday before arriving at Portacomaro.
Francis could be seen smiling and hugging Rabezzana in pictures made public by the Vatican. He was also seated at the head of the table.
In the days leading up to the visit, Rabezzana told the daily Corriere della Sera, “We have known one other forever.
“Giorgio, or so I usually called him, came to be with me when I was living in Turin since I had a spare room.
That’s how we kept our friendship going.
“We used to laugh a lot.
I confessed that it made my heart race when he stated he would visit to celebrate my 90th birthday.
I responded by being instructed, “Try not to die.”
We started laughing out loud.
More third and fourth cousins of the pope still reside in the region.
It was a big family, and there are still many distant relatives in the neighbourhood, according to Carlo Cerrato, a former mayor of Portacomaro.
When Francis was chosen as pope almost ten years ago, he said it was a “huge surprise” for everyone in the town.
Everyone in the village was aware that a bishop had been elevated to the rank of cardinal in Buenos Aires, but Cerrato claimed that only the families were aware of this.
Francis has yet to visit Argentina, the country where he was born, despite being the pope for almost ten years. He hasn’t explained why he hasn’t returned. He recently affirmed that if he were to step down as pontiff, he would live in Rome rather than return to Buenos Aires.
