May 13 is a very special date for Pope Francis. Not only does this year mark the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions, but it will also be the 25th anniversary of the day Pope Francis was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires. This was the end of a long exile in Cordoba, Argentina.
Journalists Javier Cámara and Sebastián Pfaffen explain this trial period of the pope's life in the book 'That Francis.â?
JAVIER CAMERA
Author, 'That Francis'
'If the Pope says that he went through a time of purification in Córdoba, it means that it was a special time for him and the Church today.â?
SEBASTIíN PFAFFEN
Author, 'That Francisâ?
'He was provincial of the Order in Argentina at a young age. It was at a very politically and economically charged time. It was also the time of post Vatican II in the Church and with a great ideological revolution. He then had to make decisions that generated both love and hate.â?
Perhaps this fact strengthened the Holy Father's devotion to the Virgin of Fatima. He spoke of Her in his first Angelus as pope, and now will personally visit her, just as his predecessors did.
Paul VI traveled to pray for peace due to the Cold War in 1967, John Paul II beatified two of their visionaries in 2000, and Benedict XVI visited the shrine in 2010.
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