Cercas: First and foremost, Pope Francis was a priest

By Andrea Tornielli

In his book on Pope Francis’ journey to Mongolia, The Madman of God at the End of the World, Javier Cercas describes Pope Francis as a humble shepherd. “After an initial moment, whilst speaking to him, in which you thought, ‘Yes, this is the Pope,’ you would quickly realise that, above all, this man was a priest”, he writes.

Speaking to Vatican News over the phone shortly after Pope Francis’death, Cercas shared his reaction to the sad news.

“I was genuinely shocked. Like many others, I thought he was out of danger, especially considering he had just appeared in St Peter’s Square the day before. It felt as if someone very close to me had died. That’s how it hit me. I’m deeply saddened”.

What struck Cercas most about Francis was the sense of fatherhood he radiated. “He was a Pope who admitted his mistakes, didn’t hide his flaws, and presented himself as simply human. That allowed people to see him as a father figure. Of course, there are Catholics who expect the Pope to be something almost ‘semi-divine’. But I think the Pope is, first and foremost, a man. Peter was a man - the first Pope was deeply flawed and even denied Christ three times. The Church is a place for the weak, for sinners”.

Cercas emphasised how significant this humility was. “It’s as if he were saying, ‘I’m not Superman - I’m just a person’. I remember that the first thing he said in the Sistine Chapel after accepting the role was ‘I accept, even though I am a sinner.’ That awareness of his own humanity and vulnerability, to me, is extraordinary. What Hannah Arendt said of John XXIII could also be said of Francis, that he was a Christian sitting on the throne of St Peter. That closeness to people was central to who he was. He did extraordinary things, things no one expects from a Pope, and I saw them happen. If I were a believer, like the Pope or like my mother was, I’d say the ending of my book was a small miracle”.

Cercas recalled a conversation with the Pope on the flight to Mongolia. “There’s a moment in the book when my mother, who was deeply religious, asked me what I thought of the Pope. She was already quite elderly and was not in good health. The first thing I said was, he’s like Don Florian’ - her parish priest - the one who married her and my father. That was my instinctive reaction. After the initial formality of meeting the Pope, what came through most clearly was that he was, first and foremost, a priest. And then, of course, many other things. He was a very intelligent, cultured and experienced man”.

What Cercas found most remarkable was “his humility, that of a simple man, even though he himself was quite complex. I think it’s incredible that he was the first Pope to take the name Francis. Pope Bergoglio chose that name, and humility is the first virtue of St Francis of Assisi. Knowing how small we are, recognising our human dignity while realising how little we truly are, that was his message”.

Finally, Cercas spoke about what he sees as Pope Francis’ lasting legacy. “Francis brought a sort of ‘revolution’ to the Church, though everything depends on what you mean by that word. It’s nonsense to say there was some doctrinal revolution, that’s simply not true, even if some claim it. But if it was a revolution, and maybe it was, it was the one called for by the Second Vatican Council. Francis is the first real son of the Council to become Pope. He took the call to return to the Church of Christ, to the early Church, seriously. In his first interview with the Italian Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, when asked what he wanted to do in the Church, he answered clearly: ‘I want to take Christ out of the sacristies and into the streets’. That is a return to the Christianity of Christ”.

While in Mongolia, Cercas also met what he described as radical revolutionaries of the Gospel. “This return to Christ - for Francis, and for me too - finds its most authentic form in the missionaries. I think that for Francis the ideal Christians are missionaries, like the ones we met in Mongolia. People who give up everything, just like Christ’s apostles, and go to the ends of the earth to help those in need. That’s the radical edge of Christ’s message. Jesus wasn’t a man of power or wealth, he walked with the poor. For me, that’s key. His critique of clericalism, his rejection of Constantinianism, and his call to return to the roots of Christianity, Francis took that mission seriously. And his reform is not finished yet”.