Pope
Francis has sent a letter to Archbishop José Maria Arancedo of Santa
Fe, Argentina, the President of the Argentinian Bishops’ Conference, on
the occasion of the Beatification of “Cura Brochero” (José Gabriel
Brochero), which took place on Saturday in Cordoba.In his letter, the Holy Father praised “this pastor with ‘the odour of the sheep,’ who made himself a poor man among the poor, who always struggled to be very close to God and to the people, who did and continues to do such great good, like the caress of God for our people who suffer.”
Pope Francis said that in a beatification, “pastoral realities” are important. Cura Brochero, he said, did not remain in the parish office, but went out on a mule, seeking the people like a priest on the street of the faith. This, the Pope said, “is what Jesus wants today: missionary disciples!”
Today, the Pope concluded, “let us allow Cura Brochero to enter, mule and all, into the house of our hearts, and to invite us to prayer, to the encounter with Jesus, who frees us from bondage to go out into the streets to seek our brother, to touch the flesh of Christ in those who suffer and who need the love of God. This is the only way we will taste the joy Cura Brochero experienced, the foretaste of the happiness he now enjoys as a Blessed in heaven.”