Letters from the editor: Our Pope smells like sheep, a different kind of pontiff, Milei and Francis
Letter of the week
Our dad smells like sheep
After fighting the good fight to the end, we bid farewell to Francis. The Pope of the poor, of the forgotten, of the young. The Pope who conveyed to us a message that, though ancient, remains revolutionary: to always bring love and joy to our neighbors, because we are all brothers and sisters. The Pope who reminded us that the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a showcase of saints, inviting millions to join a family from which they believed they had been expelled. The pastor who achieved depth in simplicity, who generated admiration in humility, who demonstrated his strength in empathy. Those of us who had the privilege of being contemporaries of the most important Argentine in history have a responsibility: to preserve his legacy of fraternity, compassion, and care for our common home in our daily lives, so that the Pope of the end of the world may live forever in our hearts.
Tomás Estanislao Dardanelli
DNI 42.214.694,
A different pontiff
The death of Pope Francis shocked the world. His strong personality generated controversy, but he also left a profound mark as a spiritual leader and head of the Vatican City State. Without abandoning his political convictions, he transformed the Church to bring it closer to the present, promoting dialogue and peace with global leaders. He stood out for his commitment to the poor and his ecumenical message. He never returned to Argentina, perhaps to avoid confrontation. He always remained faithful to his ideas. Humble and unassuming, he rejected ostentation and lived consistently. He was respected, even by those who did not share his views. He carried out his intense pastoral work until the very end. His legacy of solidarity and peace deserves to be valued by all Argentines, regardless of their differences. Let us pray for his soul and for the forgiveness of his mistakes, with the hope that his example will inspire unity and improvement.
Ricardo Titto
DNI 572.194
Milei and Francisco
Mr. Milei, before Francisco died, according to you, he was a shitty communist. Now he's the most important leader in the world. If that's not called hypocrisy, tell me what is.
Daniel Badillo
DNI 7,713,813
Death
In numerous interviews, homilies, and speeches, Pope Francis has addressed death, emphasizing that it is a natural reality and that we should not fear it if we have lived with love and faith. “Death is a stage of life that, although it pains us, for the believer is a step toward encountering God,” he affirmed. He also maintained that for Christians, death is not the end, but rather the beginning of a new life in Christ. The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope that death does not have the last word. “Thinking about death helps us live better, to not get lost in trivial things and to focus on what is essential: love of God and neighbor,” the Pope noted.
And in an interview, Francis said: “I don't want to die suddenly. I want to see it coming, to prepare myself, to ask for forgiveness, to fix the things I need to fix. And to pray. Because I know time will be short.”
He mentioned that death isn't a failure. "I know it's coming." "Whenever I thought there might be a risk, I prepared myself." He said he wasn't afraid of death. "I asked the Lord not to catch me unconscious, but that's not it."
Finally, he shares hope and faith in a transcendental and luminous existence after this world, where the encounter with God represents the purpose of this journey.
The above is based on interviews such as those in La Civiltà Cattolica , homilies in Santa Marta, interviews and public speeches.
Hector Luis Manchini
DNI 7,779,947
Bought leaders
What does acknowledgment of the existence of leaders with prices that have already been "bought" entail? Does it tacitly acknowledge themselves as "bribe takers" (if they fail to present the invoice), or does it acknowledge themselves as "members of the corrupt caste" so vilified in recent years?
Ricardo Blaksley
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Recently published in LA NACION, stories like that of Rosa Rotenberg, sheltered from death in a Warsaw orphanage in the 1940s, offer some solace to the soul in the face of the Nazi atrocities that occurred in the concentration camps. In my case, I was able to fulfill my desire to pay my personal tribute to the victims by sharing a moment of silence and prayer at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2023. And there, I realized the obvious: it wasn't the gas chambers, the shootings, the hunger, the cold, or other forms of murder that were the most terrible thing that happened there, but rather the cruelty in pulverizing the dignity of those people. Very heavy words: to ignore the dignity of people and the resulting basic rights. The sadness lingers to this day, when the fight for portions of territory takes precedence over the basic rights of all of us, which begin with respect for the beliefs and opinions of my neighbor. This applies to all spheres, including local politics.
Alfredo de las Carreras
Digital file
LA NACION, April 24, reports the Public Prosecutor's Office's complaints to the Executive Branch regarding the lack of resources to implement the federal accusatory system. There is something more serious: the complete replacement of paper files with digital ones. In complex cases involving detainees, this is a scandal. A 100% virtual file remains just that: a virtuality. A detained human being, their suffering, the prison and the overcrowded conditions are not virtual: they are real. The transition from oral to written forms in humanity was a step forward. Excessive (absolute) virtuality in a file that decides on a person's freedom is a regression.
Javier Ignacio Baños
Former prosecutor, professor of criminal law
DNI 23.771.916
Lack of credibility
This week, a new political prisoner of the so-called "crimes against humanity" died. The number of elderly members of the Armed Forces, security forces, police, prisons, and civilians who have been dying since 1983 in detention and as victims of an unconstitutional process of persecution, revenge, and extermination, in which countless legal irregularities were systematically repeated, orchestrated by the Kirchner administration for political gain. As long as these injustices continue—with the total indifference of the national government—the judiciary will not regain the respect and credibility of the institutions the country needs to attract investments that will grow the economy, generating quality jobs and reducing the unacceptable level of poverty to which we have been driven by the same people who promoted this legal aberration.
Ricardo E. Frías
Abstracts
Before the arrival of the internet, the world existed. In the 1960s, when I passed through the classrooms of the Faculty of Exact Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, only paper existed to transmit knowledge and the slide rule to construct the great works we enjoy today. Back then, libraries were filled with thick volumes of Chemical Abstracts, with an army of abstractors summarizing everything published in the field, and they did so with great expertise. In just a few lines, they summarized the published works of the different specialties and where to access them. I suppose the same was true for physics and other branches of knowledge.
Today, those who didn't live through those years have discovered the "magic" of Blinkist as if it were the solution of the century. Someone once said, I don't quite remember who: the further back we go in history, the better we'll understand the future. I'm not going back to Aristotle or Plato; I only went back 60 years.
Norberto Hernán Linzuain
A letter
Last Wednesday, I sent a letter by airmail to Maryland, USA, via Correo Argentino. The employee thought the shipment was special treatment and quoted me over 25,000 pesos, the equivalent of a full dinner at a restaurant. Horrified by the amount, I told him it was by airmail. He valued it at 9,700 pesos. At the official dollar exchange rate of that day, it was $8.66. I used to send letters to the United States before we had email, but I don't remember ever having to pay the equivalent of $8.66 back then for two A4 sheets of paper and a regular long white envelope. Today, sending a letter by airmail from Maryland to Buenos Aires costs $1.65.
Alicia I. Halberstein
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