1- Empathy. The success of Pope Francis connects with the disparities of the present moment. The first American pontiff, he came from afar and sought to distance himself from the Roman Curia, those who believe themselves to be the owners of the business and resort to the most worn-out models of power to continue competing for hegemony in representing God among Christians. Despite his background coming from the most conservative sectors of the Argentine Church, Bergoglio grasped the need to reach out to the people, to look to the parishioners and not just to the Curia, the guardian of increasingly worn-out ways and means, distant from the street. His contribution expresses his character: he has been a figure who inspired more complicity, more accompaniment than intransigence, and who sought to encounter people through their concerns rather than through the transcendence of the higher values of the believer. This is the key to his success—which means that today he is being dismissed with a focus on his forms of proximity, much more than on indoctrination and promises.

When he went out to the Plaza de Sant Pere to meet the faithful, Pope Francis He used to smile when someone gave him a San Lorenzo de Almagro jersey, whose club he was a member of with the number 88,235. More than once, he would grab one and fly it through the skies of Rome. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has undoubtedly been the most football-loving Pope of Rome, as a good Argentine. When Argentina won the 2022 World Cup, more than one compatriot joked that he had something to do with the success. In one of the first events after being elected head of the Church, he famously said the phrase "May San Lorenzo win" when asked if he was a Boca Juniors or River Plate fan, the most popular Argentine clubs. No, he was raven, as fans of a club founded by a priest, Lorenzo Massa, are known. Everything fits.