ROME: 15
March 2013 -- Will it rank as the
very first gesture
that the new Pope Francis has given the Salesian Family?
Perhaps not consciously, but the first
appearance on the balcony and the words that
followed, had all the hallmarks of the Good Night as we
believe it
should be in Salesian tradition.
It went a little beyond three minutes, of course, but then,
what Good
Night doesn't? And in fact it began with a surprising 'Buona
sera!' on
a still wintry Roman night (minus the rain at that point,
mercifully)
but with a smile and a lift in the voice that left the
'audience' in
hopeful expectation. Other than the fact that the 'expected'
trappings
were missing (he wore white, of course, but did you note the
cross? The
Good Shepherd, on what looked like bronze; certainly not
gold), not
even a warm ermine-lined covering that might have been
understandable
on a chilly eve.
No, it was the words and the simple gestures that were the
hallmarks of
the Good Night as we know it. Did you hear that ''farmi un
favore', do
me a favour, that Don Bosco so often asked his boys of an
evening? And
they all knew what ws to come, a request for prayer. And so it
was, but
this time a 'Bishop' (the word 'pope' never got mentioned
once) asking
the people to pray for him before extending his own blessing
upon them
- and that deep bow before God, certainly, but it wasn't lost
on those
in front that he was also bowing before them.
He used the language of the people - Italian, there and then,
but the
symbols spoke to everyone, including the simple prayer. His
catechesis
has begun with a simple Our Father, Hail Mary and a Glory be
which,
BTW, threw a number of TV commentators into panic as they
tried - but
failed - to translate them literally. But his Italian was
clear enough,
despite the Spanish accent.
The contents were 'programmatic', as the Rector Major has
already
indicated, but they didn't lose the style of the Good Night,
either:
evangelisation, fellowship (fratellanza), love, but it wasn't
all just
a flow of words. There was silence too, silence which was not
looking
for words or even the right word. Silence that spoke.
And then the almost casual (after taking back the microphone,
to the
consternation of the one who thought it was all finished with)
"Thanks
a lot for the welcome. Pray for me - we'll see each other
soon.
Tomorrow I'm going to pray to the Madonna to look after Rome".
It was
like he will be asking her "to look after our home", and as if
to
reinforce that, like a paterfamilias: "I must say goodbye now.
Good
night, and sleep well".
It went down well, including with the also respected and loved
President of the Republic, who has already said his own
goodbyes to the
nation before going into retirement: "I was thrilled and
struck by the
simplicity of his words spoken in our language and that of
his
Piedmontese family of origin".
Not a conscious 'Don Bosco' Good Night? No, but as a fellow
'astigiano', close enough!
