Cuban magazine reproduces notes for talk Pope delivered before 2013 conclave

March 17, 2017

The handwritten notes that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio used as the basis for an address to the College of Cardinals, on the eve of the conclave that elected him as Pope Francis, have been published by a Cuban Catholic magazine.

Before the March 2013 conclave, as the cardinals discussed the needs of the Church, then-Cardinal Bergoglio gave a short speech that captured the attention of the group and, in the opinion of many cardinals, led directly to his election to Peter’s Throne. In that address the future Pontiff spoke about the need to focus on evangelization and to avoid being absorbed in “self-referentiality, a kind of theological narcissism.”

Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana, struck by the power of that talk, later asked the new Pontiff for his notes. The Spanish-language notes-—written in a tight scrawl but mostly legible—were published in Palabra Nueva, the magazine of the Havana archdiocese, to mark the 4th anniversary of the Pope’s election.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Pope's handwritten notes of 2013 speech to cardinals now published (Daily Telegraph)
• Cuban cardinal: before conclave, Pope Francis challenged Church not to be narcissistic (CWN, 3/27/13)