Buenos Aires, Cradle of Pope Francis

Flores, the beginning

After registering online (on the Gobierno de Buenos Aires site) we headed to the meeting point at the Basílica San José de Flores.The tour starts in the neighborhood where Jorge Mario Bergoglio embarked on his religious career at the age of 17, having decided to devote his life to God.

The tour continued to 531 Membrillar St. where Pope Francis was brought up. A plaque marks the house, although it has changed as it was a single storey home when the Bergoglio family lived there.

In the Flores neighborhood we enjoyed visiting Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia where in the 1940s, Jorge Mario Bergoglio began kindergarten and his first religious teachings leading up to his first communion.

The visit continued around the neighborhood and some of the squares he used to play in, his primary school as well as the Vicaría de Flores where he was ordained as a bishop.


San Nicolás and other Buenos Aires neighborhoods

After a few stops in Devoto neighborhood (one of them at Devoto prison where the Pope would take part in the washing of the feet every Holy Thursday) we made our way to San Nicolás. We learnt that Bergoglio had taught literature and psychology at the Colegio del Salvador in the 1960s.

Another highlight of the tour was the Catedral Metropolitana and the Arzobispado de Buenos Aires where he officiated until he was appointed Pontiff.

In Balvanera, we went past Universidad del Salvador which he ran until 1975. While driving throughMonserrat neighborhood we learnt unexpected details about his life such as where he bought the newspaper and his favorite barber shop.

Nearing the end of the outing, a drive by his beloved Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro was a must. A football fan, Bergoglio would support San Lorenzo with his father. A passion which has not subsided, even from the Vatican.

As time went by, the whole group agreed we all wanted to know more about the life of Pope Francis: we really wanted to know everything, visit each and every place, know every detail, fully understand his background.

The Argentinean Pope awakens interest, admiration and above all inspiration. Probably that is why these tours are becoming increasingly popular, as they bring us closer to him and his constant, sometimes unforeseen work.