In Baires the Pope's anxious neighborhood prays for him

There is a very special feeling between the Pope and the neighborhood of San José de Flores (or Flores) in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, where Jorge Bergoglio was born (1936), attended elementary school (from 1943 to 1948), found his priestly vocation (1953) and where he celebrated his last Mass before becoming Pope.

Precisely because of this bond of unconditional love, the people of Flores respond with prayers, masses, candles and much concern for the now fragile health of the Pontiff. The first Latin American Pope was born on December 17, 1936 - son of Mario José Francisco Bergoglio, a railway employee of Piedmontese origin, and Regina María Sívori , a young housewife - in a house at number 268 Varela Street in Flores.

Today, at that address, you can see a house with white doors where the city council has placed a plaque with the words 'Pope Francis was born here'. At the age of 4, his parents enrolled him in the nursery school of the Instituto Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia, where he is still remembered running up and down the stairs. Shortly after, the family moved to another house nearby (Membrillar 531). Bergoglio was ordained a priest in 1969 and has always maintained a great affection for the church of Flores. "Even when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he celebrated masses there, and always returned to Flores," one of the priests who take care of the villas, the shanty towns, and who prefers to remain anonymous, told ANSA.

"When there was still no indication that he could become Pope, Francis had already planned his nights in Flores as a bishop . His place would be room 13 of the Monsignor Mariano A. Espinosa Priestly House, located at Condarco 581," explains a woman absorbed in prayer. In addition, one of the last public masses that Bergoglio celebrated as bishop of Buenos Aires was in the streets of Flores, in Pumacahua and Ramón L. Falcón, on February 11, 2013. "The patronal feasts of the parish of the Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes were being celebrated, but due to the influx, traffic had to be blocked and Bergoglio said a mass in the street in front of 1,200 people," recalls the parish priest of the villas. Now the neighborhood of Flores is anxious for its favorite son and prays for him. In the Basilica, he is spoken of at every mass, as well as in every parish in the neighborhood. "Flores loves him, as Francis loves us," confirmed a faithful.