The sound on the feast of the bells of the cathedral announced the election of the new Pope to the Messina: a sign of shared joy, mixed with amazement for the arrival of a man who “did not show up through his personal history, but chose the image of Christ the risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for the flock of God”. In the words of the archbishop Giovanni Accolla There is all enthusiasm and gratitude to God, who in his Providence does not miss authoritative and faithful guides, for the gift of Pope Leo XIV. “Beyond the socio -political analyzes, the Lord gives us a spiritual guide who expresses the love of Jesus and his sacrifice for everyone through the cross; all of us are called to be Cyrenei of joy, holding the weight of the cross together with the Holy Father. Mons. Accolla, remembering” the beautiful spiritual inheritance left by Pope Bergoglio “, explained how” in the Church the tradition is expressed in the continuity and in the profession of faith. And the “hunger for hope that humanity today more than ever manifest”.
“The Spirit blows where he wants and you do not know where he comes from nor where he goes”: with the sentence of Jesus the Messina priest Marco Sprizzipresident of the Labor Office of the Holy See, commented on the amazement that as he has pervaded many prelates and not only in the face of the election of Robert Francis Prevost: “It seemed that on the US cardinals there was a veto for geopolitical reasons and instead this election showed the freedom of the church; it was thought that after the creative pontificate of Bergoglio he had to return to an expert in the curial machine and instead a man who has been chosen Knowing how to work well at the head of the dicastery of the bishops, but above all a missionary, a man close to the poor, who will surely continue to work for a synodal church, who walks together “. Sprizzi also defined the choice of the name, Leone XIV which recalls three great figures: San Leone the Great, one of the greatest popes in the history of the Church, “the Pope of Peace, who faced Attila and the Huns convincing them with the weapon of dialogue to give up”; Leo XIII, who with the encyclical Rerum Novarum was a precursor of an innovative language that allowed him to open up to dialogue with the world of workers, anticipating what would have been the social doctrine of the Church; and finally Leo II, Messina (from which the neighborhood takes its name, but also the hermitage near Rome), to which the introduction of the sign of peace in mass is due.
For the rector of S. Antonio Father Mario Magropresident of the national connection of the sanctuaries, “this Pope manifests the desire to continue to strengthen the unity of the Church: a task of great responsibility; the name he will bring, but also the motto of S. Agostino chosen and reported on the papal coat of arms” in Illo Unum “, that is” in Jesus we are one thing “.
