Francis' mother opposed his entry into the Jesuits' novitiate in 1958,
he said in a January 30 audience with seminarians from Valencia, Spain.
The news was shared on FaceBook.com by Bishop José Ignacio Munilla of
Orihuela-Alicante.
One of the seminarians said that his mother
hasn't accepted his decision to enter the seminary. Francis replied that
he "had experienced the same situation," Bishop Munilla recalled:
"His
mother, although [or maybe because?] she was Catholic, was against
Jorge Mario Bergoglio's vocation and did not want to visit him in the
seminary. But, finally, on the day of his priestly ordination, she knelt
before her son and asked for his blessing".
Francis' advice to the young seminarian was "prayer, tenderness, and patience".
As
a cardinal, Bergoglio mentioned this episode in a 2004 book with
journalists Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti. According to that
account, his mother "became very angry":
"When I entered the
seminary, my mother didn't come with me, she didn't want to go. For
years she didn't accept my decision. We didn't fight. It was just that I
would come home, but she wouldn't go to the seminary", Cardinal
Bergoglio said.
#newsJnuaknqqts