Marcela Duque: "Poetry is a way of being attentive".With this exclamation, "Long live poetry!" began a handwritten note from Pope Francis to journalist Antonio Spadaro, dated January 20, 2025. Now that phrase is the title of an anthology of texts by the Pope on poetry that Spadaro has just published in Italian with the Ares publishing house.
Pope Francis' relationship with poetry goes back a long way. He is not only the pontiff who bears the name of a troubadour saint, Francis of Assisi., who composed the "Canticle of Creatures". He is also the one who quotes from memory Dante, Baudelaire, Borges or Gerard Manley Hopkins. For Bergoglio - from his years as a young novice master and later as archbishop of Buenos Aires - literature and life are interchangeable concepts.
When he was not yet 40 years old, he wrote the preface to a collection of poems written by a religious companion. He defined then the craft of composing verses with a beautiful image: "The poetic word has the fear of flesh in the heart of man and, at the same time, feels the weight of wings that have not yet taken flight." He was thus describing not only a universal stock, but a drive experienced in the first person; at least as an avid reader.
Humans, not nuts
This vital link was discussed on March 21 -World Poetry Day- at the presentation of the book "Viva la poesia!"The book, an anthology of texts by Francis prepared by another Jesuit, Antonio Spadaro, and published in Italian by the Ares publishing house. In the act Spadaro was joined by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; poet Maria Grazia Calandrone; and journalist Andrea Monda, editor of Osservatore Romano, who acted as moderator.
With this exclamation, "Long live poetry!" begins a note written by the Pope, in his own handwriting, to Spadaro dated January 20, 2025, in reference to the book. And it is this enthusiastic "viva" that has given the title to the little work. In his unmistakable calligraphy, Francis said: "We must recover the taste for the literature in our life, but also in our training; otherwise we are like a nut. Poetry helps us to be human, and today we need it so much".
Verses for the storm
"Tucho" Fernandez, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, commented that poetry is one of the bonds he shares with his friend Bergoglio, for whom it has been "an oasis in the difficult moments of his long life". As he spoke these words, the five weeks of his hospitalization at the Gemelli Polyclinic came to mind, which -we did not yet know at the time- had been the time of his death. were coming to an end. "When not even in prayer do we find peace of soul, a good book helps to pass the storm and open new interior spaces," said the Argentine cardinal, and assured that "to take refuge in poetry is not to escape into a parallel world, but to find it again with more depth".
The next to speak was the poet Maria Grazia Calandrone, who humbly commented that "the Pope, as a reader, has reached conclusions that I have reached after 40 years of dedication to poetic writing". And she mentioned fundamental questions such as concordance, formation or the essential role that verses can play in the adolescent heart.
Calandrone spoke of nostalgia, of the "resa missa" and of the invisible that resides behind reality, "which the Pope calls God and to which I do not know what name to give". He also referred to the courage of Francis: "he has the courage to wait, even in the face of the most absolute devastation".
The poetic logos in Turandot
The idea of making an anthology with texts by Francis on poetry has its germ in the beginnings of the pontificate. Spadaro, today Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, was then director of the magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, linked to the Society of Jesus. As head of the magazine, he was the first to an interview long-breathed to the Pope, in August 2013, five months after his election to the Petrine See.
Spadaro commented that that meeting was a real discovery for him, namely that of Francis' love for poetic language: "In that interview I asked him if we should be optimistic. He replied that he liked to speak of hope rather than optimism, and he quoted some verses from Puccini's opera Turandot". He did not offer an answer formulated from a reasonable argumentation, but rather gave him a lyrical image. "For him what counts is the poetic logos, and then comes the explanation. The reference to poetry in him is primary, not secondary," the editor added.
For Francis, poetry is not an ornament, but a necessity. In a text written in the year 2023 - also on this occasion it was the preface of a book -, he assured that in this time of global crisis "we need the brilliance of a new language, of powerful stories and images, of writers, poets, artists capable of shouting to the world the message of the Gospel, of making us see Jesus". He did not mention strategists, diplomats or scientists, but artisans of the word.
