In unprecedented text, Pope Francis speaks of Tango and how to have a lasting marriage

In the days following his death, Pope Francis was called a reformer, outsider, influencer and modernizing. He was all these things. But it was also the guardian of the oldest institution in the western world. He protected the doctrine of the Catholic Church – even if he did to his own style.

This is evident in one of Francisco’s last writings, provided to and not yet previously published. It is a brief preface to a book, written for young Catholics, about the teachings of the Church about love and marriage. The book is from the YouCat Foundation (abbreviation of youth catechism, or doctrine), an organization approved by the Vatican to publish the teachings of the Church understandably to young people. The Foundation distributes books in 70 languages ​​around the world.

In the preface, Francisco articulates the church’s position on marriage: that he is a priority, of sacred importance, and occurs only between a man and a woman. It does not introduce any new doctrinal base. Still, the letter illustrates who Francis was as a Pope: a pragmatic and compassionate communicator who skilledly reformulated, without necessarily altering, the doctrine of the church to the modern era.

“It’s a confirmation of a legacy,” said Raúl Zegarra, professor of Catholicism at Harvard University. “It’s really a classic Pope text.”

Rhetorical

In the initial lines, Francisco captures a lot from his approach to the papacy.

“In my homeland, Argentina, there is a dance that I love so much, one in which I participated often when I was young: the tango,” writes Francisco, the first Latin American Pope. He then compares the tango, with all his “discipline and dignity” to marriage.

“I am always thrilled to see young people who love each other and have the courage to turn their love into something grand: ‘I want to love you until death separates us.’ What an extraordinary promise! ”

With this, Francis emphasizes a fundamental teaching of the Catholic Church – that marriage is a sacred and supreme commitment. But he does it with charm, not austerity. “It’s characteristic of the way he teaches,” said Brett C. Hoover, Catholic theologian and professor at Loyola Marymount University.

Francisco was an expert in using symbols to convey spiritual lessons (following the tradition of the biblical parables of Jesus). It is a skill that Francisco may have developed in his 20 years when he taught literature for high school boys. As a Pope, he intertwined metaphors, symbols and even jokes in his narratives. Francis once said that a good priest should “smell to sheep.” He compared the church to a “campaign hospital” who took care of the most sick in society.

This approach helped Francisco connect with a large audience, in contrast to his predecessor, the shy and academic Pope Benedict XVI.

“He has made his comments affordable,” said Margaret Susan Thompson, a history professor at Syracuse University. “It’s visual and also tactile.”

Connection with reality

Francis was defined in recent days as “the Pope of the People.” He turned to the harsh realities of life – poverty, illness, suffering – and refused to look away. He washed his prisoners. He called every night for people sheltered in a church in the Gaza Strip. “He has always sought to shed light on the problems of our time,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re in the homily of Francisco’s funeral.

This is evident in the preface. Francisco quickly anchors the aspiration of marriage in reality – the statistical probability of divorce. “I’m not blind, and you are not either,” he wrote. “How many weddings today fail after three, five, seven years?” He even customized the message: “Maybe his parents also started the sacrament of marriage to that same courage, but could not take their love to the end.”

Throughout his papacy, Francis showed that he understood that the church’s decrees – about divorce, celibacy before marriage, and same -sex marriage – could seem unattainable.

“Francisco was a parish priest and then an urban bishop,” said Zegarra. At the front line of faith, Francis saw how people struggled to live the teachings of the church. Although he did not change the doctrine, Francis tried to see “if the marriage theology we have could expand enough to incorporate people who are traditionally not included by it,” Hoover said.

Shortly after his election, he ignored the tradition and married 20 couples, including some who already lived together and one who had an adult son. In 2016, he opened the door so that divorced and re -retained Catholics would receive communion, giving more latitude to local priests and bishops. In 2023, he decided to allow priests to bless same -sex couples.

“This experience really shapes this preface and shapes all its papacy,” said Zegarra.

Legacy

Now that Francis has passed away, your letter will no longer be printed in the book for young people about love – this will be a task for the next Pope, according to the YouCat Foundation.

Still, she highlights not only the Pope’s style, but also some of her emblematic policies. In it, Francisco makes multiple references to his Apostolic Exhortation of 2016, “Amoris Laetitia”, a 256 -page document about the family that called the Church to be more inclusive. He also mentions his recommendation that churches establish a “marriage catechumenate”, a program that would prepare people for marriage.

For some, the letter will affirm Francis’ legacy of love-practice it, prioritize it. For others, it will serve as a last reminder that he was not as far as they expected in the evolution of church doctrine.

For everyone who reads it, Francisco makes one last appeal.

“Believe in love, believe in God and believe that you are able to embark on the adventure of a love that lasts a lifetime. Love wants to be permanent; ‘until second order’ is not love,” he writes.

“We humans have the desire to be accepted without reservation, and those who do not often have this experience – unknowingly – carry a wound for the rest of their lives. Instead, those who enter a union lose nothing but earn everything: life in its fullness.”