Witnessed the Beginning of a New Papacy

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, I didn’t need to travel to Rome to feel connected to him. I had shared many conversations and encounters with him during his time as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. We fostered a deep sense of friendship despite the new geographical distance which separated between us. He called me right after his election, and he said "They've detained me in Rome and won't let me return." It wasn’t just a joke. Unfortunately we were not going to be able to complete the projects we had worked on together. At the end of that conversation, he gave me an email address so we could stay in touch until the end of his life.

The last email I sent him was to wish him a Happy Easter. For the first time, he didn’t reply directly himself. Instead, his private secretary responded on his behalf, explaining that he was unable to respond due to his weakened condition.

Robert Francis Prevost was elected as Pope Francis's successor and adopted the papal name Leo XIV. The Vatican authorities, recognizing that my dialogue and accomplishments with Pope Francis transcended circumstances, invited me to attend Pope Leo's inauguration mass. Also I had the opportunity to greet him during an audience he granted to representatives of different faiths on Monday, May 19, 2025.

During our meeting, I gave him a copy of "On Heaven and Earth," the book of dialogues which I wrote with Pope Francis, to wish him success with his important role and noble mission. Upon seeing the cover with Bergoglio's photo and our names, Pope Leo's remembered something which gave him a smile, he said, "Argentinean."

As I said goodbye, I mentioned that I left a card in the book with my contact details, just as I had previously engaged in dialogue with Pope Francis. I suggested that perhaps we could develop a similar one.

May G-d bless our devine mission to continue the work on interfaith dialogue.

In the meeting point for the Jewish delegation, at the “Perugino” entrance of the Vatican.

From right to left: Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC's Director of Interreligious Affairs; Rabbi Mark Dratch, Chair of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC); Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Senior Research Fellow at Georgetown University; Rabbi Jehoschua Ahrens, Rabbi of Bern; Viktor Eichner, Head of the World Jewish Congress representative office to the Holy See.

With Archbishop Flavio Pace, Vice President of the Commission for the Religious Relations with the Jews

From left to right, with Oded Wiener, former Director General of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and currently strategic consultant in religious and interreligious affairs, and Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the Chief Rabbi of Rome

With Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel