Where Pope Francis Awakened His Vocation: Easter Monday Mass in Bergoglio’s Barrio

Where Pope Francis Awakened His Vocation: Easter Monday Mass in Bergoglio’s Barrio

The confessional where Francis heard his vocational call is seen amid the faithful gathered for a packed Mass on Easter Monday 2025 at his hometown church. Just a few blocks from his childhood home, on Monday evening, the Basilica de San José de Flores in Buenos Aires was packed beyond capacity with people praying for Pope Francis’ soul.

REPORT - On Monday evening, a crowd of faithful attended a mass for Jorge Bergoglio in the Basilica of San José de Flores, where the faith of the late Holy Father grew.

On September 21, 1953, in the confessional of the Basilica of Saint Joseph de Flores, a 17-year-old Jorge Mario Bergoglio “followed God’s call to become a priest.” Today, his death is mourned. In the confessional of the Basilica of Saint Joseph de Flores, there is a lit white candle, a white rose, and a stampite of Eva Perón. A woman approaches with her son to leave a bouquet of flowers, she cries and the baby too. In that confessional, on Septe…

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Faithful in Pope Francis’s hometown lit candles at the church where he found God as a teenager, filled the cathedral where he spoke as archbishop, and prayed Monday in the neighborhoods where he gained fame as the “bishop of the slums.”

The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Monsignor Jorge García Cuerva, heads the Mass of the last farewell to Pope Francis in the Basilica of San José de Flores, on Rivadavia Avenue, meters from Rivera Indarte, in the porteño neighborhood of the same name. There the deceased pontiff grew up with his family and was formed in the Catholic religion. Under the premise “For eternal rest”, the ceremony gathers around a thousand people. Among them, Vice Presid…

In the Basilica of Flowers, in which Bergoglio took his first steps and received in 2013 the call of the Holy See to become Pope, the Buenos Aires Archbishop called for action. He demanded the option of the one honored for "putting the problems on the table, including those of the church." The only official presence was that of Victoria Villarruel, who was repudiated.