Fr Gonzalo Aemilius and Pope Francis
Photo: CNA/Vatican Media Uruguayan priest named the Pope’s new Personal Secretary
Fr Gonzalo Aemilius has been elected as Pope Francis’ new Special Secretary, filling the void left by Father Fabian Pedacchio in December.
The clergyman from Montevideo, Uruguay has been known to the Pope since 2006 when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, endorsed him for his work with street children.
Fr Aemilius, a Doctor of Theology, was ordained a priest in May 2006 and takes over from Argentine priest Fr Pedacchio, who served alongside Pope Francis from 2013 to 2019.
The incoming secretary credited his predecessor’s ability to integrate different values and channel them in a single direction, saying that it had struck him deeply.
“Experiencing this ability of his was decisive in my life,” he said of Archbishop Bergoglio. “He taught me to take the best that is in each individual, however different he or she may be from others, and to put it to good use for the good of all”.
The Uruguayan priest chosen by Pope Francis will accompany his current Personal Secretary, Fr Yoannis Lahzi Gaid.
Society can be civil if it combats waste culture
Modern society is “progressively eroding the understanding of that which makes human life precious”, according to Pope Francis in an address to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Holy Father spoke about the “intangible value” of human life, of care for the terminally ill and of the need to rewrite the “grammar” of responsibility and caring for those who are suffering.
He said that in contemporary times, lives that are seen as no longer useful are considered “unworthy” or to be “discarded”, “devoid of authentic value.”
Danger
Pope Francis warned there is danger of losing “the imperative duty of solidarity, and of human and Christian fraternity”.
He insisted that we must never abandon “anyone in the presence of incurable illness”. “Human life”, he continued, “because of its eternal destiny, maintains all its value and all its dignity in whatever condition.”
Elderly have role to play in the future of the Church
Old-age is “a precious treasure that takes shape in the journey of every man and woman’s life”, said Pope Francis at an audience for participants in a conference on pastoral care of the elderly.
“Life is a gift, and when it is long it is a privilege, for oneself and for others. Always.”
The Pope called on the Church to care for the elderly, going to them with “a smile on your face and the Gospel in your hands”.
He noted that the world is facing a significant demographic change, with fewer young people and a large increase in the number of elderly.
He said that issues facing the elderly – including social disorientation, and societal attitudes of indifference and rejection, are a call to the Church and to society “to serious reflection in order to learn to grasp and appreciate the value of old age”.
He reminded us that, in the Bible “longevity is a blessing”, and that the elderly, too, have a place in God’s saving plan.
“Both old and young”, he said, are “the future of the Church”.