December 13, 2018 — During his visits and his apostolic trips around the world, Pope Francis always takes time to meet up with his Jesuit companions. These fraternal gatherings have often led to informal discussions that are exceedingly rich between the pope and his Jesuit companions from the four corners of the globe.
Pope Francis accepts an issue of La Civilta Cattolica from Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit-run magazine, during a Feb. 9 meeting with editors and staff. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano, handout) See POPE-CIVILTA-CATTOLICA Feb. 9, 2017.
The editor-in-chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ got the idea of collecting in a book these conversations between the pope and his companions. An electronic edition of this book is available for free download on the site of La Civiltà Cattolica. Titled Fraternal and Spontaneous, this work reproduces in their entirety the conversations between the Holy Father and his Jesuit companions from Chile, Peru, Bangladesh, Ireland, Poland and the Baltics.
In the signed preface of this volume of discussions between the pope and his companions, Fr. Spadaro draws parallels between the developing thought of Jorge Bergoglio and the very Ignatian idea of pilgrimage. “The teaching [which emerges from these informal gatherings] is very rich; his words allow us to understand better certain aspects of his thinking which one is able to deduce from other aspects of his papacy. The approach of Bergoglio ought to be understood as an itinerary. One must be attentive to the paths that his thinking follows as it develops. One of the most fascinating aspects of these conversations is that he often speaks about documents that are in the process of formulation.”
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