Pope Francis is demanding justice for the victims of Argentina’s worst terrorist attack, using what is increasingly becoming his signature way of communicating: an amateur smartphone video message, recorded by a visiting friend in the comfort of Francis’ Vatican hotel room.
Set to be aired yesterday during the official commemoration of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, the video is the latest evidence that Francis has no qualms about circumventing the Vatican’s media machine to get his message out.
A close friend of the pope’s, Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, shot the video last month on his smartphone when he visited Francis at the Vatican.
Epelman said he asked Francis, who was an auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires at the time of the attack, if he would like to send a message to Argentina’s Jewish community to mark the anniversary.
“He thought about it for half a second and said, ‘Do you have your cellphone with you?’” Epelman told reporters. “And I said ‘Yes,’ and then he said, ‘Good, let’s record it now.’”
In the message, the pope speaks off-the-cuff, with the hum of passing cars audible through the open windows of his hotel room. He condemns terrorism as “lunacy” and says Argentina must come to terms with the damage and pain the unsolved crime still causes.
“Today, together with my solidarity and my prayers for all the victims, comes my desire for justice. May justice be done,” he says.
Last year, Argentina and Iran approved a “truth commission” aimed at moving the investigation forward by enabling Argentine prosecutors to travel to Tehran to question former Iranian officials suspected of organizing the attack.
Tehran denies any involvement.
It is the second time Francis has used a homemade smartphone message to issue a directed communication and confirms that the 77-year-old pope is comfortable using new media and technology to communicate, even though keeps a hand-written agenda and has never owned a cellphone.
Earlier this year, he caused shockwaves by recording an iPhone video message of friendship to a gathering of Pentecostals.
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