Observing Pope Francis at the Synod, a trait of his, which I observed many years ago in Buenos Aires, came to my mind – his great realism. Jorge always struck me as a person who has a vivid sense of the real – and with that comes truthfulness and integrity. His knowledge of his own city was remarkable. He seemed to know its pulse. Of course he was wise too. As another member of the community said: “Jorge knows what to do.” I sometimes think he looked at different versions of liberation theology, and chose the way of popular religion. From his early youth he saw that the real strength of the Church came from the spiritual vitality and simple piety of the local community. That bedrock vision has stayed with him. While many of us were being bombarded by questionable s