A “spiritual son” of Pope Francis recalled their decades of friendship, as well as the late Pontiff’s devotion to the poor and marginalized.

Ricardo Grzona met Pope Francis, who was then Jesuit Father Jorge Bergoglio, in 1977. The priest was recommended to Grzona, who was then a high-school student, as a spiritual director.

While studying at the Colegio Maximo seminary near Buenos Aires, Grzona appeared destined to become a Jesuit priest.

But an encounter with the future Pope changed the course of his life.

“Father Bergoglio became my spiritual director and a good friend,” Grzona said in an interview with the Register. “While I thought I had a vocation to become a Jesuit, he showed me another path. He said that I could be an evangelist. He said, ‘Yes, you could become a priest, but there are few evangelists and even fewer lay evangelists. We want to tell the world that evangelization is in the hands of laypeople. We priests devote ourselves to sacramental life, but evangelization is the hands of laypeople.’”

Grzona, who is the founder of the Ramon Pane Foundation, which offers multilingual resources, especially for evangelizing young people, reflected on the life and works of his friend.

“When he was elected as the successor of St. Peter, he preferred to be called ‘Bishop of Rome,’ because he wanted to be associated with other bishops and not felt to be a superior,” he said. “That denoted a big change. Even though he was a Jesuit, he chose Francis of Assisi for his papal name rather than a fellow Jesuit such as Ignatius or Francis Xavier. So, from the beginning, what was notable was his evangelical life: of humility and simplicity.”

Grzona recognized that Pope Francis met with numerous national leaders of various political persuasions, but did so in the spirit of the Gospels. “Accusations that he was a leftist are ridiculous. The Pope that I knew since my youth never once spoke of politics. He told me, as did other Jesuits, that when he presided over the Jesuit seminary near Buenos Aires in the mid-1970s, he ejected 70 students because they were engaged in politics rather than seeking a religious vocation.”

“This was at the time of the so-called theology of liberation,” Grzona said, recalling that the future Pope told the seminarians, “This is a religious order, not a political party. Go ahead and conduct politics as Christians wherever you like, but not in a religious order. A religious order is for sharing the Gospels.”

“When people speak of Francis, one might say, ‘When we read the Gospels and compare them to the life of Pope Francis, we should look at the beatitudes: When I was hungry, you gave me to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me to drink. When I was a stranger, you took me in. When I was a prisoner, you visited me. When I was sick, you cared for me.’ While he may have been criticized, he did these things very clearly,” Grzona said. He gave the example Francis set by washing the feet of female prisoners during Holy Week last year in Rome. “This scandalized many people, but it is in the Gospel,” Grzona said.

Grzona said he last met with Pope Francis at his office in January 2025, having already dined with him several times in the Casa Santa Marta cafeteria. “How long ago was it that I led the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises for you?” asked the Pope, Grzona recalled. At that time of their focus on the Jesuit founder’s prayer and meditations, then-Father Bergoglio was 40 and Grzona was 17. “Wow, it’s been 48 years since we met, and we are still friends! That is quite a feat,” the Pope told Grzona.

During that meeting, the two friends reminded each other of mutual acquaintances and shared experiences over several decades. Grzona also told the Holy Father about plans for an upcoming festival and awards ceremony for Catholic recording artists.

When Grzona asked the Pope if he could record a video greeting for the event, the Pope said that he was afraid that voice would not provide a good recording. Days later, the Pope’s bronchitis worsened, and he was soon hospitalized for weeks.

“It is with pride that I can say that my friend did good works until the very last day of his life,” Grzona said. “He was near death on Easter Sunday but gave urbi et orbi greetings for the last time with a broken voice.”

The Catholic evangelist recalled that Pope Francis also received Vice President JD Vance that day “with kindness and generosity,” adding that it was characteristic of the Pontiff to give chocolate Easter eggs to each of Vance’s children despite being nearly unable to speak.

Grzona emphasized, “His doctors told him not to take risks. But he loved his people and died with his boots on.”

In a heartfelt poem published on Facebook, Grzona wrote of his friend and fellow Argentine:

Your friend says farewell.