The Pope and the Philosopher

The origin of this book is an important event in which the then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, played a fundamental role: the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate that took place in the sanctuary of Aparecida, Brazil, in May 2007. It is not a stretch to say that the secret of Bergoglio's election to the papal throne is partly hidden in Aparecida. The Uruguayan philosopher Alberto Methol Ferré has contributed to the debate of those days with a conversation that is compiled in this book, a thematic mosaic of contemporary Latin America produced with the conviction that the present is not understood only by analyzing current events or by assiduous reading of the daily chronicles. From here emerges the trajectory that runs through these pages: from the present of Latin America to its most recent and most remote past, on a journey to the sources where the phenomena that manifest themselves today are born, we return to the present with a greater baggage of explanatory hypotheses, and with them we set out again to investigate the future. Methol Ferré's thought emerges gracefully, lively, moving confidently through the folds of Latin American history. After reading these pages, the reader will fully understand why Pope Francis has said of Methol Ferré: He has helped us to think.

ALVER METALLI - PRÓLOG

205