The mass for the Pope Leo XIV had just ended in Luján when Valeria Duringer began thinking about the way back home. She had traveled from a town in Corrientes, about 250 kilometers from the provincial capital, to meet the Pope and return to a place she had visited before.
When we asked her which words stayed with her the most, she spoke of charity, of helping a brother, and of economic difficulties. And she immediately thought about how to share that with those who were waiting for her at home.
“We’re taking all of that to bring into our homes”, she said.
In the square, Clara Fernández, 79, returned to a scene from her own history. When John Paul II came, she was already a catechist and had also gone to see him. Remembering him in Luján, so many years later, led her to talk about what it had meant to teach the faith for much of her life.
Valeria Duringer, the trip from Corrientes and what she hoped to carry back
“We come to see and meet the Pope and enjoy Luján”, Valeria said. It was her second time in the city. This time, besides the joy of being there, she carried with her a concern she wanted to share with her loved ones: how to put into practice that help for others that was discussed during the Mass.
When we asked which topic had resonated most with her, her answer brought together the economy and charity. There was also the desire to “difundir y llevar las palabras de él a nuestros hermanos”. She was still in Luján, but she was already thinking about the conversations she could have when she returned.
Clara, the catequista of 79 years who also went to see Pope John Paul II
“I was a catechist at that time. I was a catechist for about 30 years,” Clara recalled when talking about the visit of John Paul II. In the midst of what she was living in Luján, that encounter returned to her memory along with the years she dedicated to teaching the faith.
Her testimony also left room to talk about the hardships. “I know what it is to suffer misery. I know what it is to go hungry. I know what it is to have to beg for alms”, she said. She spoke of those who today cannot pay rent and of what it costs to get by. And when we asked what that trip left with her, she said she would like God to pour out His blessing.
Clara knew what it was to wait for a Pope. She had done it before when she was a catechist. This time, in Luján, between the memory of that visit and the difficulties she knows firsthand, she left a wish for the country: “This country will rise again”.
