Good afternoon. Welcome to our session with the author, mark k. Shriver. My name is dan. My wife and i are the proud parents of three k School Graduates and im the dean of the law school at cass university. Withbe get started, a few reminders. Please be sure that your cell phones are turned off or in the silent mode. After i introduce mr. Shriver our program today will follow a question and answer format to facilitate our discussion. I will be asking questions for the first 30 minutes or so, then for the next 40 minutes well turn the program over to you, members of the audience to ask questions. Youll be invited to come to the microphone ther center of the room. Whenout your turn, please fivous and briefly, briefly, ask you question. Immediately after we conclude mr. Shriver will be available in the activity building to sign copies of his book. Mark shriver is the author of the book toy pilgrimage my search for the real pope fran tis president of the save the Children Network in washington, dc and a form maryland state legislator, this is mr. Shriver res second book. Er is first book a good man, rediscovering my father, Sergeant Shriver was a New York Times and Washington Post best seller. Mr. Shriver has a wife and three children. For those who have not yet read the book i thought i would share with you a review about the book which will give you an introduction to it. The late Michael Novak had this to say quote this is a book for the man on the street who wants to know who is this pope. Where did he come from . And who want to learn this in everyday language from an everyday point of view. Compelled best his own burning curiosity, mark k. Shriver travels to argentina, rome, and elsewhere, to talk with the popes family, former students, parishioners and longtime associates. This book letses you travel with him, enquote. Mark, we very much appreciate your joining us here today. You have written a wonderful week and a wonderful book. The book is your own pilgrimage to learn about pope francis. Since youre the pilgrim i thought we ought to start by learn about your own background and experience. To begin with, think many of us know that you grew up in a family of wellknown public figures, closely identified with our catholic faith. Your father was sargeant shriver, program meant lawyer, first director or peace corps, u. S. Ambassador to france and a democratic Vice President ial candidate. Your mother, uit in eunice founded the special legitimates and cher brothers, be john kennedy and Bobby Kennedy and ted kennedy. What impact has the catholic faith havent on your life and does it faith the way you think about pope francis . Well, think first of all, dan, thank you for that great first question. You start off really easy. That was a that is a tough one. I want to thank the key school for inviting me here. Walked around the campus. Its a great school. And incredible resource heres for kid. So thank you. And thank you all very much for coming. I really appreciate you spending time with me on a saturday afternoon. Obviously the faith the catholic faith, my mom and day went to mass every day. My father and mother, whether they were traveling in america or around the world, i remember clearly when they check into hotels the first question they asked was always where is the local Catholic Church and what time is mass in the morning . So, that sense of catholicism was imbedded into me and all of my siblings as well. So i think that you cant for me separate our perspective, our views on the world, from catholicism. And the reason i wrote this book is five years ago, four and a half years ago when he pope game pope francis, i was in a little bit of a lull or a valley if you will around catholicism. There was so much going on with the preoccupation with the vatican banking scandal, cents about islam, the sexual abuse scandal, comments about women, comments about the clothes that Pope Benedict was wearing ask that sense of what ways going on in rome with the curia was so different from my experience growing up in the Catholic Church, and nuns and priest i had seen do great work, not only here in america but around the world. I worked for save the Children Action Network and were the advocacy arm for save the children and all around america when i see our work there are nuns and priest doing great work. This disconnect with what was going on in rome put me in a funk, frankly. When pope francis came out on the balcony at st. Peters asks asked the people to bliss hem before he blessed them that caught me offguard. The fact he was a jesuit and i was educate by the jesuits in high school and college and the first jesuit ever elected pope, and as you know, dan, the jesuits take vow not to aspire to Higher Office so terrify they are trying to become a bishop or a cardinal, much less pope, the other jesuits are supposed to report them and the that gets enemy hot water. So theres the builtin sense of humility in that order. So this was took my be surprise and his gestures, the first day, paying his hotel bill, betting on the bus with the cardinals to back to the vatican, washing the feed of young juvenile delinquences and i walked with delinquent for a number of years and when i was 25 i wouldnt have gotten on my knees and wash the feet and kiss the feet of juvenile delinquents m. Maryland we call them training schools but theyre really jail. This pope is on the ground doing that with young men and young women. Women who are muslim. On holy thursday, priests are supposed to wash the feet of other men, so, wow, this poping doing things identities never seen before so i wanted to dig in and figure out whether he could help rekindle my sense of iid gotten from my mom and dad, whether creating the Special Olympics for creating the peace corps or head start, Legal Services for the for, vista. The that was the catholicism that instilled that in him. Think he lying st. Ignatius who founded the jesuits saw god in all things and all people if he lost to George Mcgovern he was crushed the next day was an opportunity to see god and the next experience. And i got that sense from my mom as well, that not every day was happy. Theres a difference between joy and happiness. Think this pope, pope francis, has joy in his life, and his completely free and i think that sense of freedom, not attached to anything to use the ignatius concept of disordered attachment. He is not attached to anything and that sense of joy any mom and dad and i seell n him is the reason i jumpedded in and did the pilgrimage so thats a long answer to your question but the since of catholicism that my mother and father lived and breathed every day and enjoyed every day, im trying to get that in my life every day as well. Lets talk about his jesuit tradition. You talk in the book about the features of the order of jesuits and how do they talk about how they impact the pope as being the pope you messengered the first jesuit peep we have had. A really important part of his life. Its trying to somebody said to me, wow issue read the part on the jesuits. Its kind of long and he rolled his eyes. I said you got to understand how he is trained in order to understand how he is today. Like trying to understand dwight icen hour and not understand Dwight Eisenhower and not understand hour west point works. The jesuits are considered gods army. They go wherever the pope send them and ignatius of loyola, the santa who credit the jesuit had a famous line about a jesuit should always have one leg in the work he is doing and one leg up and ready to go on the next mission. So theres this sense of discipline but also this sense of being willing to go wherever the pope sends you, on a mission. And you have got to be ready, and trained. The jesuit go through a longer educational process than other orders and priests so theyre very well educated. Theyre Great Teachers. And theyre very disciplined and focused, much like the military because ignatius, who was a soldier, was a very much involved in the court life and aspired for marry a beautiful woman and live the life of a daring knight, almost got killed in a battle and had this deathbed conversion, very sick. By reading the lives of the saints and decided to take that military perspective to being a soldier for jesus. And that is what you see, i think in pope francis. When i first started the pilgrimage i thought i would fit him into a box. Going to be a progressive or a conservative or a if he were in america he would be a democrat or republican or member an independent. Pope francis doesnt fit into any of those categories categors jesuits dont therapy. Listen to their boss and their boss is jesus christ and the message of faith and mercy and humility, those big free things for francis, dont fit in a box. So he is challenging us always to get out of our comfort zone, to get out of our political inclinations to try to see faith and mercy in and humility which cut across all political ideology. Let me ask you about the other things unique about pope francis besides being the first jesuit pope. He is the first pope from the americas, north or south. He first pope from the southern hemisphere, and he is matter of fact the first pope from outside of europe since the eighth century. What do you make of the significance of these firsts with this pope. I think he is incredibly challenging and incredibly dynamic person. So just a little background on him which i think is helpful. His grandma and grand father are ill italians h. I grammar is very catholic, rosa, and she stands up and denounces mussolini on acharne on a chair in a town square. Then the leave italy and go to argentina and theres Huge Population of italians in argentina. Buenos aires is considered the little italy of south america and theres a sense of presence of spaniards and italians in the town. The family moves to argentina, his grandmother is introduce dosed to if grand father and he raises her first son, pope francis, teaches him the lives of the saints saints and how toy his prayers. A earthy catholic jim and if you go town to go into the neighborhood in buenos boundaryu really feel like its almost your in europe. And from that grows and develops jorge mario brogoio. He is argentinian but his family and roots are in italy. He speaks in italian. Born speaking spanish and italian so he has this unique foot of being from the south america, the americas but also having a foot in italy. And understanding that culture, understanding that sense of catholicism that he was raised by obviously his mother and father, but by his priests who were from italy. Very important figures in his life. And grandmother what was born in italy and he has a commitment to catholicism he learns from the grandma and the sense of discipline that the jesuits have and this commitment going owl to the frontiers. Jesuits have this concept of going out to being on the frontier and for pope francis, he doesnt get a mission to japan or china because he has health problem. But he goes to the front tier of he is not hanging out with the well to do and the rich. He is out gets along with the well to do and rich but is out with the car and interacting with the poor and learning from the poor. In the book you place the pope in argentina in the context, the Historical Context of one of the important influences that you talk about are the perones, juan and eva peron. The phenomenon called peron isimo. Tall me about that and the tell me about that. The pope is in this culture of a lot of italians in argentina, and perron comps out into power, very strong, and tries to meld the Catholic Church and the government of argentina. So just to contextualize again what is going on at this point in time, in the constitution of argentina, you had to be catholic in order to be elected president. Thats the exact opposite of here in the united states. To be president in argentina, until that 25 years ago when the changed the constitution, you had to be catholic. So peronista perron is a populist and tries to meld the Catholic Church and use is as president of the country. He gives women the right to vote and redistribution of wealth and for prosecutor, struggling families like pope francis family, the sense that the government and the Catholic Church together were going to do be g for people is very powerful. Again, the pope is a young man at this point, teenager, and i think that has a big influence on him. And then perron, understand the power of symbolism, the power of gestures. You have this image of her on that balcony porch of the president ial palace giving speeches and people cheering in the crowd. That has a big influence or pope finance says as a young man but the doesnt succumb to the ideology, and then perron eventually want it few year is burning Catholic Churches and theres a Huge Division between the Catholic Church and government of argentina. But that sense of perron and the power of perron still is felt in argentina today. One of the parties, major parties this peronists. So it would be like calling a party the Roosevelt Party today. He is a larger than life character even though he has been dead for 30 years. You have a young man glowing up in this culture, italian culture, catholic country, at a time when the church and state are look one. You go into argentina today you goo into the subway, and you get out of the subway and theres statues of mary in every public metro stop. Imagine if you got on the subway in washington, dc or baltimore, chicago, and you walked out and there was a statue of mary, dressed clothed in blue and white which are the colors of the argentinian flag. So theres a real connection there that you need to understand and that i struggled to understand when i was writing this book. He comes out of the culture, yet he is very open to other faiths. He is very open to great friendships with jews and muslims and people of all denominations and thats what makes him, again, kind of a unique challenging figure. Another political series of events in argentina that you talk about is the dirty war. For those who are not familiar, dirty war was against communists in argentina which an estimated 1500 people were killed or disappeared. Tell us about that and thousands, not 1500. Host 50,000. And. Anytime a law professor. And a good one, too. So i think we should look at the evolution of his life. He goes into the jesuits at avowry young age, the led of the jesuit order in are a little and posterior gay. Earring v young and there are warring factions in argentinian, the dirt ya war, argentinian civil war, and everybody i talked to who lived through the period, tajh about the cheese and confusion chaos and confusion gonion. The navy and army didnt know what they were doing, nobody knew that we police force were doing. People were disappearing, nuns, priest, people they thought were part of the government disappeared, never to be seen again. People they thought were rebels disappeared, never to be seen again, and you had just a chaotic situation going on in the country, and in this time is a 36, 37yearold here as head of the jesuits and it is a very confusing time. Some have said he did didnt do enough to protect the priests. Now, it is important for note not one jesuit died when he was provide vein shall there in that provein shall. Other presses were killed other, nuns were killed and other lay people disappeared and died. So he has said that he made mistakes at this time of his life. Of noted just in the dirty war but he made mistakes as he ran the jesuit order, was too authoritarian and wasnt collaborative and makes him more relatable. He is not perfect, not a perfect saint here. A man who has struggled, who understands he has committed sins and is sinning today but who has progressed and has changed of the course of being a 36yearold provincial to an 80yearold pope and changes every day. He is trying to discern in the jesuit term where god is pulling him, how do you pray and listen and try to detect and discern where god is pulling you, and does that today in his prayer life. Trying to figure out how he is being pulled and all of us are being pulled to a closer relationship with god and i dont think he i mean, obviously he is catholic but does believe in learning from jews and muslims muslims and hid we are all trying to strive to a closer relationship to god. What jews call, to repair the world, muslims call the concept of repairing the world. Catholics and christians call feeding the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter he homeless. This is where pope francis is pullings us together, believes we are trial to develop mere merciful relationship with god me and learned during the dirty war. Was criticized because i didnt take an opinion whether he did enough during the dirty bar and my answer is im not a historian. Im an everyday person trying to figure out who this guy is so i can figure out how to instill that joy in my own life. But i think its really tough, having spent time with argentinians, and people from buenos aires, to understand what went on in the war so i had a little chapter with a play on pope francis words which are, who aim to who am i to judge . Its y to judge when youre 53 years of age and 2017 america, to condemn him for not doing enough or condemn other people for their actions down there, but i know that he struggled. I know he said he made mistakes. And i know that were all sinners and we all make mistakes so ill let that judgment be between him and god. The opinion is 16 years old and goes to the confessional, and you went to that confessional and that basilica. Tell us about the story the day he felt the calling. He is 16 years old boy in goes to the local church, San Jose Church named after st. Josef and its back sill car so ago to buenos aires and im thinking a big basilica, a fancy church, and going to be in downtown boundary boundary and buenos aires and i get there and i walk off the subway and its jammed in between a couple of buildings and theres us a bus stop across the street. Four or five lanes of traffic, and the church is pretty from the outside but not really beautiful and theres a mattress in the corner and a. L. Gentlemen pigeons and i get in the and alley and pigeons and i see the confessional where he said peo