How Pope Francis wanted to visit Scotland and its islands - but never could
Professor Mario Aguilar from the University of St Andrews met Pope Francis more than 200 times
A Scottish university professor who met the Pope more than 200 times recalls how the pontiff wanted to visit Scotland, but was unable to do so due to bureaucracy and security concerns.
Professor Mario Aguilar, from the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, said Pope Francis had hoped to attend the signing of the St Andrews Declaration of a Shared Humanity in 2016 and had also voiced a private desire to visit some Scottish islands.
Organisers of the declaration event spoke to the Scottish Government and Catholic officials in Scotland. However, the visit never took place.
Prof Aguilar, author of a 2014 biography titled, Pope Francis: His Life and Thought, had known the Pope since his days as a priest and bishop in his native Argentina. Known as Father Jorge Bergoglio before he was elected as Pope in 2013, Prof Aguilar recalled a “smiling, fun, merciful” man who enjoyed Argentinian food and wine.
“[The Papal visit] did not happen because everybody was worried it had not been cleared,” Prof Aguilar said. “Francis said to me of the signing of the declaration, simply ‘I could go for a short while, let me arrange to arrive there and come back - on a private visit’.”
“But people are a bit complicated at times. Of course we have dangers in the world. But Francis wanted to go to more places. He simply wanted to say ‘this is the private Jorge Bergoglio who wants to come to St Andrews’. But in the end it didn’t work.
“With state visits, the question is, always, who has cleared this? Pope Francis wanted to be here in the morning of that day and wanted to just arrive in Edinburgh, go to St Andrews, be at the signing of the declaration, have lunch with other religious leaders and return.
“And we all found that it was more difficult to do that than actually have a state visit. That gave the impression then that the Pope was not welcome in Scotland.”
He recalled a conversation with the pontiff about a possible trip to some Scottish islands.
Prof Aguilar said: “He was always very curious about Scotland and wanted to visit Scotland. He said to me ‘I want to go to the islands’, and I said ‘Fine, we can get a boat from Oban.’ But it wasn’t possible. I never understood why other world leaders can go on holiday, but it was too difficult for Pope Francis to take a personal trip.”
He added: “He enjoyed those moments [of informality] because he never understood why people could not treat other people as equal.”
Prof Aguilar remembered meetings over espresso with Pope Francis, discussing ecclesiastical issues - and the Pope’s favourite football team, Buenos-Aires based San Lorenzo.
“He was merciful,” he said. “Jolly. He liked to smile. And as a good Argentinian, he wanted to eat and he liked Argentinian wine. Several times I went with him for a cup of coffee and so on.
“He was fun to be with and he was a jolly good man. I feel sad today, but simply think ‘well, I'll have a good wee dram in the evening, thinking, my God, we had a great Pope’. He was a great person.”
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