Pope Francis' beloved soccer club in his native Buenos Aires, San Lorenzo , celebrated a Mass late Wednesday dedicated to its most famous fan two days after his death , with Argentina still awash in emotional tributes to the first Latin American pontiff.
Dozens of San Lorenzo club members sporting club jerseys and clutching rosaries gathered to bid farewell to Pope Francis at the team chapel in the Argentine capital's middle-class Almagro district - the same wood-roofed church where another Catholic priest founded the club over a century ago and where Jorge Mario Bergoglio said Mass years before becoming Pope Francis.
Bergoglio attended San Lorenzo matches as a child with his Italian immigrant father and remained an unabashed fan throughout his life, paying monthly club membership fees until his death Monday at the age of 88. Bergoglio grew up in the Flores neighborhood, not far from the San Lorenzo stadium.
"We're not saying goodbye to a fan or the club's most important fan. Today, many of us are saying goodbye to a friend," said Father Juan Pablo Sclippa, who presided over the memorial Mass Wednesday from an altar festooned with portraits of the pope. "Francisco was truly great, the best player on the field, the best player in the world, who never believed in himself."
The San Lorenzo club - founded by Father Lorenzo Massa in 1908 as part of an effort to get children off the crime-ridden streets - became central to Bergoglio's image as the "Pope of the people."