This said the Pope Francis to Jorge Fontevecchiaduring the interview that took place in the Vatican, on the occasion of his ten years of papacy in the Catholic Church:
“—His parents were saved from dying by not having taken a ship that left Italy bound for South America, and which ended up sinking in the ocean. You yourself suffered an ailment that could have ended your life, do you believe in destiny, what is your relationship with respect to a certain predetermination of life?
—Dad and grandparents, because mom was Argentine. They had a ticket for the “Principessa Mafalda” on the 27th and they had not finished selling the properties they had in Italy, and they transferred it to the “Giulio Cesare” on January 29th, they were saved from being shipwrecked.
—It’s not a very common story, most ships don’t sink.
—The “Principessa Mafalda” thing was a tragedy, not all of them died, but half died on the coast of Brazil. Fate, each one walks through life and God chooses, they didn’t read my hand, “here you are going to be Pope”.
“Do you believe in destiny?”
—Fate as God’s foresight, yes, but not as something unchangeable, as something that is already destined, no. Destiny is the way, it is the vocation that God gives you, but it leaves you free. And you can accept that call from God or not accept it.
“There is free will.
“Thank God it exists.”
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The fate of the Italian “Titanic”
He Princess Mafalda it was the best ship of the early 20th century. It had been built by the Genoese, seafarers at heart, to cover the Genoa – Buenos Aires route. With all her honors, she was launched in 1909, when she made her maiden voyage covering the vast Atlantic at 18 knots per hour.
At the pinnacle of the Italian Futurist movement, at the apotheosis of speed, the Princess Mafalda It was a portentous “beast” of 141 meters long, with 9,210 tons register, which three triple expansion steam engines propelled with the help of two twin screw propellers.
He Princess Mafalda could not fail. However, it failed, against all odds. And there is nothing worse than not knowing how to interpret the signs.
Because the Princess Mafaldawho reigned in the Atlantic for two decades, bringing xeneize blood to La Boca, had a sister ship, the Principessa Jolanda, who had sunk at sea just launched on the adventure on September 22, 1907, five years before the sinking of the Titanic.
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Owned by the shipping company NGI (Navigazione Generale Italiana), it was named in honor of Princess Mafalda of Savoy, second daughter of the Neapolitan king Vittorio Emanuele III, the monarch of the two World Wars and of fascism, the one who finally had Mussolini arrested.
With amenities to transport 180 passengers in first class150 in the second and 1,200 in the third, had a two-story ballroom and profuse Louis XVI-style gilt decoration.
Princess Mafalda, the Italian “Titanic”.
He October 11, 1927the Principessa Mafalda set sail from Genoa, under the command of Captain Simone Gulì, and should arrive in Buenos Aires 14 days laterafter making stops in Barcelona, Dakar, Rio de Janeiro, Santos and Montevideo.
On that trip, he was carrying a total of 971 passengersattended by 281 crew on board. In its warehouses, it embraced 300 tons of cargo, 600 sacks of paper letters and an interesting fact: 250,000 gold liras that were to reach the hands of the Argentine government, at the time in charge of Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, married to the soprano Regina. Pacini, daughter of Pietro Pacini, the prolific author of 90 Italian operas.
After the first stop in Barcelona, the headaches began for the captain Simone Gulì. There were mechanical failures that forced it to set sail from the port of Barcelona 24 hours later than expected.
The Principessa Mafalda brought 250,000 gold liras to Argentina for the government of Marcelo T. de Alvear
Con sloth browsing Climbing up a palm tree, it plowed through the water so slowly that the passengers could not tell if they were moving forward or had stopped. Sometimes they even dropped anchor on the high seas for long hours.
The refrigeration system broke, some people were poisoned and they ended up throwing tons of food at the fish. In a unexpected stopover in Cape Verdethe captain ordered emergency repairs, restocked the iceboxes, and asked NGI for a replacement vessel, but the company wired him “Continue to Rio and wait for instructions.”
The fate of Principessa Mafalda
Without major news on the sea front, the ship continued with its stops and crossed the Atlantic while the happy passengers, who had believed that the mishaps had already been corrected, enjoyed the champagne, the sumptuous life and the sunsets on deck.
Until October 23, when it became clear that the ship was sailing to the side, with a list to port. The next day, however, already very close to the coast of Brazil, the call for a “titanic” party to celebrate the crossing of the Equator Line, with a live orchestra, a special dinner and a huge cake, blurred the frown of the skeptics. There was nothing to fear.
If they had listened to their co-religionist, Luigi Pirandello, who knew better than anyone that “nothing that it seems is”… On October 25, the ship shook several times with shudders that came from the depths of his being.
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The captain tried to hide it by saying that a propeller had broken and that, 80 nautical miles from Salvador de Bahía, there was nothing to fear. Indeed, he believed that he renga, his Princess Mafalda would crawl to the Brazilian coast. Defeated by the obvious launched a maritime SOS and, shortly, two ships sailing close by, the Empire Star of Great Britain and Dutch Alhenathey approached.
Fate and Pope Francis
Sunny day, nearby help, lifeboats… everything seemed under control and with a twist. However, the scary scenes that James Cameron showed us in Titanic (1997) could be considered a revelation of what must have been the last hours of the Princess Mafaldaits disastrous sequel.
Cabins filling with water; panic and lack of control; armed passengers demanding priority by waving their weapons; lifeboats that they sank from being overweight and despair; the wreckers in the distance, fearing that the boilers would explode; the heartrending cries of divided families; the captain Simone Gulì drowning, in the womb of his Princess, along with his two faithful radio operators; the chief engineer, shooting himself in the temple…
At 10 p.m., five hours after the death rattles, the sea swallowed the Princess savoring it as if it were a last bite.
In it Italian “Titanic” killed 314 people and it was the greatest tragedy in the history of modern Italian navigation that was studied and reanalyzed several times until giving a curious fact: in the Princess Mafalda more first-class passengers (51.8%) died than third-class (27.8%).
A “reversal” of fate caused Jorge Bergoglio’s family to lose the trip. If it had not been so, today we would not have Pope Francis.
MM / ED
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