For me, Pope Francis was like a father, a model pastor, a friend who knew me. I greeted him for the first time at one of those meetings where there a… - Cristóbal López Romero

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For me, Pope Francis was like a father, a model pastor, a friend who knew me. I greeted him for the first time at one of those meetings where there are 200 people and the Pope shakes hands with everyone. Then in 2018, he appointed me Bishop of Rabat at the request of the corresponding congregation, and when I got to know him a little better, he admitted that he had appointed me bishop without even knowing what I looked like. I got to know him on a more personal level in 2019, when Francis came to Morocco and I was the host who was to receive him. He came to comfort us and to confirm us in the faith. My fondest memory of that visit was when we went together to visit a social work, in a visit described as private, in which only the driver, security, he and I were present. We sat in the back seat of the car, talking in Spanish and laughing together, first for 20 minutes on the way there and then for 30 minutes on the way back. And there I was able to explain to him who I was and what the Church was like in Morocco. And he probably liked me, because I made him laugh.