Pope Francis the Diplomat – part 1

After yesterday’s post about the bridge, I thought of celebrating Pope Francis’ 10 year anniversary as a true bridge-builder, a true diplomat, not in the political sense, but in a human way. Since his 2013 election, Francis has made 40 international trips — daringly becoming the first pope to enter an active war zone during a 2015 visit to the Central African Republic; meeting with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of the world's Shiite Muslims, during a March 2021 trip to Iraq; and undertaking a joint ecumenical visit in February to South Sudan, where the Pope, the archbishop of Canterbury, England, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland begged the opposition leaders of the world's youngest country to work together for peace.  The release of his 2015 environmental encyclical, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," was credited with helping to rally world leaders to deepen their commitment to combating the climate crisis ahead of a major gathering in Paris later that year. In 2019, the Pope and the leader of the world's Sunni Muslims, Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, jointly signed a document on "Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together," which has been widely praised as a major advancement in the Catholic Church's relationship with the Muslim world. Two years later, that document formed the basis for Francis' 2021 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, which called for a rejection of war and a deepening of global solidarity. Francis wanted to build on the momentum of the Second Vatican Council's calls for greater ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, especially with the Muslim world.  In June 2014 Francis invited Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to join him and the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for a time of joint prayer and the planting of an olive tree inside the Vatican gardens in an effort to promote peace in the Middle East. In Malta last year he visited the center for refugees to further accentuate his interest and concern in saving as many lives as possible, recalling that one of his first trips outside of Rome was to visit the island of Lampedusa, where many refugees were seeking refuge.