U.S.-Cuba normalization marks Vatican’s most significant diplomatic victory in generation
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/12/19/god-politics-u-s-cuba-normalization-marks-vaticans-most-significant-diplomatic-victory-in-generation/
AP Photo/Gabriel Bouys, File PoolPope Francis and President Barack Obama smile as they meet at the Vatican Thursday, March 27, 2014.
Last
summer, Jorge Mario Bergolio, a middle-class Jesuit from Buenos Aires,
better known to most of the world as Pope Francis, sat down in his
Vatican office to write two extraordinary letters.
His Holiness had a simple message: To the leaders of the United States and Cuba, he urged rapprochement, an end to conflict and a move toward some kind of peace.
Remarkably, four months later, on Dec. 17, the Pope’s wish came at least partially true. In a surprise press conference this week, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a new, normalized relationship with Cuba.
Next year, for the first time since 1961, the U.S. will open an embassy in Havana. Travel restrictions between the two countries will be eased and commercial ties fostered.
In separate speeches, Mr. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro praised the pontiff’s intervention. Pope Francis hosted talks between the two sides in the Vatican. More importantly, he served as a key moral and political guarantor for both parties.
“I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is,” Mr. Obama said.
The deal represents the most significant diplomatic victory for the
Vatican in a generation. And it came about in no small part because of
the Pope’s enormous personal popularity.
“It’s hard to say no to him,” said Fr. Thomas Reese, a senior analyst at the National Catholic Reporter.
In less than two years as pontiff, Pope Francis has shifted the way much of the world thinks about the Roman Catholic Church.
After years church leaders obsessing over abortion, contraception and opposition to gay rights, the pope has set them talking about poverty, economics and peace.
“What I would say is that he’s rebranding the Catholic Church,” said Fr. Reese.
In the process, Pope Francis may be upending a long-time relationship between God and politics in the Western world.
The first Jesuit pontiff is opening up space for progressives to embrace the church and its teachings, to use Catholic doctrine as a moral cudgel on the left after decades in which “God” and “conservative” have been near synonyms in the political sphere.
But as a new biography of Pope Francis makes clear, he is no radical or socialist. What he is, instead, is deeply skeptical of fixed ideologies, right, left or otherwise.
“He sees himself as defending ordinary people against the elites. And in a way the left and right thing is an elite argument,” said Austen Ivereigh, author of The Great Reformer, a comprehensive look at the pope’s background and early years.
“He wants to root himself and the church in the ordinary concerns of the poor.”
That hasn’t stopped some from trying to brand Pope Francis as a liberal or a Marxist. In fact, one of the reasons Mr. Ivereigh said he wrote the book was to try to correct what he sees as a widespread misinterpretation of the pope’s message.
Pope Francis hasn’t changed church doctrine on the most divisive questions of the age.
“He’s not in favour of gay marriage. He’s not in favour of abortion,” said Mr. Reese. What he’s done instead is re-order some public priorities. “He believes the church should stress firstly mercy,” said Mr. Ivereigh. He also thinks church leaders need to spend more time listening to ordinary people.
That said, while he is no communist, Pope Francis is clearly critical of capitalism.
“He just doesn’t buy the trickle-down theory,” said Fr. Reese. As a bishop in Buenos Aires, he became famous for taking the bus to the slums and visiting the homes of the poor.
“I think he developed a great sckpticism of capitalism and globalization [there]. Maybe Argentina was getting richer at one time, but he didn’t see the poor getting richer.”
Perhaps because he is so hard to pin down ideologically, Pope Francis
has become a lightning rod for criticism from both the left and the
right at various times in his career.
In his book, Mr. Ivereigh recreates with painstaking detail the role Fr. Bergolio, then head of the Jesuits in Argentina, played during the “Dirty War” in Argentina. When he first became pope, critics accused him of collaborating with the military junta. Some even said he served up two of his colleagues for assassination.
Mr. Ivereigh believes that account isn’t fair or accurate. It is true Fr. Bergolio did not speak out publicly against the junta. He also opposed the “liberation theologists,” church figures who mixed Catholic theology with Marxist teaching and who were active in Latin America at the time.
But he worked behind the scenes to help potential government targets flee Argentina. According to the account in The Great Reformer, he sheltered many in Jesuit-owned facilities and used Jesuit contacts across South America to smuggle dozens to safety.
To achieve that task, he relied on two things that shape him to this day: secrecy and connections.
“He’s a very canny strategist and he keeps his cards very close to his chest,” said Mr. Ivereigh. “He operates through relationships and quite informally, so there’s never much of a paper trail.”
That tendency was on also display in the recent negotiations.
“The restoration of U.S.-Cuba relations came as in incredible surprise,” he added. “It was huge news and very people knew about it. That’s very typical of him.”
Whatever happens behind closed doors, though, Pope Francis clearly intends to keep speaking out publicly on issues usually associated with the political left.
Fr. Reese, a fellow Jesuit, said the pontiff is planning to release an encyclical — a kind of authoritative letter — on the environment in 2015. And as events this week have shown, when this pope speaks, people listen.
“He has returned the Vatican to the centre of the world stage,” Mr. Ivereigh said.
National Pos
His Holiness had a simple message: To the leaders of the United States and Cuba, he urged rapprochement, an end to conflict and a move toward some kind of peace.
Remarkably, four months later, on Dec. 17, the Pope’s wish came at least partially true. In a surprise press conference this week, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a new, normalized relationship with Cuba.
Next year, for the first time since 1961, the U.S. will open an embassy in Havana. Travel restrictions between the two countries will be eased and commercial ties fostered.
In separate speeches, Mr. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro praised the pontiff’s intervention. Pope Francis hosted talks between the two sides in the Vatican. More importantly, he served as a key moral and political guarantor for both parties.
“I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is,” Mr. Obama said.
“It’s hard to say no to him,” said Fr. Thomas Reese, a senior analyst at the National Catholic Reporter.
In less than two years as pontiff, Pope Francis has shifted the way much of the world thinks about the Roman Catholic Church.
After years church leaders obsessing over abortion, contraception and opposition to gay rights, the pope has set them talking about poverty, economics and peace.
“What I would say is that he’s rebranding the Catholic Church,” said Fr. Reese.
In the process, Pope Francis may be upending a long-time relationship between God and politics in the Western world.
The first Jesuit pontiff is opening up space for progressives to embrace the church and its teachings, to use Catholic doctrine as a moral cudgel on the left after decades in which “God” and “conservative” have been near synonyms in the political sphere.
But as a new biography of Pope Francis makes clear, he is no radical or socialist. What he is, instead, is deeply skeptical of fixed ideologies, right, left or otherwise.
“He sees himself as defending ordinary people against the elites. And in a way the left and right thing is an elite argument,” said Austen Ivereigh, author of The Great Reformer, a comprehensive look at the pope’s background and early years.
“He wants to root himself and the church in the ordinary concerns of the poor.”
That hasn’t stopped some from trying to brand Pope Francis as a liberal or a Marxist. In fact, one of the reasons Mr. Ivereigh said he wrote the book was to try to correct what he sees as a widespread misinterpretation of the pope’s message.
Pope Francis hasn’t changed church doctrine on the most divisive questions of the age.
“He’s not in favour of gay marriage. He’s not in favour of abortion,” said Mr. Reese. What he’s done instead is re-order some public priorities. “He believes the church should stress firstly mercy,” said Mr. Ivereigh. He also thinks church leaders need to spend more time listening to ordinary people.
That said, while he is no communist, Pope Francis is clearly critical of capitalism.
“He just doesn’t buy the trickle-down theory,” said Fr. Reese. As a bishop in Buenos Aires, he became famous for taking the bus to the slums and visiting the homes of the poor.
“I think he developed a great sckpticism of capitalism and globalization [there]. Maybe Argentina was getting richer at one time, but he didn’t see the poor getting richer.”
SABCU.S.
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro in
Soweto, South Africa, in the rain for a memorial service for former
South African President Nelson Mandela in December 2013.
In his book, Mr. Ivereigh recreates with painstaking detail the role Fr. Bergolio, then head of the Jesuits in Argentina, played during the “Dirty War” in Argentina. When he first became pope, critics accused him of collaborating with the military junta. Some even said he served up two of his colleagues for assassination.
Mr. Ivereigh believes that account isn’t fair or accurate. It is true Fr. Bergolio did not speak out publicly against the junta. He also opposed the “liberation theologists,” church figures who mixed Catholic theology with Marxist teaching and who were active in Latin America at the time.
But he worked behind the scenes to help potential government targets flee Argentina. According to the account in The Great Reformer, he sheltered many in Jesuit-owned facilities and used Jesuit contacts across South America to smuggle dozens to safety.
To achieve that task, he relied on two things that shape him to this day: secrecy and connections.
“He’s a very canny strategist and he keeps his cards very close to his chest,” said Mr. Ivereigh. “He operates through relationships and quite informally, so there’s never much of a paper trail.”
That tendency was on also display in the recent negotiations.
“The restoration of U.S.-Cuba relations came as in incredible surprise,” he added. “It was huge news and very people knew about it. That’s very typical of him.”
Whatever happens behind closed doors, though, Pope Francis clearly intends to keep speaking out publicly on issues usually associated with the political left.
Fr. Reese, a fellow Jesuit, said the pontiff is planning to release an encyclical — a kind of authoritative letter — on the environment in 2015. And as events this week have shown, when this pope speaks, people listen.
“He has returned the Vatican to the centre of the world stage,” Mr. Ivereigh said.
National Pos
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