Jorge Mario Bergoglio − a pope “from the end of the Earth,” unlike his European predecessors − infused Vatican diplomacy with a perspective from the Global South, specifically that of Latin America. It was at times surprising and fascinating, but it could also leave people bewildered or even shocked. From the outset, his approach was rooted in a global world view, where problems are interconnected and the players interdependent. “Everything is connected,” he would say.
He saw conflict and disorder as stemming from economic inequality among countries, the plundering of the Global South’s natural resources, arms sales, environmental predation and efforts by Westerners to promote their way of life − what he referred to as “ideological colonization.” By sowing poverty and disrupting traditional social values, these factors had led to migration, terrorism and war, with the West frequently at fault.
The United States and Europe were also to blame for closing their doors to migrants. In order to inspire social awareness, Francis engaged in symbolic gestures. In a move that sent shockwaves through Europe − in his eyes, a selfish, “unfertile grandmother” − he visited Lampedusa and then Lesbos, from where he brought back three Syrian families. Hispanics in the US, meanwhile, still remember the giant mass in Ciudad Juarez in 2016, held at the barrier fence along the border between Mexico and its northern neighbor. The mass was conducted during the American presidential primary campaign, in which Donald Trump’s promise to build a border wall was a central theme.
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