2023-09-25 08:00:00
In July 2013, Pope Francis made his entrance onto the international scene by visiting the island of Lampedusa, drawing the attention of international opinion to the tragic situation of migrants and transforming the figure of the migrant into a catalyst for destructive effects. of poorly controlled globalization. The subject has since taken an important place in the globalized pastoral care of the Sovereign Pontiff, who has made action in favor of peace the major axis of his international action.
In Catholic language, we would say that Francis is mobilizing in favor of “integral peace”, that of the whole man and all men. In a more academic way, the pope’s approach relates to an interpretation of peace in terms of “human security”, that is to say a security which is not reduced to military issues, but embraces much more broadly the all of the fundamental needs of humanity.
Throughout this decade, the approach of the Holy See has been structured around four fundamental and interrelated themes: the first is that of the denunciation of the arms race, a theme to which the Pope added a more personal touch by denouncing not only nuclear deterrence but also the very possession of nuclear weapons.
The second strong axis is that of mobilization in favor of the environment, more fundamentally of integral ecology, of which the encyclicaland Laudato si‘(May 24, 2015) remains the emblematic document. The desire to take care of our ” commune house “ gave rise to numerous Catholic mobilizations throughout the world and allowed the Catholic Church to catch up intellectually while regaining its place among the actors involved on the subject.
If these two themes have benefited from the personal reflection of the Sovereign Pontiff, it is an understatement to say that the third type of intervention on the international scene, that of mediation in favor of peace, is directly related to his involvement. The pope has continued, with various successes, and at the risk of being taken over by Vatican diplomacy, to leave diplomatic habits and customs to borrow the clothes of a man of good will, sometimes a pacifist, also a political savvy, for example when it came to strengthening a regime of tolerance with Muslim worlds.
Finally, as we have said, the Pope has strongly mobilized in favor of migrants and refugees: the growing importance of the problem in international relations – the International Organization for Migration puts forward the figure of 27,000 deaths in the Mediterranean since 2014 –, the personal shock felt by the pope when he traveled to Lampedusa or Lesbos, are some of the factors explaining this insistence.
This entire pontifical policy is deployed against the multifaceted aspects of contemporary violence (the pope evokes the reality of a “third world war fought in pieces”). None of the four approaches of course generates a consensus in public opinion, on the part of States and even among Catholics, the subject of migration being undoubtedly the most controversial among European Catholics.
The accusation made by those Catholics more sensitive to a heritage and cultural approach to Catholicism and to the identity questions raised by migrations will relate to the supposedly weak knowledge of local realities and the “overhanging” words of the Sovereign Pontiff, question, moreover , traditional. In this regard, the pope’s coming to Marseille was an interesting experience for the Church. This trip was grafted onto a previous European ecclesial event, that of the Mediterranean Meetings, established in 2020 in Italy in Bari. This time the pope went further, considering “a Conference of Mediterranean Bishops” giving a “greater ecclesial representativeness in the region”.
The ethico-political approach of Pope Francis, with a universalist aim, is then likely to be articulated on local considerations – those experienced by the local Churches –, but also regional: this is the vocation of the Mediterranean Meetings, which are based on a synodal type approach according to Cardinal Aveline.
In the light of this pontificate, we can indeed underline that the pope’s visit to Marseille in this unprecedented setting was the occasion for ecclesial governance “on three levels”, from local to regional and global, reflected in complementary words. Lived experience of complexity, which could also be useful for our democracies equally concerned by modes of governance to be reinvented, particularly in a country like France where the “verticality” of power has shown its limits.
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