蜜芽传媒

When Pope Francis lands in Cuba today he鈥檒l start a nine day tour to the island and the United States which takes in not just meetings with the people and bishops but politicians and statesmen, as well as addressing the US Congress and the United Nations.

The trip comes nine months after the Pope played a key part in brokering a deal between President Barack Obama and Cuba鈥檚 president Raoul Castro that ended years of a Latin version of the Cold War.

The deal-making began when Mr Obama spent an hour and a half in private talks with the Pope during a trip to Rome and the Pope was apparently very frank with the president, telling him America鈥檚 efforts to isolate Cuba had instead isolated America. Behind-the-scenes work by the Catholic Church continued, with the Cardinal of Havana hand- delivering letters from the Pope to Castro and Obama, urging reconciliation.
This involvement of the Church in world affairs is not new: Pope John XXIII, for example, publicly spoke out, pleading for peace during the Cuban crisis of 1962, and was later thanked by John F Kennedy and the Russian leader Kruschev for helping avoid conflict.

But should a Church have such a role rather than just the salvation of souls? Didn鈥檛 Christ indicate that there should be a clear division, rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar鈥檚 and to God the things that are God鈥檚?

Vatican diplomacy originally defended the Church鈥檚 own interests 鈥� and there鈥檚 clearly some of that still going on. But since Benedict XV tried to help negotiate peace during the First World War another scriptural text, 鈥淏lessed are the peacemakers鈥� seems to have been more its aim, blurring the divide between sacred and secular.

The late American cardinal Joseph Bernardin took that further, describing Christianity as a seamless robe, just as Christ鈥檚 robe before his crucifixion was not torn in pieces. Bernardin believed that Christians should be ethically engaged with the world, warning that: 鈥淲hen human life is considered 'cheap' or easily expendable in one area, eventually nothing is held as sacred and all lives are in jeopardy.鈥�

When Pope Francis speaks in the next few days, including at the United Nations, that sentiment is likely to echo through his words, when he talks about poverty and the environment and climate change. Political scientists call his kind of influence 鈥渟oft power鈥�; for Pope Francis, though, these speeches are also integral to his role as a teacher of Christianity. When the cardinals elected him in 2013 he joked they had gone to the ends of the earth to find a Pope. In the coming week the man from the periphery will take centre stage.

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