No government grandeur can match that of the Vatican. Beautiful.
8 January 2018
By Christopher Lamb
Pope offers (click here) contrasting global vision to Trump in address to diplomats
Pope Francis today issued a blueprint for geopolitical stability, calling for a de-escalation of tensions in Korea, for nuclear disarmament and for world leaders to recognise that migrating to another country is a “fundamental human right”.
He set out his vision this morning during his annual address to diplomats.
His message runs counter to that of US President Donald Trump, underlining the Pope's role as an upholder of the compassionate, internationally-focussed, post-war consensus.
Speaking to ambassadors from the 183 countries which the Holy See has relations with, the Pope made an indirect criticism of Trump’s policy on Jerusalem which the president recently decided would be recognised as the capital of Israel. This move ran roughshod over United Nations’ resolutions on the matter and Francis – stressing the city is “sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims” – called for those agreements to be a respected through a commitment to keeping the “status quo” of the city.
Francis’s address this morning took place in the Sala Regia, a room full of medieval frescoes in the Vatican’s apostolic palace. The speech is the closest thing the Holy See has to a policy document on world affairs, although as the Pope pointed out in his speech, Vatican diplomacy "seeks only to promote the spiritual and material well-being of the human person and to pursue the common good"....
