Peter and Caesar: whether the Vatican’s foreign policy will be as consequential under Francis I as it was under John Paul II is yet to be seen.

Is Pope Francis Shifting

the Vatican’s Worldview?

by Roland Flamini

Prior to Pope Francis’s visit to the Holy Land, his ambassadors sought to temper expectations by reminding officials in Washington and other capitals that the pontiff himself had called it “strictly a religious trip.” Its main purpose, they said, was to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras—the first such encounter after a thousand years of antagonism between the two churches, Roman Catholic and Orthodox. But in a region where religion and politics are an explosive mix, every word he spoke, every step he took was going to be scrutinized for any hint of support for one side to the disadvantage of the other, and no one knew it better than Francis. But the Argentine-born pope already had a reputation for not avoiding controversial issues—and a gift for making unexpected symbolic gestures to make his point.*

His program upset Israelis even before his departure: unlike the two previous popes to come to the Holy Land, Francis crossed from Jordan to the West Bank before visiting Israel, and the Vatican announced that he would meet “the president of the state of Palestine”—an entity endorsed by the Holy See, but not recognized by Israel, or for that matter, the United States. But by and large, as was widely reported, his visit showed a fine sense of balance. Residual animosity was negligible. For example, later, when he landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, he called for recognition of “the right of the state of Israel to exist and to flourish in peace and security within internationally recognized boundaries.”

His impromptu stop by the twenty-six-foot-high Israeli security wall that cuts through the West Bank, where he rested his forehead against the concrete and prayed silently while a child holding a Palestinian flag looked on, was a powerful image that angered some Israelis, but the fact that he made no statement defused the incident—and opened the way for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take him to Israel’s Victims of Terrorism monument, which was not on the schedule either. The prompt acceptance by both Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of his equally spontaneous invitation to come to Rome to pray together for a peaceful settlement of what he called the “unacceptable” Israeli-Palestinian dispute reflected the atmosphere of goodwill generated by his personality. He celebrated Mass on three occasions on the trip, and he addressed words of peace, reconciliation, and hope to Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike.

By choosing the minefield of the Holy Land for his first foreign visit (his earlier trip to Brazil had been planned for his predecessor), Francis has given notice that he sees himself as a major player on the international stage—but it is hardly the first sign.

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