IS POPE FRANCIS A MASTER OF DECEPTION?

 

 

As we move towards a new world order the power of the Vatican is going to have a great influence on political events. In fact, the Pope is going to wield tremendous political power. This article explores the recent Papel endorsed U.S.- Cuba relations thaw.

 

 

Why Did Pope Francis Push for a U.S.-Cuba Thaw?

 

 

“How many divisions does the pope of Rome have?” That was Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s reply after British Prime Minister Winston Churchill advised him, in the aftermath of World War II, to consider the Vatican’s perspective while laying out a plan for the future of Eastern Europe.

Stalin respected only brute force. The Vatican had none, so he dismissed it as irrelevant.

 

But today Stalin and the Soviet behemoth he led are long gone, while the papal system remains. And it was actually a pope—blending politics with religion—who sparked the revolution that eventually toppled the Berlin Wall, and brought down that Soviet system.

 

In the decades since the Berlin Wall crumbled, the Vatican has wielded its political power in other international disputes: In the early 1990s, it helped bust Yugoslavia apart along lines that benefited Germany’s Europe project. In 2007, it defused a potentially explosive conflict by persuading Iran to release 15 captured British sailors. The next year, it was instrumental in forcing the resignation of an Italian prime minister.

But last month, all these events were eclipsed by a bolder and starker display of papal political might: Restoring diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba after a 53-year deep freeze.

“Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me, and to Cuba’s President Raúl Castro,” President Barack Obama said Dec. 17, 2014. That appeal came in the form of letters the pope wrote to both leaders, which the Vatican followed up by hosting a secret meeting in Rome.

But it was actually Francis’s predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict xvi, who in 2013 made the first high-level Vatican moves to normalize U.S.-Cuba relations. Francis carried on his work, and, after months of maneuvering behind the scenes, the historic deal was sealed.

“Francis is a master of blending the spiritual with the political,” wrote npr’s Rome-based senior Europe correspondent, Sylvia Poggioli. “[He] has embraced the bully pulpit of the papacy, emerging as a daring, independent broker on the global stage.”

Papal biographer Austen Ivereigh said, “Francis is a genius at breaking through and building bridges across boundaries.”

But what kinds of deals is Francis brokering? What kind of bridges is he building? And who do they benefit? The Vatican’s statement about the deal said it is “in the interest of the citizens of both countries.”

Entire article found here:
https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/12338.18.0.0/religion/roman-catholicism/why-did-pope-francis-push-for-a-us-cuba-thaw