This June 14th afternoon, Pope Francis made the journey to Borgo Egnazia, a seaside resort in Puglia, Italy, to participate in the G7 summit, which brings together the 7 major world economic powers. A historic first, as no pope had ever participated in the G7 before. (Vatican Agency Zenit)
It’s difficult to say how much of the evangelization is in this presence and how much is Vatican diplomacy, which, as is well known, appears to be among the most seasoned and far-sighted. What is nevertheless surprising is first and foremost the very fact that the Pope, representative of the Catholic Church, was invited to this type of summit that brings together some of the world’s ‘powerful’ in politics and economics.
The Pope’s invitation, for reasons that are not difficult to discern, is already a sign and a message whose tragic choice cannot fail to leave traces in the present and future of the papacy and the Church itself. Being invited to the summit of some of the richest and most powerful countries in the world means giving sufficient ‘guarantees’ to the system so that it can perpetuate itself or at least continue to legitimize itself.
Having accepted the invitation (or perhaps the proposal came from the Vatican and was accepted by the summit’s diplomats), as the Pope has done, is nothing but the umpteenth and pathetic attempt to accompany, as a ‘court chaplain’, the current system which, like the capitalism of which it is the expression, was born and grew without a heart. We should not forget that the members of this summit are co-responsible for or supporters of the production, sale, and use of weapons in war zones. These are therefore people who have blood on their hands.
On the other hand, it seems typical of this unfathomable and ambiguous pontificate to play on all fronts with the same shameless ease. Meeting and valuing social movements. Taking the poor as a transformative element of the system (according to well-assimilated Latin American lessons). Protecting migrants in their search for a future and speaking of ‘peripheries’ from which a new world and a listening Church should spring forth. This and much more on the agenda, without forgetting the countless times when it was necessary to clarify, rectify, contradict what was stated the previous day in one of the many speeches read or improvised.
At the same time, the same pontiff (a true bridge between different shores) accompanies and celebrates a Vatican alliance with ‘Inclusive Capitalism’ which sees among its members and promoters the most quoted magnates of globalized capitalism. Then with the manipulated Covid crisis, the current pope touched the worst one could have expected from any shoddy politician. The obligation for all Vatican State personnel to be vaccinated under penalty of immediate dismissal, the firm invitation made to Christian faithful to get vaccinated ‘as a gesture of love’ and the more or less ‘secret’ meetings with bosses of the vaccination industry, Bourla.
Despite the damages caused and ascertained, the increase in mortality in the countries that have administered the most ‘vaccines’, not a single word of attention has ever escaped the pope for those who have suffered because of his firm invitation to get vaccinated, much less the official request for forgiveness for having missed the target. He has never asked for forgiveness for the lack of respect for the rights of employees who could have chosen whether or not to get vaccinated in full freedom of conscience, as Church documents and official medicine have long emphasized.
The ‘democratic’ appearance of this papacy is then contradicted by protagonism in daily public life that exhibits itself in an asphyxiating way to the point of wondering if there is still an Italian episcopal conference worthy of this name. Everywhere and on every topic, a word, an allusion, and above all a confirmation is expected. Even in television broadcasts followed by a large audience where one has the right and pleasure to listen to what Pope Bergoglio affirms, supports, proposes, and above all alludes to.
And, finally, the physical participation in the G7 summit which has included other brand-name guests, but not Russia and China for example. Invited, welcomed, and finally assimilated to the powerful, among those who have the right of presence, listening, and audience. To talk about artificial intelligence of which, it seems, the Vatican has assumed a not insignificant and naturally appreciated role. A Church as a sign of contradiction for today’s empires seems to have gone out of fashion. Settling next to the power of the day and at the same time taking the defense of the poor raises suspicion about the authenticity and sincerity of those who play at putting on a show for the public.
No poor person was invited to the mentioned summit. In the not-too-distant past, for example the G8 in Genoa, it was presented as a boast of the summit to invite people from some countries who would help not to forget that there is also and above all another world. The one the pope often alludes to and which becomes visible in wars, migrations, and rare earths… to be exploited for ecological reasons well remembered by the latest exhortation, also in the pay of a single version of the world.
The presence of the pope among the ‘great’ of the system saddens, worries, and shames those who thought that choosing the poor and their path was not to make one’s way among the powerful to become their ‘chaplain’ and ultimately their guarantor. It is the exhibition of a betrayal in using the faces and silence of the poor to then settle at the table of the rich and powerful.
