Pope Francis warned Saturday that the “easy answers” of populism and authoritarianism threaten democracy in Europe and referred to as for contemporary dedication to selling the widespread good.
Arriving in Greece, the birthplace of democracy, Francis used a speech to Greek political and cultural leaders to deal with Europe at massive concerning the threats dealing with the continent. He mentioned solely strong multilateralism can deal with the urgent problems with the day, from defending the atmosphere to combating the pandemic and poverty.
“Politics needs this, in order to put common needs ahead of private interests,” Francis mentioned. “Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today, and not only in Europe, we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.”
Francis, who lived by way of Argentina’s populist Peronist period in addition to its army dictatorship, has ceaselessly warned about the specter of authoritarianism and populism and the hazard it poses to the European Union and democracy itself.
He didn’t title any particular international locations or leaders throughout his speech. The EU, nevertheless, is locked in a feud with members Poland and Hungary over rule-of-law points, with Warsaw insisting that Polish legislation takes priority over EU insurance policies and rules.
Outside the bloc, populist leaders in Brazil and the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump pressed nationalist insurance policies on the atmosphere that contrasted sharply with Francis’ name to take care of “our common home.”
Pope Francis is welcomed by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou as he prepares to ship his speech throughout a gathering with authorities, on the Presidential Palace, in Athens, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. (AP)
Opening the second leg of his five-day journey to Cyprus and Greece, Francis recalled that it was in Greece, in response to Aristotle, that man grew to become acutely aware of being a political animal and a member of a neighborhood of fellow residents.
“Here, democracy was born,” Francis instructed Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou. “That cradle, thousands of years later, was to become a house, a great house of democratic peoples. I am speaking of the European Union and the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents for so many peoples.”
That dream is in danger amid the financial upheaval and different disruptions of the pandemic that may breed nationalist sentiments and make authoritarianism appear “compelling and populism’s easy answers appear attractive,” Francis mentioned.
“The remedy is not to be found in an obsessive quest for popularity, in a thirst for visibility, in a flurry of unrealistic promises … but in good politics,” he mentioned.
As an instance, Francis praised the “necessary vaccination campaign” promoted by authorities authorities to tame the coronavirus. He referenced one other Greek thinker – Hippocrates – in response to vaccine skeptics and virus deniers, who depend many non secular conservatives amongst them.
Pope Francis listens as Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou delivers her speech throughout a gathering with authorities, on the Presidential Palace, in Athens, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. (AP)
Francis cited the Hippocratic oath to not solely do what’s finest for the sick, however to “abstain from whatever is harmful and offensive to others,” particularly the aged.
Greece’s president the sentiment in her speech. “The virus spreads and mutates, helped by the irrational denial of reality and inequalities in our societies,” Sakellaropoulou mentioned.
Greece is grappling with its highest degree of coronavirus infections for the reason that begin of the pandemic with deaths approaching file ranges. 1 / 4 of the nation’s adults stay unvaccinated, and Parliament not too long ago accredited a vaccine mandate for individuals over age 60.
Francis’ journey has been clouded by the Dec. 2 loss of life of the Vatican’s ambassador to the European Union, Archbishop Aldo Giordano. He and the president of the Italian bishops’ convention have been amongst a number of prelates who examined constructive after celebrating Francis’ closing Mass in Slovakia in September.
Pope Francis is greeted by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou as he arrives on the Presidential Palace, in Athens, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. (AP)
The Vatican’s EU embassy insisted that Giordano caught the virus days earlier throughout a European bishops’ assembly in Hungary.
Francis’ go to to Cyprus and Greece additionally has targeted on the plight of migrants as Europe hardens its border management insurance policies. He is scheduled to journey Sunday to the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, the place he visited 5 years in the past to satisfy with migrants at a detention camp.
In Athens, Francis can be assembly the chief of Greece’s Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II grew to become the primary Catholic chief to go to Greece in additional than 1,200 years and Francis’ go to 20 years later is anticipated to additional Catholic-Orthodox ties, nonetheless wounded by the Great Schism that divided Christianity.
Francis has accelerated inter-faith initiatives, as the 2 church buildings try to shift from centuries of competitors and distrust towards collaboration.
Orthodox church buildings are additionally searching for alliances amid a deepening dispute over the independence of the Ukrainian church, which was traditionally ruled by the Russian Orthodox Church.
“I think the presence of the pope in Greece and Cyprus signals a return to the normal relationship that we should have … so that we can move toward what is most important of all: the unity of the Christian world,” Ioannis Panagiotopoulos, an affiliate professor of divinity and church historical past at Athens University, instructed The Associated Press.
Up to 4,000 law enforcement officials have been readied for responsibility in Athens for the pope’s go to, and authorities banned protests and enormous public gatherings in components of central Athens over the weekend.
The pope’s go to ends Monday.
