Pope Francis\u2019 real interest is geopolitics.<\/p>\n
In less than two years in office, Francis has nudged the conversation away from sex to such as matters as Cuba-U.S. relations and climate change. In September, he will become the first religious leader who serves as a head of state to address a joint session of Congress.<\/p>\n
Pope John Paul II was single-minded in the pursuit of ending Communism in the 1980s, while Pope Benedict XVI was a gaffe-prone bookworm fretting over relativism. <\/p>\n
Francis, in contrast, is making his own pivot towards Asia. He already has been twice to the region shunned by his predecessor with a view not only to refilling pews, but also gaining traction with the rising powers.<\/p>\n
The challenge for Francis \u2014 who is from a religious order that proselytized in China in the 16th century \u2014 is how to work with China today. The Vatican and the world\u2019s most populous country have been at odds since 1951 over, among many things, the right to ordain bishops.<\/p>\n
Francis, who says he would go to Beijing tomorrow, has a secret corridor with the new leadership for diplomatic messages. There have been small gestures on both sides: Francis didn\u2019t see the Dalai Lama in Rome; doing so would have incensed Chinese authorities. President Xi Jinping allowed Francis to fly in China\u2019s airspace, the first time a pope was granted that right.<\/p>\n
China has about 12 million Catholics \u2014 three times the number in Ireland \u2014 compared with a mere 300,000 in Taiwan.<\/p>\n
The gap between the pope\u2019s knowledge and effectiveness may be large. Francis has dived into tough international conflicts including Korea, Cuba and Palestine and not all has gone well.<\/p>\n
While he brought attention to the plight of Palestinians by praying in Bethlehem near graffiti that read \u201cFree Palestine,\u201d his visit was followed by violence against the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
He was much more successful with Cuba, secretly hosting delegations from there and the U.S. and playing a vital role in the prisoner exchanges that led to renewed relations after half a century.<\/p>\n
He has announced plans to shrink the bureaucracy that runs the church, removed executives at the mismanaged Vatican Bank and told cardinals to abandon their limousines and catch the bus.<\/p>\n
At the bank, he\u2019s brought a measure of transparency following allegations of illegal behavior and poor oversight. The bank now publishes an annual report, has closed 2,000 accounts and undertaken a review of 18,000 clients.<\/p>\n
Source: Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pope Francis\u2019 real interest is geopolitics. In less than two years in office, Francis has nudged the conversation away from sex to such as matters as Cuba-U.S. relations and climate change. In September, he will become the first religious leader who serves as a head of state to address a joint session of Congress. Pope … Continue reading “Pope pivots to Asia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[4525,3329,144,10856,963,1420],"class_list":["post-17763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-asia","tag-catholics","tag-china","tag-geopolitics","tag-politics","tag-sex"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17764,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17763\/revisions\/17764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}