He wanted to be just a “Christ servant”, but they went to look for him “to the end of the world” – he said – to lock him as leader of the Catholic Church. He wanted to leave as simple as possible, so he reduced in his will the pomp that has historically accompanied the death of a Pope. However, it will not be able to prevent your funeral from going to history as a political event at a particularly convulsive and conflicting moment.
After a burning chapel through which 250,000 people have passed, according to the Vatican, Francisco’s funeral has become an international summit that brings together 170 delegations this Saturday and many of the most important leaders in the world, some deeply faced with each other and with the Pope himself. Among them, Donald Trump, whom the Pontiff did not hesitate to criticize for his immigration policies, and that arrives in Europe in the midst of his tariff offensive and a questioned role in the negotiations for peace in Ukraine.
The protocol that has decided the Vatican – alphabetical order of the countries, in the French language – will keep the US president in a position away from the Ukrainian, Volodimir Zelenski, and the authorities of the three European institutions. But bilateral meetings are not ruled out that take advantage of the coincidence in the Italian capital. “If opportunities arise, apart from the funeral, they will take advantage, of course,” a spokeswoman for the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged on Thursday. Trump has already said he plans to see himself with “many leaders.” In Italy, which officiates of host, there are more doubts.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Transalpino, Antonio Tajani, sees “complicated” the ‘International Summit’ format that some seem to want to force in Rome, and has reduced the margin to “occasional encounters during the ceremony.” “I don’t know if it’s the right time to have bilateral when there are so many issues in the agenda,” he said during a trip to Cairo, according to the Italian agency Adnkronos.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, who during his visit to Washington last February showed the deep differences with the American about the Ukraine War, is probably close to Trump. Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be present – on him weighs an arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court – but has sent to an unavailable profile from the political point of view: his Minister of Culture, Olga Borisovna.
Israel does not even have an envoy in Rome. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not sent a member of his government, and in fact, it has taken three days to express his condolences for the death of Pope Francis. He did this Thursday at the last minute with a publication on social networks, after having deleted a message from condolences to the day of his death. On behalf of the country, only its ambassador, and representing the Jewish religion, the rabbi of Rome, who has taken these days of separating the dialogue between religions promoted by Fancisco – with whom he had a good relationship – and the political issues on the genocide in Gaza that the Pontiff denounced using that word.
Milei Busca Su PHOTO
The Argentine President, Javier Milei, his sister and the large delegation of the southern country will occupy the most privileged place, in the front row. It is expected that Milei asserts the privilege of sharing nationality with the Pope – in reality, not much more – to find a photo with his admired Donald Trump and other leaders, who project his international image. Milei came to call Bergoglio “communist”, and “representative of the evil on earth” for defending social justice before being elected. After his death, however, he got rid of praise: he defined him as “the most important Argentine in history.”
Behind, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has presumed these days of the close relationship he had with the Pontiff, although the opposition has reminded him that his policies do not respond in any case to the postulates defended by Francisco. As tacit host of this summit in Rome, Meloni will have to show off his diplomatic skills to amalgamate to a dissimilar assistance and in some cases uncomfortable.
Emmanuel Macron visited the burning chapel before he definitely closed this Friday at seven in the afternoon, but many leaders have hurried the arrival time to the Italian capital. The funeral begins with a ceremony at ten in the morning in the Plaza de San Pedro, at the gates of the Basilica, and continues with a courtship of vehicles that accompany the Pope’s coffin until its last destination, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the historic center of the capital. They are about six kilometers that take half an hour to travel. From there, when Francisco’s body between to be buried, the doors of the basilica close and the cameras stop transmitting live.
Once the ‘mourning mode’ is off, the meetings, propitiated and casual, taking advantage of this exceptional occasion will multiply. An event that brings together in Rome the leaders of the world to honor those who did not want to be, but it was. At an awkward Catholic Church for many of these leaders because it focused on what is not usually set: inequalities, migrations, minorities, poverty. Maybe Francisco also stirred in his chair among those attending his own funeral.
Source: www.eldiario.es
