A good Jesuit, Francis is applying the maxim "Pray as if everything depended on God, work as if everything depended on you," a Vatican official told La Croix's Loup Besmond de Senneville.

In the Vatican, prayer is also closely linked to the diplomatic efforts undertaken since the beginning of the conflict.

"You don't put diplomacy in one box and spiritual activity in another," said a Holy See diplomat.

"If we are conducting this diplomacy, it is because we are Catholic," he said.

"There are different levels of action," said a Roman Curia official close to the pope, pointing out that these include prayer, diplomacy and solidarity.

"It's as if these dimensions were somehow the floors of the same building.

"When it comes to prayer, the pope is trying to play a different card with a much more spiritual aspect.

"It is a card that only the Vatican can play," said the diplomat.

Friday's act of consecration is linked to the Marian apparitions that are said to have taken place at Fatima in 1917 and is intimately linked to petitions for peace.

"Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons," Francis prayed.

During the ceremony, Francis pointed out that the consecration is not a "magic formula".

Calling it a "spiritual act," Francis said the consecration is "an act of complete trust".

He said it comes from children who, "amid the tribulation of this cruel and senseless war that threatens our world, turn to their Mother, reposing all their fears and pain in her heart and abandoning themselves to her."

The prayer service is Francis' latest effort to rally prayers for an end to the war.

"We are on the verge of the third world war: for Francis, it is urgent to mobilise all spiritual forces," a close friend of Francis told.

"Francis' gesture may raise some eyebrows. But it is, in fact, profoundly realistic", writes Dominique Greiner, La Croix's senior editor.

Consecrating Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary reminds us that the roots of war are always in the human heart: we, therefore, need spiritual remedies to put an end to it.

Greiner goes further, calling the consecration "prophetic"; the defenceless voices of prayer denouncing the deployment of increasingly sophisticated weapons that sow death and desolation.

Francis praying like this Greiner calls a sign of hope, a sign that peace is possible.

On Sunday, the Holy Father followed up his Friday prayer for peace by telling thousands gathered in St Peter's Square that the threat of a global conflict spawned by Russia's invasion of Ukraine should convince everyone that the time has come for humanity to abolish war before it abolishes humanity.

"More than a month has passed since the invasion of Ukraine, since the start of this cruel and senseless war which, like every war, is a defeat for everyone, for all of us," he said to thousands of people in St Peter's Square for his Sunday blessing.

"We must repudiate war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury their children, where men kill their brothers without even seeing them, where the powerful decide and the poor die," Francis said.

"I beg every politician involved to reflect on this, to make a commitment and, looking at martyred Ukraine, to understand that every day of war worsens the situation for everyone," he said.

"Abolish war now, before war erases humanity from history."

"Enough! Stop! Let the weapons fall silent. Negotiate seriously for peace," he said.

Sources

• La Croix International
• La Croix International
• Associated Press
• Reuters

"While Francis has continued the pragmatism of his two predecessors, he's also a skilled administrator, who's mobilized the whole diplomatic corps with its interlocking assets to implement a culture of encounter," said author Victor Gaetan.

"The Holy Father's accomplishments deserve to be appreciated, especially when so much random, unjust criticism is deployed against him."

"God's Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy and America's Armageddon," published July 15 by Rowman and Littlefield, uses inside sources, maps and field reporting to reveal the high-stakes world of international diplomacy, supplemented by Gaetan's access to the Vatican Secret Archives.

It maintains the pope's diplomacy has worked better than the "militarized approach" of recent U.S. policy and demonstrates advances achieved by the Vatican as a mediator and reconciler, even with countries once considered hostile.

Gaetan has served as an international correspondent for Catholic News Service and the National Catholic Register, writing from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, and has also contributed to Foreign Affairs and the Catholic magazine America.

Among other degrees, he has a master of arts in law and diplomacy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.

In a July 28 interview with CNS, Gaetan said he had personally benefited from Vatican diplomacy as a child in Romania, when negotiations with the communist regime led to the reopening of churches.

He added that veteran U.S. officials viewed Rome's "Ostpolitik" toward Eastern Europe as "the jewel of Vatican diplomacy" and said many foreign policy shapers had praised the "professionalism and deep knowledge" of Vatican diplomats.

"I hope this book will encourage greater appreciation of the excellence and relevance of Vatican diplomatic practice," Gaetan told CNS.

As examples of divergent Vatican-U.S. approaches, growing since St. John Paul II's "deep opposition" to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the book cites the Vatican's refusal to demonize Russia, cultivating it instead as a "valued Christian ally," and encouragement of Christian leaders in Syria who rallied around President Bashar Assad.

Like previous pontiffs, Pope Francis has maintained strong ties with Shiite leaders in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, the book says, while his engagement with Sunni leaders in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere led to a historic February 2019 peace declaration with Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar University.

In South Sudan, the pope backed a unity government and opposed Washington's "pointless sanctions."

He also supported an Israeli-Palestinian "two-state solution," signing the Vatican's first bilateral accord with Palestine and opposing President Donald Trump's controversial peace plan and the U.S. Embassy's move to Jerusalem.

In Colombia, Pope Francis sought to end "five decades of devastating killings, destruction and narco-trafficking" by bringing opposing leaders together, the book points out.

Pope Francis defied harsh U.S. criticisms with a renewed 2020 Vatican agreement with China, recognizing a joint process for selecting bishops while giving the pope the final say.

He added that Pope Francis, who has visited 52 countries since his March 2013 election, wielded power as a "moral authority," but also exercised "broad and deep control" over the Vatican's diplomatic apparatus.

"The Holy See under Pope Francis no longer has a Western European outlook," Gaetan said. Continue reading

Zen's comments were made during Mass in his homily, where he recalled Fr. Wei Heping (Yu Heping), who died two years ago in mysterious and suspicious circumstances.

He asked God to save the Holy See "from the brink of the precipice and not sell out the faithful Church [to the Chinese government]". Read more

Last week, Pope Francis called on Chinese Catholics to attach themselves to "the rock of Peter on which the Church was built".

This means giving allegiance to Rome, rather than the government-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

There are an estimated 12 million Catholics in China, but the state officially tolerates only government-appointed bishops and churches.

The Pope's call came after President Xi Jinping said in a speech that religion in China must be "Chinese" and free from any "foreign influence".

But Notre Dame East Asian language and culture academic Lionel Jensen didn't the latest tit-for-tat as a setback to improved relations between the Holy See and Beijing.

Such remarks by the Pope are just the latest in a verbal sparring match that may sound inflammatory, but still ultimately aims to work out some type of relationship, Dr Jensen said.

"This is some of the tit-for-tat we see with both sides trying to establish what their ground rules are going to be."

"The movement toward a rapprochement began in earnest last August when Pope Francis urged Asian area bishops, who met with him before his departure from Korea, to assist in facilitating a warmer relationship with China," Dr Jensen said.

He said Francis showed an inclination to further engage with China when he opted not to meet the Dalai Lama when he was in Rome.

"This was really quite strange. But it makes sense to me because this is the kind of behaviour that China expects out of high-level people when they are in some kind of negotiations with China."

But Dr Jensen acknowledged that the path ahead would not be easy.

There have been no formal diplomatic relations between China and the Holy See since 1951, when China cut off ties with the Vatican.

The Holy See's ongoing diplomatic relations with Taiwan are problematic for Beijing.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has started a "subdued" visit to China amid the worst persecution against Christians there in a generation.

Sources

• International Business Times
• Asia News
• National Catholic Reporter
• Breitbart
• UCAnews
• Image: The Guardian

Laurent Stefanini, a close aide of French President Francois Hollande, was nominated in early January.

According to The Telegraph in London, the usual time frame for official acceptance is a month and a half.

After that, a prolonged silence from the Vatican is normally interpreted as a rejection.

France's previous ambassador to the Holy See stepped down a month ago.

French and Italian media widely reported that Mr Stefanini, a practising Catholic, has been blackballed due to his homosexuality.

According to a report in the Vatican Insider, Mr Stéfanini was invited to a meeting with the apostolic nuncio in Paris, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, on February 5.

There, he was informally asked to step aside and renounce his nomination because of his sexual orientation.

Some reports have stated that the decision not to accept the nomination was taken by Pope Francis himself.

Observers reportedly said the Pope cannot be seen to be adopting an overly gay-friendly approach as this would shock conservatives in the Church.

Mr Stefanini served as number two in the French embassy at the Vatican from 2001 to 2005.

He is highly regarded in Roman circles and is very discreet about his private life, said Antoine-Marie Izoard, a Vatican specialist with the I-Media press agency.

Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris reportedly interceded personally with the Pope to back Mr Stefanini's nomination.

The president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, also reportedly supports the Stefanini appointment.

The Elysee Palace stated that the French president regards Mr Stefanini as one of the nation's best diplomats.

In 2007, France nominated a gay man, who had a partner recognised under French law, as ambassador to the Vatican.

But the Holy See never responded to that nomination.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• Out
• Huffington Post
• Image: Out

In 2011, the Irish government closed its Vatican embassy after Prime Minister Enda Kenny accused the Holy See of deliberately thwarting a probe into sex abuse allegations.

The Vatican had strongly rejected the claim.

Among the topics the new ambassador Emma Madigan discussed with Pope Francis were Northern Ireland and the plight of religious minorities worldwide.

The ambassador said the tone of the conversation was informal and very relaxed.

Continue reading

While the official announcement is yet to be made,this could be the very first state visit made by a New Zealand governor general to the Pope.The governor general's office said they had "consulted historian Gavin McLean and as far as we can ascertain, no governor-general has ever met the pope [in Rome]".

Massey University Professor of History Peter Lineham, an expert in New Zealand religious history, said the visit reflects respect for the Vatican's role in international diplomacy.

He said the role that the Vatican has taken in a number of international issues, particularly in trying to bring about an end in civil strife in Syria and Lebanon, has been increasingly recognised.

"I think it's a mark of respect of the diplomacy of the Vatican as well as a normal courtesy of the head of state to meet another head of state," he said.

Mr McLean is a senior historian with the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and author of Governors: New Zealand's Governors and Governors-General (2006).

• Pope John Paul II met Sir Paul Reeves when he visited New Zealand in in 1986.
• Dame Siliva Cartwright attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II

Source

• NZ Catholic
• Image: Wikimedia.com static.guim.co.uk