With a big hug and the affection of two friends who had not seen each other for a long time, the Pope Francisco received the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the Vatican, a few days after he was discharged following his abdominal hernia operation.
With great warmth, the meeting between the two lasted more than an hour. The central theme referred to world peace and the need for multipolarity to resolve conflicts through diplomacy and dialogue channels.
Lula’s visit came out, in a way, from the usual canons of the meetings that Bergoglio holds. The two have known each other for many years, which is why the summit took place in an atmosphere of “great sympathy and friendship,” they said from the Vatican Press Room at the end of the private audience with the Brazilian president.
They talked about everything and with great confidence, starting with Bergoglio’s health, the official presentation of Lula’s new wife, to more global issues such as the fight against hunger and the war in Ukraine.
The president arrived at the Vatican accompanied by his Brazilian wife, Rosângela “Janja” da Silva, in a procession of about fifteen official cars that crossed the Via de la Conciliación in Rome and Saint Peter’s Square and entered the Papal State through the Porta de las Campanas on a very hot afternoon.
The meeting with the pope took place in his office in the Paul VI Hall, near his residence, the Casa Santa Marta, and he was received at the door by the head of the Papal Household, Leonardo Sapienza.
Affinity in global geopolitics
Lula Da Silva discussed with the Argentine Pontiff issues such as the fight against hunger and made some of his mediating proposals to Francisco to end the war in Ukraine, an issue that greatly worries the Pope who has started a peace mission to try put the parties together in search of a possible dialogue.
In addition, Lula is one of the leaders with whom Francis has the most affinity on geopolitical issues, for this reason the war in Ukraine, which the Pope has characterized as the prelude and the very beginning of the Third World War marked by the nuclear threat, was one of the central arguments of the bilateral. A conflict that -according to the Pope fears- could head towards a potentially bloodier phase if the Ukrainian counter-offensive continues.
For both Lula and Francisco, it is necessary to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible despite the reluctance of the parties directly involved, Russia and Ukraine with their allies, the United States and the European Union.
Invitation to visit Brazil
Lula also invited the Pope to Brazil, to participate in the feast of Our Lady of Nazareth that takes place in Belem, on the border with the Amazon jungle.
It is considered the largest Marian procession in the world with tens of millions of people participating in it from all over the globe.
Memory of the request of Latin American politicians to the Pope
The meeting between Lula and Bergoglio is significant for several reasons, beginning with a special story told by Luis Badilla, the director of the Seismograph, an Internet portal sympathetic to the traditionalist sectors that nest within the Vatican walls.
On August 2, 2018, three Latin American politicians arrived in Santa Marta: Celso Amorim, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Lula’s first and second government for eight years, Alberto Fernández, former Minister Secretary of the Argentine Council of Ministers during the Néstor government Kirchner and then, for 18 months, also from the Cristina government, and Carlos Ominami, former Minister of Economy and Development of Chile. Lula was in jail at that time, accused of corruption and sentenced in the first degree to nine and a half years in prison and disqualification from holding public office for 19 years.
In the audience, the friends of “Lula” asked the Pope to make public a special expression of closeness. Pope Francis immediately accepted and authorized the meeting, previously agreed, to be made public in a very confidential manner. After 19 months in prison, Lula was released by order of the Supreme Court, which in its sentence considered that the imprisonment imposed on Lula was illegal.
After such a gesture, on February 13, 2020, Lula made a lightning trip to the Vatican to hug and thank the Pope.
Source: Ambito
