If you are following the daily work of the Pope you’ll
notice that his schedule is often filled with meeting important people.
Ambassadors are but one such group of important people that build relationships between the Pope (and
the Holy See) with a respective nation. From my perspective I am interested in the workings of the US Ambassador to the Holy See,
Dr. Miguel Humberto Dias, but I have an interest in what others are doing, too, because of the universality of the Church and needs of humanity.
In
recent days the Holy Father met with the various
new ambassadors from several African and other nations to the Holy See.
Part of
the ceremony is for the new ambassadors to present formal credentials to
the
Pope in a reception that’s properly diplomatic, cultural and a bit
familiar in
the sense that the ambassador brings an entourage, including his or her
family. And there is important work done too with the Pope’s carefully
chosen but not rigid talk to the assembly because he draws out the good
and the areas of concern in the respective countries based on past and
current exchanges. Regardless of faith tradition, the meeting of new
ambassadors is respectfully done in the context of faith and reason. I
typically find
the addresses to be OK. Yet, the recent addresses of the Pope to these
new
ambassadors were interesting to me partly because the other day a friend
and I
were talking about the Pope’s comments on the African situation of AIDS
and
condoms. She said something true but sad: “North Americans generally
don’t
care about Africa unless they’re getting something from there:
commodities.” Whether you
agree with the assessment or not, you can’t deny the fact that North
Americans
are generally blind to African life. Think of the problems in recent
years in the
Sudan and the genocide in Rwanda. Africa is not in the American
consciousness
and yet from all indications, Africa is exploding on several fronts:
economics,
leadership, culture, and faith. As Catholics we are to be interested in
who our African brothers and sisters are as people and what they are
doing because Christ is
interested in them. It is the Incarnation that makes me wonder who
others are and what they are doing.
Here are the Pope’s addresses for consideration:
Pope to new ambassador to Nepal.pdf
Pope to new ambassador to Zambia.pdf
Pope to new ambassadors of Nepal, Zambia, Andorra, the Seychelles & Mali.pdf