![]() The Chilean visit was catastrophic, the worst in the history of papal travel, and carried immense consequences. From 2015 to the Chilean visit, Pope Francis dismissed criticism as politically motivated. Many critics suggested Bishop Barros knew about Father Karadima, or perhaps was even complicit. Bishop Barros was closely linked to Father Fernando Karadima, Chile’s most notorious abuser priest, sentenced in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI to a life of “prayer and penance” without any priestly ministry. A growing controversy had developed over Pope Francis’ decision to appoint Bishop Juan Barros to the Diocese of Osorno in 2015. The Chilean visit in January was always going to be delicate. Maybe you will tell me that I came a little late that is true, but here I am!” “Let me tell you something personal - when I witnessed this disaster from Rome, I felt that I had to be here,” Pope Francis said at a papal Mass that itself was buffeted by another typhoon. But the reason for Pope Francis was different: He came to comfort the afflicted, another hallmark of his pastoral travels. That a pope would visit the Philippines is not remarkable it is one of the largest Catholic populations in the world. But Pope Francis went to Strasbourg for politics, not piety. It was all the more remarkable because Strasbourg’s Catholic cathedral was marking its millennium - 1,000 years! Still early in the pontificate, longtime papal-travel planners were stunned that a pope would not visit a cathedral on its thousandth anniversary while in the city. There was no meeting with the local Church, no liturgical prayer. He went for only four hours, addressed the Parliament and the Council of Europe and returned to Rome. No trip better expressed that than his visit to Strasbourg, where he addressed the European Parliament. To be sure, there are political consequences of the Gospel, but to an unusual degree, Pope Francis speaks directly to political issues. Pope Francis has put a high priority on the political - immigration, financial regulation, climate change, arms production. It was a dramatic choice, a pope praying and grieving over the waters - a far cry from the triumphal papal trips that would come later, with large crowds in grand settings. ![]() ![]() In choosing Lampedusa as his first trip, Pope Francis signaled the priority he would give to the poor and especially to migrants seeking to enter Europe. Tragically, many die en route, often at the hands of exploitative human smugglers, making the Mediterranean a watery graveyard, in the Holy Father’s words. The Italian temporary immigrant reception center, built to accommodate a few hundred would-be immigrants, was frequently overwhelmed, with thousands in crowded conditions. It is the desired destination for migrants fleeing north Africa by sea, an entry point to Europe. Lampedusa is a Mediterranean island, the southernmost part of Italy and closer to Tunisia than Sicily. It was a trip to foreigners, though, a symbolic embrace of the peripheries. Pope Francis’ first foreign trip was not a foreign trip at all, but to Lampedusa, Italy.
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