By decision of the Pope, the Bambin Gesù Hospital he refused a donation of one and a half million euros by the company Leonardo. “Inappropriate donation,” was the response of the hospital administrators. Expressed politely but accompanied by the statement that it was impossible to accept. The exponents of the group, engaged on the front line in the production and trade of weapons, said their opinion marvel but – to play with words – there is only wonder at the wonder.
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The Argentine Pope appears on the international scene this year with a position of authority morale which comes from being connected to a vast current of international public opinion. His stubborn refusal to enlist under the banners of one side or the other in the hybrid conflict between Nato e Russia, stubbornly supporting the need for peace negotiations, revealed itself during 2023 to be increasingly in tune with the orientation of the majority of states on the planet. Especially in that area that is called the global South.
Likewise his tenacious defense of the indispensability of an existence with equal rights Palestine e Israel has proven itself, in the aftermath of the crisis that opened in the Middle East after the barbaric attack of Hamas of 7 October, the only realistic prospect for opening a new page in the area. Especially since this is the card that US President Biden has been playing since the beginning.
However, Bergoglio’s line, in recent years, has always been accompanied by a constant denunciation of the interests of arms manufacturers in fueling the arms race and ultimately favoring the duration and extension of conflicts. Behind the “piecemeal Third World War” – Francis has therefore denounced since the beginning of his pontificate – there are robust economic appetites. Already in March 2022 (the war in Ukraine it hadn’t even lasted a month) Francis denounced the “scandal (of) weapons expenses”. We must create awareness, he underlined, that “spending on weapons dirty the soul, dirty the heart, dirty humanity”. On November 3 of the previous year, visiting the French military cemetery in Rome, he had launched the appeal “Stop, arms manufacturers”, asking if enough was being done to prevent there being no national economies “fortified” by the weapons industry. weapons.
It is a key that Francesco systematically hits. “War is always a defeat – he said last November – only the arms manufacturers gain”. These are not empty words. Even during the pandemic Covid-19 in the year 2020 the arms market had no downturns. On the contrary, it has been growing. Sipri, a peace study center in Stockholm, recorded a increased profits to the tune of $531 billion. With an increase in sales of 1.3 percent compared to the previous year. And again last Christmas, giving the Urbi et orbi blessing, Francis reiterated: “People don’t want weapons but bread… they ask for peace, they ignore how much public money is destined for armaments”. Yet, the Pope insisted, people should know. “Let’s talk about it, let’s write about it, so that we know the interests and profits that move the threads of wars!”.
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In light of this line, which is characteristic and strategic for the Bergoglian pontificate, No wonder No to Leonardo’s offer. Indeed, it is worth remembering a little publicized but significant episode.
Year 2020, Francis launches the Forum of Mediterranean Bishops in Bari (last September he went to Marseille for the third edition, which was also attended by French President Macron). In February 2022 it will instead be held in Firenze the second meeting of the bishops of the Mediterranean. The President of the Republic Mattarella also intervenes. The pontiff is naturally expected to give the key speech of the event. But Francesco non he comes. To the dismay of the bishops, the explanation is given that he is suffering from a sudden and acute illness gonalgia, a strong pain in his knee, which prevents him from moving. In fact, a few days later he is not even able to preside over the Ashes rite. However, behind the medical causes there is also a political motivation.
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Francesco has learned that as part of the event there will also be a round table in which he will participate Marco Minnitiformer Interior Minister of the Gentiloni government, author of the agreements with the Libya to slow down the wave of migration. Francis is furious at the images he has seen of Libyan concentration camps and the inhumane fate with which migrants detained in that country are treated. And this alone pushes him not to want to meet him.
But there is something more. In the meantime, Minniti has become president of the Med-Or Foundation promoted by Leonardo. And this – the rumor circulates in the Vatican – leads the pontiff to cancel its participation in the Mediterranean summit in Florence entirely. Pope Bergoglio wants nothing to do with an emanation of the “arms manufacturers” (as he calls them).