In rare letter, Benedict XVI says he’s ‘on pilgrimage home’

Pope Francis meets with Cardinal Raymond Burke on Dec. 29, 2023, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Dec 29, 2023 / 09:20 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Friday had an audience with Cardinal Raymond Burke, the Vatican said, several wee… […]

Pope Francis meets members of the Swedish Academy at the Vatican’s Hall of Popes, Nov. 19, 2021. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Nov 19, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis spoke about dialogue, the search for truth, and the inalienable dignity of every human person in a meeting on Friday with the Swedish Academy, which awards the yearly Nobel Prize in Literature.

“The pervasive growth of social media risks replacing dialogue with a welter of monologues, often aggressive in tone,” the pope said Nov. 19 in the Vatican’s Hall of Popes.

He added that COVID-19 had tested the capacity to dialogue with others. He pointed to the long periods of confinement and the deep effect that the pandemic has had on people, even unconsciously.

“We find ourselves a little more distant from others, a little more reserved, perhaps more guarded, or simply less inclined to join with others, to work side by side, with the satisfaction and effort born of building something together,” he noted.

This situation, he said, “threatens each of us as persons, since it diminishes our capacity for relationships, and impoverishes society and the world around us.”

Quoting from his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti, he said that “social dialogue, instead, ‘involves the ability to respect the other’s point of view’ with sincerity and without deceit.”

“I wish to share this theme of social dialogue as the royal road towards a new culture,” he told the academy members, who, he said, “have the pulse” of contemporary culture.

The Swedish Academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, has 18 members, who are elected for life. It is considered the foremost authority on the Swedish language, and since 1901 has chosen the annual winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 2018, the Nobel Prize was postponed to the following year due to a sexual harassment and corruption scandal involving some of the academy’s members. In the fallout, a number stood down. Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf then formally amended the statutes to make it possible for members to resign.

Pope Francis told the group that “dialogue is not synonymous with relativism.”

He said: “Indeed, society is all the more noble whenever it cultivates the search for truth and is rooted in fundamental truths, and especially when it acknowledges that ‘every human being possesses an inalienable dignity.’”

“Believers and nonbelievers alike can agree on this principle,” he said.

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Vatican City, Feb 5, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday, Pope Francis and the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, met at the Vatican, discussing the situation in the Middle East, in particular the status of Jerusalem, and the need for peace and stability in the region.

According to a Feb. 5 Vatican communique, the “cordial discussions,” which lasted around 50 minutes, highlighted “the need to promote peace and stability in the [Middle East] through dialogue and negotiation, with respect for human rights and international law.”

The two also discussed the bilateral relations between Turkey and the Holy See and the condition of the Catholic community in the country, as well as the challenges of receiving refugees and the efforts being made in this regard, the communique stated.

This was the second meeting between the two leaders and the first time a Turkish president has visited a pope in 59 years. The first meeting between Francis and Erdo?an occurred Nov. 28, 2014, during the Pope’s three-day visit to Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey.

Near the end of their meeting, the Pope gifted Erdo?an a small medallion, depicting an angel of peace choking a demon of war, and told Erdo?an that it is the symbol of a world based on peace and justice.

He also gave the president an etching of St. Peter’s Basilica, depicting the basilica as it looked in the 1600s, as well as the customary gift of copies of his environmental encyclical Laudato Si and his message for the World Day of Peace 2018.

Erdo?an gave the Pope a large image made of hand-painted tiles, depicting a panoramic view of Istanbul, including the Hagia Sophia and the historic Sultan Ahmet Mosque, also known as the “Blue Mosque.” Seeing the painting, Francis said, “beautiful, beautiful.”

He also gave the Pope four books by Rumi Mevlana, an Iranian theologian who lived with dervishes in Turkey for many years, along with a copy of the Masnavi, which is a poem written by the Persian Sufi poet Rumi, and as two books about the poet’s life.

There were around 20 people in Erdo?an’s delegation, including his wife and son, and his son-in-law, Turkey’s Minister of Energy. At the end of the meeting, Pope Francis accompanied the first lady to the door. Francis asked her to “pray for me,” to which Erdo?an said, “we too expect a prayer from you.”

Afterward, Erdo?an met with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.

Kurdish demonstrators in Rome protested the meeting, because of Turkey’s military offensive on Kurdish areas in northern Syria, which began last month.

When Erdo?an left the Vatican, protesters tried to make their way into St. Peter’s Square, but were stopped by riot police, and at least one person was injured in the altercation.

Demonstrators had also tried to enter St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, but were blocked by police. 150 protesters also set up on Monday near Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo, a monument close to the Vatican, holding Turkish Workers’ Party (PKK) flags.

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