In observing the recent global activities of Pope Francis, the Argentinian philosopher Rubén Peretó Rivas asked whether Pope Francis aims at becoming the ‘Chaplain of the United Nations’.
His 2020 ‘universal’ initiatives indeed look like those of the United Nations in language, scope and content. While the encyclical ‘All Brothers’ reiterated the Roman Catholic universalism two (en, December 2020), other projects deserve to be mentioned in this respect.
In a video message aired on 15 October 2020, Francis commended the ‘Global Compact on Education’ (GCE), i.e. an ambitious plan in the field of education worldwide to bring about a ‘change of mentality’. The GCE is worked out with Mission 4.7, a UN-backed advisory group aiming to meet the educational target (numbered 4.7) of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Francis (1936-2025) – the Pope so close, yet so far away?
A leading evangelical in Rome, Leonardo De Chirico, offers his personal reflections on the direction of the Roman Catholic Church …