page_title: Pope Francis
section_title: International diplomatic role
hierarchical_section_title: Pope Francis / International diplomatic role
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Встреча Президента России Владимира Путина с Папой Римским Франциском
context_page_description: Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century. He is also the first Pope since Gregory XVI to have been a priest of a religious order.
  Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentina's provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him a political rival. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi.
context_section_description: Pope Francis played a key role in the talks toward restoring full diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The restoration was jointly announced by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro on 17 December 2014. The headline in the Los Angeles Times on 19 December was "Bridge to Cuba via Vatican," with the further lead "In a rare and crucial role, Pope Francis helped keep U.S. talks with Havana on track and guided final deal." The pope, along with the Government of Canada, was a behind-the-scenes broker of the agreement, taking the role following President Obama's request during his visit to the pope in March 2014. The success of the negotiations was credited to Francis because "as a religious leader with the confidence of both sides, he was able to convince the Obama and Castro administrations that the other side would live up to the deal". En route to the United States for a visit in September 2015, the pope stopped in Cuba. "The plan comes amid a breakthrough for which Francis has received much credit." The Cuba visit "seals that accomplishment, in which he served as a bridge between two erstwhile enemies". According to one expert on religion in Latin America, Mario Paredes, the pope's visit to Cuba was consistent with his aim to promote an understanding of the role of the Cuban Revolution and that of the Catholic Church. When Francis was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he authored a text entitled "Dialogues Between John Paul II and Fidel Castro". John Paul was the first pope to visit Cuba. In May 2015, the pope met with Cuban leader Raúl Castro. After the meeting in Vatican City on 10 May 2015, Castro said that he was considering returning to the Catholic Church. He said in a televised news conference, "I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries, and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the [Catholic] church. I am not joking." Castro said that, when the pope came, "I promise to go to all his Masses and with satisfaction".
  In December 2014, Pope Francis declined to meet with the 14th Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. According to a New York Times report, a Vatican spokesman said, "Pope Francis obviously holds the Dalai Lama in very high regard, but he will not be meeting any of the Nobel [Peace] laureates." The last meeting between the Dalai Lama and a pope was with Benedict XVI in 2006. In November 2015, Pope Francis met with that year's Nobel Peace Prize laureates from Tunisia.
  In May 2014, his visit to the State of Israel, where he delivered 13 speeches, was heavily publicized. Protests against his visit resulted in an alleged arson attempt at the Dormition Abbey. The cave under the Church of the Nativity caught fire the night after his visit.
  In May 2015, Pope Francis welcomed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican. Several media outlets reported that Francis praised Abbas as "an angel of peace", though his actual words were the following: "The angel of peace destroys the evil spirit of war. I thought about you: may you be an angel of peace." The Vatican signed a treaty recognizing the state of Palestine. The Vatican issued statements concerning the hope that the peace talks could resume between Israel and Palestine. Abbas' visit was on the occasion of the canonization of two Palestinian nuns.
  On 6 June 2015, Pope Francis visited Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He urged peace during his time in the religiously diverse city, known as the "Jerusalem of Europe".
  On 25 September 2015, Pope Francis addressed the United Nations in New York City.
  On 16 April 2016, he visited, together with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronimos II of Athens, the Moria Refugee Camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, to call the attention of the world to the refugee issue. There the three Christian leaders signed a joint declaration.
  In January 2017, Pope Francis demanded the resignation of Matthew Festing, the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Pope's demand came as a re
caption: Pope Francis shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, behind Russian President Vladimir Putin, 10 June 2015
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