VATICAN LEGATUM: DIPLOMAȚIA PAPEI FRANCISC ÎN ORIENTUL MIJLOCIU
VATICAN LEGATUM: THE POPE FRANCIS’ DIPLOMACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Summary/Abstract: The pontificate of Pope Francis, unprecedented in its Latin American dimension and its political commitment to social progress, has left a profound mark on the Catholic Church. Without departing from Church dogma, he broke with his predecessors and raised his voice on an international stage in flux. The diplomacy of the Holy See is unique: it is not the instrument of a state, but of a religious institution – the Catholic Church. Diplomacy is one of the ways to make the official presence of the Church in the international community a reality, which, nowadays, is essentially oriented towards using dialogue at the institutional level to transform into reality the most important desiderata of humanity, such as peace, human rights, religious liberty not only for Catholics, but also for adherents of all other religions, and the progress of individual states. The aim of this article is to make a short incursion inside the Holy See diplomacy towards the Islamic world, starting with the Second Vatican Council, and then to examine the communication strategies of the Catholic Church diplomacy used by Pope Francis in his relations with the countries of the Middle East from 2013 to 2025. The study identifies and characterizes key elements of the papal communication in the context of the complex geopolitical and religious situation of the region. The methodology used includes discourse analysis and official document analysis, tools that helped identify specific communication patterns that distinguish Francis’ pontificate from that of his predecessors. The research results indicate an innovative approach by the Pope, combining traditional Vatican diplomacy with emotional involvement, the use of symbolic gestures, and the promotion of interreligious dialogue as a tool for building peace and intercultural understanding.

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